On Tuesday, the United Nations' Human Rights Office voiced its fears over what the UN claims is the rapid spread of racist hate speech across borders via the Internet and social media networks.

The UN's Flavia Pansieri, its recently appointed deputy high commissioner for the Human Rights Office, stated that, as she sees it, the Internet racist speech is "compounded by the lack of a universally acceptable definition of what constitutes hate speech."

But according to US Constitutional law scholar, Jay Sekulow, an attorney and founder of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), "Russia is pushing for a move that would turn over control of the Internet from a US-based entity to the United Nations. This troubling power play would give unprecedented authority to the UN. Such a move would mean only one thing: censorship."

Ms. Pansieri spoke at the start of the latest session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its State parties.

According to the CERD mandate, "All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially one year after acceding to the Convention and then every two years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of 'concluding observations.'"

Commissioner Pansieri stated that incorporating human rights education in schools would go along way in the prevention and eradication of all forms of discrimination and intolerance.

She noted during her presentation:

Where does the right of expression which we all want to respect stop and the need to sanction and prevent hate speech begin? What is the point in time when one right has to recognize that it cannot be exercised if it implies the violation of another one?

[For example,] persons with albinism have been dismembered alive. There have been abductions in 15 African states and the special Rapporteur has strongly urged governments to really engage in raising awareness and understanding that the different color of skin of persons with albinism doesn't make them less human beings and any less deserving or having all the rights respected and protected.

However, Sekulow claims that "the UN's goal is to put the Internet under global government control, consider this clause taken from the Russian proposal - clearly putting UN member states and the United Nations at the helm of controlling and regulating the Internet: Member States should endeavor to establish policies aimed at meeting public requirements with respect to Internet access and use, and at assisting, including through international cooperation, administrations and operating agencies in supporting the operation and development of the Internet."


SOURCE http://www.examiner.com/article/hate-crime-united-nations-targets-the-internet-and-social-media-networks

The law firm representing dozens of conservative groups targeted by the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that its clients are rejecting the IRS’s new expedited review process for 501(c)(4) applications.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) — which has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 41 conservative groups targeted by the IRS — said its clients are rejecting the new process because it applies a standard that would require that groups spend at least 60 percent of their time and resources on social welfare promotion and no more than 40 percent on political activities.

Seven of ACLJ’s clients rejected the process even though they would have qualified for expedited review and already have had applications pending for more than 645 days. One group has an application pending for 1,297 days.

According to ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow, the 60/40 standard the IRS would apply to expedite the applications is “deeply flawed” and not rooted in statutes or regulations.

In a letter to the Department of Justice in response to a notice about the “expedited process for recognition of exemption” Wednesday, Sekulow called the 60/40 standard “merely safe harbor provisions the IRS has crafted in response to the problems that have been created by its own admitted misconduct.”

“We have been instructed by our clients to reject the IRS’s offer for expedited review on the basis you have proposed,” Sekulow wrote. “Respectfully, because these seven clients have been awaiting determination for years and have complied with all legitimate requests for additional information, we request that the IRS complete its review of their application and make a final determination immediately.”

The IRS announced last month that it would offer an optional, faster option for the 501(c)(4) process with the 60/40 standard, as a way to reduce the application backlog.

“The IRS is committed to improving our tax-exempt review process,” IRS Principal Deputy Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “This new streamlined option gives certain groups that have waited far too long a quick and clear path to get their status resolved.”

The seven organizations that rejected the expedited process are the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots in Arizona, the Allen Area Patriots in Texas, the Laurens County Tea Party in South Carolina, the North East Tarrant Tea Party in Texas, the Myrtle Beach Tea Party in South Carolina, the Albuquerque Tea Party in New Mexico, and the Acadiana Patriots in Louisiana.

Of the 41 groups the ACLJ represents, 19 received tax-exempt status after long delays, 17 are still pending, and 5 withdrew their applications out of frustration. According to an ACLJ spokesman the IRS’ criteria for expedited review of 501 (c)(4) applications only applied to the seven groups that rejected the offer.


SOURCE http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/17/conservative-groups-targeted-by-the-irs-reject-the-agencys-new-expedited-review-process/

Did you know that the same Christian-right legal organization responsible for drafting the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriage in the U.S., also supports the constitutional criminalization of homosexuality in Kenya and Zimbabwe and has now set its sight on Brazil, home of the world's largest LGBTQ Pride parade?

Televangelist Pat Robertson founded the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) to counter the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which he saw as undermining "family values." With an annual budget of $16,746,496 to pursue its agenda, the center's anti-LGBTQ credits include defending the Boy Scouts' ban on openly gay scouts and scoutmasters and defending its creation, DOMA, now under constitutional review by the Supreme Court. Seeking to insert a Christian-right worldview into law, the ACLJ's other issues include defending anti-choice clinic harassers, stirring up fear about "Sharia law," and challenging "Obamacare" as an assault on religious liberty.

ACLJ exports its agenda overseas through affiliate offices in Europe, Africa and now Brazil, with father-son leadership team Jay (chief counsel) and Jordan Sekulow (executive director) forging alliances with key evangelical power brokers to gain access to government officials -- and seeming to lack any qualms about working with unsavory leaders and inflaming already dangerous situations for LGBTQ people.

The offices in Africa launched during the 2009/2010 controversy over Uganda's (now-resurrected) Anti-Homosexuality Bill (the so-called "kill the gays" bill) introducing the death penalty for homosexuality, as discussed in Political Research Associates' Colonizing African Values.

Goodwill Shana, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), helped ACLJ gain direct access to the administration of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, a dictator sanctioned for human rights abuses who considers LGBTQ rights "madness" and launched a brutal police raid on activists last year. In 2010 EFZ and ACLJ distributed pamphlets, uncovered by journalist Sarah Posner, pushing the new constitution to ban abortion and same-sex marriage and insisting that homosexual relations "remain a criminal activity." The new constitution, finished earlier this month and approved by referendum vote on March 16, prohibits same-sex marriage and does not otherwise reference LGBTQ rights, meaning that ACLJ was successful, because penal code laws criminalizing sodomy and homosexual acts stand.

In Kenya the East African Center for Law and Justice (EACLJ) secured the support of Bishop Mark Kariuki, presiding bishop of Deliverance Church Kenya's 700 Pentecostal churches. In tandem with Human Life International, an anti-choice Catholic organization, the EACLJ fought to endanger women's lives by vehemently opposing the new constitution's narrow health exception to the existing abortion ban.

Filipe Coelho, director of the newly formed Brazilian Center for Law and Justice (BCLJ) and a friend of the Sekulows from his time studying in the U.S., says ACLJ decided to open an office in his country after discovering last year "how strong evangelical power is within Brazilian politics." A well-connected evangelical in the rapidly growing Assemblies of God church, Coelho was able to arrange a meeting for Jordan Sekulow with Brazil's vice president on 48 hours' notice. With more than 40 million people identifying themselves as evangelical in Brazil, the world's second-largest predominantly Christian country (after the U.S.), it presents a tempting prize for ACLJ expansion.

Though Brazil boasts the largest Pride parade in the world, it may come as a surprise that same-sex couples cannot marry or adopt and lack constitutional protections. In 2011 Rev. Silas Malafaia, pastor of the nearly 20,000-member Victory in Christ Assemblies of God church and vice president of the Interdenominational Council of Evangelical Ministers in Brazil (CIMEB), mobilized thousands to march through the capital city of Brasilia against a bill that would have extended protections to cover sexual orientation. After the Pride parade the same year, Rev. Malafaia, a family friend of the Sekulows and Coelhos, told listeners of his television show that the Catholic Church should "beat [literally 'stick'] down those gay activists" for using saints' images on posters.

Facing language like this, for 11 years Brazil's LGBTQ movement has unsuccessfully promoted an anti-homophobia bill that would make discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity an aggravating factor in hate crimes and speech. Evangelicals perceive this as a threat to their "religious liberty" to preach on national television that homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God. When Rev. Malafaia, who calls himself "public enemy No. 1 of the gay movement" and leads "crusades," asked his audience in 2009 to vote against the anti-homophobia bill, in a poll posted on the Senate's webpage, there were half a million "no" clicks in less than a week. His Twitter followers number close to half a million.

Televangelists like Rev. Malafaia and ACLJ founder Pat Robertson access large audiences and wield influence in Africa and Brazil. Jay Sekulow appears as a regular guest on Robertson's 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network, an enterprise Robertson founded that is watched across sub-Saharan Africa. (A 2010 survey found that 74 million people in Nigeria, one of the largest audiences, watched at least one CBN show in the past year.) In Brazil televangelists own communications empires that include print, radio and television, often hosting American evangelical leaders (like Jordan Sekulow) promoting books and DVDs, encouraging people to join the church or warning of a "new threat" to the family, tradition or religious liberty.

In April 2011 Rev. Malafaia asked his TV audience for about $50,000 to help broadcast his show all over the country and abroad. He got it. Later he told Piaui Magazine, "People in Brazil think all evangelicals are poor and stupid. Evangelicals are donating BRL [Brazilian real] 100,000, people don't have a clue of what's going on within the evangelical world."

The ACLJ typically hires local staff for its international offices to mask the U.S. origins of their assault on LGBTQ and reproductive rights, while hypocritically using that façade to attack human rights advocacy as a neocolonial enterprise imposed on the country in question. Coelho demonstrated this tactic when he told PRA that Brazilian activists witnessed the LGBTQ rights movement in America and "imported" its tactics to Brazil (conveniently ignoring BCLJ's own outside origins). While in the U.S., Coelho says he heard a lecture about how homosexuals want to become the new blacks in society, with similar legal protections. He explained, "[H]omosexuals are trying to treat homosexuality as if it were a race, while it is really an attitude, a behavior."

Alleging attacks on "religious freedom" or "religious liberty" is a long-time popular argument among the Christian right in the U.S. (addressed in a forthcoming Political Research Associates report, "Redefining Religious Liberty"): "If you are a God-fearing Christian, then powerful forces in our culture say YOU are the dangerous radical that needs to be censored, chastised and even punished!" writes Jay Sekulow in a 2009 direct mail appeal providing an "Anti-Christian Bigotry Alert." "It is as if 'open season' has been declared in the courts on Christians."

Rev. Malafaia and Jay Sekulow both talk about freedom of expression and religious liberty from a conservative Christian frame that often means a right to discriminate, and Brazilian televangelists share a common message: the defense of life, traditional values, freedom of expression and religious freedom. Coelho joins other conservative evangelicals in seeing a threat to these areas. While democracy is not yet being menaced, he says, the anti-homophobia bill "may" move in that direction:

    Let's say I hire someone to work in my house as a nanny or a maid, and let's suppose I find out she's homosexual, and she's taking care of my baby girl all day. So I think I have the right to decide who to have inside my home. Let's say I find out she's homosexual, and I tell her I don't want her to work within my family anymore. I can be arrested because of that. So there's no more freedom of expression; in your own home you have to be careful.

During the 2012 election cycle, Rev. Malafaia voiced his lofty political goal to "make one Assembly of God's alderman in every city of the country" (about 5,600). This ambitious agenda provides a strategy to empower the evangelical community and build, region by region, the base for an evangelical candidate in national elections. Coelho revealed to Political Research Associates that CIMEB is tapping another family friend, Rev. Everaldo Dias da Silva, co-founder of the evangelical caucus in Parliament, to run for president in 2014.

Prof. Maria das Dores Campos Machado of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who researches religion and politics in Brazil, explains evangelicals' increased focus on using politics and legal battles to take back social arenas. "When you have problems at home or in your personal life, you look for a judge or lawyer ... but no longer a priest," she said to PRA. "More and more, even the moral regulators within communities are judges rather than priests or pastors. ... It's a search for an institutional space for the church in modern society."

The American Center for Law and Justice and its affiliates epitomize this new focus on using legal means to assert a right-wing Christian control of society. Its specific goals shift in correspondence with the audience it faces, or rather what it can get away with; in the U.S. opposing same-sex marriage is a prominent goal, while in Africa the center can further assault human rights and argue for the criminalization of homosexuality. Conservatives, moderates and liberals alike in the U.S. should find these global actions by an American group appalling.


SOURCE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-kapya-kaoma/making-anti-gay-christian-right-views-law-at-home-and-abroad_b_2901650.html

Jay Sekulow discusses Supreme Court Rulings on DOMA and Prop 8.

SOURCE http://aclj.org/jay-sekulow-fox-news-sean-hannity-doma-prop-8

Christian Broadcasting Network host Pat Robertson reacted to the Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage on Thursday by questioning whether Justice Anthony Kennedy’s clerks are gay.

“Jay, let me ask you about Anthony Kennedy, does he have some clerks who happen to be gays?” Robertson said as his first question to Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, on his “700 Club” show Thursday.

Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for the court that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional on Wednesday, and he is viewed as the decisive vote that sided with the liberal members of the court to reach that ruling.

(PHOTOS: Reactions to Supreme Court’s gay marriage rulings)

“Well I have no idea,” Sekulow told Robertson, spending most of his answer focusing on the substance of Kennedy’s opinion. “I don’t know about the background of his clerks, I’ve had a lot cases in front of Justice Kennedy, and frankly most of the time, he rules in our favor, the vast majority of the time.”

Following up, Robertson said regarding the California Proposition 8 case, “I understand the district court judge there either was an advocate of homosexual activity, or was a homosexual, had a wife. There was some connection, can you elucidate that?”

Sekulow again answered quickly before moving into the particulars of the court’s decision.

“Well there was a real controversy because the judge’s sexual orientation became, you know unfortunately, part of the case, and there were some other rulings that were issued there that became questionable,” Sekulow said, noting that Justice Samuel Alito mentioned that the trial court created a “circus environment” in footnote 7 of his opinion.

Sekulow was referring to Alito’s dissent in the Defense of Marriage Act case, where he criticized the trial judge in the Proposition 8 case and said “the trial reached the heights of parody.”


SOURCE http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/pat-robertson-supreme-court-gay-marriage-rulings-93553.html

Jay Sekulow is chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, Virginia Beach, Va.

The Obama administration should stop sending taxpayer dollars to nations that embrace Islamic terrorism — nations that behave like adversaries, not allies.

A case in point: Egypt and the radical Muslim Brotherhood. The Obama administration recently agreed to spend an additional $250 million in taxpayer funds to send weapons to this increasingly unstable nation.

That's in addition to the more than $1 billion annual taxpayer giveaway to Egypt. The U.S. is putting highly sophisticated tanks and warplanes in the hands of terrorists — terrorists who are hostile to America and to our longtime ally, Israel.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is a blatant and outspoken anti-Semite who calls Jews the "descendants of apes and pigs" and says that Egyptian children should be "nursed" on "hatred" for Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the governing political body in Egypt, is widely recognized as an organization that inspires and supports terrorism and is affiliated with the terrorist group, Hamas. Al-Qaida's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, even has direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt is now becoming not just a source of terrorists but also a launching pad for terror attacks; including deadly ones launched against Israel from Egyptian soil. And Egyptian terrorists were present in the 2012 Benghazi attack and in the recent attack and violence in Algeria. There also are credible reports that Egyptian authorities denied the U.S. direct access to a Benghazi terrorist suspect, a disturbing act from an alleged "ally."

Egypt has passed a Shariah-based constitution that restricts religious freedom and provides a legal basis for continued persecution of Egypt's embattled Christian minority. The government-backed persecution of Coptic Christians gets worse by the day.

The reaction from the Obama administration? Send Egypt hundreds of millions of dollars in high-tech weapons — 200 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks and some 20 F-16 fighters. The most recent shipment of four warplanes was sent to Egypt just weeks ago. Eight more F-16s will be delivered by the end of the year. The troubling fact is that the U.S. has become Egypt's major arms supplier.

This is not only dangerous to our national security, but it also represents an extremely significant threat to Israel. As Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, put it: "Friends don't send U.S. taxpayer-funded F-16s and tanks to the enemies of their friends."

Every new F-16 or tank delivered to Egypt is another weapon that can be used to consolidate the Muslim Brotherhood's grip on power. Every new dollar of economic aid buys the Brotherhood more time.

For President Morsi, this aid represents far more than a marginal increase in military and economic strength; it represents an American seal of approval and a stamp of legitimacy on his repressive regime. Every F-16, every Abrams tank is a propaganda victory for the Morsi regime.

Egypt still has a chance for moderation. After all, few things cure radical impulses better than the experience of radical rule, and the country does have a long recent history of peace with Israel. But moderation will be infinitely more difficult to achieve if we arm and aid its most dangerous enemies.

With Americans asked to tighten their financial belts because of the sequestration, our government should withhold sending hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds to nations like Egypt, until we get proof — and that means actions, not just words — that they are a true ally. It's time we sequester terrorists.

As Egypt still struggles to determine its destiny, if we put our thumb on the scales at all, we must not do so in favor of jihadists. The Muslim Brotherhood needs our weapons and our money. We do not need the Muslim Brotherhood.

And we don't need U.S. taxpayers footing the bill.


SOURCE http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130629/OPINION/306290317/-1/NEWSMAP

Our Monday night meeting was opened with prayer by Ann Gokey and the pledges to the American & Texas flags.  We had a special prayer for Henry Horton who was not able to attend.

Our guest speaker was Toby Walker from the Waco TEA Party.  She gave an interesting background information on the Waco TEA Party which was started in 2009.  Toby gave an account of the process they had to go through to get there C4 status which was finally granted, thirty two months later!  They were blessed to have Jay Sekulow help them pro-bono.  They were subjected to unbelievable questions and scrutiny by the IRS!  People didn’t believe they were being delayed until the IRS finally admitted that they had targeted Conservative groups.  There are conservative groups that still have not received their status from the IRS.

Chuck Wilson, former CIA, was Toby’s guest.   He spoke about his experiences and his deeply troubling concern about Sharia!  Chuck commented that the IRS is more of a threat than Benghazi.  It is a threat to our civil liberties!

It is most important to call your representatives and congressmen and let them know how you feel!

We had guests from Frost, Texas and one comment by Mr. Gray was applauded!  "We are living the American nightmare, while foreigners are living the American dream!"  He also commented that the American vote is nullified by illegal immigrants.  Mr. Gray was quite passionate about the situation in America!

The Freestone County TEA Party meets every third Monday at the River of Life Church, Hwy 84 E., Fairfield, Texas.  If you are concerned about the current path America is on, please join us!

Jo Ann Fleming, the representative for the TEA Party Caucus, Texas and the executive director for Grassroots America,  is confirmed for August.  Please mark your calendars!


SOURCE http://www.freestonecountytimesonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6388:tea-party-tea-leaves&catid=54:viewpoints

The American Center for Law and Justice amended its lawsuit in federal court against the Internal Revenue Service to add another 16 tea party and conservative groups on its plaintiff list — bringing the total of aggrieved to 41.

The suit, alleging the IRS violated constitutional law with its secret targeting of conservative groups, was initially filed on May 20 with 25 plaintiffs. But more have come forward.

“The floodgates opened after we filed our initial lawsuit,” said Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the ACLJ, in a press release. “We have been contacted by many additional organizations that have been unlawfully targeted by the IRS — revealing that this unconstitutional scheme was pervasive and damaging.”

Mr. Sekulow said he is confident the American public will eventually learn the truth of who exactly ordered that conservative groups be targeted — and to what extent the White House knew of the targeting.

“How could the White House counsel and White House chief of staff know about this tactic, but the president did not? We remain dedicated to ensuring that those responsible for this unconscionable scheme are held accountable,” Mr. Sekulow said.

The ACLJ’s amended complaint states: IRS agents “working in offices from California to Washington, D.C., pulled applications from conservative organizations, delaying processing those applications for sometimes well over a year, then made probing and unconstitutional requests for additional information that often required applicants to disclose, among other things, donor lists, direct and indirect communications with members of legislative bodies, Internet passwords and user names, copies of social media and other Internet postings, and even the political and charitable activities of family members.”

At least one pro-life group was added to the complaint, Mr. Sekulow said. The claim is that AMEN, or Abortion Must End Now, was targeted for its obvious opposition to the procedure, he said.


SOURCE http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/26/aclj-suit-against-irs-grows-41-groups/

WHITEFISH - In the past month, Flathead National Forest officials estimate they've received more than 95,000 comments from the public about whether the statue of Jesus Christ on Big Mountain should be removed.

The volume of comments became so unwieldy that Forest Service supervisors assigned a special team to organize, filter and read the comments, the majority of which were sent by email from across the United States.

"It's a very divisive issue, and a very emotional issue," Derek Milner, who is leading the public review project for the Flathead National Forest, said. "People are either adamantly in favor or adamantly opposed. There really is no middle ground."

The 30-day public comment period ends Thursday, and the letters will help inform a pending Forest Service decision to renew a special land lease, which has allowed the statue to occupy a parcel of federal land on Big Mountain since 1955.

The Flathead National Forest declined to renew the lease after learning that its presence on public land could be a violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause regarding religious symbols. The decision prompted public outcry from proponents of the statue, who regard it as a historic monument.

Responding to the frenzy, Flathead National Forest Supervisor Chip Weber withdrew the decision and opened the issue to public comment. The proposal simply asks the public whether the permit should be reauthorized for another 10 years.

One letter from the American Center for Law and Justice included more than 70,000 names as an attachment. The letter advocated for lease renewal and argued that the statue does not violate the Establishment Clause.

"The statue's history and purpose, its longevity, and its setting all support the conclusion that no reasonable observer could think that renewing the Knights of Columbus' special use permit would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion," according to the author of the letter, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ, a conservative Christian organization founded by Pat Robertson.

The federal agency also received about 10,000 comments supporting lease renewal through Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg's congressional website. The Republican congressman has been an advocate for the statue since he learned its future was jeopardized. Rehberg wrote letters to Forest Service officials urging them to reconsider the decision, and also introduced legislation to broker a "land swap" between Whitefish Mountain Resort and the U.S. Forest Service.

Other comments have been generated by an online campaign started by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based organization that has been unyielding in its opposition to the statue.

Due to its historic significance, the statue was recently found eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Forest Service officials will take the finding into account when issuing a decision.

"We have to analyze for impacts to cultural resources as well as biological resources," Milner said.

The statue was installed by a local chapter of the Knights of Columbus to honor World War II veterans and members of the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

Milner emphasized that a decision will not be based on a tally count of comments. Rather, the public sentiment will influence and inform a final decision, which he expected will be reached in late January or early February of 2012.

"It's not a count," he said. "We are evaluating and summarizing the comments, and we are considering anything that will help inform the decision-maker on pertinent issues."

Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at (406) 730-1067 or at [email protected].


SOURCE http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/more-than-sent-comments-on-big-mountain-s-jesus-statue/article_f0927a80-20e7-11e1-9560-0019bb2963f4.html

NOTABLES

    PUSH FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: According to a new Quinnipiac University national poll released today, U.S. voters favor appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups by a 76 percent to 17 percent margin. The support even runs high among Democrats, with 63 percent in favor compared to 30 percent opposed. “There is overwhelming bipartisan support for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said. “Voters apparently don’t like the idea of Attorney General Eric Holder investigating the matter himself, perhaps because they don’t exactly think highly of him.  Holder gets a negative 23 – 39 percent job approval rating.” http://bit.ly/10IfsyQ

    TEA PARTY GROUPS FILE SUIT: At least the third tea party-affiliated organization alleging unfair scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of tea party and conservative groups against the IRS, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and various IRS officials, ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice, said, “The IRS and the federal government are not going to get away with this unlawful targeting of conservative groups … As this unconstitutional scheme continues even today, the only way to stop this flagrant and arrogant abuse of our clients’ rights is to file a federal lawsuit, which we have done,” Sekulow, who worked as a tax trial attorney in the 1980s in the Office of the Chief Counsel for the IRS, said in a statement. “The lawsuit sends a very powerful message to the IRS and the Obama Administration, including the White House: Americans are not going to be bullied and intimidated by our government.” Of the 25 groups the ACLJ is representing, 13 organizations received tax-exempt status after what they say were “lengthy delays,” 10 are still pending and two withdrew applications because of what they say was frustration with the IRS process. http://abcn.ws/ZtKm2O

    THE PROBES CONTINUE: While members of the House of Representatives and Senate enjoy that weeklong vacation from legislative business to celebrate the holiday in their districts this week, back on Capitol Hill the investigations into the administration’s trio of potential mishaps continue unabated, ABC’s JOHN PARKINSON notes. Yesterday, two senior members of the House Judiciary committee wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing “great concern” regarding his congressional testimony earlier this month in which he said he did not involve himself with DOJ’s decision to acquire a search warrant to obtain communications records from journalists. Also yesterday, the House Ways and Means committee announced plans to hold a hearing next Tuesday featuring representatives from conservative organizations that were targeted by the IRS. That event is in addition to a previously announced hearing on the same topic at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, where the newly appointed Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel will testify in his new capacity for the first time alongside Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George. http://abcn.ws/12iSBQT

    THE PEOPLES’ PRIORITIES: Of the three scandals that have rocked the Obama administration over the last few weeks, today’s Quinnipiac University poll finds that 44 percent of voters see the IRS probe as most important. Far fewer — 24 percent — say the inquiry over the terrorist attacks in Benghazi is the number one priority and 15 percent pick the seizure of phone records of Associated Press journalists. Still, voters by a 73 percent to 22 percent margin said that focusing on the economy and unemployment remains a higher priority than looking into the other three issues. http://bit.ly/10IfsyQ

 

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC’s JEFF ZELENY: The nomination of James Comey as the new director of the FBI will give the White House a reprieve over a confirmation hearing weighed down with questions about Benghazi. That was the fear if Lisa Monaco, the president’s top counter-terrorism adviser, had been selected to lead the FBI. But tapping Comey opens the door to a time warp, taking Washington back a decade to a debate over eavesdropping, wiretapping and other policies of the Bush administration. Most of all, it will offer the latest test of whether bipartisanship is still alive and if this Republican nominee will have a smooth path to confirmation.

ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Perched above the Rhode Island State House is the famous Independent Man statue, channeling the spirit of Roger Williams and the flinty, sometimes quirky New England state he helped found. But the Ocean State is losing its independent man, in a strong statement on the continued power of the two-party system. Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s decision to become a Democrat was at least a decade behind the ideology that drove it. But Chafee did everything he could to avoid this move; he could have kept his Senate seat, most likely, had he flipped parties in 2006, and the man named for Abraham Lincoln went the indie route rather than embrace a new party in winning the governor’s office. Chafee is becoming a Democrat because of the promise of institutional party support, and because he has no realistic way of winning another three-way race for governor. Win one for the establishment…

ABC’s ARLETTE SAENZ: Though they attended fundraisers miles apart Wednesday evening, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama each sent a message about their commitment to achieving equality for the LGBT community. At the Democratic National Committee’s LGBT Gala in New York City, the First Lady appeared alongside Jason Collins, who earlier this month became the first active player in the NBA to reveal he was gay. Mrs. Obama praised the NBA player’s decision to publicly reveal he is gay, telling him she was “proud of your talent, your character, your courage.” And at a Chicago fundraiser, the president chimed in as the Illinois state legislature prepares to consider same-sex marriage, an issue he said, “I deeply support.”

ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: Ann Romney gave her first solo interview this morning talking to CBS News. She admitted that even when things weren’t looking good on Election Night 2012, people were still telling her and her husband, Mitt Romney, to hold on including, Karl Rove.  “He’s like, ‘Don’t give up, don’t give up. We are going to to win Ohio and it’s going to turn around,’ And things just didn’t follow the way we thought it was going to happen.” Mrs. Romney also said when asked about 2016 that she and Mitt are “very partial to Paul Ryan,” but they don’t know if he will run. And no hard feeling towards Christie saying, “Chris is a great guy.”  She said her husband has been keeping busy joining her on her at horseback riding competitions and they have stayed busy traveling together and she is “happy” and has “no regrets.”

 

BUZZ

OBAMA TO NOMINATE JAMES COMEY TO LEAD FBI. President Obama is preparing to nominate James Comey, a former deputy attorney general in the President George W. Bush administration, as the next director of the FBI, although a formal announcement could be weeks away, sources with knowledge of the decision told ABC News. Comey served as deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005. If confirmed, Comey would succeed outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller, who has led the agency since 2001. Comey was serving as acting attorney general in 2004 when Attorney General John Ashcroft went into intensive care. During that time, Comey faced a tense standoff when White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales visited the ailing Ashcroft’s hospital room to try to obtain reauthorization of the administration’s terrorist surveillance program. Comey, 52, also threatened to resign from his post if the administration resumed wiretapping without the Justice Department’s approval. http://abcn.ws/18ASFKI

RICIN-LACED LETTERS SENT TO BLOOMBERG CONTAINED ANGRY NOTE OVER GUN CONTROL. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the latest high-profile target of poison-tainted letters sent though the mail, police revealed yesterday, ABC’s JOSH MARGOLIN, BRIAN ROSS AND AARON KATERSKY report. The leader of the nation’s largest city was threatened anonymously in two letters sent to Bloomberg’s offices in Manhattan and Washington, D.C., NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne said. An undisclosed number of New York cops who responded to one of the letters now “are being examined for minor symptoms of ricin exposure,” but the potentially dangerous substance never reached the mayor. “The writer, in the letters, threatened Mayor Bloomberg, with references to the debate on gun laws,” Browne said. Saying he has a “constitutional and God-given right and I will exercise that right ’til I die,” the author warned that the government would have to kill him before he would relinquish his weapons, a source told ABC News. The letters – with identical text — were printed from a computer and are postmarked May 20 from Shreveport, La. http://abcn.ws/ZgpQjV

MICHELLE OBAMA ON JASON COLLINS: ‘WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU’. First Lady Michelle Obama and Jason Collins, the first openly gay active player in the NBA, headlined a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee Wednesday evening in New York City, ABC’s ARLETTE SAENZ notes. Speaking at the DNC’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Leadership gala in New York City, Collins, who publicly revealed he was gay for the first time last month, called the first lady “a steadfast champion for LGBT families,” who with her husband is working to convey that “the most important thing that defines a family is love.” Collins said he hopes his announcement provides “courage to those still unsure about coming out and I hope it shows them the overwhelming amount of support that is waiting for them.” “Jason, we are so proud of you. We are proud of your talent, your character, your courage, and we are so proud,” the first lady said.  The president and first lady both praised Collins when he publicly announced he was gay earlier this month. At the fundraiser, which included a performance by musician Sara Bareilles, the first lady lauded her husband and the LGBT community for striving to achieve equality for all. http://abcn.ws/16r3iT1

DEMOCRATS WELCOME LINCOLN CHAFEE. President Obama rolled out the welcome mat for Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, the Republican-turned-independent who now plans to affiliate with the Democrats before his 2014 re-election run, three Democratic sources told ABC News. “I’m delighted to hear that Governor Chafee is joining the Democratic Party,” President Obama said in a statement issued through the Democratic National Committee. “For nearly 30 years, Linc Chafee has served his beloved Rhode Island as an independent thinker and leader who’s unafraid to reach across party lines to get things done.” ABC’s CHRIS GOOD, JEFF ZELENY AND RICK KLEIN report that yesterday White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters, “Governor Chafee’s been a longtime supporter of President Obama, and – not as a party member, but as a supporter of the president and his policies both – but I don’t have any other response.” Chafee’s gubernatorial office in Rhode Island declined to comment. The governor dropped his affiliation with the Republican Party in 2007, after serving a single Senate term. He won office as a Republican in 2000, then was unseated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006. Chafee was elected governor as an independent in 2010. http://abcn.ws/ZeKhxs

MICHELE BACHMANN’S GREATEST HITS.  Michele Bachmann’s announcement that she will not seek reelection will remove from the House of Representatives one of its more controversial and colorful characters. The founder of the Tea Party caucus and a former Republican presidential candidate, Bachmann, in her eight years in Congress, has demonstrated a flair for drawing scrutiny from the media both for her staunch fiscal and social conservative views and for her often controversial, sometimes factually inaccurate statements, the way she would stand by them and her willingness to try to evade reporters on foot or by vehicle. Even as she gained notoriety as a fire starter of sorts, Bachmann’s political career seemed stuck in the House. Bachmann’s moment did come in the 2012 presidential primary campaign. ABC News first reported she was considering a run. And she conducted the first interview of her campaign with ABC’s JONATHAN KARL in Iowa.  She went on to win the Iowa Straw Poll, which had been considered to be a key indicator of a candidate’s worth in the early caucus state. But her campaign flailed from there. She faced a touch challenge for reelection to the House after dropping out of the presidential race. Here’s a look at some of the more notable quotes, better interviews and odd missteps of Michele Bachmann from ABC’s Z. BYRON WOLF and the ABC News Political Unit: http://abcn.ws/1azMZQ0


SOURCE http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/notes-on-a-scandal-the-note/