(Mediaite.com) On Wednesday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper dug into the controversial way in which members of President Barack Obama’s administration have apparently tried to intimidate whistleblowers in the government and the journalists that would investigate their stories. Tapper said that some, including the New York Times editorial board, have described the administration’s actions as “threatening fundamental freedoms of the press.” He warned Obama’s supporters to remember the precedent his administration is setting when a Republican next occupies the Oval Office.

Tapper noted that the scandal surrounding the subpoenaing of Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal telephone and email records is sarcastically being referred to as a “conspiracy to commit journalism.”

“Keep in mind, there’s no allegation that James Rosen bribed, threatened, coerced anyone to get the information, which is what journalists do,” Tapper said. “We try to get information, especially information that the government doesn’t want us to share with you.”

(PersonalLiberty.com) The Internal Revenue Service was formed in 1913 following the adoption (it was never properly ratified) of the 16th Amendment to fund the Federal Reserve and enrich the bankster elites by stealing and redistributing the wealth of American citizens.

The income tax is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated upon the American people. It was enacted even though the U.S. Supreme Court had only recently ruled in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. that certain taxes on direct income were unConstitutionally unapportioned direct taxes and violated Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution. Not covered in Pollock is the fact that the income tax also violates the 5th Amendment: No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty or property… nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

(FoxNews-AP) WASHINGTON – A top White House adviser staked out a defiant defense Sunday on a series of scandals that have hit the Obama administration, going so far as to say it was an “irrelevant fact” where the president was the night of the Benghazi terror attacks and saying the Obama administration wouldn’t cooperate in “partisan fishing expeditions” over IRS officials targeting Tea Party groups.

Dan Pfeiffer went on five Sunday talk shows where he tried to reverse the damage done to the Obama administration this week by a series of scandals. On “Fox News Sunday” he tried to hammer home that the president only heard that the IRS unfairly targeted Tea Party groups “when it came out in the news.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who also appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” suggested there was a written policy to target political groups opposing the president but when pressed for proof by Wallace, he was unable to provide details.

(FoxNews.com) For the first time in years, the IRS was knocked down a peg or two.

In a hearing that escalated into a boisterous public shaming of one of the country’s most-feared government agencies, lawmakers took turns Friday calling outgoing IRS Commissioner Steven Miller on the carpet for his department’s scandalous practice of targeting conservative groups.

Miller rebuffed attempts to extract the names of those responsible, saying he did not know. But lawmakers vowed that the tense hearing would mark only the start of a series of investigations, in which criminal activity could be probed.

(DailyCaller.com) The Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists.

In a checklist obtained by The Daily Caller entitled “Countering Violent Extremism Dos and Don’ts” the DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties notifies local and national law enforcement officials that it is Obama administration policy to consider specifically Islamic criticism of the American system of government legitimate.

This policy stands in stark contrast to the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis’ 2009 memo “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” [pdf], which warned of the dangers posed by pro-life advocates, critics of same-sex marriage and groups concerned with abiding by the U.S. Constitution, among others. (Read more…)