I'm Proud to be an American, available for preview and purchase at http://www.blurb.com/b/4321763-i-m-proud-to-be-an-american
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So, Attorney General Eric Holder approved a search warrant targeting Fox News’s James Rosen for the crime of journalism with malice aforethought. Then the Justice Department shopped around for a judge who would keep the surveillance of professional and private e-mails secret. Then the department fought the public disclosure of the warrant since it wanted the flexibility to continue the investigation “for many years.” Then, according to Daniel Klaidman of the Daily Beast, Holder read the details of this operation in The Post over breakfast and the reality began to “fully sink in.” “Holder knew that Justice would be besieged by the twin leak probes,” Klaidman wrote, “but, according to aides, he was also beginning to feel a creeping sense of personal remorse

No, Holder’s signature is not ideology; it is incompetence. He has spent five years learning from mistakes. It has been an expensive education.

The review of Justice Department abuses relating to the press is being conducted by . . . Holder. A special counsel in this case would be appointed by . . . Holder. The FBI probe of the IRS scandal was ordered by . . . Holder. In all these cases, the restoration of public trust depends on an attorney general worthy of public trust.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-eric-holders-tenure-marked-by-incompetence/2013/05/29/f570e7ba-c881-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html

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A Justice Department official tells Playbook: “Attorney General Eric Holder will hold meetings with several Washington bureau chiefs of national news organizations in the next two days as part of the review of existing Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters. This review, which was A Justice Department official tells Playbook: “Attorney General Eric Holder will hold meetings with several Washington bureau chiefs of national news organizations in the next two days as part of the review of existing Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters. This review, which was announced by President Obama last Thursday, is consistent with the Attorney General’s long standing belief that protecting and defending the First Amendment is essential to our democracy. [Now that's a good one!]  http://www.politico.com/playbook/

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Attorney General Eric Holder's plans to sit down with media representatives to discuss guidelines for handling investigations into leaks to the news media have run into trouble.

The Associated Press issued a statement Wednesday objecting to plans for the meetings to be off the record. "If it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter," said Erin Madigan White, the AP's media relations manager.
The New York Times is taking the same position. "It isn't appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general," executive editor Jill Abramson said in a statement.  http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/29/holder-runs-into-roadblocks-on-off-the-record-meetings-on-leaks/

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DNC Communications Director: News
Organizations That Refuse Holder’s
Off-the-Record Meeting ‘Forfeit
Their Right to Gripe’  [Really?]
http://lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=737805

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Columnist Charles Krauthammer on the “O’Reilly Factor” Tuesday night said the “biggest scandal of all” regarding the Benghazi attacks on Sept. 11, 2012, has yet to emerge.

“I think there is a bigger story here, here’s the one that will in time come out,” Krauthammer said.  ”The biggest scandal of all, the biggest question is: What was the president doing in those eight hours?” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/29/krauthammers-potentially-damaging-theory-benghazis-biggest-scandal-of-all-has-yet-to-be-uncovered-see-what-it-is/

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When the American mission in Benghazi, Libya was attacked on September 11th, 2012, only one person had the positional authority, legal mandate, and communications apparatus to give the order to defend our personnel on the ground: the President of the United States.

The President did not give that order, and four Americans died in Benghazi that day. All the rest of the nonsense to which we have been treated–from prepared talking points, congressional hearings, and finally to the outright lies–matter not when compared to the ignominious moments in which the President of the United States refused to do his job. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/05/29/Blame-the-President-for-Benghazi

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Vandals have attacked two of Britain’s most celebrated war memorials, apparently daubing them with the word “Islam” and covering over inscriptions. The RAF Bomber Command War Memorial and the Animals in War  [Nothing to see here folks, what difference does it make?] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10082647/War-memorials-vandalised.html

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Osama Bin Laden 'blew himself up with suicide belt after Navy SEAL shot him in the thigh' claims terror leader's former bodyguard

• Nabeel Naeem Abdul Fattah said he'd not wanted to 'give himself up to US'
• He accused President Barack Obama of lying in his account of victory
• Claimed Bin Laden always wore explosive belt in last ten years of his life

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2332058/Osama-Bin-Laden-blew-suicide-belt-Navy-SEAL-shot-thigh-claims-terror-leaders-bodyguard.html#ixzz2UgIrG5fV
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Guantanamo guard converts to Islam, demands release of detainees Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gitmo-guard-converts-islam-demands-release-detainees-article-1.1357918#ixzz2Um9Jf0uI
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Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) appeared on Fox News Sunday to say he has no regrets about pushing the IRS to perform one of those very special conservatives-only audits upon Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS group.  He didn’t single them out because they’re political enemies, you see.  He just chose them for a bureaucratic beatdown because he thought they’d make a good example to all the other nonprofit organizations, liberal and conservative alike: http://www.humanevents.com/2013/05/28/senator-durbin-redefines-the-dated-first-amendment/
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IRS’s Shulman had more public White House visits than any cabinet member http://lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=737843
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Students at the University of Colorado – Boulder (UCB) signed an enormous thank you card to the Internal Revenue Service for its apparent harassment of conservative groups during the lead-up to President Obama’s reelection.

In the viral video, posted on YouTube Tuesday, conservative pundit Caleb Bonham asked students to sign the large card that read “Thank you IRS! Tea Party Deserves it!”

“I’m asking people if they want to sign my board thanking the IRS for targeting conservative tea party and religious organizations,” Bonham explained in the video.

Several students enthusiastically added signatures and personal messages.

“Yes, totally,” responded one student. “I read about that. I thought it was pretty funny that the IRS was doing the right thing but the wrong thing at the same time.”

“I love discrimination,” chimed in another student. http://www.campusreform.org/blog/?ID=4770

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There is a long history of complaints about czars by whichever party does not occupy the White House at the time, but the advisers have become a particular target of the right wing during the Obama administration, and the 11th-hour budget deal eliminated his health care, climate, urban affairs and auto-industry czars.

But on Friday night, Obama declared that he intends to ignore that part of the budget legislation, issuing a relatively rare "signing statement" after he inked the budget deal in which he argued that the legislative effort to eliminate those positions was an unconstitutional infringement on the executive branch.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/obama-czars-signing-statement_n_849963.html

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A New Kind of Problem: The Common Core Math Standards

3

A set of guidelines adopted by 45 states this year may turn children into "little mathematicians" who don't know how to do actual math. 

They implemented Common Core this year in our school system in Tennessee. I have a third grader who loved math and got A's in math until this year, where he struggles to get a C. He struggles with "explaining" how he got his answer after using "mental math." In fact, I had no idea how to explain it! It's math 2+2=4. I can't explain it, it just is.

The second email came from a teacher in another state:

I am teaching the traditional algorithm this year to my third graders, but was told next year with Common Core I will not be allowed to. They should use mental math, and other strategies, to add. Crazy! I am so outraged that I have decided my child is NOT going to public schools until Common Core falls flat.

Let's look first at the 97 pages of what are called "Content Standards." Many of these standards require that students to be able to explain why a particular procedure works. It's not enough for a student to be able to divide one fraction by another. He or she must also "use the relationship between multiplication and division to explain that (2/3) ÷ (3/4) = 8/9, because 3/4 of 8/9 is 2/3."

It's an odd pedagogical agenda, based on a belief that conceptual understanding must come before practical skills can be mastered. As this thinking goes, students must be able to explain the "why" of a procedure. Otherwise, solving a math problem becomes a "mere calculation" and the student is viewed as not having true understanding. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/why-the-new-common-core-math-standards-dont-add-up/265444/
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