• Lawmakers are ready to question the ousted head of the Internal Revenue Service today as Congress holds its first hearing on the tougher scrutiny the IRS gave tea party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status.

• President Barack Obama at a press conference on Thursday strongly defended the Department of Justice‘s controversial secret seizure of journalists’ phone records during an investigation into leaked national security information.

• 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.

• With six people already confirmed dead, rescue crews in a northern Texas town continued their search for victims Friday after a wave of 16 tornadoes crashed through the region, ripping homes to pieces and laying waste to large swaths of the area.

• Responding to a question from a 700 Club viewer, host Pat Robertson said that married men “have a tendency to wander” and it is the spurned wife’s job to focus on the positive and make sure the home is so enticing, he doesn’t want to stray.

by David J Dent

Every US President should visit a BlackJack table in Atlantic City sometime in the first term. It should happen just as they are in the middle of those Dreams From Your Ego, which promise bright new hopes if they can only win that second term.  Those hopes are as real as the possibility of getting the right card on the BlackJack table after you have been dealt two eights. Do you call it quits with 16, or carry bold expectations for the next card, imagining a golden five?  Does your ego lead you to totally discard the climate that confronted your predecessors in their second terms? Do you think you can win with that Five and sweep a 21–defying recent second term history–Watergate, Iran Contra, Monica, Weapons of Mass Destruction? Everything blows up in the second term. GW Bush entered his second term with a 51% approval rating. He ended much lower as his popularity laid the foundation for the Bush Obama America.

For President Obama, it is time to dodge the second term bullets that are providing hope for Republicans–Dreams From Their Nixon. How things change? Just a few months ago, the Republican Party’s identity crisis Washington after the last election. The Elephants have not forgotten their problems with young voters, women, blacks, Latinos, etc. Yet Benghazi, the IRS, and AP are all they need to get by to shift the momentum. But the Republican impeachment dreams are just that–dreams. However, these days, it is not difficult to imagine Barack Obama ending his second term with the popularity level and disgrace that colored the final days of George Bush.

Local papers throughout Bush-Obama counties offer a sense of the impacts of the crisis currently consuming the Obama administration. In San Diego County, a collection of Obama supporters and haters weigh in on the the administration. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/13/conversation-irs-tea-party/

Also, take a look at the approval ratings of two recent presidents whose popularity plummeted in their second terms, and compare them with the course that President Obama is currently charting.

Graph 1: Nixon’s approval rating over time:

http://webapps.ropercenter.uconn.edu/CFIDE/roper/presidential/webroot/presidential_rating_detail.cfm?allRate=True&presidentName=Nixon#.UZUtYitEQjl

Graph 2: GW Bush’s approval rating over time:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/presidential-approval-ratings-george-bush.aspx

Graph 3: Obama’s approval rating:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/var/plain/storage/images/media/obama_total_approval_graphics/may_2013/obama_total_approval_may_16_2013/921159-1-eng-US/obama_total_approval_may_16_2013.jpg

http://bushobamaamerica.com

• Former Nixon counsel John Dean calls in at 11am ET / 8am PT to talk about whether this week’s DC scandals even come close to Watergate

• Bluntly declaring “I am angry” about the IRS scandal, President Barack Obama said late Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had forced out Steven Miller, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

• Under heavy political pressure, the White House on Wednesday released 100 pages of internal Obama Administration emails in which senior officials debated what to tell Americans about the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

• Sexual assault in the U.S. military is costing the armed services the confidence of women in uniform that the problem can be solved, says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.

• O.J. Simpson, a former star athlete who once lived for the spotlight, was back on stage telling the grim story of the Las Vegas afternoon in 2007 that sent him to prison.

• Nobody won last night’s huge Powerball lottery drawing, so the jackpot for Saturday’s drawing soars to $475 million dollars.

• Lax oversight at the IRS allowed for the singling out of some conservative groups, resulting in lengthy delays in the processing of their applications for federal tax-exempt status, according to a report by the agency’s inspector general released Tuesday.

• The Justice Department on Tuesday defended its decision to subpoena phone records from Associated Press bureaus and reporters, saying the requests were limited and necessary to investigate a leak of classified information.

• CNN has obtained an e-mail sent by a top aide to President Barack Obama about White House reaction to the deadly attack last September 11 on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that apparently differs from how sources characterized it to two different media organizations.

• The Army announced Tuesday that a sergeant first class assigned to an assault prevention program at Fort Hood is under investigation for sexual assault. The solider was assigned as a Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program coordinator when the allegations surfaced.

• OJ Simpson is set to speak again today in a Las Vegas courtroom in a bid to win freedom from a sentence that could keep him behind bars until he dies.

• Former Obama advisor Van Jones calls in at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT to talk about his new book, “Rebuild The Dream”

• House Republicans pushed ahead Monday with their investigation of the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year as President Obama asserted that GOP charges of a cover-up are baseless

• Congress was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, even after acting agency Chief Steven Miller had been briefed on the matter.

• The Justice Department used a secret subpoena to obtain two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors without notifying the news organization.

• The Minnesota Senate gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will make the state the 12th in the United States to allow same-sex couples to marry and only the second in the Midwest. Gov. Dayton will sign the bill into law today.

• Angelina Jolie revealed in an emotional op-ed for the New York Times that she underwent a double mastectomy earlier this year after a blood test showed she was genetically susceptible to cancer.

• Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about the GOP’s continuing screeching about Benghazi

• Actor/comedian Carlos Alazraqui joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau at 11am ET / 8am PT for another edition of Coffee With Carlos

• New Orleans police vowed to swiftly track down the gunmen who wounded 19 people at a neighborhood Mother’s Day parade, the latest case of violence flaring up around a celebration in the city this year.

• When tax agents started singling out non-profit groups for extra scrutiny in 2010, they looked at first only for key words such as ‘Tea Party,’ but later they focused on criticisms by groups of “how the country is being run,” according to investigative findings.

• Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) pushed back Sunday on charges that Republican efforts to investigate last year’s Benghazi attack are designed to inflict political damage on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

• After 37 years with ABC News, Barbara Walters is announcing on “The View” today that next summer, she will retire from TV journalism.

• Matthew Breen, Editor in Chief of “The Advocate”, joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau for the 11am ET / 8am PT hour to talk about the latest LGBT news

• Ariel Castro, the man accused of holding three women captive for a decade in his Cleveland home, terrorized the mother of his children, frequently beating her, playing twisted psychological games and locking her indoors in the years before their relationship disintegrated, her relatives say.

• Secretary of State John Kerry promised Thursday to leave “no stone unturned” in the investigation into the deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and vowed that anyone guilty of wrongdoing would be disciplined “appropriately.”

• A Minnesota House bill legalizing same-sex marriage passed 75-59 with resounding DFL support and the votes of four Republicans. The measure now goes to the Senate on Monday, where its passage is considered likely. Gov. Mark Dayton has said he intends to sign the bill into law.

• A man holed up in a Phoenix hotel was arrested and accused of threatening to bomb the courthouse where jurors were to begin deciding whether convicted murderer Jodi Arias should get the death penalty, authorities said Thursday.

• Author and legal pundit Marcia Clark calls in at 11am ET / 8am PT to talk about the Jodi Arias verdict, and what’s going on with the Cleveland Kidnapping case

• Doug Kendall, President of Constitutional Accountability Center, calls in at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT to talk about the business-friendly environment at the Supreme Court

• The Cleveland man accused of kidnapping and holding three young women captive for the past decade will make his first court appearance this morning. Ariel Castro, 52, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

• Jodi Arias has been found guilty of first-degree murder but the trial is far from finished. The same jury now returns to the courtroom today to decide whether she deserves to die for killing her one-time boyfriend on June 4, 2008 at his Mesa home.

• The Benghazi terrorist attack returned to Congress yesterday in hours of sharply partisan questioning that included the first public retelling from a US diplomat in Libya at the time of what happened the night Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

• Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast calls in at 10:30am ET / 7:30am PT to talk about why the Constitution guarantees no absolute right to bear arms

• After three women who vanished a decade ago were found captive Monday at a peeling, rundown house, Cleveland police are facing questions about their handling of missing-person cases and are conducting an internal review to see if they overlooked anything.

• Once the disgraced and tearful figure at the epicenter of an embarrassing scandal, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will return to public life as a U.S. congressman after his win over Elizabeth Colbert Busch last night.

• House Republicans open their hearings today into the Benghazi attack that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans but have already released transcripts from State Department witnesses, including former Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory Hicks.

• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has struggled with obesity for much of his adult life, said on Tuesday he underwent lap band surgery in February to lose weight, a move he said had nothing to do with a possible run for the White House in 2016.

• Three brothers have been arrested after three women who disappeared in separate incidents about a decade ago were found alive in a house in Ohio, police said. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight went missing between 2000 and 2004 when they were aged between 14 and 20.

• The Air Force official in charge of its sexual-assault prevention program was arrested for groping, authorities said Monday. Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, 41, was removed from his position as head of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office pending an investigation, the Air Force said.

• Robel Phillipos, one of three friends accused of helping Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover up his alleged crime, got out on bond Monday, released to his mother’s custody.

• It could take weeks to figure out why a white stretch limousine caught fire in the Bay Area over the weekend, turning a celebratory bachelorette party deadly, authorities said Monday.

• Voters in South Carolina’s first congressional district head to the polls today to decide whether to offer former Gov. Mark Sanford a chance at political redemption, or instead send the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert to Congress.

• Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about Glenn Beck’s competing conspiracy theories

• Actor and comedian Rick Overton joins us for two hours in the Los Angeles Bureau at 10am ET / 7am PT to fill in for Jim Ward

• A funeral director trying to find a cemetery to take the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is going next to the city where Tsarnaev lived, Cambridge, but will run into another obstacle: It doesn’t want him.

• Israel sought to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that its recent air strikes around Damascus did not aim to weaken him in the face of a more than two-year-old rebellion.

• The National Rifle Association on Sunday wrapped up its first national meeting of members since the high-profile mass shootings last year at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

• A bride-to-be celebrating her bachelorette party was among the five people killed when a stretch limousine burst into flames while crossing a San Francisco area bridge, according to reports.

• Sexy Liberal John Fugelsang joins us in from the New York Bureau at 11am ET / 8am PT for Fridays With Fugelsang

• The two brothers suspected of carrying out the deadly attacks on the Boston Marathon had originally planned to set off their bombs on July 4, a law enforcement official said.

• U.S. President Obama gave his blessing on Thursday to a new security arrangement with Mexican leader Enrique Pena Nieto, in which Mexico will make reducing violence a priority over hunting drug cartel kingpins in the war against organized crime.

• President Barack Obama said Thursday he was comfortable with his administration’s decision to allow over-the-counter purchases of a morning-after pill for anyone 15 and older.

• Rhode Island became the final state in New England and the 10th in the country to legalize gay marriage after independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee on Thursday signed a bill that will allow same-sex marriage.

• Southern California firefighters early Friday were fiercely battling a growing, brush-fueled wildfire that had reached the beach in Ventura County and was pushing toward the upscale city of Malibu, officials said.

• Eric Ferrero, Planned Parenthood‘s VP of Communications, calls in at 10:30am ET / 7:30am PT to talk about making the morning after pill available to girls 15 years and older

• Federal authorities arrested three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Wednesday, accusing them of trying to obstruct justice by hiding a backpack and a laptop involved in the case and lying about it.

• President Barack Obama on Thursday begins a whirlwind trip to Latin America, where a high-profile meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto involving immigration, drug violence and trade tops the agenda.

• A bipartisan proposal to expand background checks for gun sales failed in part due to Republicans’ desire to prevent President Obama from winning a victory on a major policy initiative, Sen. Pat Toomey, the gun proposal’s chief GOP proponent, said Wednesday.

• Israel has warned it will do whatever is necessary to prevent the Syrian government’s large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons from falling into the hands of militants, believing that one day they may be used against Israel.

• Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about why the GOP is doing even worse with African Americans

• Australian Rugby Star turned Actor Ian Roberts calls in at 10:30am ET / 7:30am PT to talk about how coming out in 1995 changed his life and where he is at 18 years later

• President Barack Obama on Tuesday forcefully defended his policy toward Syria, his handling of the Boston Marathon bombing, the future of Obamacare and even his political relevance in a wide-ranging press conference 100 days into his second term. He also again promised to close Gitmo.

• Massachusetts primary voters on Tuesday picked Democrat Ed Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez as their candidates in the June 25 special election, the second such race the state has seen in three years

• Relatives of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said as officials in both Washington and Russia deepened their investigations into him and his ties.

• A new Kaiser Foundation poll indicates many Americans are still unclear about the details of Affordable Care Act and, in some cases, unaware it’s actually law of the land.

• Charlie Pierce of Esquire’s Politics Blog calls in at 10:30am ET / 7:30am PT to talk about diluted gun control, and Jason Collins’ historic announcement

• Investigators have found female DNA on at least one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks. FBI agents have removed bags of evidence including DNA samples from the home where Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow has been living.

• Prosecutors and lawyers for surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have begun very early discussions about a possible deal, in which he would cooperate in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, legal sources said Monday.

• Jason Collins received an outpouring of support and admiration from the sporting world and many other influential voices on Monday after announcing he was gay. The 12-year NBA veteran became the first active player in a major men’s North American team sport to announce his homosexuality.

• Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor expressed doubts that the nation’s highest court should have ruled on the controversial Bush v. Gore case that decided the outcome of the 2000 presidential election.

• Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about media coverage in the Boston Bombings

• Rev. Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners, joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau at 11am ET / 8am PT to talk about his new book, “On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good”

• The Boston Bombings suspects’ mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son.

• President Barack Obama chided Republicans on Saturday for approving a plan to ease air-traffic delays caused by federal spending cuts while leaving budget cuts that affect children and the elderly untouched.

• A national group of prominent GOP donors that supports gay marriage is pouring new money into lobbying efforts to get Republican lawmakers to vote to make it legal.

• Journalists, celebrities, and politicos converged in D.C. Saturday night for the 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, laughing along as President Obama and Conan O’Brien took the stage to skewer targets in Washington, Hollywood, and beyond.

• Comedian and author Richard Belzer calls in at 11am ET / 8am PT to talk about the Boston Bombings and about the gun control controversy

• Boston Marathon bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was transferred to prison Friday from the hospital where he had been held since his arrest by police a week ago.

• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Thursday that the surviving suspect in last week’s marathon blasts that killed three and wounded scores more told investigators that he and his brother were targeting New York next.

• President Obama, standing before a line of flag-draped coffins, consoled family and friends on Thursday at a memorial service for firefighters killed in a massive explosion last week at a Texas fertilizer plant.

• The Senate moved quickly Thursday evening to help ease the Federal Aviation Administration’s ability to handle automatic spending cuts set forth in the sequester. The House takes up the bill today.

• President Obama and the other four living presidents along with other dignitaries gathered in Dallas to mark the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

• The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings acknowledged to the FBI his role in the attacks but did so before he was advised of his constitutional right to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

• With deep federal spending cuts known as the sequester beginning to affect air travel and forcing some public-sector layoffs, the White House on Wednesday seemed to offer public support for Sen. Harry Reid’s proposal to temporarily pay down the sequester without generating new tax revenue.

• The number of U.S. states allowing gay marriage is set to enter double digits now that Rhode Island’s state Senate has taken a landmark vote. Legislation allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed passed Wednesday evening by a comfortable 26-12 margin. Gov. Lincoln Chafee said he will sign it into law.

• All the living American presidents past and present are gathering in Dallas, a rare reunion to salute one of their own at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center today.

• A man accused of plotting with al-Qaida members in Iran to derail a train in Canada was due to appear in a Toronto court Wednesday after declaring at his initial court appearance that the charges against him are unfair. Law enforcement officials in the U.S. said the target was a train that runs between New York City and Canada.

• Charges were dropped Tuesday against the Mississippi man suspected of mailing ricin-laced letters to President Obama and other public officials — as authorities searched the home of another man hoping to find clues in the expanding investigation.

• On Tuesday, hackers took over the Associated Press Twitter account and falsely claimed that there had been explosions at the White House and that the president was hurt. The tweet was up for a few minutes before Twitter took the account offline.

• The Justice Department late Tuesday formally filed its case against Lance Armstrong and his company Tailwind Sports for millions of dollars that the U.S. Postal Service spent to sponsor the cycling team.

• Matthew Breen, Editor-In-Chief of “The Advocate”, joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT to talk about the Boy Scouts’ movement on allowing gays

• The hospitalized Boston Marathon bombing suspect charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction has told investigators that he and his brother were motivated by religion but were not in contact with overseas terrorists or groups, officials said.

• Two men face a bail hearing today after their arrest on charges of plotting a terrorist attack against a Canadian passenger train with support from al-Qaida elements in Iran, authorities said. The case has raised questions about Shiite-led Iran’s murky relationship with the predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network.

• Flight delays piled up all along the East Coast Monday as thousands of air traffic controllers were forced to take an unpaid day off because of federal sequester budget cuts.

• River flooding that’s already swamping part of the Midwest from Oklahoma to Michigan could get worse today and Wednesday with more rain and snow spreading over the region.

• Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about media coverage of last week’s Boston Marathon bombings

• The legendary Lily Tomlin calls in at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT to talk about the debut of her new HBO documentary, “An Apology To Elephants”

• Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is awake and “responding sporadically in writing to questions … about other cell members and other unexploded bombs, ” law enforcement sources told ABC News on Sunday evening.

• President Barack Obama late Friday praised Boston police and law enforcement cooperation for their week-long response to the Boston Marathon bombings and acknowledged “many unanswered questions” about what drove the suspects to violence.

• The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

• A late-night police chase and shootout has ended with one Boston Marathon bombing suspect dead and another on the run, police said early Friday morning. One police officer was killed and another was seriously wounded during the violent spree.

• President Barack Obama on Thursday delivered a message in Boston to those in the city touched by Monday’s deadly bombings, as well as to individuals worldwide watching the country’s response: We will persevere.

• Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Barack Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons.

• Members of the “Gang of Eight” promoted their 844-page immigration bill, which was released earlier in the week, on Capitol Hill Thursday. It’s the product of months of intense private negotiations that supporters say will secure the borders and provide a path to legality for nearly 12 million people currently living in the nation illegally.

• Rescuers searched on Thursday for survivors in the rubble of homes destroyed by a fiery fertilizer plant explosion in a rural Texas town that the mayor said had killed at least 14 people.

• Lanny Davis, veteran political strategist and former White House special counsel to President Clinton, calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about his book “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crisis in Business, Politics, and Life”

• Mark Follman from Mother Jones calls in at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT to discuss debunking NRA myths about more guns mean safer schools

• Rescue workers searched rubble early today for survivors of a fertilizer plant explosion in a small Texas town that killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160 others. The blast left the factory a smoldering ruin and leveled homes and businesses for blocks in every direction.

• President Obama and gun control allies say Senate rejection of expanded background checks and other restrictions won’t stop the drive to reduce gun violence.

• Federal agents on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the mailing of letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator that initially tested positive for the poison ricin. The suspect was identified as Paul Kevin Curtis of Tupelo, Miss.

• A service in Boston to honor the victims of the city’s bombings will be attended by President Obama today, as investigators spend a third day combing through evidence in search of those responsible for the deadly blasts.

http://current.com/shows/talking-liberally/videos/retired-fbi-agent-on-whats-next-for-boston/

http://current.com/shows/talking-liberally/videos/retired-fbi-agent-on-whats-next-for-boston/