“Mr. Issa, Mr. Cummings said we should run this like a courtroom and I agree with him. She just testified. She just waved her Fifth Amendment rights. You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross examination. That’s not the way it works. She waved her right to Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an opening statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions. (Applause)”

UPDATE I: From The Politico, Darrell Issa: Lois Lerner lost her rights. As reported at NRO, Lerner May Have Waived the Fifth, Possible She Could Be Recalled.

“When I asked her her questions from the very beginning, I did so so she could assert her rights prior to any statement,” Issa told POLITICO. “She chose not to do so — so she waived.”

Lerner shocked the committee room in the opening moments of Wednesday’s hearing by delivering an opening statement denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government service.

[...]

Issa said late Wednesday that he’s consulting the House parliamentarian and outside counsel to determine how to proceed.

Legal experts, however, say Issa’s argument that Lerner has waived her Fifth Amendment rights might not be as strong as he suggests.

Hmm, if she has done nothing wrong, why did she apologize weeks ago for the IRA targeting conservative groups? Her apology and admission that the IRS targeted conservative non-profits started all of this and forced the MSM into following the story.

An individual thought to be a British soldier was savagely killed in the streets of SE London. First, he was intentionally run down by two radial Islamists in their car. Then, two attackers hacked him to death with knives and meat cleavers, attempting to behead their victim in the name of Allah. After these two Islamic savages murdered the off-duty soldier, demanding that witnesses tape them as they spewed their fanatic Muslim rants … “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone.” As the two men stabbed their victim to death they yelled, “Allahu Akhbar”. The Islamist also went on to say, “You people will never be safe.”  I hope there is no questioning as to whether this was an act of terrorism.

They first hit the man, thought to be a British soldier, with a car in broad daylight. Then the two attackers hacked him to death and dumped his body in the middle of a southeastern London road.

As the victim — dressed in what appeared to be a T-shirt for Help for Heroes, a charity that helps military veterans — lay prone, one of the two attackers found a camera.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone,” said a meat-cleaver-wielding man with bloody hands, speaking in what seems to be a London accent.

“The only reasons we killed this man … is because Muslims are dying daily,” he added, in video aired by CNN affiliate ITN. “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth.”

 WARNING - Graphic Violence

From the UK Daily Mail - Blood on his hands, hatred in his eyes. Many, many pictures of the unspeakable attack.

• Two men repeatedly stab and try to behead off-duty soldier in SE London
• During attack they shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ and told witnesses to film them
• Charged at police officers with rusty revolver, knives and meat cleavers
• Killing took place 200 yards from barracks and close to primary school
• Both men placed under arrest after being treated for gunshot wounds
• PM: Killing is ‘sickening’ and Britain will ‘never buckle’ in face of terror

Another VIDEO from CNN that shows the British police taking down these terrorist savages

Warning: Graphic violence

UPDATE I: Woolwich machete attack leaves man dead.

The Met Police said a murder inquiry was being led by its Counter Terrorism Command. Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK would “never buckle” in the face of terror attacks.

Footage has emerged showing a man wielding a bloodied meat cleaver and making political statements.

Police confirmed two men had been arrested in connection with the murder.

A landslide at Lilydale Regional Park in St. Paul, MN has left one child dead, two children injured and one child missing. The incident occurred as a group of 4th grade children from the Peter Hobart Elementary School were on a field trip at the the Lilydale Regional Park. As reported at CBS-WCCO, the kids were exploring a hillside in the park when the ground gave way due to the recent rains. The slide created a sinkhole, which quickly filled with water. Police said the two injured children were taken to Regions Hospital. The search for the fourth child was suspended due to dangerous conditions as light rain fell throughout the afternoon. Sadly, the search effort for the missing child is now being described as a recovery effort.

VIDEO

A fourth-grade field trip to a Mississippi River park popular with fossil hunters turned deadly Wednesday when gravel saturated by persistent rain gave way, killing one child and injuring two others. A fourth child was missing.

The landslide at Lilydale Regional Park swept over a group of children from Peter Hobart Elementary School in St. Louis Park, burying one to the waist and completely burying another, Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard said.

Another child suffered minor injuries in the landslide, which happened about 1:15 p.m. The three children were taken to Regions Hospital, and one died, Zaccard said.

A search for the fourth child was suspended due to dangerous conditions as light rain fell throughout the afternoon. Zaccard described that search as a recovery effort.

Syndicated columnists Charles Krauthammer commented on the IRS targeting scandal on Tuesday during ’Special Report’ after yet another day of hearings that has only fueled the fire for all individuals, Democrats and republicans alike. Krauthammer explained, this is why this scandal has legs. First, everybody is outraged as everybody knows what the ITS can do and everyone is afraid of it. Second, now you have some one who is going to pleads the 5th and that has the appearance that the IRS is hiding something. Last, Democrats are up in arms as well as Republicans.

“Yes, the Republicans are up in arms but the Democrats are too. This thing will go on and it could be fatal.”

It would appear that Kirtsen Powers has lost that loving feeling for Barack Obama. It took the scandal against the media for Powers to finally come to the reality that Barack Obama is more “Nixionian” than Messiah. Powers, a liberal and served in the Clinton administration, has had it with Obama and is calling him on his bull$hit. Obama claims he is a protector of the First Amendment, all the while they are spying on reporters. Powers stated on Fox News ‘Special Report,’ “I just think it’s incredible that he can stand up there and say that, he’s a fierce defender of the First Amendment which he’s said before as the press secretary of an administration that’s spying on reporters. And if he’s so offended by this, who has been fired? Why are heads not rolling over this.” When you can get a liberal like Kirsten Powers to finally admit that “Everything is completely upside down here,” when it comes to Barack Obama and his administration … Obama has a huge problem. The MSM, the very people who have defended, deflected and provided a disservice to America is covering Obama, have now turned on him as they have learned, if it can be FOX News, it probably has been them as well. This is the second scandal when it has come to how the Obama administration has dealt with the media. What are the odds this is just the tip of the iceberg as well?

click on picture to listen

From Real Clear Politics:

Kirsten Powers: : I just think it’s incredible that he can stand up there and say that, he’s a fierce defender of the First Amendment which he’s said before as the press secretary of an administration that’s spying on reporters. And if he’s so offended by this, who has been fired? Why are heads not rolling over this?

I actually haven’t seen the president express real outrage other than giving lip service to it. And I also think that you have to remember we’re focused on the media because we’re media, but there are a lot of regular people who are whistle blowers who have had their lives turned upside down by this administration. The same administration who said they treat whistleblowers as criminal but then people who leak information like Stuxnet or the kill list or Osama bin Laden information are heroes because they make President Obama look like some super human protector of America. Everything is completely upside down here. (Special Report, May 21, 2013)

California-based Tea Party group, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots, become the first to sue the IRS accusing the IRS of violating its constitutional rights due to the “intensive and intrusive scrutiny” it received while seeking tax-exempt status. Let the pigeons loose. Hopefully, this will be just the beginning of the law suits against the IRS that have admitted to targeting conservative and Tea Party groups.  As reported at the Politico, the group alleges it applied for tax-exempt status in March 2010 but didn’t receive approval until Aug. 2 of last year. The lawsuit accuses the IRS of violating the First and Fifth amendments and seeks monetary damages.

A California-based Tea Party group sued the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Monday in what marked the first lawsuit to stem from an investigation finding the agency singled-out conservative organizations.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots accused the IRS of violating its constitutional rights due to the “intensive and intrusive scrutiny” it received while seeking tax-exempt status.

The lawsuit sought class action status on behalf of all conservative and libertarian groups – such as those associated with the Tea Party movement – that were targeted by the IRS for extra scrutiny from March 2010 through the middle of this month. Tea Party groups call for reduced federal spending and taxation.

Citizens for Self-Governance:

We are sure you were as disgusted as we were upon hearing the news of the top down abuse of power the IRS has aimed at Conservative groups. Today, we are on the precipice of something monumental to correct the balance of power. We are taking the fight directly to the IRS.

Like many of you, we know folks who have been subjected to harassment and abuse by the IRS as they tried to obtain their non-profit status. I have first-hand knowledge because the first tea party group that I was involved with was unfairly targeted.

We are not sitting back and waiting for Congress to fix things. Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG) decided to take matters into our own hands. We found the best lawyers in the country for aggressive litigation versus the federal government and, with our assistance, the NorCal Tea Party filed a class action suit against the IRS Monday in Ohio Federal Court.

Many other small grassroots organizations dedicated to liberty have been damaged or intimidated to the point of giving up, so CSG will provide the guidance and support needed to vindicate their rights in a direct legal battle with the IRS.

If you or someone you know has been harassed by the IRS and are interested in participating in the class action suit, let us know. You can send an inquiry by going to the website SueTheIRS.com. There’s no cost to you…because we are here to help you fight. (more)

FOX News is reporting that a man was shot dead by an FBI agent early Wednesday morning in Orlando, Florida who supposedly was connected with the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.  The Orlando Sentinel reports, FBI officials have confirmed that a man died while one of its agents was “conducting official duties.” WESH is reporting special agent was interviewing the suspect regarding his connections to bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other extremists. The shooting happened overnight in the Windhover apartment complex off Peregrine Avenue near Kirkman and Vineland roads.

Orange County Jail – Ibragim Todashev

A man who was shot dead by an FBI agent late Tuesday night in Orlando knew one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, a man identified as friend of the victim said Wednesday.

The agent encountered the man while conducting official duties, agent Dave Couvertier said in a statement.

A man at the scene on Peregrine Avenue near Kirkman and Vineland roads who identified himself as a friend of the victim said the man knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother suspected in the April 15 bombings that killed three and injured more than 260.

Khusen Taramov said he and his friend had no connection with the Boston bombings, but the FBI had been questioning them since then.

“He used to talk on the phone with him [Tsarnaev],” Taramov said of his friend. “They talked last time a month ago. After the bombing, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

VIDEO – The Washington Free Beacon

NICOLE PESECKY : I’m Nicole Pesecky live in Orlando following breaking news in an FBI related shooting that happened here at this apartment complex early this morning. We do just have new information from the FBI. Confirming that the suspect killed here was someone they were looking at in connection with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, based on contact that they, that he had. They say it is possible that when he tried to leave to go back home from Chechnya, which is where his friends say he is from. He possibly found himself on the no-fly list and had to return home, and he may have been angry because of that. His friends tell me that flight was booked for yesterday and he did cancel that flight and wasn’t able to return home to Chechnya to visit yesterday. (more)

Orlando Sentinel: Friend: Orlando man killed by FBI agent was questioned in Boston Marathon bombings.

That man, Khusn Taramiv, thinks it was his friend — Ibragim Todashev — who was shot this morning in the 6000 block of Peregrine Avenue in Orlando.

Todashev, 27, was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on May 4 and charged with aggravated battery with great bodily harm

Taramiv told several television outlets his friend was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because both were mixed martial-arts fighters.

WESH: Orlando man killed by FBI had ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect, NBC News confirms: Man knew Boston bombing suspect, friend says.

A friend of the suspect, Khusn Taramiv, said his friend, 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and knew Tsarnaev because both were MMA fighters.

Taramiv claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday.

“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back,” Taramiv said.

CBS News:

Miller reported that FBI agents went to Todashev’s apartment complex after midnight Wednesday morning to question him. Todashev had been on the bureau’s radar since Tsarnaev was identified as a suspect in the bombing.

“He had been interviewed along with a number of other people in the apartment complex, but the interest in him was higher because of a couple of factors: He was in contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He had been to Boston to visit him, and he was planning a trip to Chechnya,” Miller said.

FBI agents went to question him overnight after there were indications that he canceled that trip, Miller said.

“In the encounter in the apartment, something went wrong,” Miller said.

Daily Commentary – Wednesday, May 22, 2013 Download

How is the public ever going to have trust in the government if only low level and scape goats are held accountable? These people work for us, not the other way around and the public demands answers. Isn’t it ironic that Lois Lerner hides behind her 5th Amendment rights protected by the US Constitution as she refuses to answer questions that her IRS division stepped all over conservative and Tea Parties Constitutional rights.

“He says he’s outraged, and that’s fine, but we need to see him do something,” Senator Rand Paul said of President Obama’s lack of action on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. He described the president as “detached” and “passive in all of this.”

20 year old Kyle Dube of Orono, ME was charged with the murder in the death of 15 year old  Nichole Cable of Glenburn, Maine. The teen’s body was found at 9:30 pm Monday night by a Maine Game Warden working with a search dog in a wooded area near the Stillwater River in Old Town, Maine. The site was secured for the night and the recovery of the remains began at daylight Tuesday morning.  Nichole Cable went missing on Sunday, May, 15, Mothers Day. She had not been heard from or seen since.

 Kyle Dube

On Tuesday, police confirmed that the body found in the woods near the east shore of the Stillwater River in Old Town, ME near the intersection of Routes 43 and 16 was that of missing  Nichole Cable. Kyle Dube had previously  been in custody at the Penobscot County Jail since May 17, when he turned himself in to begin serving a 90-day sentence on charges stemming from a high-speed chase during which the motorcycle he was driving crashed. Dube is expected to appear in court on the murder charge at the Penobscot County Judicial Center at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

In a news release issued late Monday, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said a body was found by the Maine Warden Service and that the state medical examiner’s office would make a positive identification on Tuesday.

The remains were found about 9:30 p.m. and the site was secured for the night. The recovery of the remains began at daylight Tuesday.

FACEBOOK – Kyle Dube.

From the Portland Press Herald. Kyle Dube had wanted to see Cable before he started serving jail time for a traffic offense. Of course the obvious question needs to be asked, what is a 15 year old girl hanging out with a 20 year old guy?

A friend of Cable’s, Tyler Ann Harris, a sophomore at Old Town High School, said Cable and Dube had been friends and that she’d been planning to meet him shortly before her disappearance. Dube had wanted to see Cable before he started serving jail time for a traffic offense, Harris said.

Harris described Cable as a very friendly girl.

LISTEN TO THE DANA PRETZER SHOW ON SCARED MONKEYS RADIO AT 9PM ET

Dana welcomes special guests:

• Diane Dimond – Award winning journalist and media personality discussing “what is your definition of a pimp” and some Michael Jackson news
• Wendy Murphy – Former DA, Author and Legal analyst. Discussing the Jodi Arias trial and sentencing
• Attorney/Analyst Robin Sax discussing the Jodi Arias trial

LISTEN TONIGHT LIVE AT 9 PM ET

The Dana Pretzer Show – Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Download Podcast

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Lois Lerner, the top IRS official and head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS responsible for reviewing non-profit organizations and the department at the heart of the IRS scandal, will plead the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer House committee questions on the grounds of self incrimination. Lerner was scheduled to answer questions from the House Oversight committee this Wednesday. Her attorney, William W. Taylor III, wrote that Ms. Lerner had committed no crime or made any misrepresentations, but because the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation, “under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.”

So what does she have to hide? This scandal just got even more real.  The House committee was to ask Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year? Taylor, a criminal defense attorney for Learner asked that since Lerner is not going to answer questions, can she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” WHO CARES WHAT IT DOES TO HER! With the crap that the IRS did to law-abiding Americans whose only crime was being conservative under her watch, I agree with the Jawa Report, “Boo frickin hoo, make her plead the Fifth for all to see”. Honesty, who really thinks that Holder and the DOJ is going to take this investigation seriously? About as serious as they did the New Black Panther Party and voter intimidation. Congress and Daryl Issa best make her march her happy butt into the hearing room and have all the world to see the head of the very department responsible for the IRS scandal of targeting conservative and Tea Party groups plead the 5th.

A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening — or why she didn’t disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

UPDATE I: From Weasel Zippers, Daryl Issa does not disappoint … Issa Issues Subpoena Anyway to force her to plead the 5th in public for all of America to see. More great PR for Barack Obama, Democrats and the IRS.

Lois Lerner, the IRS official who headed the tax-exempt division when the targeting of tea-party groups took place, plans to invoke her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions before Congress on Wednesday.

But Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House oversight committee where Lerner was to appear, has issued a subpoena to Lerner anyway.

The subpoena was delivered after the committee received the letter from Lerner’s attorney, a committee aide said.

GET BUSY LIVING, GET BUSY DYING!

Remember when Jodi Arias in a jail house interview stated that she preferred death and to die sooner, rather than later?  Looks like some one is backtracking on her death wish.  But of course that is par for the course when it comes to Jodi Arias. Facing the death penalty, Jodi Arias now says she wants to live as she begged for her life ad promises to contribute to society while in prison. HUH? That is correct, the convicted murderer told jurors that promises she’ll start literacy and recycling programs if sentenced to life in prison. It sounds like some one has been watching ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ on prison TV and thinks they are a cross between Andy Dufresne and Warden Norton. Arias wants to build a library, teach individuals to read and create jobs. If the jury does give her life in prison instead of the death penalty, let me just be the first one to warn the prison warden, do not allow Jodi to have any posters on her wall of Rita Hayworth or Raquel Welch.  Sorry, but if this wasn’t so sad, it might be more funny.

The Arizona woman has backtracked from her previous plea for death, now telling the jury that she can contribute to society if she’s allowed to live.

Addressing the same eight men and four women who found her guilty of first-degree murder, a trembling Arias promised that her life behind bars would not be wasted. She has plenty of ideas about how to bring about positive changes, including donating her hair to be made into wigs for cancer victims, designing T-shirts that would raise money for victims of domestic abuse and helping recycle trash.

She believes that last plan would greatly reduce the “huge loads” of waste taken to landfills.

“It could create new jobs and have a far-reaching impact on the planet,” she said.

The penalty phase of Arias’ trial continued on Tuesday as Arias spoke to the jurors that held her life in their hands. The former waitress spent years denying that she killed her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in his suburban Phoenix home. In court, she apologized for the pain she caused his family.

Jodi Arias Lists Prison Extracurriculars in Attempt to Avoid Death Penalty:

Among her ideas to “affect positive change and contribute in a meaningful way”: implementing a recycling program; teaching women to read; starting a book club; and donating her hair to Locks of Love, which she said she’s done three times since her arrest.

“Additionally,” she said in the bizarre plea to the jury, “I designed a T-shirt … This is the T-shirt” — it says “Survivor” in a simple purple font — “in which 100 percent of the proceeds go to support non-profit organizations, which also assist other victims of domestic violence.