Top Items:
Vince Coglianese / The Daily Caller:
IRS's Shulman had more public White House visits than any cabinet member — Publicly released records show that embattled former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president's Cabinet.
RELATED:
Carol Cratty / CNN:
Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-record meetings on leaks — Washington (CNN) - 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.
USA Today:
War on leaks threatens your right to know: Our view … Intimidation tactic serves to hide all manner of government secrets. — When President Obama talked about reporters and reporting last week, he struck a conciliatory chord. Obama said he was troubled “that leak investigations may chill …
Discussion:
Guardian
Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Obama to Pick Former Bush Official to Lead F.B.I. — WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate James B. Comey, a former hedge fund executive and a former senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as the director of the Federal Bureau …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, The Moderate Voice, Yahoo! News, The Maddow Blog, Washingtonian, Politico, Shakesville, Guardian, Crime and Consequences Blog, driftglass, Booman Tribune, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, msnbc.com, emptywheel, The Hill, Prairie Weather, The Caucus, WJLA-TV, Taylor Marsh, Business Insider, The Reaction and American Spectator
New York Times:
Holder Faces New Round of Criticism After Leak Inquiries
Holder Faces New Round of Criticism After Leak Inquiries
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Washington Post, The Fix, National Review, The Huffington Post and Open Channel
Fox News:
Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-record meetings with news organizations
Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-record meetings with news organizations
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Twitchy and Politico
Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Eric Holder To Meet With Washington Bureau Chiefs Amid Leak Investigation Criticism (UPDATE)
Eric Holder To Meet With Washington Bureau Chiefs Amid Leak Investigation Criticism (UPDATE)
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Erik Wemple, Hot Air, Politico, Restoring Liberty, Betsy's Page, americanthinker.com, Twitchy, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The World's Greatest …, Mother Jones, The Plum Line, BREITBART.COM, Business Insider, Guardian, Talking Points Memo, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The PJ Tatler, The Gateway Pundit and Weekly Standard, more at Mediagazer »
Quinnipiac News + Events:
Release Detail — May 30, 2013 - American Voters 4-1 Want Special Prosecutor For IRS, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; But Fixing Economy Is More Important, Voters Say 3-1 — American voters say 76 - 17 percent, including 63 - 30 percent among Democrats, that a special prosecutor …
Discussion:
American Prospect, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Red Alert Politics, Wake up America, A plain blog about politics, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, The Plum Line, Taegan Goddard's …, Post Politics, CNN, The Strata-Sphere, Right Turn, Politico, ABCNEWS and Wall Street Journal
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Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Obama's poll numbers hold up despite the storm of scandal — Obama's 7 percentage-point positive margin in Gallup is better than where he stood before the IRS scandal broke. — President Obama's approval ratings have increased since a trio of controversies involving his administration began dominating the news cycle.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Kevin Cirilli / Politico:
Poll: President Obama job approval rating down — President Barack Obama's approval rating took a hit amid three controversies surrounding his administration, including an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, a new poll Thursday showed.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com and The Gateway Pundit
CBO's Publications:
The Distribution of Major Tax Expenditures in the Individual Income Tax System — A number of exclusions, deductions, preferential rates, and credits in the federal tax system cause revenues to be much lower than they would be otherwise for any given structure of tax rates.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Washington Monthly, Business Insider, Gawker and Los Angeles Times
RELATED:
Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times:
Tax breaks benefit rich households the most, report says
Tax breaks benefit rich households the most, report says
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications and The PJ Tatler
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:
Washington ‘Spends’ More on Tax Breaks Than on Medicare, Defense, or Social Security
Washington ‘Spends’ More on Tax Breaks Than on Medicare, Defense, or Social Security
Discussion:
Yahoo! News
Lynn Sweet / Chicago Sun Times:
Bobby Rush rips Mark Kirk's mass gang arrests proposal as ‘elitist white boy solution’ — Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) is highly critical of a proposal by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) for mass arrests of 18,000 Gangster Disciples, telling the Sun-Times on Wednesday that Kirk's approach is …
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Post Politics, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette
Barbara Surk / bigstory.ap.org:
SYRIAN OPPOSITION WON'T PARTICIPATE IN PEACE TALKS — You are here — Home » Bashar Assad » Syrian opposition won't participate in peace talks — BEIRUTCopyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal, The Back Channel and Hot Air
RELATED:
Anne Barnard / New York Times:
Assad Says Syria Has Received Advanced Missiles From Russia
Assad Says Syria Has Received Advanced Missiles From Russia
Discussion:
Haaretz, Via Meadia, The Week, Guardian, Washington Post and Outside the Beltway
New York Times:
Salvadoran Court Denies Abortion to Ailing Woman — MEXICO CITY — El Salvador's highest court on Wednesday denied an appeal from a woman with a high-risk pregnancy to be allowed to undergo an abortion, upholding the country's strict law banning abortion under any circumstances.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Althouse, RH Reality Check and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
RELATED:
Katie McDonough / Salon:
El Salvador Supreme Court denies critically ill woman lifesaving abortion
El Salvador Supreme Court denies critically ill woman lifesaving abortion
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and susiemadrak.com
Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
McCain Wasn't Posing With Rebel Kidnapper, Spokesman Says — “Regrettable” if true, McCain spokesman says. — Via: Handout/Reuter / Reuters — WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain's office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi'ite pilgrims.
Discussion:
Power Line, Reuters, Washington Times, The Maddow Blog, Daily Kos, TheBlaze.com, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit
Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Conservative Icon Calls GOP's Need To Court Hispanics A ‘Great Myth’ — Phyllis Schlafly of the pro-family group Eagle Forum called the GOP's need to reach out to Hispanic voters a “great myth” during a conservative radio program Wednesday. — “The Hispanics who have come …
Discussion:
Right Wing Watch and Balloon Juice
Alexander Burns / Politico:
Lincoln Chafee switches affiliation to Democrat — Obama has returned the favor: he declined to endorse a Democrat for governor in 2010, when Chafee was running as an independent in a three-way race. And when Chafee ran TV ads featuring archival footage of the president praising him, Obama and his aides did not object.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Rich Lowry / Politico:
The Lois Lerner state — It is appropriate that the worst scandal of the Obama administration— the IRS targeting of conservatives — is a scandal of administrators and bureaucrats, of otherwise faceless people endowed with immense power over their fellow citizens and running free of serious oversight from elected officials.
Discussion:
Pirate's Cove
Kevin Liptak / CNN:
With campaign in rearview, Ann Romney says there were mistakes — (CNN) - No presidential campaign is perfect, Ann Romney admitted Thursday - even her husband's bid for the White House in 2012. — Speaking solo for the first time since November's election loss, Romney said on CBS …
Discussion:
Politico
James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
Annals of the Security State: ‘Is Puerto Rico in America?’ — Here are two more, from people willing to go on the record under their real names. Previous entries here, here, here. … Now, from David Rivera, who runs a small business in San Diego: … No more “analysis” at the moment.
Keith Koffler / Politico:
Why Dems might reject Hillary Clinton in 2016 — It looks like the Hillary Clinton inevitability bandwagon is up and running again. — Just as in the ramp-up to 2008, Hillary has again scored a victory in the Political Prognosticators' Primary, vanquishing the prospective Democratic field …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh
Jason Lange / Reuters:
First quarter GDP revised slightly lower; austerity bites — (Reuters) - A drop in government spending dragged more on the U.S. economy than initially thought in the first three months of the year, a sign of increasing pain from Washington's austerity drive.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and AEIdeas
Rick Madonik / Toronto Star:
Rob Ford video scandal: Mayor Ford said he knew where video was, sources say — The mayor cited “our contacts” as the source of his information, according to insiders familiar with an unusual May 17 session in his office. … Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks during a press conference at City Hall …
Discussion:
Globe and Mail, Business Insider, Wonkette, Gawker, The Raw Story, Blazing Cat Fur and Balloon Juice
Daily Mail:
‘These filthy unbelievers are pigs’: Woolwich terror suspect's rant at rally to incite youngsters — Michael Adebolajo filmed addressing crowd of young Muslims outside mosque in north London on anniversary of 9/11 — Woolwich terror suspect Michael Adebolajo was filmed encouraging 1,500 followers …
Discussion:
Atlas Shrugs, Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch
Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:
TV Ratings: MSNBC Falls Below HLN in May, Rachel Maddow Hits Lows — Fox News Channel maintains a handsome lead in primetime and total day, while primetime runner-up CNN continues a healthy climb from the lows of 2012. — “The Rachel Maddow Show” — HLN's wall-to-wall coverage …