memeorandum: Letter to U.S. Education Secretary Duncan on the Vergara decision (AFT News and Press Releases)

11:45 AM ET, June 14, 2014

Top Items:

Did The IRS Really Lose Lois Lerner's Emails? Let a Special Prosecutor Find Them — Obama needs to address this ‘phony scandal’ and the public trust with real transparency. — A sloppy mistake, the government calls it, but you couldn't blame a person for suspecting a cover-up …

Discussion: CBS News, Althouse and American Thinker

waysandmeans.house.gov:

IRS Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails — f t # e — Washington, DC - Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement regarding the Internal Revenue Service informing the Committee that they have lost Lois Lerner emails from a period of January 2009 - April 2011.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Outside the Beltway, Power Line, AMERICAN DIGEST, Ed Driscoll, MichelleMalkin.com, Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, NewsBusters and Patterico's Pontifications

Patrick Howley / The Daily Caller:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed Friday that it cannot …

Discussion: Power Line

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:

Blame Obama First — On June 12, as al Qaeda forces marched toward Baghdad, John McCain spoke on the Senate floor. Noting that the al Qaeda affiliate ISIS has conquered a third of Iraqi territory, has overrun the city of Mosul, has captured abandoned American equipment …

Discussion: The New Republic and Hot Air

Washington Post:
Volunteers flock to defend Baghdad as insurgents seize more Iraqi territory

Discussion: New York Times, Business Insider, Guardian, Reuters, Rational Irrationality, Booman Tribune, Committee to Protect … and Politico

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
On Iraq, let's ignore those who got it all wrong

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, American Thinker, Daily Kos, New York Times, Weekly Standard, emptywheel, AEIdeas, Hullabaloo, Hit & Run, American Prospect, The Daily Banter, Politico and msnbc.com

Washington Post:
Transcript: President Obama's remarks on the crisis in Iraq

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, TalkLeft, National Review and Little Green Footballs

Paul Lewis / Guardian:
Obama ‘urgently’ considering air assault on targets in Syria and Iraq

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Firedoglake, The Daily Beast and The Dish

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

GOP agenda on hold until the party analyzes Eric Cantor's loss — VIRGINIA REPUBLICAN PARTY 2014 ELECTIONS CAMPAIGNS ERIC CANTOR MAGAZINE DAVE BRAT — It's only natural that a who's-up-and-who's-down leadership struggle would consume House Republicans after the stunning primary defeat of Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Discussion: Hot Air

Brian Umana / Washington Post:
I'm a Democrat and I helped the tea party unseat Eric Cantor

Discussion: Booman Tribune, New York Times and TheBlaze.com

Congressman Raul Labrador:
LABRADOR ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER

Discussion: OnPolitics, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Signal, Hot Air, National Review, The Week and Washington Post

WSB-TV:

Police: Waffle House employee shoots, kills customer — FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Police say a Waffle House cook shot and killed a customer after an argument Friday morning. — Officers said they were called to the restaurant on Fulton Industrial Boulevard and Shirley Drive just after 4:30 a.m.

Discussion: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Liberaland, The Raw Story and WTVR-TV

Betsy Rothstein / The Daily Caller:

Here's The Shocking Way Google Uses ‘Bigotry’ In A Sentence — Google has an odd way of looking at “bigotry.” — When you punch in the word “bigotry” into the Google search engine, here's what you'll find. — Interesting. Why is “right-wing” a correlation to bigotry?

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications and Mediaite

Stephanie Simon / Politico:

The fall of teachers unions — As the two big national teachers unions prepare for their conventions this summer, they are struggling to navigate one of the most tumultuous moments in their history. — Long among the most powerful forces in American politics, the unions are contending …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, New York Times, Daily Kos and Diane Ravitch's blog

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Hillary Clinton: ‘Liberating’ to speak my mind — Hillary Clinton said Friday that she's “totally done” curbing her speech for political reasons and finds her new perspective “liberating,” following a week of bruising headlines over missteps in her first round of interviews to promote her new book.

Discussion: Business Insider, CNN and Washington Post

Emma Green / The Atlantic Online:

Masters of Love — Every day in June, the most popular wedding month of the year, about 13,000 American couples will say “I do,” committing to a lifelong relationship that will be full of friendship, joy, and love that will carry them forward to their final days on this earth.

Abby Simons / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Supreme Court endorsee's pending DWI case surprises the GOP — Only a few knew about Supreme Court candidate Michelle MacDonald's arrest. — Attorney Michelle MacDonald, the GOP's endorsed candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and resisting arrest …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Raw Story

Arizona Republic:

Horne threatens to sue feds over transporting migrants to Ariz. — Hundreds of migrant children are being housed in detention centers in southern Arizona that the Arizona Attorney General's Office will soon be inspecting. Unaccompanied children have been crossing the border illegally.

Discussion: Washington Post, BuzzFeed and ThinkProgress

John Amato / Latest from Crooks and Liars:

Alex Jones & Larry Pratt: Obama Training Military To Attack Tea Party — Conspiracy nut Alex Jones says the Obama administration has been hot on the heels of the Tea Party movement and will use tanks, drones and everything else to mount an attack on them. — Ever since the Bush administration …

Discussion: Right Wing Watch

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

After hours of strife, lawmakers pass budget without Medicaid expansion — RICHMOND — The Virginia General Assembly adopted a long-delayed state budget late Thursday, acting after an hours-long debate among newly ascendant Senate Republicans who fought among themselves over whether …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:

THAD COCHRAN: I GREW UP DOING ‘ALL KINDS OF INDECENT THINGS WITH ANIMALS’ — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) provided his latest head-scratching comment in public, this time joking he engaged in illicit activities with animals as a child. — “[We'd] get back [to the Pine Belt-Hattiesburg area of Mississippi] …