By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
If you're a president under fire, it's convenient to fire someone who's about to leave anyway. The president on Wednesday threw acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller under the hot dog wagon, or whatever convenient cliche was waiting at the curb.
While much of Washington was riveted Friday on a Republican-led congressional hearing into abuse of power by the IRS, President Obama traveled to Baltimore to promote a jobs plan and decry lawmakers for "chasing every fleeting issue."
With journalists now justifiably fearful that the federal government could examine their telephone logs and dig up other information, support is growing in Congress for a measure to help reporters keep their sources confidential.
Government is bad for personal freedom. That argument is premised upon the truism that everything government does interferes with freedom because it either prohibits or compels.
The federal government gave witness protection to known and suspected terrorists and the U.S. Marshals Service even lost track of two of those people, according to a report Thursday from the Justice Department's auditor that exposes the previously hidden side of the witness program.
Two of President Obama's second-term personnel picks that have attracted conservative and business opposition moved a step closer to confirmation Thursday.
The Justice Department put its contempt for the First Amendment on full display with its snooping on journalists at The Associated Press. It's a display of contempt for freedom of the press equaled only by the administration's disdain for freedom of speech, another of the essential First Amendment protections.
Standing in a drizzle that seemed to define his bad week, President Obama called on Congress on Thursday to boost security at U.S. embassies around the globe, seeking to deflect the issue onto lawmakers as the controversy simmers over the deadly terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
President Obama's election was a hopeful moment for civil rights advocates who thought he would usher in a golden era of government openness and respect for civil liberties, but some of the president's most enthusiastic supporters have expressed the harshest condemnation this week as revelations of multiple controversies involving intrusive government overreach have exploded onto the national stage.
Trying to take a positive step in the face of two controversies over untoward government intrusion, the White House has called on Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to reintroduce a bill that would give more protections to the press when it comes to keeping their sources confidential, a White House spokesman said Wednesday.
"These are the tactics of the Third World." — Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican,on the combined effects of the Benghazi matter, the Justice Department seizure of Associated Press phone records and the IRS probe of conservative groups, before the Senate.
The Internal Revenue Service unlawfully targeted American citizens who disagreed with the party in power - during an election season - then covered it up and lied about it.
President Obama is taking heat from all sides, including late-night satirist Jon Stewart.
The revelation that the U.S. government used secret subpoenas to pry into Associated Press reporters’ phone records triggered two contradictory reactions in the political world.
One-time journalist and presidential press secretary Jay Carney is channelling his inner Sgt. Schultz, a favorite of "Hogan's Heroes." He "knows nothing, absolutely nothing" about the Department of Justice snooping on the communication habits of 20 reporters and editors at the Associated Press.
