United Liberty

As you may have heard, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spent his Memorial Day palling around with his new al-Qaeda buddies in Syria. He wants Congress to appropriate funds to help these terrorists rebels, one of whom was responsible for kidnapping Lebanese pilgrims, as they fight Bashar al-Assad for control of the country.

But Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned Americans of the dangers of intervening, in an op-ed at CNN, noting that our history of arming so-called “rebels” and hasn’t exactly worked well for the United States.

Paul recaps the history of our involvement in Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s, both in support of and opposition to Saddam Hussein, has had the effect of empowering Iran in the region. He goes to recap our more recent problems in Libya, where our support of rebels included helping elements of al-Qaeda:

In 2009, members of the U.S. Senate — Republicans Lindsey Graham and John McCain and an independent, Joe Lieberman — would travel to Libya to meet with Gadhafi to offer further aid. Sen. McCain said: “We discussed the possibility of moving ahead with the provision of nonlethal defense equipment to the government of Libya.” President Obama would eventually meet with Gadhafi to reconfirm the same relationship established during the Bush administration.

Julie Borowski, perhaps best known as the TokenLibertarianGirl, is out with a new video this week addressing the three scandals — IRS discrimination of conservative groups, the DOJ’s targeting of the media, and Benghazi — that have plagued the Obama Administration over the last few weeks.

Borowski scoffs at the notion of Attorney General Eric Holder investigating himself over the Justice Department’s scandals concerning the targeting of the Associated Press and James Rosen. “I’m sure that’s gonna be a very fair investigation of himself,” says Borowski, with a truckload of sarcasm. She also touched on the situation in Syria and explained how terrible of an idea it is to fund rebels connected to al-Qaeda.

Watch it and give Borowski a follow on Twitter and/or “like” her Facebook page:

Here’s a reminder of what’s at stake in the 2014 mid-term election. During a fundraising event in Chicago on Wednesday, President Barack Obama told Democratic donors that he “could not be more anxious or eager” to have House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) hold the Speaker’s gavel once again:

Joined by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, his former chief of staff, at a glitzy hotel in downtown Chicago, Obama cast his days of politicking as behind him — “I’ve run my last political race.” But he portrayed a renewed Democratic majority in Congress as the best insurance policy against a GOP determined to stand in his way.

“Washington is not broken,” Obama said. “It’s broken right now for a particular reason, but it’s not permanently broken. It can be fixed.”

That’s where Democratic donors and the candidates they support come in, Obama said.

About 150 supporters, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, attended the reception, where tickets started at $1,000 per person.
[…]
“I could not be more anxious or eager to have her back as Speaker of the House,” Obama said as the California congresswoman beamed.

Democrats need to gain 17 seats to recapture control of the House next year. It’s an ambitious goal, Democrats and Obama acknowledge, considering the president’s party typically loses seats during the sixth year in office.

President Barack Obama may have refused to get behind an independent investigation into the IRS scandal, but a new Quinnipiac poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the idea (emphasis mine);

A Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday shows 76 percent want a special counsel to 17 percent opposing.

The idea has strong support across all parties, with 88 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of independents calling for a special prosecutor.

“There is overwhelming bipartisan support for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Assistant Director Peter Brown in a statement. “Voters apparently don’t like the idea of Attorney General Eric Holder investigating the matter himself, perhaps because they don’t exactly think highly of him.”

Holder, who would appoint a special investigator, holds a negative 23 to 39 percent approval rating.

The poll also showed that President Obama’s job approval rating is now underwater, at 45/49, which the Wall Street Journal notes is down from the net-positive approval rating he had in a poll released by the same organization earlier this month. The IRS’s job approval rating is also vastly underwater, at 24/66.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who has served in Congress for 27 years and is a candidate in the special election for the Senate in Massachusetts, cannot recall a time when he’s opposed a tax increase.

During a recent campaign stop, he was asked if there was an instance he’s opposed Democratic leadership on taxes. Markey sheepishly replied, “Well, I would review my record and I will get back to you on that.”

Unbelievable.

Markey leads his Republican opponent, Gabriel Gomez, by an average of 10 points, according to Real Clear Politics. He holds a lifetime score of 8% from FreedomWorks and 15% from the Club for Growth. If all of the legislation Markey proposed in the 112th Congress were enacted, federal spending would have increased by $81 billion.

Needless to say, Markey is no friend to the taxpayer.

The House of Representatives is taking its time with the Internet sales tax, which is a good thing. They’re allowing it to go through the proper process, unlike the Senate, and that’s giving more time for opponents to make their case against the proposal.

What we already know about the Internet sales tax, absurdly named the “Marketplace Fairness Act,” is troubling. Not only is the proposal constitutionally questionable, it would turn Internet retailers into a tax collecting agents for 45 states and the District of Columbia and more than 9,600 taxing jurisdictions.

“[T]hat’s 46 returns (45 states with sales taxes plus the District of Columbia), which have to be filed monthly or quarterly, and 46 potential audits every year,” wrote Jacob Sullum earlier this month at Reason, “not to mention all the misunderstandings, disputes, and hassles that fall short of an audit.”

That is a regulatory nightmare for business, and customers could feel the effects. The Heritage Foundation points to a recent interview by a small business owner who explained that compliances costs will lead to prices increases for consumers:

Based on the polls and his approval ratings, it looks like Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) will coast to re-election later this year. His handling of the storm that ravaged New Jersey last year and his willingness to put politics aside during President Barack Obama’s visit to the region in its aftermath endeared him to many voters.

However, Christie’s willingness to appear alongside Obama in the state after the storm also upset many Republicans. They felt that he’d abandon Mitt Romney, though Christie and his supporters explain that he was looking after his state. For his part, Romney has said that Christie didn’t cost him the election.

But if Christie wants to be a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he sure is going about it in a weird way.

During a visit on Tuesday to New Jersey, Christie and Obama rekindled their “bromance,” which is what many pundits are calling it. The two played a football toss game on a boardwalk near the Jersey shore. Christie won Obama a stuffed bear decked out in Chicago Bears’ swag (pictured above), which is the President’s favorite football team.

You can check out the video below:

Under intense scrutiny over the Justice Department’s targeting of the Associated Press and James Rosen, Attorney General Eric Holder wants to meet with Washington bureau chiefs from major media outlets to discuss his department’s guidelines for dealing with journalists during leak investigations. The only catch, however, is that the meeting is off-the-record, meaning that the substance of the discussion can’t be made public.

That is a problem for many news agencies. The Associated Press, CNN, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times have all said that they will not attend the meeting unless it is on-the-record. The sentiment is that a discussion about the freedom of the press, which is protected by the First Amendment, should be open and transparent:

The Associated Press issued a statement Wednesday objecting to plans for the meetings to be off the record. “If it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter,” said Erin Madigan White, the AP’s media relations manager.

The New York Times is taking the same position. “It isn’t appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general,” executive editor Jill Abramson said in a statement.

Like the New York Times and the Associated Press, CNN will decline the invitation for an off-the-record meeting. A CNN spokesperson says if the meeting with the attorney general is on the record, CNN would plan to participate.