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Democrats Unleash IRS, Justice On Donors To Their Political Opponents – Wall Street Journal

If at first you don’t succeed, get some friends in high places to shut your opponents up. That’s the latest Washington power play, as Democrats and liberals attack the Chamber of Commerce and independent spending groups in an attempt to stop businesses from participating in politics.

Since the Supreme Court’s January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, Democrats in Congress have been trying to pass legislation to repeal the First Amendment for business, though not for unions. Having failed on that score, they’re now turning to legal and political threats. Funny how all of this outrage never surfaced when the likes of Peter Lewis of Progressive insurance and George Soros helped to make Democrats financially dominant in 2006 and 2008.

Chairman Max Baucus of the powerful Senate Finance Committee got the threats going last month when he asked Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate if certain tax exempt 501(c) groups had violated the law by engaging in too much political campaign activity. Lest there be any confusion about his targets, the Montana Democrat flagged articles focused on GOP-leaning groups, including Americans for Job Security and American Crossroads.

Mr. Baucus was seconded last week by the ostensibly nonpartisan campaign reform groups Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, which asked the IRS to investigate whether Crossroads is spending too much money on campaigns. Those two outfits swallowed their referee whistle in the last two campaign cycles, but they’re all worked up now that Republicans might win more seats. Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) affiliate of American Crossroads supported by Karl Rove, is a target because it has spent millions already in this election cycle.

Last Tuesday, the liberal blog ThinkProgress, run by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had collected some $300,000 in annual dues from foreign companies. Since the money went into the Chamber’s general fund, the allegation is that it could have been used to pay for political ads, which would violate a ban on foreign companies participating in American elections. The Chamber says it uses no foreign money for its political activities and goes to great lengths to raise separate funds for political purposes.

That didn’t stop President Obama from raising the issue in a Maryland speech last week, saying that “groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections.” Within hours of the ThinkProgress report, the bully boys at MoveOn.org asked the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation of the Chamber. In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, Minnesota Senator Al Franken expressed his profound concern that “foreign corporations are indirectly spending significant sums to influence American elections through third-party groups.” From the man who stole his Senate election in a dubious recount, this is rich.

Even Mr. Franken admits in his letter that the Chamber’s commingling of funds in its general accounts is not “per se illegal,” but apparently he thinks it’s fine to unleash federal investigators because the Chamber cash might contribute to the defeat of fellow Democrats.

The outrage over the Chamber is especially amusing considering the role of foreigners in U.S. labor unions. According to the Center for Competitive Politics, close to half of the unions that are members of the AFL-CIO are international. One man’s corporate commingling is another’s union dues.

Unions and liberal groups are hardly cash poor this year in any case. The Campaign Media Analysis Group looked at the combined spending of candidates, their parties and outside groups and found that Democrats outspent Republicans $47.3 million to $40.8 million in a recent 60-day period.

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Private Spaceship Makes First Solo Glide Flight – Star Tribune

Virgin Galactic’s space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight Sunday, marking another step in the company’s eventual plans to fly paying passengers.

SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, it flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway.

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Up To 40 States To Launch Probes Into Foreclosure Mess – CNBC

The attorneys general of up to 40 states will announce soon a joint investigation into banks’ use of flawed foreclosure paperwork.

A person briefed on the investigation said Saturday night that an announcement could come as early as Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was not yet public. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller will lead the investigation.

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Baby Born From Embryo Frozen For 20 Years – WNYW

A healthy baby boy was born from an embryo frozen for almost 20 years in what was hailed Sunday as scientific breakthrough that could allow women to start families much later in life.

The infant’s mother underwent infertility treatment for 10 years before she was given the embryo last year. She gave birth to a baby boy in May. The news of was reported in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.

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Obama Has Book Thrown At His Head At Rally In Philadelphia – Daily Mail

A book was apparently hurled at the head of President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Sunday.

It is not clear what the book was, where it came from in the crowd, or why it was thrown at Mr Obama – who did not appear to notice it. But it is expected that there will be fallout from the security breach as the Secret Service investigates how close the President came to danger.

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Democrat Congresswoman Favors Terror Blindfold – American Thinker

At a forum sponsored by the American Muslim Task Force, Rep. Jan Schakowsky told the audience that she opposes FBI monitoring of mosques and “peace activists” for links to terror organizations:

“The good news is that I’m actually in a really good position to work on these issues, because I am on the Intelligence Committee,” she said, “and I am the chair of the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee.”

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India Boat Capsizes, Killing 37 – CNN

An overcrowded boat overturned in a river stream in eastern India, killing 37 passengers, police said Monday.

The accident occurred Sunday evening in Bihar state’s Buxar district, police superintendent Upendra Kumar Sinha told CNN. Among the dead were 26 women, he said. The boat, he explained, was ferrying farm laborers and their children when it sank midstream.

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‘Robocall’ Seeks To Split Vote In Appeal To GOP Tea Partiers – My Desert

Democratic congressional candidate Steve Pougnet unleashed an automated phone call to voters Friday that attempts to split the conservative vote by touting a third-party candidate.

The call hit the same day as voters received a Pougnet mailer that says American Independent candidate Bill Lussenheide makes Republican U.S. Representative Mary Bono Mack “look like a raging liberal.”

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