National Religious Broadcasters President & CEO Dr. Frank Wright asked members of Congress investigating the IRS over its alleged inappropriate scrutiny of conservative and faith-based groups to focus on First Amendment protection for such organizations.

"As Congress investigates these incidents at the IRS, and others that may surface in the days ahead, I ask that you emphasize the First Amendment rights of non-profit religious organizations and churches, which gives them constitutional authority to operate free from government entanglement," wrote Wright in a letter sent to House Speaker John Boehner and other Congressional leaders, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

"Pernicious targeting of faith-based organizations by any state actor must not be tolerated," Wright added. "These IRS cases before the nation today appear to be just such entangling, oppressive, and constitutionally unsound situations that must be protected against." more >>

President Obama is suffering the not untypical reality of Second Term blues, or blahs. His administration is beset by scandals foreign and domestic. But his record can still be examined for a clear understanding of this president's preferences, namely home schooling.

Take the Romeike family, for instance. The Obama administration is relentlessly pursuing them through the courts. President Obama wants this family deported. These evangelical Christian home schoolers fled their native Germany in 2008. They pleaded for and obtained temporary asylum in this country.

They have lived since then in a quiet hamlet in Tennessee, home schooling their six children. Hannalore and husband Uwe were threatened with imprisonment and loss of custody of their children in Germany if they persisted in home schooling them. more >>

Most of us who watch television and read newspapers develop strong opinions on politics and religion. From the expression of these opinions we apologetically admit to or proudly affirm our being either a liberal or a conservative. Moderates and Independents define extremism on either side by distance from what they believe.

In November of 2008 we watched the returns come in from the presidential election and Barack Obama had polled 52.93 percent of the votes to John McCain's 45.65 percent. Before and after the election we were inundated with cartoon images of a Kenyan-born Muslim Socialist who worshiped at the temple of Jeremiah Wright. The liberal community rallied to his defense and watched in disbelief as Senator Mitch McConnell and a group of Republican leaders met to plan a strategy to make Barack Obama a one-term president. The mid-term election of 2010 brought an insurmountable majority in the House with help from the Tea Party with a commitment to no new taxes and no passage of any part of the Obama agenda.

All events that happen during his tenure become the responsibility of the President-Department of State, Homeland Security, the Military, the IRS, and the CIA. We make arbitrary comparisons of the attacks on the World Trade Towers, the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, budget deficits, suppression of rights, and the religious values of the Bush presidency with the recent events of the Obama administration. Comparison of misdeeds and blame contribute nothing to saving lives or preventing recurrence of mistakes. more >>

The timing of so many sensational American crime stories packed together – Jodi Arias, Ariel Castro, Kermit Gosnell – were a news cycle boon that gave President Obama some precious time to prepare for a fast approaching storm of scandals while the media and public attention were focused elsewhere. Thus, one would have hoped that Obama could ready a far better response than he has offered thus far to the dizzying array of problems and scandals that have blown up: Benghazi-gate, Associated Press-gate, and IRS-gate. Instead, Obama's approach resembles his passive mishandling of the mess in Syria: hoping others solve the problem for him, acting only when external forces absolutely require it and only after devastating and irreversible damage has already been done.

As bad as each of the unfolding scandals might have been in isolation, they are collectively far more ruinous because each one independently suggests the same thing: an administration that has breached the public trust, violated constitutional values, and abused its power – particularly when that power might be checked by the will of the people at elections. As if the total threat posed by all three scandals weren't potent enough, two of them involve aggravating factors: 1) The IRS's targeting of conservative groups undermines public trust in an already reviled government agency (just when Obama wants to raise more taxes) and amounts to an unconstitutional attack on political activity. 2) The Associated Press scandal has antagonized the very media that has so loyally backed the President until now. Because of the potential impact on a free press, the Department of Justice's secret seizure of AP journalists' phone records has also alarmed liberal politicians, commentators, non-profits, and other forces that would normally defend the President and his policies.

With so many crises at hand, one would have expected a far more effective response than White House spokesman Jay Carney's repetition of the same irrelevant talking points. Indeed, all three scandals – and their mishandling – reinforce the impression of a White House that is either drunk with power or ineptly out of control. more >>

Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) introduced the Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013 on Tuesday that would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code, making it a crime for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to discriminate against anyone (individual or group) based on their constitutionally protected rights of political speech and expression. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced similar legislation on Wednesday.

"Americans of all political beliefs have been rightly outraged by the revelation of the IRS' efforts to target certain political organizations," said Turner in a statement. "The fact that this could occur with little to no corrective action against those who seek to silence their fellow citizens is unacceptable. That's why I'm taking immediate action and introducing this bill."

IRS employees are already prohibited from discriminating against individuals and groups based on protected speech, but this bill would increase the penalty IRS employees could receive. If signed into law, employees, would face a fine of up to $5,000, five years in prison, or both. more >>

Not even Barack Obama can defy the laws of physics.

Certain things are absolute. As Newton said, what goes up must come down. The wrinkles you see staring back at you in the mirror validate the second law of thermodynamics: eventually things fall apart. And, as any farmer will tell you, if you plant cucumbers in the spring, no matter how hard you try, you will never reap watermelons in the summer.

It's the same with deeds; good and bad, we reap what we sow. From the onset, the Obama administration has woven a web of fabrications so thick it is hard to see where reality ends and make-believe begins. Over time, Obama has woven that web tighter by installing a gang of Chicago allies, confidants, tongue-biters and tale-tellers as a "shadow government" answerable only to him. There was safety in this tight-knit crew of like-minded associates, or so they thought, until recently when parts of Obama's web began to unravel. more >>