At PJ Media:

Ask who now is sitting in prison — a shyster video-maker who had nothing to do with the deaths of four Americans, or their five known terrorist killers lounging about in North Africa? Apparently, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, like EPA director Lisa Jackson, was guilty of creating a fake persona. Like Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, he had a lien on his business. Like former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he had some unpaid taxes. Like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he had been visited by government investigators. Like Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, he lied to federal authorities — although they were not quite as high as those in the U.S. Congress. And unlike all of the above, he was therefore jailed.

Of all the legacies of Barack Obama, the most pernicious will be the creation of a rogue government that has cut off and terrified half the population — and for no other reason than that they seem to represent things that Mr. Obama simply does not seem to understand.

I’ll beg to differ on the second excerpted paragraph. Obama understands them — and despises them.

Rules are here. Possible comment fodder may follow later. Other topics are also fair game.

From Moore, Oklahoma (HT Daryn Kagan):

May 22, 2013 at 7:20 PM ET

When a devastating tornado touched down in Moore, Okla., on Monday afternoon, Shayla Taylor was on the upper floor of the local hospital, in active labor with her second child.

As the floor shook “like an earthquake” beneath her and ceiling tiles and insulation fell overhead, the 25-year-old huddled with four nurses, braving both the peak contractions of childbirth and the wrath of the worst twister the veteran Oklahoman had ever endured.

“We were all just sitting there holding each other’s hands and praying,” Taylor told NBC News.

Moore Medical Center, a 46-bed acute care hospital at 700 S. Telephone Road, took a direct hit from the F-5 tornado, with wind speeds that topped 200 miles per hour.

The blow devastated the hospital, as news photos plainly show, ripping away the roof and walls.

After the chaos, Taylor said she heard not the freight train sound described by so many witnesses, but the absolute silence of the storm’s center. Then she opened her eyes.

“All of a sudden I could see daylight and the wall was gone,” she said. “I look out and I see I-35 and part of the Warren theater,” which later became the triage center for victims of the tornado that killed 24 and injured more than 230 people.

She had been dilated to 9 centimeters, nearly ready to deliver the baby, when nurses gave her a quick shot to slow labor during the height of the storm.

Taylor was quickly reunited with her husband, Jerome Taylor, 29, who had taken their 4-year-old son, Shaiden, to wait out the tornado with others in the hospital cafeteria. With the help of hospital workers, she was carefully carried through the destroyed building and out to a waiting ambulance, which whisked her 5 miles to another hospital in the Norman Regional Health System.

Three hours later, after doctors determined that the petite Taylor would need a cesarean section due to the baby’s size, she delivered Braeden Immanuel, a healthy 8-pound, 3-ounce boy.

“His middle name means ‘God is with us,’” said Taylor. “The name had been picked out for months. Now I know why.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

Either CNN’s Tom Cohen, his headline and subheadline writers, or both thought it was a bit over the top to describe the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party, conservative, and religious groups as a “forgotten scandal” in a Friday story. Evidence that the subheadline originally read “Republicans try to keep the public focused on the forgotten scandal of IRS targeting of conservative groups” is here and here.

As will be seen after the jump, Cohen tries to make the case that there’s nothing to see, that everyone who matters agrees with him, and that forgetting about the scandal would be defensible (bolds are mine):

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… is what does the Obama administration have on Jerrold Nadler?

Story:

In the video at the link, Nadler said in public exactly what CNet reported about NSA’s ability and discretion to listen phone calls and retrieve the content of other communications at will without FISA court intervention. He did this when he interviewed Mueller. “We heard precisely the opposite the other day (in a then-secret Capitol Hill-NSA briefing).”

Given how clueless Mueller was about the FBI’s investigation of the IRS, I’m on the side of him being clueless about what the NSA is really doing.

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UPDATE: The walkback would indicate that Nadler might have misunderstood what he heard in the secret Capitol Hill hearing. Writers here and here (scroll down to update) believe that’s what happened. Unless we see the transcript of the NSA hearing, we’ll never know.

That still leaves the James Clapper-Wyden exchange, which hasn’t been so neatly explained away. The dragnet is real.

In a four-paragraph “Big Story” item time-stamped 10:48 a.m. (“CURRENT, FORMER OFFICIALS BACK SECRET SURVEILLANCE”), Stephen Braun at the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, names several Sunday news program guests who he writes are “are supporting the government’s collection of phone and Internet data following new revelations about the secret surveillance programs aimed at disrupting terrorist plots.” Meanwhile, the Politico is hyping former Vice President Dick Cheney’s characterization of Edward Snowden as a “traitor.”

Both outlets, and thus far most of the establishment press, are ignoring a report by CNET’s Declan McCullagh Saturday afternoon which I believe would be dominating the news by now if anyone except Barack Obama were President. It directly contradicts an assertion Obama made — “Nobody is listening to your phone calls” — shortly after the NSA-Snowden story broke, and one of Congress’ most liberal Democrats is the source (links are in original; bolds are mine):

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Rules are here. Possible comment fodder may follow later. Other topics are also fair game.

From Vatican City:

Jun 14, 2013 / 04:30 am

The low rumbling of hundreds of Harleys is overtaking the buzz of scooters and cars in the streets surrounding the Vatican, and on Sunday it will even be present in St. Peter’s Square.

The first Vatican-related Harley-Davidson event was with Pope Francis himself on Wednesday afternoon, following his weekly general audience. Accompanied by Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, the Pope received the unusual gift of a biker jacket and two of the famous motorcycles.

The City of Rome expects up to 35,000 Harley-Davidson aficionados to arrive for the 110th anniversary celebration of the iconic American street machines.

Although the celebrations will include a beach party in the nearby port town of Ostia and a music festival, there is also a spiritual aspect to some of the events.

This morning, for example, some bikers were able to participate in an 8:00 a.m. morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Afterwards they gathered in the Pius XII Square, across the street from St. Peter’s, and took in the sights.

On Saturday morning, the motorcycle enthusiasts will begin lining up for a massive parade from Ostia to downtown Rome.

The spiritual capstone of the anniversary celebration, which is the biggest in Europe, will be on Sunday, June 16, when Pope Francis blesses about 800 bikers and their rides in St. Peter’s Square.

The crowd in the square for the blessing will be decidedly eclectic, since the Pope will be celebrating a Mass for pro-life movements right before he prays the Angelus and blesses the crowd. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

In an early Wednesday morning story which seems to have been a strategic trial balloon, Charles Babington at the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, ran a story trying to portray the NSA surveillance revelations by Edward Snowden and subsequent developments as matters which have only riled up people on the “far left and far right.” Otherwise, the American people are okey-dokey with NSA’s data dragnet. Too bad for Babington and the administration, as I demonstrated in Part 1 (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), that what appears to have been a belated attempt to intimidate prominent elected politicians has to a large extent not worked.

This post will further show that polling data Babington cited near the end of his report contradicts his claim that “Solid majorities of Americans and their elected representatives appear to support the chief elements of the government’s secret data-gathering.”

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In an early Wednesday morning story which seems to have been a strategic trial balloon, Charles Babington at the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, ran a story trying to portray the NSA surveillance revelations by Edward Snowden and subsequent developments as matters which have only riled up people on the “far left and far right.” Otherwise, the American people are okey-dokey with NSA’s data dragnet. Too bad for Babington and the administration that what appears to have been a belated attempt to intimidate prominent elected politicians has to a large extent not worked, and that polling data he cited near the end of his report (to be covered in Part 2) contradicts his claim that “Solid majorities of Americans and their elected representatives appear to support the chief elements of the government’s secret data-gathering.”

You can tell that Babington’s effort was something out of the ordinary, because the self-described “Essential Global Network” actually used the term “far left” in the story’s headline and content. In a U.S. story, that almost never happens unless a reporter is quoting a far-leftists’ conservative or moderate opponent. Usually, the only time you see “far left” used in U.S. AP content is to identify a person’s placement in a photo. Excerpts from the story follow the jump.

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A GOP candidate for the Connecticut State Legislature’s 53rd District about 70 miles northeast of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown won election on Tuesday, marking the first time the seat has gone to a Republican since Richard Nixon was president.

Republican Samuel Belsito defeated Democrat Anthony J. Horn by a 58.5%-41.5% margin, largely because his stances in support of citizens’ Second Amendment rights and fiscal restraint were more convincing. Based on a review of Newsday’s Associated Press Connecticut feed carrying stories from throughout the Nutmeg State (most June 11 and June 12 stories as of the time of this post are here and here), it appears that the AP did not run any stories on the result, and almost certainly made no attempt to discern its meaning.

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From Missouri City, Texas (HT Daryn Kagan):

updated 9:36 AM EDT, Fri May 24, 2013

Three-month-old Elayna Nigrelli has redefined what it means to be a miracle baby. She was born while her mother was technically dead.

In February, Erica Nigrelli was teaching at a high school in Missouri City, Texas, when she walked into a co-worker’s classroom.

Nigrelli said she felt faint, placed her hands on a table to steady herself and then passed out.

Three teachers immediately grabbed a defibrillator and also began performing CPR. Kids in the classroom ran out, yelling for help.

Nigrelli’s husband, Nathan, also a teacher, was just two doors down. He rushed into the room.

“Erica was lying on the floor, she was foaming and making gurgling sounds and just staring up,” he told CNN affiliate KPRC.

He called 911.

“My wife is pregnant,” he said, his breath heavy with panic. “She’s having a seizure! The baby’s due in three weeks!”

“Oh my God!” the 911 operator exclaimed.

By the time paramedics rushed the 32-year-old to the hospital, doctors could not find a pulse. Her heart had stopped.

Doctors delivered the baby by emergency cesarean section.

Technically, it was a postmortem delivery because Erica’s heart was not beating.

But then something remarkable happened. The doctors turned to Erica, and soon her heart started beating again.

Over the next five days, she remained in a medically induced coma, she told CNN, and doctors diagnosed her with a heart defect she didn’t know she had — hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The condition causes the heart muscle to thicken. The thickening can make it more difficult for blood to leave the heart, forcing it to work harder to pump blood.

Baby Elayna was in the intensive care unit for two weeks.

On Friday, the couple appeared with her on CNN’s “Early Start,” with Elayna on Mom’s lap, sucking on a purple pacifier. She weighs 8 pounds and is healthy.

“We feel great,” Nathan Nigrelli said. “We have a wonderful baby. My wife is back to 100%.

The baby hasn’t shown any signs of trouble but is still on oxygen. The child will undergo therapy soon, but by all accounts her recovery looks to be on track and she’ll be fine.

Erica Nigrelli believes that God was protecting her. She told CNN that she has a memory of being in the ambulance. “I remember being bounced up,” she said. And she remembers seeing sunlight.

When she came to in the hospital, she remembers the doctors telling her, “You have your baby. She is in the hospital.”

She saw Elayna three weeks after she was born.

The two joked that if Elayna ever gets out of line, all her parents have to do is remind their daughter what they went through to bring her into the world. …

Go here for the rest of the story.