IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups during 2012 election.

I’m really curious to hear more about this. When I first saw this, I wondered whether it was maybe a politic but unmerited apology in response to mau-mauing from conservative groups. But the article says that “low-level workers” in the Cincinnati office of the IRS were flagging organizations with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their names for additional review. If it’s as simple as that, that’s pretty bad.

It’s not the first time we see it. But rightwing paranoia and the business model of the right-wing noise machine really is the de facto ally and saving grace for all Democratic administrations. I’m not sure he gets the full extent of it. But Joe Scarborough is on the right track when he says that “if a lot of people on the far right hadn’t overplayed their hand on Benghazi and were screaming before they knew what they were screaming about, I think we would all be much harder on the administration right now.” Watch.

Minnesota Republican lawmaker breaks down in tears as state House passes gay marriage law.

In desperate effort to change the subject, Cleveland authorities arrange an ‘accident’ in which a semi truck carrying hotdogs overturns on the highway spreading hotdogs far and wide.

Video after the jump … Read More

On the spectrum of Korea-related crises, this doesn’t rank very high. But the spokesperson for South Korea President Park Geun-hye, who just finished up her official visit to the United States, has been fired for a “disgraceful incident,” but details are sketchy on what exactly happened. The Washington Post and others are reporting that police are investigating a groping incident at the W Hotel in Washington. South Korea news outlets report that the victim was an intern working for the South Korean embassy in Washington and the incident occurred Tuesday evening while embassy staff were drinking at the hotel bar.

In a new twist in the dingbat word game at the heart of the Benghazi scandal, that email that Speaker Boehner demanded in a grandstanding stunt yesterday doesn’t actually use the phrase ‘Islamic terrorists’ as he claimed.

TPM has independently confirmed that Malcolm X’s grandson, Malcolm Shabazz, was killed yesterday in a robbery in Mexico City.

I’m curious to hear what you think about the New York City Council proposal to let non-citizens vote in municipal elections. To me, it’s definitely a bad idea. That’s not, I hope it’s clear, because I’m anti-immigrant. I’m very pro-reform and pro-legalization. But citizenship itself is a critical thing to me — and I suspect that opinion is shared by many residents and currently undocumented immigrants who are clamoring to get a chance to join the club. Read More

Quite the lede … “When Kathleen Dorsett heard her ex-husband scream in agony in the backyard of her home in 2010, she finished changing their daughter’s diaper knowing that her father was carrying out their plan to kill the man by hitting him in the head with a heavy cable.”

More here.

Heritage Foundation immigration expert contributed to white “nationalist” website.