Via WESH this morning, check out the story of a fatal shooting involving an FBI agent and a man who knew Boston marathon jihad bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

An FBI agent was involved in a deadly shooting overnight that could have ties to the Boston Marathon bombings.

Officials said the special agent was conducting official duties when they encountered a suspect. The suspect, who was not immediately identified by officials, died.

A friend of the suspect said his friend, 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because both were MMA fighters.

The man claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday.

Here’s video of Todashev on YouTube:

Here’s his official MMA profile.

This news report says Todashev was from Chechnya and had been planning to fly back:

Khusen Taramov says the day that federal agents identified the Tsarnaev brothers as the Boston bombing suspects, FBI agents came to the apartment complex and started questioning a few people of Chechnyan descent. “One day they started questioning us, next day after the bombing, not the bombing , after they found out the bombers were Chechnyans, and they started following us, watching us, they pretty much told the guy from his apartment and they start following us, watching us like everyday,” said Taramov.

Taramov says Todashev met Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Boston and the two had hung out a few times.
Taramov says Todashev met with FBI agents last night and it was supposed to be their last meeting because he was planning to fly back to Chechnya last night. He says the plane ticket was purchased before the Boston bombings but federal agents strongly advised him not to go home.

“He cancelled the tickets because, the FBI had been like, I don’t know, they’ve been pushing him, you know what I’m saying. They’ve been pushing him they say don’t leave; don’t leave so he decided to stay. But we had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen. You know what I mean,” said Taramov.

The FBI has not identified the man killed but says the agent was working on a case inside the apartment complex when the shooting happened. “We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. The incident occurred in Orlando Florida. The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time. We expect to have more information later this morning,” said FBI spokesperson Special Agent Dave Couvertier.

Keep an eye on this one.

The Obama crony in charge of your medical records
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2013

Who is Judy Faulkner? Chances are, you don’t know her — but her politically connected, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company may very well know you. Top Obama donor and billionaire Faulkner is founder and CEO of Epic Systems, which will soon store almost half of all Americans’ health information.

If the crony odor and the potential for abuse that this “epic” arrangement poses don’t chill your bones, you ain’t paying attention.

As I first noted last year before the IRS witch hunts and DOJ journalist snooping scandals broke out, Obama’s federal electronic medical records (EMR) mandate is government malpractice at work. The stimulus law provided a whopping $19 billion in “incentives” (read: subsidies) to force hospitals and medical professionals into converting from paper to electronic record-keeping systems. Penalties kick in next year for any provider who fails to comply with the one-size-fits-all edict.

Obamacare bureaucrats claimed the government’s EMR mandate would save money and modernize health care. As of December 2012, $4 billion had already gone out to 82,535 professionals and 1,474 hospitals; a total of $6 billion will be doled out by 2016. What have taxpayers and health care consumers received in return from this boondoggle? After hyping the alleged benefits for nearly a decade, the RAND Corporation finally admitted in January that its cost-savings predictions of $81 billion a year — used repeatedly to support the Obama EMR mandate — were, um, grossly overstated.

Among many factors, the researchers blamed “lack of interoperability” of records systems for the failure to bring down costs. And that is a funny thing, because it brings us right back to Faulkner and her well-connected company. You see, Epic Systems — the dominant EMR giant in America — is notorious for its lack of interoperability. Faulkner’s closed-end system represents antiquated, hard drive-dependent software firms that refuse to share data with doctors and hospitals using alternative platforms. Health IT analyst John Moore of Chilmark Research, echoing many industry observers, wrote in April that Epic “will ultimately hinder health care organizations’ ability to rapidly innovate.”

Question: If these subsidized data-sharing systems aren’t built to share data to improve health outcomes, why exactly are we subsidizing them? And what exactly are companies like Faulkner’s doing with this enhanced power to consolidate and control Americans’ private health information? It’s a recipe for exactly the kind of abuse that’s at the heart of the IRS and DOJ scandals.

As I reported previously, a little-noticed HHS Inspector General’s report issued last fall exposed how no one is actually verifying whether the transition from paper to electronic is improving patient outcomes and health services. No one is actually guarding against GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). No one is checking whether recipients of the EMR incentives are receiving money redundantly (e.g., raking in payments when they’ve already converted to electronic records). And no one is actually protecting private data from fraud, theft or exploitation.

But while health IT experts and concerned citizens balk, money talks. Epic employees donated nearly $1 million to political parties and candidates between 1995 and 2012 — 82 percent of it to Democrats. The company’s top 10 PAC recipients are all Democratic or left-wing outfits, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (nearly $230,000) to the DNC Services Corporation (nearly $175,000) and the America’s Families First Action Fund Democratic super-PAC ($150,000). The New York Times reported in February that Epic and other large firms spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for the Obama EMR “giveaway.”

Brandon Glenn of Medical Economics observes “it’s not a coincidence” that Epic’s sales “have been skyrocketing in recent years, up to $1.2 billion in 2011, double what they were four years prior.”

It’s also no coincidence, as a famous Democratic presidential candidate once railed, that the deepest-pocketed donors “are often granted the greatest access, and access is power in Washington.” That same candidate, Barack Obama, named billionaire Democratic donor Faulkner as the only industry representative on the federal panel overseeing the $19 billion EMR “incentives” program from which her company benefits grandly.

The foxes are guarding the Obamacare henhouse. The IRS vultures are circling overhead. The shadow of tyranny and the stench of corruption are unmistakable. If you see something, say something. BOLO is our watchword.

Early reports had the Justice Department spying on Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was suspected of committing the crime of… investigative journalism. Later reports had the DOJ spying on Rosen and another reporter, as well as a Fox News producer. Then we found out those being surveilled were Rosen, another reporter, a Fox News producer and a couple of White House staffers (update: those phone lines were reportedly at the Fox News desk at the White House). Now apparently we can add Rosen’s parents to the list. Never let it be said that this administration doesn’t go all out to keep the family unit intact.

Video from Mediaite:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

They will not be silenced. And they will not stand down.

Here’s a photo collection from across the country:

#IRSProtest attendees in Town & Country MO wearing targets on their backs ==> twitter.com/Hauckers/statu…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

RT @cindylamar IRS protest in Evansville, IN twitter.com/CindyLaMar/sta…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

#IRSProtest sign in Nashville: “I’m from the IRS and I’m here to enforce Obamacare. Isn’t that special?” twitter.com/WSMVCarley/sta…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

#IRSProtest MT @bundgaard2 Protest outside Nashville Fed Ct House vs IRS for targeting Tea Party groups twitter.com/bundgaard2/sta…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

Crowd swells & horns honk at IRS protest at Nashville’s Fed Ct. House. Crowd incl Rep. Joe Carr, Sen Mike Bell @wkrn twitter.com/bundgaard2/sta…

— Chris Bundgaard (@bundgaard2) May 21, 2013

Over 500 here now.more coming #IRSprotest #IRSProtestCincy twitter.com/annbecker1999/…

— Ann Becker (@annbecker1999) May 21, 2013

The corner of 10th & PA Ave is packed with #IRS protestors: twitter.com/matthewhurtt/s…

— Matthew Hurtt (@matthewhurtt) May 21, 2013

Mobile Al IRS rally twitter.com/ZanP/status/33…

— Zan (@ZanP) May 21, 2013

More from Twitchy Team here.

CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson has been doing a lot of digging. It would appear that somebody might be curious about her sources — either that or they were trying to steal her Angry Birds password:

“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public.”
[...]
Attkisson told WPHT that irregular activity on her computer was first identified in Feb. 2011, when she was reporting on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal and on the Obama administration’s green energy spending, which she said “the administration was very sensitive about.” Attkisson has also been a persistent investigator of the events surrounding last year’s attack in Benghazi, and its aftermath.

Though there’s still no final determination on who compromised Attkisson’s computers or in what way, it comes hot on the heels of news that the Justice Department spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen, as well as two of Rosen’s colleagues.

As much as the DOJ has been in the news for seizing electronic records of reporters, I won’t assume they had any direct hand in this. The brother of Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor is the president of CBS News. If the Obama administration wanted something from Attkisson, maybe they could have just asked the network to get it for them.

Just to be safe though, investigative journalists might want to switch to using only pencils, notepads and Selectric typewriters until the dust settles.

Audio of Attkisson discussing this on the Chris Stigall show:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Total Coincidence of the Week™ by way of Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator:

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.

The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

More here.

Daniel Greenfield:

Moving something like this through the unions would allow for the kind of vertical avoidance of legitimate authority that Obama Inc. has thrived on. Federal officials can be subpoenaed and with enough pressure, usually spill the beans. However union leaders are part of a different political infrastructure and usually have to be dragged into court in order to talk. They are less invested in government than in their own union.

And the paper trail is much less.

So, did that meeting trigger the singling out of conservative non-profit applicants? As Ace pointed out, according to the report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, the wheels for additional conservative scrutiny seem to have been put into motion in February of that year — maybe even before that. Perhaps it was just a progress report on the targeting, free from any formal chain of command concerns. Or maybe the only business discussed was Kelley instructing Obama how he could write off his golf clubs as dependents (after all, times are tough at 1600 Penn).

White House staff would probably insist there’s no way Obama could have talked to Kelley about targeting conservative applicants because the White House staff hadn’t told him about it yet… or something.

Update: Jay Carney was asked about this as he walked out of a press briefing, and, unsurprisingly, he just kept on walking.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

If you’re going to an IRS protest at noon today, send or tweet me your photos. If you’ve got a lawn sign, share your pics here and on Twitter. Be sure to cc @BarackObama and the @WhiteHouse.

Stand up and send a message:

#WeWillNotStandDown

The death and injury toll from yesterday’s horrific tornado that ripped through Oklahoma continues to rise. Here’s the latest from KFOR:

Officials have confirmed at least 91 people have been killed in the Moore tornado Monday.

The medical examiner’s office confirmed at least 233 people have been injured.

That number is expected to rise as recovery efforts continue Tuesday morning and daylight arrives.

The tornado claimed an unconfirmed number of children at Moore’s Plaza Towers Elementary.

Also among those killed, a family of four with a baby near 4th St. and Telephone Rd. in Moore.

Officials said the family tried to take shelter in a freezer.

Twitchy has more coverage here. And of course it’s never too soon for this reaction.

The above story, and others, put the current death toll at 91, but I’ve revised the title for this reason until more is known:

The Oklahoma City Medical Examiner says the death toll could be revised down because the previous figure of 51 dead may have included double-counted deaths, according to Reuters.

The AP just reported that a medical examiner has revised the death toll down to “at least 24.”

Video of the devastation from CNN:

How to help (h/t Ed Morrissey):

If you’re looking for ways to help residents in Oklahoma, the following relief organizations are working in the area:

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross has several shelters open in Oklahoma and Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles have begun delivering hot meals throughout the affected areas. The Red Cross is also working to link loved ones in Moore who are OK through a website called Safe and Well. Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is activating disaster response teams and mobile feeding units to help residents and rescuers in Moore, Okla., as well as in other locations in the Plains and the Midwest that were impacted by tornadoes. Donate online or text STORM to 80888 to contribute $10 to the Salvation Army’s relief efforts or make a donation by phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY. If you’re sending a check make sure you put the words “Oklahoma Tornado Relief” on the check, and mail it to: The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 12600, Oklahoma City, OK., 73157.

Operation USA

Los Angeles-based international relief agency Operation USA announced it’s providing emergency aid where needed to community-based health organizations across Oklahoma. Donate online, by phone at 1-800-678-7255, or by check made out to Operation USA, 7421 Beverly Blvd., PH, Los Angeles, CA 90036. You can also donate $10 by texting AID to 50555. Corporate donations of bulk quantities of disaster-appropriate supplies are also being requested.

Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief

Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief says it has deployed at least 80 volunteers to respond to severe weather in Oklahoma. Those interested in helping can make a tax-deductible donation to the BGCO’s Disaster Relief ministry online or call (405) 942-3800. You may also send checks to: BGCO Attn: Disaster Relief 3800 N. May Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73112.

Some good news amid the bad:

On @cbsthismorning, Okla Lt Gov says Search & Rescue teams found 101 survivors overnight.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 21, 2013

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Approved leaks only, please!

From Big Government:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General published a new report (PDF) Monday that confirms former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked a document intended to smear Operation Fast and Furious scandal whistleblower John Dodson.

The DOJ IG said it found “Burke’s conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney.”
[...]
In addition to Burke’s involvement in leaking the document, emails the IG uncovered show senior officials at the Department of Justice discussed smearing Dodson.

One of those was Tracy Schmaler, the Director of the Department’s Office of Public Affairs, who resigned her position at the DOJ after emails uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed that she worked with leftwing advocacy group Media Matters for America to smear whistleblowers and members of Congress and the media who sought to investigate DOJ scandals under Attorney General Eric Holder.

So far I’ve read nothing about the administration going after any reporters who ran with this particular leak.

President Obama’s going to be angry when he learns about this on the news tonight.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

This is “what difference does it make” v2.0:

WALLACE: With due respect, you didn’t answer my question. What did the president do that night?

PFEIFFER: He was kept — he was in constant touch that night with his national security team and kept up-to-date as events were happening.

WALLACE: You say the national security team, but he didn’t talk to the Secretary of State, except for the one time when the first attack was over. He didn’t’ talk to the Secretary of Defense. He didn’t talk to the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs. Who was he talking to?

PFEIFFER: He was talking to his national security staff, his National Security Council, the people who keep him up-to-date about these things as they happen.

WALLACE: Was he in the Situation Room?

PFEIFFER: He was kept up-to-date throughout the day.

WALLACE: Do you not know if he was in the Situation Room?

PFEIFFER: I don’t know. I don’t remember what room the president was in on that night. That’s a largely irrelevant fact.

Maybe Obama was in the living room learning what happened on the news just like the rest of America. That seems to be the pattern.

Pfeiffer said questions about where Obama was and what he was doing during and after the attack are offensive. The White House didn’t seem to think Obama’s exact location was irrelevant during the Bin Laden raid.

Team Obama will dodge the “where was Obama in the hours and days after the Benghazi attack” question forever. The day after the attack he was in Las Vegas raising money. The day after that Obama was in Colorado raising money and looking forward to another opportunity to… you guessed it — raise money:

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are hosting the President in New York—your chance for two spots on the guest list ends at midnight: OFA.BO/X4goCa

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 14, 2012

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

And par for the course, of course:

- A brief history of slimy Dem snoops and dumpster divers.

- Barack “The Silencer” Obama’s Gangland Assault on Free Speech.

- Obama’s war on watchdogs and whistleblowers.

- Obama’s campaign bully brigade rides again.

- Bully boys: A brief history of White House thuggery.

Update (DP): Fox News now says three staffers — two reporters and a producer — were targeted by Obama’s Justice Department.

Weasel Zippers: “You know it’s bad when the left is defending Fox News.”

Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft has details:

PROTEST THE CORRUPTION – PROTEST THE CRIMINAL OBAMA IRS

Thanks to Barack Obama the Tea Party is once again outraged and motivated.

The Tea Party Patriots on behalf of Tea Party, Patriot groups, 9/12, liberty activists, and the American people, we are calling for anyone and everyone to protest the IRS’ complete abuse of power on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at noon local time.

More info from Tea Party Patriots here.

Try here if first link doesn’t work.

Before we begin, just to set the mood, click “play” to start the theme song of the IRS’s relationship with liberal organizations:

Conservative groups have reported waiting for the IRS to review or approve their non-profit status applications for many months and even years (as well as receiving ridiculous demands from the IRS).

Other groups didn’t have to wait nearly as long. I wonder why:

When the Barack H. Obama Foundation sought tax-exempt status to raise money for good works in Kenya, the Internal Revenue Service provided quick help.

The IRS approved charitable status for the foundation, which was run by President Obama’s brother and named after his father, in about a month’s time. The IRS also agreed to give the group this important financial status retroactively, back to 2009, when it had begun its fundraising.

Lois Lerner gave this application a fast green-light in June of 2011. The IRS was even nice enough to make the non-profit status retroactive so as to not make liars and lawbreakers out of the Foundation:

In 2009, the Barack H. Obama Foundation was accused by the National Legal and Policy Center of being a scofflaw. The group had been promoting itself as a charity and seeking donations that it said would be tax-deductible, but it lacked the required tax-exempt status.

With that, here’s the graphic of the day:

More: IRS Deliberately Chose Not to Fess Up to Scandal Before Election

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The first of today’s Dueling Headlines comes to us by way of The Hill and is about the advice Michelle Obama gave to graduates at Bowie State University yesterday:

Dueling with that is this headline from the Daily Caller:

And while we’re at it we might as well throw a few more headlines from the past weeks and months into the mix to prove that when FLOTUS warns against jumping on the celebrity worship bandwagon, the First Couple leads by example:

Dueling Headlines archive here.

Update: A response via Twitter:

@thepowersthatbe you’re missing that the celebrities are worshiping The One, not the other way around.

— Paul Stagg (@Paul_Stagg) May 18, 2013

I think worship is mutual in many cases.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Too soon? Never!

A congressman asked, “What do you need to make it so that this wouldn’t have happened?”

“So there are two things, sir,” said Miller. “And I appreciate the kind words for our people because we are incredibly hard working and honest group, frankly, and that seems to be forgotten in all of this. With respect to political activity, it would be a wonderful thing to get better rules, to get more clear rules. And in terms of our ability to get to this work it would be good to have a little budget that would allow us to get more than the number of people we have to do 70,000 applications and to do our job and looking at whether an organization is tax exempt or not.”

Because everybody knows that the best way to stop corruption is to just throw more money at it.

What would a larger budget have accomplished? From the sound of Miller’s answer it would have allowed them to harass political undesirables at a quicker, more efficient pace.

As for the “rules,” if those still aren’t clear, so much for the expensive Star Trek training video.

At the hearing, Republican Rep. Mike Kelly gave Miller such a grilling that it should have been sponsored by Kingsford Charcoal, Johnsonville Brats and Hibachi (h/t Twitchy):

My reaction.

After the hearing, rumor has it that Miller was spotted in the lobby raising money for the IRS by selling his Mike Brady signature collection perm rods:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe