Shortly after the news broke that the Department of Justice had been secretly monitoring the phones and email accounts of Associated Press and Fox News reporters (and the parents of Fox News Correspondent James Rosen), CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson said her computer seemed like it had been compromised. Turns out, it was:

"A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.

  This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.

  CBS News is taking steps to identify the responsible party and their method of access.”

Attkisson has lead the way in exposing and covering Operation Fast and Furious, Solyndra and Benghazi.

Again I asked the question: How many reporters and outlets was the Department of Justice secretly monitoring? I guarantee it doesn't stop with the Associated Press and Fox News.

UPDATE: Attkisson says she believes this was an effort to intimidate her.

She said in an interview Friday that she was “outraged” by the breach, which did not appear to be aimed at extracting personal financial information.

“This wasn’t any ordinary malware of a phishing attempt,” that is, an effort to gain personal information, she said. “I assume someone wanted to see what I was working on.”

“The privacy and security of every American citizen in his own home, not to mention the work of a journalist, is sacrosanct. The idea that an unknown party could come into your home electronically is upsetting and disturbing. .?.?. People should be disturbed that a reporter would be spied on and intimidated this way. I do feel that this was an attempt to make me feel intimidated.”

Late last year, New York City Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg launched a super PAC to counter the National Rifle Association when it comes to elections. Since new gun control measures failed in the Senate in April, Bloomberg has been out for blood running ads against Democrats who didn't vote for those measures. But it turns out, Bloomberg's efforts to unseat anti-gun control Democrats are backfiring.

Of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs in 2014, the 10 most contested battles come in mostly rural, conservative-leaning states such as Montana, West Virginia, Alaska and Arkansas, and nine of them are held by Democrats. Every Republican up for reelection in 2014, including the top GOP leaders, Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and John Cornyn (Tex.), have demonstrated that their biggest political fear is a primary challenge from the right, making them much more receptive to supporting the NRA’s position.

With parents of the young Newtown victims providing emotional reminders of the shooting for lawmakers Wednesday, one of their most high-profile political allies, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), adopted sharper tactics, urging thousands of his city’s top political donors to withhold donations from four Senate Democrats who voted against the gun bill.

In a letter to more than 1,000 donors, Bloomberg called out the four Democrats — Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.). “Instead of rising above politics to pass a law that would save lives,” he wrote, the four senators “sided with a gun lobby increasingly out of touch with Americans’ priorities.”

“The next time these four Senators want you to support them with donations to their campaigns, tell them you cannot,” Bloomberg wrote.

By asking campaign donors to withhold funds, the deep-pocketed mayor went against the will of his congressional Democratic allies, who tried but failed to secure enough GOP support for the gun bill and have warned that public criticism of vulnerable Democrats who voted against the bill will result in Republican gains and less of a chance to enact new gun laws.

Since the bill’s defeat in April, Bloomberg’s anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting senators of both parties for voting against the measure. A group founded by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) — who was severely wounded in a January 2011 shooting — also has raised millions of dollars as it airs radio and television ads.

And the punch to the gut comes from fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer.

Speaking to Time magazine, Schumer suggests Bloomberg’s targeting of pro-gun Democrats for their votes against gun-control legislation is unproductive.

“Frankly, I don’t think Bloomberg’s ads are effective,” Schumer said. “The Mayor of New York City putting ads against people in red states is not going to be effective.”

There's a reason Obama didn't run on gun control in 2008 or 2012. It's a losing issue especially for Democrats in red states, something Bloomberg is learning the hard way.

Self-proclaimed "practicing Catholic" and pro-abortion Nancy Pelosi got testy today during an exchange with a reporter about late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell. The House is currently considering the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, legislation that would ban abortions after 20-weeks of pregnancy.


Pelosi falsely claimed two things in her response.

1) Legislation being considered in the House bans abortion past 20 weeks. Pelosi said the legislation would ban all abortions.

2) Pelosi said Gosnell is an isolated case, which isn't true. LiveAction and LifeNews have extensively reported and documented cases of abortionists all over the country who consistently operate in similar ways as Gosnell did.

President of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List Marjorie Dannenfelser released the following statement in response to Pelosi's comments.
 

“As a mother and practicing Catholic, I have a modest proposal for Mrs. Pelosi: that she consider the Church's teaching which says each life is sacred and reject the idea that each abortion is."

Senior Policy Advisor for The Catholic Association Maureen Ferguson has also released a statement in response.

“After witnessing firsthand the atrocious human rights abuses taking place inside America's late-term abortion clinics it is amazing that this did not touch Nancy Pelosi's heart. What we learned from the Gosnell trial and what we understand is going on inside other clinics is not only human rights abuse but it also puts women in harm’s way. The only difference between the Gosnell ‘after-birth’ abortions and legal late-term abortions is the location of the baby at the time of death. And contrary to Pelosi's extreme claim that the Franks bill is ‘disrespectful’ to women, the majority of women are opposed to late-term abortions according to a recent Gallup poll."

The United States Senate has just killed an amendment submitted by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley to secure the southwest border with Mexico before any kind of amnesty or legalization for illegal immigrants is granted. All four Republican members of the Gang of 8, John McCain, Jeff Flake, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham voted with Harry Reid to table the amendment. Reid only received five total votes from Republicans. They came from those in the Gang of 8 and Lisa Murkowski.

Although details are sparse, Drudge is reporting Sarah Palin will be rejoining Fox News as a contributor. An official announcement is expected this afternoon. 

UPDATE: It's official.

“I’ve had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining FOX News as a contributor. I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. I hope she continues to speak her mind,”  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox News Roger Ailes said.

Governor Palin stated, "The power of FOX News is unparalleled. The role of FOX News in the important debates in our world is indispensable. I am pleased and proud to be rejoining Roger Ailes and the great people at FOX."

Welcome back, Governor! I'm with Mr. Ailes, I hope Palin continues to speak her mind.

LiveAction is out with another video exposing the horrific late term abortion industry. The latest expose shows abortionist Carmen Landau from the Southwest Women’s Options clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico comparing the lethal injection used to kill a baby inside the womb to a flu shot. Abortionist LeRoy Carhart, the subject of a previous Live Action investigation, is shown comparing dead babies inside the womb to being "meat in a Crock-Pot."

Well, in my heart and my mind, you know, life begins when the mother thinks it begins, not when anybody else thinks it begins. For some women, it’s before they conceive; for some women, it’s never. Even after they deliver, it’s still a problem, not a baby.

LiveAction President Lila Rose issued the following statement in response to the investigation's findings.

“These babies,” said Rose, “whom Carmen Landau calls ‘not a thinking being,’ are unique and precious human persons. They feel, they dream, they grow…and when an abortionist tries to kill them with a needle or with forceps, they react. They fight for their lives, just as any of us would.

“Our investigation has exposed the disturbing willingness of abortionists to engage in illegal and inhuman acts,” Rose said, “including misleading pregnant women, pushing them into abortion, and even infanticide. This is horrible, but Americans should know just as well the horrifying practices that are still legal, that we allow to happen every day.”

“What our video investigation is uncovering,” Rose said, “along with what we have learned from the trial of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell and from the whistle-blowers from Douglas Karpen’s facility, is that this is abuse. Abortion doctors, counselors, and other staff describe ‘stop[ping] the fetal heart,’ a needle being inserted through the baby’s head, an ‘intrauterine demise.’  They describe babies becoming ‘mushy,’ and how they ‘literally go in and grab and pull pieces out.’ They refer to these babies as human beings, and carry out these inhuman practices on them anyway.”

“Every human being is unique and precious from the moment of conception. But abortionists will not give even these babies – 24 weeks, 27 weeks, viable, capable of surviving outside the womb – the dignity of humanity. So we want to put the question in every American’s head: if not even these babies are worthy of humanity in the abortionist’s eyes, then what is human? What does ‘human’ even mean?”

Thursday during debate on the Senate floor about an amendment offered by Republican Senator John Thune requiring 350 miles of double-layer fencing along the southern border, Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu called the fence "dumb" and claimed South Dakota is a border state. Thune's amendment backs up the 2006 Secure Fence Act (which Landrieu voted for) requiring 700 miles of double layer fence along the southwest border with Mexico, of which only 36 miles have been completed. 

I’m going to speak about this amendment for just a minute, but I’ld like to respond to Senator Thune, and I wish that we could get a vote on his amendment as well as this one because I would like to strongly vote and strongly express objection to this amendment. And I’d like to comments for a minute. I chair the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee that is actually building the fence. The money to build it comes though my Committee, so I’ve actually gone down to look at the fence that we’re trying to build. It was shocking to me and would be shocking to everyone in America if they would see it. That no matter if you build a single fence or a double fence with space in between, how easy it is for people to be very ingenious about getting over it or under it. So I would be voting against Senator Thune’s amendment because I’m, not going to waste taxpayer money on a dumb fence and that ‘s what his amendment would be. We need to build a smart fence. And a fence is not just a physical structure which could be built out of a variety of different materials with or without barbed wire on the top. A smart fence which is what Senator McCain and I want to build – since he’s from Arizona, I think he knows more about this than the Senator from South Dakota, who only has a border with Canada that is quite different.

Yesterday, Sens. Dean Heller and Harry Reid pushed an amendment classifying Nevada as a border state.

Last weekend, top Democrat and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Elijah Cummings, said the IRS scandal was "solved" and that we need to move along. Cummings cited an anonymous "conservative Republican" working in the IRS who supposedly came forward to say the White House wasn't involved in the targeting of conservative tea party groups.

Cummings then detailed an unreleased interview last week with an anonymous IRS manager who labeled himself a “conservative Republican.” The manager essentially said it was he who started the targeting of the groups and — contrary to GOP allegations — said that the White House wasn’t involved and that it wasn’t politically motivated.

“I think this interview and these statements go a long way … showing that the White House was not involved in this,” Cummings said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding: “Based upon everything I’ve seen the case is solved. And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on, to be frank with you.”

Now, Cummings is "clarifying" his remarks and has admitted that the issue in fact isn't solved while accusing Republicans who want answers of a "witch hunt."

Rep. Elijah Cummings is backing away from his assertion that the investigation into the IRS scandal is “solved” and says he still wants to work with Republicans on the probe.

In a brief interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, Cummings said that he was trying to argue that — contrary to some GOP comments — the investigation has proven the Obama administration didn’t order the IRS to target conservative groups applying for a tax exemption.

“The witch hunt needs to end,” said Cummings, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “What I meant was the witch hunt.”

Cummings said the investigation isn’t over and he’s open to interviewing additional Cincinnati-based IRS employees and holding more hearings on the scandal.

As a reminder, Democrats in the House have repeatedly accused Republicans of a so-called witch hunt for demanding answers on previous scandals like Operation Fast and Furious and Benghazi in order to protect the White House. 

The investigation into how and why the IRS targeted Americans for their political beliefs is far from over. Reps. Jim Jordan and Mike Turner explained where the investigation stands earlier this week on Hannity.

Things for the State Department just keep getting worse. First we learned from CBS News that Department official covered up and interfered with inspector general investigations of sexual misconduct, including the soliciation of prostitutes by an ambassador. Then we learned those sexual solicitations involved minors. Now, we're learning State Department officials covered up the shooting of four Hondurans. More from the New York Post:

A top State Department official stymied investigators trying to get to the bottom of four killings in Honduras involving DEA agents and local police — yet another revelation from internal memos leaked by a whistleblower claiming a pattern of coverups.

The incident ended in the deaths of two pregnant women and two men last year, after Honduran national police opened fire from a State Department-owned helicopter on a small boat.

Honduran police said drugs were involved, but locals said the boat was full of fishermen. The killings were referenced in a whistleblower memo obtained by The Post.

Two Drug Enforcement Administration agents were involved, an agency spokeswoman said, and they were accompanied by Honduran national police on two State helicopters with contractors as pilots.

According to an internal 2012 document, the DEA agents were under the authority of the State Department chief of mission in Honduras, funded by a counternarcotics program, and were “subject to investigation” by State investigators.

But when those inquiries began, “despite requests by the US ambassador to Honduras and congressional pressure, DEA reportedly [was] not cooperating.”

With everything happening in Washington right now, it's easy to let things like this slip through the cracks. It's more than clear the State Department is operating in a culture without accountability. But, what difference does it make?

Texas Senator John Cornyn has just introduced an amendment to the Gang of 8 bill that is supposed to add more border security to the legislation. But according to ICE Council President Chris Crane, the amendment does nothing to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents to enforce the law.

Crane sent a letter to Senators Cornyn and Rubio Wednesday to express concerns. From the letter:

It has come to my attention that you are both working on possible amendments to the Senate immigration bill in an attempt to address growing concerns about the bill’s problematic security and enforcement provisions. I am concerned that the public commentary to date regarding your amendments has not included any mention of repairing ICE’s dismantled enforcement authorities and practices.

No reforms to S. 744 will be successful unless interior enforcement concerns are addressed and resolved. Any plan is doomed to fail that does not empower ICE agents to enforce the laws enacted by Congress—and that does not put an end to the unlawful abuse of prosecutorial discretion by political appointees.

While there has been much discussion over how S. 744 fails to establish enforcement first and fails to secure the border, less discussed is how it undermines interior enforcement and thus guarantees continuing illegal immigration and visa overstays. Even the complete implementation of a biometric entry/exit system would still result in millions of future visa overstays as ICE lacks not only the resources to enforce immigration laws, but its officers are increasingly prohibited by the Administration from arresting and removing immigration violators—including convicted criminals and aliens incarcerated in jails.

Yet, instead of cracking down on the Administration’s abuse of power, S. 744 places unprecedented new restrictions on interior enforcement—making the current situation much worse and much more hazardous. It is as if S. 744 were explicitly written to handcuff law enforcement officials—binding their hands while giving virtually unchecked authority to executive branch officials to prevent future removals, including removals of criminal aliens.

Clearly, we will not solve our nation’s immigration problems, or fix this bill without empowering ICE agents and restoring and improving ICE’s deteriorated enforcement capacity. Approximately 40 percent of all illegal immigrants currently in the United States never crossed the border illegally, but instead entered legally and overstayed their visas. Many dangerous aliens also enter illegally but are never removed because of dismantled ICE enforcement powers. In short, the border is only half the problem.

S. 744 not only fails to contain needed interior enforcement provisions, but weakens interior enforcement. This is because powerful special interests involved in crafting the bill’s language are opposed to interior enforcement—a fact ICE officers are all too familiar with. The political agendas of these groups place the public safety and security of our nation at risk. As respected political leaders, I am asking you both to work with me and others in Congress and law enforcement in ensuring that this bill puts the safety of America before powerful special interests. Law enforcement officers are asking for your help.

Crane has expressed frustration in the past with the Gang of 8 and the White House shutting ICE agents out of illegal immigration reform talks. Crane has testified multiple times about the importance of reform including the ability for ICE agents to properly enforce the law, authority they do not have at this point and authority that is not included in the Gang of 8 legislation. 

RELATED: ICE Council President: Administration and Congress Doing Nothing to Address Cartels, Criminal Aliens in Immigration Debate