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1,) The world’s least surprising news –Apparently the U.S. government is going to prosecute Edward Snowden.
“FBI Director Robert Mueller told members of the House Judiciary Committee Thursday that the U.S. government is taking all ‘necessary steps’ to prosecute NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. ‘As to the individual who has admitted making these disclosures, he is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation,’ Mueller told the committee. The National Security Agency, while having conducted their own investigation into Snowden, filed a formal request with the Justice Department on June 8 to begin a criminal investigation into Snowden.”
In other news, President Obama is president and it is hot in the summer.
2.) No phone call — The FBI investigation of tea party targeting doesn’t seem to be moving apace. TheDC’s Vince Coglianese:
“There is no evidence that the FBI has contacted a single tea party group in its criminal investigation of the Internal Revenue Service, according to the groups the IRS abused. ‘We have not been contacted by any federal investigative agency and, to date, none of our clients have been contacted or interviewed by the FBI,’ Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice told The Daily Caller on Thursday. The ACLJ has filed suit against the IRS on behalf of 25 conservative groups, with additional groups being added in the next couple weeks, according to a spokesman ‘I have been very surprised that I have not heard from anybody and frankly, none of my clients have. I talk to other tea party leaders on a regular basis,’ said Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer largely credited with pushing the IRS abuses to the forefront.”
3.) Team opposition — When it comes the Senate immigration bill, there’s really no left or right. There are just haters, lovers and inbetweeners. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:
“Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions has a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 94.63 out 100. Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders has a lifetime rating of 6.58 from that same organization. But both agree the immigration reform proposal before the Senate caters specifically to corporate interests by driving down wages. On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sanders explained his theory by first laying out all the economic woes plaguing the U.S. labor force. ‘Let us be clear that while we have made a good step forward in terms of improving our economy as to where it was in the midst of the financial crisis, we still have a long, long way to go,’ Sanders said. ‘Real unemployment in America is not 7.5 percent. That’s official unemployment. Real unemployment is closer to 14 percent if you include those people who have given up looking for work in high unemployment areas and people who are working part-time and they want to work full time.'”
4.) BREAKING: Bush endorses immigration bill — In another not-so-shocking shocking move, Jeb Bush came out in favor of the Senate immigration bill. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports:
“Republicans should back the Senate’s pending immigration bill, Gov. Jeb Bush said at a news conference Thursday. The possible GOP presidential candidate and former governor of Florida, said the bill can improve the nation’s long-term economic strength by spurring population growth, and the GOP can gain by breaking the politics of ‘stasis’ in favor of diversity. ‘I’m actually very pleased with the ‘Gang of Eight,’ he told attendees at an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, shortly after he spoke with Republican leaders in the House.”
It is only shocking to discover that Jeb Bush hasn’t already done this.
5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Albert Brooks:Before we go to Syria to arm the rebels should we at least find out who they are?
6.) Today in North Korean News – -BREAKING: “World blood donors day observed DPRK”