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Author: Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

Mary is the resident libertarian. She covers stories in every vertical, but her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.

Mary loves the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, tennis, cats, Oxford comma, Diet Coke, and needlework.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 20, 2016 19 Comments
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) has demanded an interview with employees of the IT firm that handled Hillary Clinton's private email server. The demand comes after images of one employee on Reddit asking for advice on how to modify emails. Platte River Networks employees Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton "pleaded the Fifth Amendment when subpoenaed to testify about the server before the House Oversight Committee."

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 19, 2016 24 Comments
On Saturday night, a pressure bomb exploded in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, leaving 29 people injured. Despite that pesky fact, MSNBC's Chris Hayes is thankful it was a BOMB, not a gun. https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/777895206846955520 I wonder if he would say that to those injured by the bomb. Anyway, the people of Twitter had a field day.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 19, 2016 12 Comments
There's seriously nothing better than when people can make fun of themselves and laugh about it. Former GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush did just that in the opening for the Emmys Sunday night. He posed as an Uber driver to get Jimmy Kimmel to the show on time to host:
“I’m in between jobs right now,” the former Florida governor tells Kimmel. Kimmel tells Bush he has to get to the Emmys. “Are you nominated?” Bush asks. “Wow, What’s the like?”

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 16, 2016 30 Comments
So the media lost their minds on Twitter when they arrived at a Donald Trump birther event, only to hear from veterans and why they support Trump. Ehrmahgerd, Trump tricked them!!! Or did he? https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/776773380414537728 That is all he said. So of course the media complains about hearing from war veterans.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 16, 2016 9 Comments
The Associated Press, Gannett Co., and Vice Media LLC have filed a suit against the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to gather details how agents hacked into the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. The Justice Department fought with Apple for over a month, trying to convince the company to allow the government into Syed Farook's iPhone after he and his wife Tashfeen Malik, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, CA, in December 2015. The FBI took Farrok's phone as evidence, but couldn't open it due to a passcode. Apple refused to help, saying it would risk privacy of other customers. Then somehow, call it a miracle, the FBI managed to crack into the iPhone all by themselves!

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 15, 2016 14 Comments
The House Freedom Caucus and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) struck a deal to hold a hearing for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, thus delaying a Thursday House vote to impeach him. The caucus had submitted a resolution to impeach Koskinen for impeding "Congress' effort to investigate the IRS for tough assessments of Tea Party groups that sought tax exemptions several years ago." Caucus members Members claim Koskinen failed to provide proper email documents and lied about deleting some emails. They also claim he has shown, “little effort to recover the lost documents.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 15, 2016 15 Comments
Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed this morning that she is the most transparent candidate ever. Okay, bro. She said:
"I think I've worked very very hard to be more transparent than not just my opponent but really in a comparison to anybody who's run," Clinton told the "Tom Joyner Morning Show" in an interview aired Thursday. "The medical information I put out, and we're going to put out more, meets and exceeds the standards that other presidential candidates including President Obama and Mitt Romney and others have met."

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 14, 2016 13 Comments
Members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) have sued producer Katie Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig for $12 million after an edit in their movie Under the Gun showed members could not answer a question. From Fox News:
"Katie Couric has publicly admitted that the film, which was presented to VCDL as a 'documentary,' was misleading and misrepresented VCDL," Phillip Van Cleave, President of the VCDL, tod FOXNews.com. "However, Couric and the other filmmakers have refused to fix the film or to even stop promoting and distributing it. The only way to hold Couric accountable was to file a lawsuit."
Here is the clip:

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 14, 2016 20 Comments
The hacker Guccifer 2.0 released more documents from the DNC through a person at The Future of Cyber Security Europe conference in London. The documents show evidence of pay to play with donors in order to become ambassadors and staging TV protests. Guccifer also wanted to use this information to show the vulnerabilities within the system. Guccifer shot to fame over the summer when he released documents that showed the DNC conspiring against presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned as chairwoman right before the DNC convention.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 13, 2016 13 Comments
The House Freedom Caucus submitted a resolution to force a vote to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. They have accused him of hampering, "Congress' effort to investigate the IRS for tough assessments of Tea Party groups that sought tax exemptions several years ago." Caucus members Members claim Koskinen failed to provide proper email documents and lied about deleting some emails. They also claim he has shown, "little effort to recover the lost documents." To speed up the vote, Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) introduced the bill, "under a privileged motion," allowing the bill to bypass committee. The House could vote on the bill as early as Thursday.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 13, 2016 22 Comments
North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy and Security Bill have drawn another major boycott. The NCAA recently announced its decision to remove seven previously scheduled championship events from the state, including the first and second round games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. In July, the NBA decided to move its All Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans over the bill.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 12, 2016 7 Comments
The current Austrian presidential election is filled with more drama than America's election cycle, if you can believe that. Independent presidential candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, backed by the Green Party, barely beat Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer in May in an election that came down to the mail-in ballots. However, Austria's highest court overturned the election results in July when the justices noticed problems with mail ballots affecting, "nearly 78,000 votes - more than twice the margin separating the two candidates." As a result, a runoff election was scheduled for October 2. That election has recently been delayed and for an all too familiar reason -- mail-in ballots.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 12, 2016 15 Comments
According to new polling, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has more support from military veterans than the other presidential candidates.  Recent polling of active military showed 37% of respondents chose Johnson, reports The Hill. Depending upon the accuracy of the polling, it may serve as further evidence that military service members are increasingly Libertarian.
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