Members of Congress Want Answers from Google

Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- While some members of Congress might have been excited to try on Google's Glass this week, others are concerned about their privacy implications.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and seven other members of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus have sent a letter to Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page requesting answers to a series of privacy-related questions and concerns raised by the camera-equipped glasses.

"As members of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, we are curious whether this new technology could infringe on the privacy of average Americans," the letter reads. "Because Google Glass has not yet been released and we are uncertain of Google's plans to incorporate privacy protections into the device, there are still a number of answered questions that we share."

Eight questions are put forth in the letter, which can be read in full here. The first question addresses Google's track record for ignoring consumer privacy and cites that in 2010 Google had collected user data over wireless networks without permission: "While we are thankful that Google acknowledged that there was an issue and took responsible measures to address it, we would like to know how Google plans to prevent Glass from unintentionally collecting data about the user / non-user without consent?"

Later questions focus on the concerns about the integrated camera and computing capabilities. "When using Google Glass, is it true that this product would be able to use Facial Recognition Technology to unveil personal information about whomever and even inanimate objects that the user is viewing?"

The group even asks about what privacy restrictions have been put in place for Glass app developers. While not referenced in the letter, a developer named Michael DiGiovanni created a Glass app called "Winky," which allows a photo to be taken with just a blink of the eye.

Earlier this week, at the request of the GOP, Google representatives held Google Glass demonstrations at the beginning and the end of the meeting, allowing Congressional members to try on the sought-after technology. Still these members of the committee, which in addition to Barton includes Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr. (D-Georgia), and Richard Nugent (R-Florida), have many unanswered questions and have requested Google's official response to the questions no later than June 14.

However, on Thursday, at a Google Glass event at Google's I/O conference, the Google Glass team addressed some of the concerns.

"Privacy was top of mind as we designed the product," the product director of Glass, Steve Lee, said. "You'll know when someone with Glass is paying attention to you. If you're looking at Glass, you're looking up."

The display on the glasses sits right above your eye.

In addition to those comments, Google said in a statement, "We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues. Our Glass Explorer program, which reaches people from all walks of life, will ensure that our users become active participants in shaping the future of this technology."

Google Glass is not yet available for purchase; instead, Google has begun selling an Explorer Edition for $1,500 to early adopters and software developers.

But for many, those answers and the idea of leaving the privacy issues up to Google aren't enough. A series of public places have already begun to ban the connected glasses, including casinos like the one in Caesars Palace. Some select bars and movie theaters have also said that use of the connected glasses won't be allowed. The West Virginia state legislature has also proposed an amendment banning the use of Glass while driving.

Even Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt, has said that there are places where Glass isn't appropriate. He said last month he didn't wear them in North Korea since it didn't seem appropriate. "I didn't want to freak them out," he said. "They have a lot of guns."

But while Google is hoping users figure it out for themselves and adjust the social norms, some, including those eight members of Congress, don't think that's the route.

"It's troublesome that Google is throwing these things out and not thinking through the problems. That's why it's important that Congress gets involved and starts asking these questions," Shear said. "If they don't ask them, they might not be answered."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Watergate Hearings Televised 40 Years Ago

David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Richard Milhous Nixon was “not a crook,” or so the 37th U.S. president would have us believe.  But such denials at a Nov. 17, 1973, news conference meant little or nothing by then, six months to the day after North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin opened two weeks of often-riveting, live televised hearings on the Watergate scandal.

Millions of U.S. households bore witness to the Senate Watergate Committee’s tactical destruction of White House subterfuge, methodically convincing Americans that perhaps “Tricky Dick” was more than some absurd distortion of the president’s legacy-in-waiting.

A month after the televised hearings, which started on May 17, 1973, an astonishing 97 percent of Americans had heard of Watergate, according to the U.S. Senate website.  And 67 percent believed that President Nixon had participated in a cover-up of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington.

Nixon never confessed and declared that “I have never been a quitter” right before he did just that.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Leader of Targeted Tea Party Group 'Pissed Off' by IRS Questioning

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Susan McLaughlin knows first-hand what it’s like to be targeted by the IRS.  Her Tea Party group in Liberty Township, Ohio was among those subjected to intense questioning after applying for tax-exempt status.

McLaughlin tells ABC News, “It just pisses you off” to be questioned by the IRS in such detail.

“It's intrusive; it is clearly a fishing expedition,” McLaughlin says.

McLaughlin reads aloud a question from a seven-page-long letter The Liberty Township Tea Party received from the IRS’s Cincinnati office: “’List each past and present board member, officer, key employee and members of their family,’ and then it says, ‘have they served on the board of another organization?’”

“Well, what does that mean?” McLaughlin asks of the IRS’ question.

McLaughlin’s Tea Party group happens to be in Speaker of the House John Boehner’s district.  She says they did make the speaker’s office aware of the questions they received from the IRS at the time -- feeling they were “onerous and out of line” -- but asked that no action be taken on their behalf.

Now, McLaughlin says, it’s time for action.

“This week, we're going to say, Speaker Boehner, we need help,” she says.  “It's clear that our faith in the government was not well-founded; we put faith where it shouldn't have been, and that's sad.”

In addition to appealing to Boehner for help, McLaughlin says her group will be joining other targeted groups in a lawsuit against the IRS, and she urges all Americans to be concerned about what happened to these Tea Party organizations.

“If he can do that to me, he can do it to you,” says McLaughlin.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Immigration Overhaul: House Has Agreement in Principle

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The House bipartisan “Gang of Eight” has reached an agreement in principle on immigration overhaul, including major points such as a pathway to citizenship, border security, health care and guest workers, a member of the group told ABC News Thursday night.

The lower chamber now expects to work out details next week before taking the Memorial Day break and introducing the bill June 4.

Over hoagie sandwiches, a two-hour meeting of a bipartisan group of congressmen nearly fell apart Thursday over who would pay for immigrant health care, the House “Gang” member said.

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, was the last holdout, who had to call into the meeting from Idaho where his daughter had a recital, the member said.

Labrador, described as the most influential Republican in the House “Gang of Eight” because he represents Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s interests, finally agreed when language proposed by Democrats ensured that taxpayer money would not pay for immigrant health care.

Although not a member of the “Gang of Eight,” Wisconsin congressman and former vice presidential contender Paul Ryan was instrumental in bringing the Republicans along in the agreement.

The House bipartisan group that seemed to have stalled earlier Thursday announced it is finally moving forward on its own version of immigration overhaul.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday that he was “concerned that the bipartisan group has been unable to wrap up their work.”

”I know that there are some very difficult issues that have come up, but I continue to believe that the House needs to deal with this and the House needs to work its will,” he said. “How we get there, we’re still dealing with it.”

But Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told reporters Thursday evening that the group has "an agreement in principle that we’re drafting."

That agreement was struck after the two-hour meeting late Thursday afternoon.

“It is a very well-thought out, responsible, serious, enforceable proposal,” he said. “I feel really, really, really, really comfortable with the fact that this is a very complete bill, that fulfills what I’ve always wanted, which is to fix what’s broken.”

The whole package will now be run past their respective leadership and colleagues before the final language is finished and reviewed. But Diaz-Balart said the bill “is imminent.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee has completed three days of markups and had addressed a total of 82 of the 300 amendments introduced to the legislation, which was written by the “Gang of Eight.” That meant they had earlier addressed more than a quarter of the amendments.

A spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told ABC News earlier Thursday that they were “making good progress and by far most amendments have passed on bipartisan basis.”

“Last week, we met for hours and worked through scores of amendments,” Leahy noted at Tuesday’s hearing. “Some termed our efforts ‘a lesson in democracy.’ Many noted that senators ‘showed a commitment to fairness and compromise.’”

A spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said earlier Thursday that “Leahy has said he is committed to completing work on this bill by the end of next week.”

That’s good news for the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who promised again Thursday to bring the immigration bill to the floor of the Senate as soon as it’s ready out of committee.

“As soon as it’s ready, I’m going to bring that immigration legislation to the floor,” he said. “We’re going to start on the farm bill Monday. I’m going to bring the immigration bill to the floor regardless of whether we have committed action on the farm bill. Although immigration is a complex and controversial issue that deserves ample time for thoughtful debate and consideration, it’s also too important to delay action any longer.”

For a significant piece of legislation, such as this, many days in committee are not unusual.

According to Congressional Quarterly (CQ), the markup for the Affordable Care Act took 13 days and 60 hours.

CQ reported that committee members and staff believed the Affordable Care Act was the longest markup period ever for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, with almost 500 amendments considered, compared to 300 on immigration.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Obama Wishes He Could Go "Bulworth"

John Gurzinski/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Everyone's got a fantasy, even President Obama.

At the moment, he'd probably wish that all the recent scandals encumbering his administration would just go away.

While that's not possible, a story in The New York Times reveals that Obama has told people within his inner circle that he just feels like cutting loose sometimes and tell the public what he really thinks, a la Warren Beatty's character from the 1998 movie, Bulworth.

In the film, Beatty plays a liberal U.S. senator who cracks under intense pressure and turns into a truth-telling rapper, rocking the Washington establishment but also winning the admiration of Americans.

Of course, Obama probably wouldn't want to follow in the exact footsteps of the Bulworth character, who takes out a contract on his own life.

Still, the president would probably like the freedom to say what he really thinks.

Close advisor David Axelrod tells the Times, "Probably every president says that from time to time.  It’s probably cathartic just to say it.  But the reality is that while you want to be truthful, you want to be straightforward, you also want to be practical about whatever you’re saying."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Military ‘Ashamed’ of Sexual Assaults, Obama Says

Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama Thursday admitted there is “no silver bullet” to solving the sexual assault epidemic in the military, but vowed to leave “no stone unturned” in order to fix the problem.

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Defense Secretary Hagel and the joint chiefs of staff, Obama said the nation’s top military leaders are outraged by what’s been happening.

“They’re angry about it, and I heard directly from all of them that they’re ashamed by some of what’s happened,” Obama said.

Calling it “disgraceful,” the president warned that sexual violence in the military is “dangerous to our national security.”

“This is not a sideshow,” he said.

The president said sexual assault undermines the critical trust that the military needs to be effective.

“The reason we are so good is not because of the fancy equipment. It’s not because of our incredible weapons systems and technology. It’s because of our people, and the capacity for our men and women in uniform to work as a team, a disciplined unit,” Obama said. “It comes down to, Do people trust each other and do they understand that they’re all part of a single system that has to operate under whatever circumstances effectively?”

The president has asked Hagel and Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to lead the effort to tackle this crisis.

“That starts with accountability, and that means at every level, and that includes accountability not just for enforcing the law but also training our personnel effectively, putting our best people on this challenge,” he said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

House Votes to Repeal Obamacare for Third Time

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The House of Representatives voted Thursday to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, 229-195. The vote was called at 6:26 p.m. by Rep. Michele Bachmann.

This was the third vote for full repeal of the health care law, and the 37th overall vote the House has taken to disrupt, dismantle, defund or repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.
 
Two Blue Dog Democrats, Reps. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., and Jim Matheson, D-Utah, voted along with 227 House Republicans in support of the bill.
 
No Republicans opposed repeal, although five GOPers missed the vote.
 
In a statement following the repeal's passage in the House, Speaker John Boehner said the vote was “all about jobs.”
 
“The president’s health care law is already undermining our economy -- employers are cutting workers and cutting hours, costs are going up, and even Democrats are worried the whole thing is headed for a train wreck,” Boehner, R-Ohio, stated. “There are also serious concerns about whether the IRS should be involved in our health care at all, let alone as the law’s chief enforcer. Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs.”
 
It is not likely the repeal will pass in the Senate, or reach the president’s desk.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

Comstock Images/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted Tea Party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News Thursday.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced Thursday that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Vowing to Sue IRS, Tea Partiers Descend on DC

File photo. David McNew/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Tea Party activists descended on Washington Thursday, promising to sue the Internal Revenue Service and claiming vindication in their long-held complaints about perceived government overreach.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill Thursday morning, activists joined Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., to lambaste the federal government for targeting them with extra scrutiny as they applied for tax-exempt status as public-advocacy groups.

Tea Partiers say the lengthy questionnaires, some of them 30 questions long, cost them hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars as they sent stacks of paperwork to the IRS and were held in legal limbo for years, uncertain of what activities they could pursue, and cut off from skeptical donors scared away by their pending status.

"This is not only unconstitutional, it is illegal," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative civil-rights group that says it is suing the IRS on behalf of 17 clients who were targeted for extra scrutiny because of their groups' leanings.

The IRS has admitted to targeting groups with the words "Tea Party" and "patriots" in their names, but documents obtained by ABC News reveal that the IRS targeted other groups with conservative leanings from 2010 to 2012.

The American Center for Law and Justice represents 27 Tea Party groups that received questionnaires from the IRS asking for information on their donors, members, finances, educational materials, events and, in at least one case, connections to another group and another individual. Sekulow said 17 of his clients are prepared to move ahead with a civil lawsuit against the IRS.

"This is extremely troubling because the axiom is: The power to tax is the power to destroy," Bachmann said at the news conference, held outside the Capitol.

"These horror stories of the government attempting to quiet the voices of critics is apparently rather rampant," added Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

After the news conference, activists met with Senate staff in the Capitol basement, according to a McConnell spokesman.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky also joined the activists and lawmakers, lambasting the IRS for targeting conservative.

"This is a civil rights issue," said Adam Brandon of Washington-based FreedomWorks, which has facilitated organizing and communication between local and state-level Tea Party groups since 2009. "It's more like a Third World junta than a constitutional republic."

Later Thursday afternoon, Brandon's group hosted nine activists at FreedomWorks headquarters on Capitol Hill to speak with reporters. Of the activists who attended, six are represented by the American Center for Law and Justice and plan to sue the IRS.

Some of the groups attained 501(c)4 tax-exempt status last year, some this year, and some said they have yet to receive a ruling from the IRS.

"We would have needed a U-Haul truck of about 20 feet to get it back to the IRS in Cincinnati," said Toby Marie Walker of the Waco Tea Party, speculating at how much paperwork it would have taken to satisfy all the IRS' requests.

"It's a month away from being three years [since her group requested tax-exempt status], and there is no resolution to this situation," said Dianne Belsom of the Laurens County Tea Party in South Carolina.

 Others echoed the sentiment.

"We had to stop raising funds, and it has all but killed my organization," said Jay Devereaux, who said his group, Unite in Action, formed as a corporation before requesting 501(c)4 status and still has not been granted a decision, one way or another, by the IRS.

His group hosted a civic-engagement training session at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington and the IRS requested details on all speakers and educational materials disseminated in the 78 classes the group held, Devereaux said, a request he simply could not meet.

Now, his group remains in limbo, he said, owing money to funders and wondering about its status. His group would owe "somewhere in the neighborhood of $70,000 in back taxes" if his request for 501(c)4 status were denied, Devereaux said.

But while the activists said extra IRS scrutiny had crippled them financially, they also said the IRS controversy has brought more interest to the Tea Party movement. Asked whether they'd gotten more member signups and donations since the IRS' apology brought attention to the incident, the activists nodded and affirmed.

"Not money, but support," Walker said.

Tom Zawistowski of the Ohio Liberty Coalition said, "They're afraid of the money. We need this to be settled. We're going to have a problem for a little bit."

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said interest in his group has spiked on social media since the IRS story became big news.

To all the activists who spoke to reporters, the IRS activities meant vindication of the Tea Party movement's central complaint about perceived government excess and a bloated, overbearing federal government. When the movement began in 2009, accusations of President Obama's "socialist takeover" were common at rallies, and the movement's opposition to government spending, taxes and debt were couched in allegations that the government had grown too big and too intrusive.

"It's a vindication of us, of all the terrible, horrible things that were said about us," Zawistowski said.

The irony of the situation was not lost on the activists who came to Washington to decry it. The Tea Party movement has opposed taxes and, at times, Tea Party GOP candidates have proposed eliminating the IRS. A movement dedicated to opposing government overreach now finds itself a victim of the very thing it warned about, activists said.

"The irony of us all being here, again talking about the IRS is amazing," Susan McLaughlin of the Liberty Township Tea Party in Ohio said, "because that's what started the Tea Party movement in our community."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Boehner: Scandals Reveal Obama Administration’s ‘Arrogance of Power’

Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) -- With a three-headed monster of controversy and scandal chasing the president this week — Benghazi, the IRS, The Justice Department’s monitoring AP —  House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that an “arrogance of power” within the Obama administration threatens to unravel the American people’s dithering confidence in government.

“Nothing dissolves the bonds between the people and their government like the arrogance of power here in Washington, and that’s what the American people are seeing today from the Obama administration — remarkable arrogance,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

Boehner said that while job creation continues to be the House GOP’s primary focus, he is also focused on holding the Obama administration accountable for its actions.

“Our committees are working overtime to uncover the truth about what happened in Libya, and they’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened in the IRS scandal,” he said, adding that “public service requires humility.”

Regarding the IRS investigation, Boehner added that Americans should “never be targeted or harassed by their government for their political beliefs.”

As for the Department of Justice’s decision to secretly obtain the Associated Press’s phone records, he said the administration “better have a clear and convincing reason” for monitoring reporters’ phone calls.

Finally, in regard to Benghazi, Boehner said that when Americans are killed abroad, “the government should tell the truth, not shade it or stonewall it for partisan purposes.”

“This House will stop at nothing to get to the American people the answers and the accountability that they expect, but the best way to repair this damage is for the administration to come forward with the truth, the whole truth, so that the American people will have all of the facts,” Boehner said.

Given the mounting scandals, the speaker was asked whether he still trusts President Obama.

“It’s not about trusting someone,” Boehner demurred. “Our job here is to get to the truth and we’re going to get to the truth.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio