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GOP candidate Ben Carson goes after Muslim advocacy group's tax status

Republican Ben Carson has started a petition calling on the IRS to target the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group. 
The retired neurosurgeon accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Thursday of violating its nonprofit tax status in a Facebook message. Carson said the organization "brazenly violated IRS rules" when it called last month for him to leave the 2016 presidential race.
"Under the Obama administration, the IRS has systematically targeted conservative nonprofit groups for politically motivated audits and harassment," Carson wrote. "The agency should now properly do its job and punish the real violators of America's laws and regulations."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations lashed out at Carson after he said he would not support a Muslim president.
Carson's fortunes were on the rise before he made the remark and continued to surge afterward. Campaign manager Barry Bennett said Carson raised roughly $700,000 in the 36 hours after he made the comment.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations denied any wrongdoing.
"We find it interesting that Dr. Carson seeks to use a federal government agency to silence his critics and wonder if that tactic would be used to suppress First Amendment freedoms should he become president," spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.

Jeb shifts attacks to Rubio

JEB SHIFTS ATTACKS TO RUBIO
Under pressure, Jeb Bush is hitting harder than ever against Sen. Marco Rubio, as Bush’s one time protégé surpasses him in the polls.

On the trail in New Hampshire Wednesday, Bush compared Rubio’s campaign message to that of President Obama and warned of a similar result if Rubio was elected. Pressed on his comments today in an interview with MSNBC, Bush went further.

Bush said Rubio lacked the “leadership skills” and said that Rubio would not be able to “fix things” in Washington.

It comes at a difficult moment for Bush as Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has, ahem, “reset” the 2016 presidential race.

Russia’s offensive in Syria is a threshold moment that history will long record. Rather than just the ongoing efforts to reestablish “Great Russia” through the subduction of weak neighbor states and veiled (if thinly) military maneuvers, this is open aggression in a contested territory in the worst neighborhood in the world.

And Putin’s military began the operations by targeting American-backed forces. When Moscow targets American proxies in a Third World hellhole, you know we’re all the way back to the bad old days.

But as history collides with the venality of the 2016 presidential contests, it means particular problems for certain candidates, Bush among them. While he has recently embraced the idea that he is best situated to lead U.S. foreign affairs because he is “a Bush,” sorting out his brother’s Middle East legacy has proved, so far, intractable.

As Bush comes to closer embrace his brother’s foreign policy, discussing how best to escalate a ground war in the region is a huge problem.

Painting Rubio as unready and unsteady won’t be an easy task for Bush, though. He’s on the record from 2012 explicitly saying Rubio was more experienced than Obama and pushed Rubio as Mitt Romney’s running mate.

But Bush’s shift from trying to engage with frontrunner Donald Trump to fourth-place Rubio is likely necessary given the worries that Bush’s early backers may abandon him for the ascendant Rubio.

McCarthy says he never meant to imply Benghazi panel was political

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, walked back comments on the Benghazi committee that have caused a political storm for his caucus and led to renewed Democratic calls for it to be disbanded.
McCarthy, the leading candidate for House speaker, earlier this week was accused by Democrats of implying the committee was created to politically damage Hillary Clinton, after he linked its work to her dropping poll numbers. On Thursday, some Republicans also criticized him, and urged him to clarify his remarks.
Speaking with Fox News’ Bret Baier  in a "Special Report" exclusive interview, McCarthy said he “never meant to imply" that the Benghazi committee has any political motivations.
"This committee was set up for one sole purpose - to find the truth on behalf of the families for four dead Americans," McCarthy said. "Now, I did not intend to imply in any way that work is political."
House Speaker John Boehner staunchly defended McCarthy on Thursday after senior Democrats called for the Benghazi investigation committee to be disbanded, claiming Boehner's top deputy -- and the favorite to step into the speaker's shoes -- implied in an interview the panel was created to politically damage Clinton.
The comments gave Democrats an opening to reprise allegations the committee is merely a political tool. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the chamber's top Democrat, said Thursday that the investigation is "unethical" and the panel should be shut down. Pelosi also questioned whether the panel violates House rules forbidding spending taxpayer dollars for political purposes.
But Boehner, without mentioning McCarthy's remarks, fired back and issued a statement saying the panel would keep working.
"This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be," he said. "... The members of this committee have worked diligently and professionally to fulfill this important mission and they will continue to do so.”
"The American people deserve the truth about what happened in Benghazi. That's always been our focus, and that's going to remain our focus."
McCarthy made the comments in an interview Tuesday night with Fox News' Sean Hannity. Describing how he would be different as speaker, McCarthy said he'd be a "conservative speaker that takes a conservative Congress that puts a strategy to fight and win."
He added: "And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's un-trustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not  ..."
Democrats swiftly suggested his comments undermine claims by the committee's leader and other Republicans that the panel is only seeking the truth about the deadly 2012 attacks at a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya.
"I appreciate Rep. McCarthy finally coming clean and admitting what we have all known all along: that the Benghazi Select Committee was designed and created as a political attack tool to damage a potential Democratic presidential nominee," Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., a Benghazi committee member and top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
Some Republicans also suggested this week that McCarthy's comments could damage the credibility of the committee and it's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC.
"I think it's a total mischaracterization of the good work that's been done on the Benghazi committee," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah,  said of McCarthy's comments in an interview with the Associated Press.
Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he told McCarthy privately Wednesday that he still supported his bid to become speaker but considered his comments untrue.
“To discredit the committee and its purpose was wrong and he should walk back those statements," Chaffetz told the AP.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., expressed similar sentiments to Chaffetz on Thursday, saying, "I think he should apologize to the families because his statement jeopardizes the committee's work and trivializes it."
McCarthy said Thursday he’s spoken with Gowdy on how he never meant to imply the committee was political.
"I talked to Trey, and I told him, I regret that this has ever taken place, it is never my intention," McCarthy told Fox News’ Brett Baier, "and Trey goes, 'I know it's not your intention, because you know it's not political.'"
Though he acknowledged his comments were a "setback," McCarthy also brushed off suggestions that his words could affect his push to replace outgoing House Speaker John Boehner.
"We're going to be able to win this race," he said.
But his comments are getting mixed reviews from Republicans as he approaches an initial test vote to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.
“Nobody has 218 today for Speaker,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. “Those comments were not helpful. I don’t think that got him one vote.”
“Kevin (McCarthy) is dealing with some very thin margins on the floor (in the Speakership vote),” said Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla,. “He has had to backpedal. It’s took it toll. It was regretful.”
The remarks by Huelskamp and Jolly suggest that since McCarthy can’t get to 218 votes, he can’t afford to waste any vote. Any sort of bump in the road may have negative consequences for McCarthy.
“I don’t think the leader meant to say what this is being construed as,” said Rep. Brian Babin. R-Texas.“It certainly was something that was unfortunate.”

'Filled with hate': Witnesses say Oregon gunman targeted Christians in community college shooting

The gunman in Thursday's mass shooting at an Oregon community college specifically targeted Christians, three witnesses said, while online accounts linked to the shooter expressed disdain for organized religion. 
Authorities say Christopher Harper Mercer killed at least nine people and wounded at least seven others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg before he was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
Investigators have shed very little light publicly on Mercer's possible motive for the shooting. However, reports indicated they were examining Mercer's online presence very closely. One law enforcement official described Mercer to The New York Times as appearing to be "an angry young man who was very filled with hate." Another official said investigators were poring over what he described as "hateful"writings by Mercer. Oregon's top federal prosecutor told The Oregonian newspaper that authorities had heard rumors that the gunman had issued "some sort of race-related manifesto" before the shooting.
Kortney Moore, 18, told the Roseburg News-Review that she was in a Writing 115 class when one shot came through the window. Moore said she saw her teacher get shot in the head. The shooter then reportedly told the students to get on the ground before asking people to stand up and state their religion. He then began firing. Moore said she was lying on the ground with people who had been shot.
Twitter user @bodhilooney posted a statement on the social network claiming that her grandmother was inside the classroom.

More on this...

• Former Columbine principal reacts to Oregon shooting

• The mass murder in Oregon

• Multiple fatalities and injuries in Oregon mass shooting

Janet Willis told the Los Angeles Times that her 18-year-old granddaughter, Ana Boylan, had been shot in the back and was airlifted to a hospital in Eugene. Willis said Boylan told her that the gunman asked others in the classroom to rise and state their religion.
"If they said they were Christians, they were shot again," Willis said. "[Boylan and another wounded girl] just laid on the ground and pretended they were dead."
The Daily Beast reported that a MySpace page bearing Mercer's name featured an image of him holding a gun, as well as images of Irish Republican Army propaganda. The website also reported that Mercer created an online dating profile that listed "organized religion" as one of his "dislikes". The profile also described Mercer's political views as "conservative, republican."
The New York Post identified the dating site as SpiritualPassions.com and reported that Harper used the screen name "Ironcross45," a possible reference to a WWII decoration awarded to Nazi soldiers.
The Beast reported that the MySpace page is registered to Torrance, Calif., where law enforcement officials said Mercer lived before moving to Oregon.
Federal law enforcement officials told The New York Times they were examining an online conversation on the anonymous message board 4chan that was posted the night before the shooting. In that conversation, one writer says ""Some of you guys are all right [sic][. Don't go to school tomorrow if you are in the northwest."
The post made no mention of a shooting, Umpqua Community College, or Roseburg, but did include a photo of a crudely drawn frog with a gun used regularly in Internet memes. The messages that followed spoke of mass shootings, with some egging on and even offering tips to the original poster.