• The US has admitted to killing 4 US Citizens. Is that something you’re OK with?
• The IRS faced more heat from Congress yesterday.
• This Memorial Day weekend, we have a great way for you to support service men and women.

Guests

• Current TV  ’Viewpoint’ Host John Fugelsang
• Fisher House Foundation VP of Operations Brian Gawne
• Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
• The Progressive Magazine Editor Matt Rothschild
• House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

• It’s hard to predict tornadoes, but you can prepare for them.
• The White House continues to hunt down journalists. This time, Fox News got hit.
• The head of Apple faces Congress. Let’s talk about it!

Guests

• Former Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) 
• National Journal National Correspondent Matthew Cooper
• Congressman Mark Takano (D-CA) 
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State Executive Director Rev. Barry Lynn
• Now This News Reporter Ashley Codianni

• The GOP in Oklahoma voted AGAINST aid for Sandy relief. Now, they want a handout when their state is hit. What is wrong with them?
• The White House continues to hunt down journalists. This time, Fox News got hit.
• We have all the latest on the IRS situation.

Guests

• Think Progress Managing Editor Igor Volsky
• MN-6 Congressional Candidate Jim Graves
• Huffington Post Senior Media Reporter Michael Calderone
• Weather Channel Radio Network Senior Broadcast Meteorologist Ray Stagich
• Politico PRO Tax Policy Reporter Lauren French
• Legislative counsel and policy advisor for the ACLU Gabriel Rottman 

• Can POTUS take the heat from the “scandals” in Washington? Some are real, some are manufactured. How does he address them?
• A troubling story about ABC’s White House Reporter who butchered the story on Benghazi.
• What is the future of the IRS amid the recent allegations?

Guests

• National Journal Hotline Editor in Chief Reid Wilson
• Buzzfeed Reporter Kate Nocera
• Democratic Strategist Peter Fenn
• UVA Center for Politics Director Dr. Larry Sabato

First, there were accusations of a “cover-up” in the aftermath of the bombing of our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Then came reports that the IRS was conducting a partisan witch-hunt against the tea party. Topping it all off was news of the Justice Department’s seizing phone records of Associated Press reporters. And hovering over all three was the perennial Washington parlor game: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

Obama haters could hardly contain their glee. Mike Huckabee predicted that Benghazi would drive President Obama out of office. Sen. James Inhofe whispered the “I” word. Soon joined by Michele Bachmann. John Boehner demanded that unnamed IRS agents be arrested and sent to jail, presumably without a trial. And House Republicans scheduled multiple hearings on each controversy.

How disappointing for them when the week ended and two out of three scandals had all but disappeared. Only one was left: the Justice Department’s heavy-handed invasion of AP. As part of a criminal investigation into who leaked information about a successful intelligence operation to thwart the blowing up of an airliner headed from Yemen to the United States, DOJ subpoenaed the records of 20 phone lines at the AP, used by more than 100 reporters and editors, for April and May 2012.

The Justice Department’s raid of AP phone records is nothing less than a totally unjustified, wholesale trashing of the First Amendment. DOJ violated its own guidelines by failing to notify the AP of its action or narrowing the scope of its subpoena. It has also offered no explanation how, by reporting this story, which the administration itself was poised to released, the AP in any way jeopardized our national security. This is the one real scandal, which demands more attention and answers. Not so with Benghazi or the IRS.

As I wrote last week, the flap over Benghazi is nothing but a poorly disguised effort by panicked Republicans to prevent Hillary Clinton from running for president in 2016. John Boehner may be obsessed with Benghazi, but this car has run out of gas.

The scandal that received the most attention, the IRS and the tea party, is a lot more complicated than it first appears. True, there is no defending the IRS targeting members of either party. But there is also no defending the fact that far too many political groups today enjoy tax-exempt status simply because they disguise themselves as “social welfare” organizations.

Republicans try to paint the latest IRS flap as a new, Obama-inspired, Nixonian conspiracy aimed at conservatives. Nonsense. In fact, this problem dates back to 1959, when Congress passed a law defining 501(c)(4), or tax-exempt, organizations as those which operate “exclusively for purposes beneficial to the community as a whole.” That same year, however, the IRS adopted regulations awarding tax-exempt status to organizations only “primarily” engaged in social welfare. Ever since, using that loose definition — primary, not exclusive — they have granted tax-exempt status to groups that spend up to 49 percent of their funds on political activities. And refused to rescind tax privileges for those that spend far more.

For example, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington complained to the IRS about the American Action Network, a 501(c)(4), headed by former Republican Senator Norm Coleman, which spent 66.8 percent of its total spending from July 2009 through June 2011 on politics. The IRS did nothing.

So it’s important to understand. The issue of appropriate tax-exempt status goes way back. It was made worse by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which spawned a new wave of political organizations: the overwhelming majority, tea party chapters, of which more than 300 filed for tax-exempt status. IRS staffers decided to focus exclusively on them. Even though none of the tea party applications was denied, that concentration on the right was wrong. But it’s a case of bureaucratic bungling, not some vast left-wing conspiracy.

A new head of the IRS is a good start. Congress should next establish tough new standards for the IRS to follow in granting tax-exempt status. Then maybe Congress can get to work on a real scandal: gun violence in America.

• POTUS defends Attorney General Eric Holder. WHY??
• The deficit is shrinking. So, why are we still dealing with this sequester?
• Can we finally get some common sense laws on marijuana? We’ll talk to a Congressman about it!

Guests

• USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page
• Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
• Cornell University Law School Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr 
• Qorvis Communications Manager of Financial Communications Stan Collender 
• Former Reuters Reporter Sam Youngman

• POTUS acts on the IRS abuses. Did he do enough?
• Has the White House answered their critics about Benghazi?
• ANOTHER case of sexual abuse in the military. What the hell is going on? What can we DO about it?

Guests

• Huffington Post Media Editor Jack Mirkinson
• Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA)
• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Executive Director Melanie Sloan
• Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI)

• The White House has three “scandals” on its hands. Benghazi, IRS and AP. Only one is a REAL problem.
• Jay Carney and Eric Holder both face the press on Tuesday afternoon. We’ll recap their comments.
• ANOTHER case of sexual abuse in the military. What the hell is going on?

Guests

• Former Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY)
• Chief of Staff of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office Michael Macleod-Ball
• Politico Senior Media Reporter Dylan Byers
• Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY)
• Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

• The IRS targeted conservative groups. This is bad, regardless of party politics.
• Did the Justice Department go too far in pursuing a leak?
• What can we do to insure we don’t see another sweatshop disaster like the one in Bangladesh?

Guests

• Think Progress Managing Editor Igor Volsky
• Huffington Post Senior Media Reporter Michael Calderone
• United Students Against Sweatshops National Organizer Garrett Shishido Strain
• National Journal National Correspondent Jill Lawrence
• Politico Pro Tax Policy Reporter Lauren French

• The “do-nothing” Congress continues to obstruct.
• Minnesota clears the path for marriage equality.
• The economy continues to soar under the Obama Presidency.

Guests

• CNN Legal Analyst Avery Friedman
• AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs
• Freelance Writer Kerry Eleveld 
• Public Citizen Congress Watch Division Director Lisa Gilbert 
• Reuters Managing Editor Paul Ingrassia