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News/Politics 5-15-13

What’s interesting out there in the news today?

Open Thread, feel free to share. 🙂

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The more we know, the worse it gets. Their stories have more holes than swiss cheese. The claim that it was just the Cincinnati IRS office has already been proven false.

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by TheWashingtonPost.

Carney: W.H. ‘People Were Aware’ of IRS Targeting Conservatives, But Didn’t Do Anything About It. From TheWeeklyStandard

President Obama will do what he always does. Throw somebody else under the bus. From TheGretaWire

“I’ve directed Secretary Lew to hold those responsible for these failures accountable, and to make sure that each of the Inspector General’s recommendations are implemented quickly, so that such conduct never happens again.  But regardless of how this conduct was allowed to take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong.  Public service is a solemn privilege.  I expect everyone who serves in the federal government to hold themselves to the highest ethical and moral standards.  So do the American people.  And as President, I intend to make sure our public servants live up to those standards every day.”

It’s gonna be fun when these low-level scapegoats are under oath. I’d like to hear where they say the orders came from.

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Franklin Graham says they were targeted by the IRS too. From Politico

“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money  contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious  resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote in the letter, which was shared with POLITICO. “I believe that someone in the administration was  targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.”

Graham said that “in light” of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party  groups for added scrutiny, “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two  organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.”

Looks like there may have been other victims as well. Someone seems to be using the IRS to harrass perceived “enemies” of the President.

Reporter Claims IRS Harassment After Tough Obama Interview *UPDATE: Conners Muzzled from TheDanaShow

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At least one group had a sense of humor about it, though I doubt the IRS found it funny. 🙂

IRS Asks for Reading List, Tea Party Group Sends Constitution. From ABCNews

“The Ohio woman also did not expect that providing information about the books her group read would be part of the application process.

“I was trying to be very cordial, but they wanted copies of unbelievable things,” Bower told ABC News today. “They wanted to know what materials we had discussed at any of our book studies.”

Now can someone tell me what the books they read have to do with granting tax exempt status?

Here’s some more of the questions asked of conservative groups. They even wanted info on family members of conservative organization members. From PJMedia

Much of that information would allow the IRS to identify individual members of the targeted groups. Not just staff and donors, but members.”

And then the IRS makes it all public, thereby fulfilling the liberal dream of finding, publicly naming, and attempting to publicly shame conservative donors. Like the Koch Brothers.

And yes, it turns out the IRS did leak info on conservative groups for just that purpose. From ProPublica

“The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year .”

“In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public. (We made six  of those public, after redacting their financial information, deeming that they were newsworthy.)”

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Meanwhile, certain shady groups got expedited service. You just have to know the right people. Or be the President’s brother.

IRS official Lerner speedily approved exemption for Obama brother’s ‘charity’. From TheDailyCaller

“Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target  tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting  tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.

According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax  status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark  contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than  three years, in some cases, for approval.

Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval  by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.

Wait let me guess, low-level employees again?

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And is the EPA unfairly assigning fees based on political ideology?

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups. From TheWashingtonExaminer

“Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

CEI reviewed Freedom of Information Act requests sent between January 2012 and this spring from several environmental groups friendly to the EPA’s mission, and several conservative groups, to see how equally the agency applies its fee waiver policy for media and watchdog groups. Government agencies are supposed to waive fees for groups disseminating information for public benefit.

“This is as clear an example of disparate treatment as the IRS’ hurdles selectively imposed upon groups with names ominously reflecting an interest in, say, a less intrusive or biased federal government,” said CEI fellow Chris Horner.”

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Here’s more on the AP story.

Even Liberals Call DOJ’s AP Spying “Unacceptable Abuse of Power” From JudicialWatch

Holder is defending the phone record seizure. From TheWashingtonExaminer

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In other news……

Looks like ICE leadership finally found an immigrant they don’t want amnesty for. Or even asylum. They even overturned a judge’s order to protect America from these dangerous individuals. 🙄 From TheBlaze

“The Romeike family has for years been battling for the right to educate their children as they see fit.  Today, the United States government has denied their request.

Originally from Germany, Evangelical Christians Uwe and Hannelore Romeike wanted to homeschool their six children, but it is against the law in Germany.  They faced threats of legal action from the government and crippling fines before choosing to immigrate to the United States in 2010, seeking political asylum.

U.S. Immigration Judge Lawrence Burman granted the Romeike’s request, but it was overturned in 2012 by the Board of Immigration Appeals, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement challenged the decision.”

Yet ICE leadership is releasing criminal illegals to wander the country, and hundreds of violent offenders directly from prisons. What’s wrong with this picture?

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Next, new info in the Gosnell case.

Gosnell Gives Up Appeal, Prosecutors Agree to Life in Prison, No Death Penalty

This next one has upset some people.

Steve Stockman: ‘Democrats Worship Abortion,’ Don’t Care About Women’s Safety. From TheHuffingtonPost

“Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) on Monday attempted to tie Democrats to Philadelphia abortion doctor and recently convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell.

In a statement released shortly after Gosnell was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive at his medical clinic, Stockman said the crimes had “exposed the horrors and inhumanity of legalized abortion.”

“Despite the blood-soaked horror of Gosnell’s clinic, Democrats refuse to loosen their embrace of unrestricted, unregulated, taxpayer-funded abortion on demand,” he continued. “Democrats do not want abortion to be safe or rare. Democrats oppose even the most basic of health and safety standards for abortion mills. Democrats don’t care how many women are maimed, infected with diseases or die on the routinely filthy abortion mills. Democrats worship abortion with same fervor the Canaanites worshipped Molech.””

As you can imagine, HuffPo readers are not happy with Steve.

And sadly it appears we have another story breaking that’s similar to the Gosnell story. 3 employees have come forward to allege infanticide of born alive babies.

With A VERY STRONG CONTENT WARNING!!!

It’s graphic, and the details are horrible.

More here from LifeSiteNews

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23 thoughts on “News/Politics 5-15-13”

  3. One good thing that should come out of this IRS thing is that they will now have to be super careful about appearing to harass conservative groups.

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  5. Interesting piece at politico on how perceptions of the president — and his support of growing big government — could change rather quickly in light of the now practically ongoing fast-breaking scandals:

    “In Obama’s case, the narrative emerging from this tumultuous week goes something like this: None of these messes would have happened under a president less obsessed with politics, less insulated within his own White House and less trusting of government as an institution.

    “There is little doubt that Obama and Democrats would be making precisely this argument if the same set of controversies had descended on a Republican president. … ”

    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/obamas-dangerous-new-narrative-91390_Page4.html#ixzz2TMhSr6KI

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  7. Eh, yeah don’t harass the right OR left and all that. Everyone agrees with that notion. There are a lot of other problems with the IRS that this scandal highlights, though. It’s a harassing body *by its nature.* It’s not a tool for use by the right against the left, or vice versa. It’s The State against *US*–you and me. Sure, the scandal is one more reason to make the obvious conclusion that Obamacare is a hopeless pipedream, considering how much it relies on the IRS, but the IRS steals money regardless who’s in office.

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  9. It turns out that the IRS approved Liberal 501c groups but either delayed or stonewalled the approval of conservative 501c groups:

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/14/irs-gave-progressives-a-pass-tea-party-groups-put-on-hold/2159983/

    And contributions to a conservative 501c group by Mitt Romney were leaked to the Obama Campaign Co-chairman.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/14/Obama-campaign-co-chair-attacked-Romney-conservative-group-in-2012-with-leaked-IRS-scandal-documents

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  10. I’m sure you have heard about this now. I can’t link from my e-mail, but I have a copy of a letter Franklin Graham wrote the President about both his Samaritan’s Purse, and BGEA being audited after they made newspaper ads supporting Sanctity of Marriage. That is a religious, not political, issue.

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  14. Michelle, I understand. Cindi is the same way. Her comments have always been, “Why can’t they just behave themselves?” Our nation is adrift. Like the apostle Paul once said in his letter to the Romans, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” When our nation chose naturalism over supernaturalism, we lost our way and the good ship America has run a ground and taking on water.

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  17. Nixon. That’s about all I can think of. So still think there are no similarities between what Nixon was charged with and what Obama has done?

    And I quote, from Article 2 of Nixon’s impeachment papers…..

    “Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.

    This conduct has included one or more of the following:

    1. He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”

    Sounds like the same thing.

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  21. Irony: Republicans voted against a bill which would have prevented the DOJ from obtaining phone records as part of a media shield law.
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/nycsouthpaw/gop-congressmen-killed-a-media-shield-law-that-wou-4xje

    As much as the right cries persecution, they are late to the party. The real left has been subject to investigation and harassment for decades. However that is neither here or there as details remain fuzzy and its quite conceivable that the IRS was performing due diligence due to the sudden influx of similar sounding organizations all making similar claims.

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  23. HRW,

    Please. The due dilligence thing is laughable. They’ve pretty much admitted that wasn’t their reason. It was targeting for political reasons. Nothing more.

    I’d love to hear some examples of this decades of harrassment. Bush had a similar situation once. He unlike Obama didn’t do it though.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/alberto-gonzales-subpoena-leak-91405.html?hp=r7

    “Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday that the Bush administration once considered issuing the type of subpoena that the Justice Department issued against the Associated Press, but ultimately opted against it.

    “There was at least one occasion in which we were engaged in a very serious leak investigation and we had to make some very difficult choices about whether or not to move forward, going after the reporters in order to try to figure out where the source of the leak is,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe. “And sometimes, the department finds itself in a situation where they have exhausted all means and they have to make a very hard determination as to whether or not they want to subpoena the reporter, if they want to subpoena the reporter’s notes. So yes, I’ve had that situation. In the instance that I have in mind, we ultimately decided not to move forward.”

    That doesn’t fit your meme huh? 🙂

    And I got news for ya’. The AP story is going to be getting worse. They weren’t the only ones. Looks like the DoJ did the same to the House of Reps during their investigation. That’s gonna be fun to hear them explain.

    Giddy Up!

    And pass the popcorn. 🙂

    Like

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