The LuLac Edition #2420, May 14th, 2013
WHAT, ME WORRY ABOUT THE IRS?
THE IRS EXPLANATION
While everyone seems to think a fatal blow to the Obama second term might be the Benghazi tragedy, the real problem might come from somewhere else. My Aunt Mary, the last surviving member of my dad’s family unit is fond of saying, “The stuff you worry about rarely affects you. The things you never worry about, hit you smack in the face”.I thought of that when I heard the flap about the IRS story making the rounds. IRS watchdogs released documents that show the agency targeted tea party organizations and other groups focused on government spending and the federal debt that were seeking tax-exempt status. It is also alleged that the IRS also paid special attention to applicants with statements that "criticize how the country is run". or that sought to educate the public on how to "make America a better place to live," Some targeted groups include conservative political groups looking to apply for 501(c)(4) status.
Here’s what you get when you have people in the government and an administration that have no regard for past historical perspective. Have they not heard of Richard Nixon using the IRS to stomp his political enemies in the 70s? Was there not an old political hand somewhere that saw what was going on and decided this can’t stand? Or is the government so big it doesn’t know what the hell it is doing? How can this administration justify the IRS handling parts of the Health Care bill when it is clear there are people there with a personal agendas or just plain incompetent? It is a no win situation for the Obama second term.
Are you crooks or are you idiots? No good answer for both. What the President needed to do last weekend was come out and make a statement. Fast. He needs to clean house, fire those involved, make a big deal out of this or he could kiss Immigration Reform, Guns or anything else he might want for his second term.
The President frustrated me because I always thought he should have been more like Lyndon Johnson in trying to knock heads and make deals. He wasn’t good at that. Obama wasted the power he had when first elected. He could have ended the 60 vote filibuster rule in the Senate if he had gone in for the political kill. Now I’m worried that because his people think they can raise millions on line and have a political arm, they could play fast and loose with agencies like the IRS.
President Obama better shut this down quick and get the facts or else he’ll be in a world of hurt from Americans who thought this crap ended when Nixon waved his arms on that helicopter in 1974!
CARTWRIGHT WEIGHS IN ON IRS
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright made the following statement Monday in response to reports that Internal Revenue Service singled out groups seeking tax-exempt status based upon their political affiliation: “The action of targeting groups based on their political views by the IRS that was uncovered on Friday is an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust. Targeting specific groups in a partisan manner is not only inappropriate but it is not tolerable. Now the American people rightfully have questions and we must seek all answers. I look forward to reviewing the Treasury Department Inspector General’s report, and believe that the IRS should be prepared for a full investigation into this manner. The IRS is expected to do its job without prejudice and must be held responsible for all inappropriate actions”THE AP QUESTION
Is this another percolating scandal or is it a serious screw up? The Justice Department has outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in four news bureaus including New York, and Washington D.C. Plus, there were records of calls coming from the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. That was revealed by Attorneys from the AP yesterday afternoon.What has happened, either by design or stupidity is that for a period of time, the Justice Department had a road map to how the Associated Prees operated. News people and editors records were monitored in the spring of 2012. But the worst part about this is the Justice Department is not even coming up with an excuse or justification.
The Obama administration now has a press problem. By the administration going after a news entity, every reporter with a press pass is not going to trust them on anything. Plus, once more this puts at jeopardy the goals of the second term. On this deal, the President should do two things:
1. Fire Attorney General Eric Holder, not for this slip up but for not providing a valid reason why this was needed.
2. The President should ground Air Force 1 and sit his ass in Washington, D.C. to get his house, The White House in order!
Now!
posted by David Yonki @ 5:58 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
The IRS deal is pretty serious. If this happened under George W., they'd be storming the White House!
There can be honest differences of opinion on many subjects. But there can also be dishonest differences. If you paid any attention at all you realized last week's testimony about events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 makes painfully clear that what the Obama administration told the American people were lies.
What we were told repeatedly last year by the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the American ambassador to the U.N., was that there was a protest demonstration in Benghazi against an anti-Islamic video produced by an American, and that this protest demonstration simply escalated out of control.
This "spontaneous protest" story did not originate in Libya but in Washington. Neither the Americans on duty in Libya during the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, nor officials of the Libyan government, said anything about a protest demonstration.
The highest American diplomat on the scene in Libya spoke directly with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by phone, and told her that it was a terrorist attack. The president of Libya announced that it was a terrorist attack. The C.I.A. told the Obama administration that it was a terrorist attack.
With lies, as with Lays, it is hard to stop with just one. After the "spontaneous protest" story was discredited, the next claim was that this was the best information available at the time from intelligence sources.
But that claim cannot survive scrutiny, now that the 12 drafts of the Obama administration's talking points about Benghazi have belatedly come to light. As draft after draft of the talking points were made, e-mails from the State Department pressured the intelligence services to omit from these drafts their clear and unequivocal statement from the outset that this was a terrorist attack.
Attempts to make it seem that Ambassador Susan Rice's false story about a "spontaneous protest" was the result of her not having accurate information from the intelligence services have now been exposed as a second lie to excuse the first lie.
Despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's loudly proclaimed question "What difference, at this point, does it make?" the difference is between an honest mistake and a calculated lie to deceive the American people, in order to win an election.
Remember? Barack Obama's election campaign speeches had proclaimed the death of Osama bin Laden as an accomplishment of his administration, as part of a general defeat of Al-Qaeda and other terrorists. To admit that these terrorists were still in action, and strong enough to kill an American ambassador and three other Americans in a well-coordinated military style attack, would be a politically devastating admission during the election campaign.
Far better, politically, to come up with a story about a protest demonstration that just got out of hand. This could be presented as an isolated, one-time event, rather than part of a continuing pattern of terrorism by groups that were still active, despite President Obama's spin suggesting that they were not.
The problem with telling a lie, or even a succession of lies, is that a very small dose of the truth can sometimes make the whole thing collapse like a house of cards. The State Department's own foreign service officer Gregory Hicks was in Libya during the attack, so he knew the truth. When threats were not enough to silence him, it was then necessary to try to discredit him.
After years of getting glowing job evaluations, and awards of honors from the State Department for his work in various parts of the world, Mr. Hicks suddenly began to get bad job evaluations and was demoted to a desk job in Washington after he spoke with a Congressman about what he knew. The truth is dangerous to liars.
-more
The administration's excuse for not trying to get help to the Americans in Benghazi while they were under attack -- namely, that it would take too long -- is as shaky as its other statements. A small fighting unit in Tripoli was ready to get on a plane to Benghazi when they were ordered to "stand down." Other fighting units located outside of Libya are designed precisely for fast deployment -- and nobody knew how many hours the attack would last.
But it will take more investigations to determine who gave the order to "stand down," and why. How many new lies that will generate is another question.
Keep paying attention.
RE: 10:16...IRS deal occuring under W hypothetical:
Not really. If he had the GOP majorities he enjoyed for his first six years.
By the way, the head of the IRS was appointed by the sainted George W.
Get outta that....
"By the way, the head of the IRS was appointed by the sainted George W."
Bush apparently set and held a higher standard for those around him.
Enter Obama and the cancer of corruption gets the oxygen it needs.
WORSE than Nixon.
Anon: 552: Your reply has no merit. Again, the head of the IRS when this bullshit occured was W's appointee......like the Texan you so admire, who by the way used his magic to turn a Democrat surplus into trillion dolllars of debt, you have no clue.
Enjoy your golf game with the senile Professor this weekend. Maybe he'll buy you some lobster at the club.
Have a great day!
Burning too much incense again Popey.
Come into the present and widen your reading. There is enough info out there to make even YOU question the IRS debacle - if you so choose to consider all possibilities.
Maybe YOUR comfortable with the antics of the agency tasked with managing the Health Care program as well as collecting our taxes.
Perhaps your records have been cleansed of any questionable health matters. Been treated for depression, smoking cessation, anxiety? I am not inclined to allow them that access even it is for your.
Maybe you don't have the kind of contact that Joe Average does when he files his return.
I suggest we pay attention to how everything plays out. Who knows, you may be right.
Of course to blame these IRS antics aimed at conservative groups and citizens on the previous administration who benefited from their support has to be the most brilliant end around ever conceived by a Texan oft mocked for his stupidity.
Read that again Popey and then reconsider who amongst us suffers from bovine excrement syndrome. Amen
You can bet emotions are running high on the right side of the political spectrum since the terrifying discovery that the Internal Revenue Service has for years been harassing dozens – maybe hundreds – of Tea Party and conservative grassroots groups.
Within those victimized (and now vindicated) Tea Party groups is rage but also a sense of satisfaction that they have been proven correct. The Obama government - indeed the entire Establishment - was out to get them, and now the world knows it.
It’s not often that an individual or group gets to be a hero and a victim all at the same time. The fact that this has come with such a tidal wave confirms what conservatives have feared about liberals and big government. Of course, it can happen again.
Meanwhile, the Republican establishment - from American Crossroads to the Republican National Committee – might be embarrassed that the IRS did not think them worthy of harassing. In other words, the IRS might have seen the GOP as too feckless to worry about. Either explanation is not good for the national Republicans.
Let’s face it: the Tea Party movement is comprised of breakaway elements of conservatives disgusted with Big Government Republicans. They remain separate and apart even today because they perceive that the national GOP is still a part of the corruption in Washington.
The crimes committed by the IRS have yet to be completely cataloged but unless millions are paid out in damages and people go to jail, justice will not be served. What they did was not rinky-dink. There was a longstanding conspiracy inside the IRS to deny the Tea Party their basic civil rights to political speech and action and association while rubber-stamping any liberal group’s application.
Thousands of questions need to be asked. Did outside liberal groups conspire with the IRS against the Tea Party? As far as the Tea Party and its sympathizers are concerned, nearly everybody in Washington is a suspect.
The Tea Party has found the enemy and it is within the Washington Establishment.
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