Seems this Administration didn't want much news at all coming out between May and November of 2012.

But all of this just happened. No one's to blame. Maybe some policies.

Just yesterday the committee interviewed Holly Paz, the director of exempt organizations, rulings and agreements, division of the IRS,' Issa said. 'While a tremendous amount of attention is centered about the Inspector General's report, or investigation, the committee has learned from Ms. Paz that she in fact participated in an IRS internal investigation that concluded in May of 2012 - May 3 of 2012 - and found essentially the same thing that Mr. George found more than a year later.'

At the Hearings: Democratic Representative Matt Cartwright is pushing the "caseload doubled" falsehood, and is claiming that the problem is that the poor overburdened IRS just didn't have enough money (aka "resources") to carry out its tasks without resorting to political targeting.

[Update - Andy] It will, of course, shock you to learn that the above-mentioned Holly Paz donated $2,000 to Obama's 2008 campaign.

Posted by: Ace at 07:53 AM | Comments (367)
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Lawfare 1- Justice 0.

The U.S. has identified five men who might be responsible for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and has enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists, officials say. But there isn't enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.

The men remain at large while the FBI gathers evidence. But the investigation has been slowed by the reduced U.S. intelligence presence in the region since the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, and by the limited ability to assist by Libya's post-revolutionary law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which are still in their infancy since the overthrow of dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

The decision not to seize the men militarily underscores the White House aim to move away from hunting terrorists as enemy combatants and holding them at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The preference is toward a process in which most are apprehended and tried by the countries where they are living or arrested by the U.S. with the host country's cooperation and tried in the U.S. criminal justice system. Using military force to detain the men might also harm fledgling relations with Libya and other post-Arab-Spring governments with whom the U.S. is trying to build partnerships to hunt al-Qaida as the organization expands throughout the region.

3 words...Drone their asses.

This is my favorite part.

There was a worry that the men could get spooked and hide, but so far, not even the FBI's release of surveillance video stills has done that.

It's almost as if they know Obama is impotent and don't fear the US.

This is what happens when you treat terrorism as a crime like bank robbery and not war.

Heck of a job America! Heck of a job!

Posted by: DrewM at 07:10 AM | Comments (180)
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Lois Lerner is going to assert her 5th Amendment Right to avoid self-incrimination.

That's her right. She should also be fired immediately. She has no right to draw a paycheck from the People Of The United States Of America if, as a government employee, she is unwilling or unable to cooperate with legitimate Congressional oversight, then she is unfit to continue in her position.

It's on CSPAN-3 and some of the cable nets are breaking in and out. You can't get a livestream here.

BTW- bumping down amnesty news is part of the problem. Obviously this is hot news but amnesty is, in the words of Joe Biden, a Big F'n Deal.

UPDATE: What a smug SOB she is. She sat there like she'd done nothing wrong and was above it all. She's the perfect bureaucrat. Clean the lot of them out.

The Civil Service system doesn't prevent politicization of government, it prevents anything being done about it.

Issa dismissed her and her attorney from the hearing.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:03 AM | Comments (597)
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Looks like they'll try and ram it through the Senate while everyone is on Scandal Watch.

After five days of debate over dozens of amendments, the Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 5 in support of the bill, with three Republicans joining the committeeÂ’s 10 Democrats. The legislation emerged with its core provisions largely intact, including new visa programs for high-tech and low-skilled workers and new investments in strengthening border control.

...

The comprehensive bill is now headed to the full Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged fellow Republicans on Tuesday not to block the bill from a floor vote. The Congressional Budget Office will take two weeks to issue an assessment of the fiscal cost of the bill, so Democratic aides said the floor debate could begin around June 10.

The 3 Republican yes votes were Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Orin Hatch. I guess Hatch is done pretending to be a conservative and is back to his old deal making ways.

Don't let these three idiots fool you into thinking they made things better, they were right there with Chuck Schumer all the way. Sometimes Chuck let them pretend to be standing tough but it was all for show.

On Monday, Schumer was caught by CSPAN asking a staffer “Do our Republicans have a pass on this one if they want?” in reference to a Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., amendment that would have denied earned income tax credits (EITC) to amnestied immigrants. In fact, Schumer’s Republicans did “have a pass” on that amendment. Flake and Graham voted with their colleagues to limit the EITC. But, since Democrats have a majority on the committee, that amendment, and every other conservative amendment trying to restrict the growth of the welfare states, failed.

It will be at least two weeks before the bill can come to the Senate floor. That's the time they need to write the fairy tale CBO cost report.

We're going to have to take a pause on Scandal Mania for a bit at some point to try and bring the pressure to stop this crap. Again.

Added: Amnesty* isn't just terrible policy, it's awful politics.

Bloomberg’s Al Hunt: “For the president to have a good second term, he has to get a good immigration bill through. That’s a sine qua non of everything. If he doesn’t get that through, it’s going to be really a dreadful year.”

CNN’s Jessica Yellin: “[President Obama] actually could have a very successful second term (despite) the controversies he’s facing today. If he gets immigration reform done, that would be a major legacy accomplishment. . . .They’re hoping here [at the White House] that if he does immigration that would break the narrative that he is entrenched in, this sort of swirl of ineptitude and controversy, and put him on a solid footing again.”

Yes, let's screw over the country, any shred of hope for shrinking government AND hand Obama a win. That's the kind of genius level thinking you can expect from the GOP.

*Don't take my word for it that this amnesty, take Marco Rubio's.

"Earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty."- @marcorubio 10/24/10 ace.mu.nu/archives/33934Â… Â…

— DrewM (@DrewMTips) May 9, 2013

Posted by: DrewM at 05:45 AM | Comments (137)
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• CNN Anchor Scolds Someone He Thinks Is A Congressman
  
• Sowell: Wimps Versus Barbarians
  
• Weiner Releases His Announcement Video Prematurely On the Voters Of NYC
  
• Ed Markey Cheered Government Witch Hunt Against Gibson Guitar
  
• "Barack's Learning To Speak Without A Teleprompter, I'm Learning To Speak With One
  
• Liberals Of Portland Fight Of The Menace Of Fluoridated Water
  
• Bloomberg Is Unhinged And Probably Shouldn't Be Able To Own A Gun
  
• How The Media Progressives Go About Shaping People's Perceptions Of News Stories
  
• Well That's One Way To Protest Gay Marriage
  
• With Government Abuses, The Problem Is With The Power, Not The Person
  
• NASA Looking Into 3-D Printable Food
  
• Another California Green Policy Flop
  
• An Early Sign Of Obamacare's Impending Collapse
  
• Syria, Israel Exchange Fire On The Golan Heights
  
• Oklahoma Tornado, Glenn Beck And Twitter To The Rescue
  
• Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Immigration Reform Bill
  
• Leahy Withdraws LGBT Amendment From Immigration Bill
  
• Zero Conservatives Selected To Give Ivy League Commencement Addresses
  
• This Made Me Laugh
  
• Woman Ingests Mushrooms, Strips Naked And Has To Be Rescued Off Colorado Mountain
  

You can follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:55 AM | Comments (181)
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Happy Wednesday.

You're going to have to give me some leeway this morning. All of Obama's scandals are starting to blur together and I can't tell what is new and what is just being repeated, perhaps with different emphasis. I think this is all new stuff, but the problem with Obama is that there have been so many iterations of his scandals that it's not inconceivable that I've simply missed some.

First, the New Yorker expands on the DOJ vs. FNC scandal, reporting that DOJ seized phone records for additional Fox News phone lines as well as two phone lines at the White House.

Second, Fox News is reporting that military sources in Benghazi are saying that they have been forbidden from going after the perpetrators of the 9/11/12 attack, even though they know who the perpetrators are and, generally, where they are located.

And, finally, with respect to the IRS scandal, other media sources are beginning to notice that the Administration's attempt to minimize -- "it was just a field office in Cincinnati" -- is false: direction for the scheme to harass conservatives came from Washington, D.C.

Liberals tittering about Oklahoma's senators having to ask their colleagues to pass a bill for federal assistance in recovering from the Moore tornado will be disappointed to discovering that no such bill is necessary.

And this is breaking news, so take it with a grain of salt, but an FBI agent has reportedly shot and killed a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Florida.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:46 AM | Comments (356)
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Economic activity has doubled from 2009 to 2012...

...underground economic activity that is.

...the size of the underground economy in the U.S. in 2012 reached $2 trillion...this figure was only $1 trillion in 2009...

...possible that the transition from state-sanctioned economic activity to counter-economic activity will not be a temporary development related to current economic turmoil, but will be the first step toward the emergence of a truly free market through the theory of agorism...

The underground or “black” economy is rapidly rising, and the fault is mainly due to government policies. Here is the evidence...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:10 AM | Comments (44)
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Oh and here are some breaking updates:

• Jon Lovitz: Obama Is Peddling A Victim Mentality
• Thomas Friedman is Retardated on Jeopardy
• End of Justice4Trayvon: Witness Says Trayvon Attacked Him "MMA Style"

Welcome Back to the 70's

Tonight the WayBack machine is taking us back to the 1970's - the evening of November 10, 1975 to be exact. And you'll get to (re)experience almost a half hour of solid 70's commercial goodness.

Now step inside and away we go....

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:40 PM | Comments (756)
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Who do these people think they are?

Do they not understand that they offend the dignity of the government they serve when they question it?

Someone should remind them.

BTW: If you haven't noticed, please take note of the HUGE CORRECTION in the story below.

Posted by: Ace at 03:24 PM | Comments (413)
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From a good post by Draw and Strike, watch this headline...

Treasury Knew of I.R.S. Inquiry in 2012, Official Says

...become this one:

Republicans Expand I.R.S. Inquiry, With Eye on White House

And on p. 12, to boot.

In case you missed it, the LATimes completely buried its huge scoop about Lori Lerner taking the Fifth.

Posted by: Ace at 02:37 PM | Comments (62)
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