The revelations about the corruption and abuses of power within in the Obama administration has shown one thing very clearlyÂ…Obama has not taken care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed.

Simple math will show that Obama will not be impeached and convicted. In fact trying to do so is folly. He will become a martyr to the left and his ultimate acquittal will only vindicate his history of abuse.

What can be done however is a full stop, nothing passes, nothing moves from the House of Representatives until substantive progress is made on rooting out the malefactors who have turned the executive branch into a hyper-partisan, unaccountable, enforcement arm of the Democratic Party. Yes, elections have consequences and Democrats have every right to guide policies to their liking, they have no right to use the power of government to impede the legal political activities of opponents or do enforce laws in ways that give their political allies an advantage.

WeÂ’ve rightly heard over the last 3 plus years that the House alone is insufficient to move forward any entitlement reforms that could possibly pass. It is insufficient to repeal of ObamaCare. The House alone cannot do any of the things conservatives would like to see happen while the Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

What weÂ’ve also been told however is that the House can stop new bad things from happen. Now is the time to exercise that power.

This is a partial list of what I think must be cleared up before the GOP passes any more legislation:

• Understand why an IRS official who her superiors knew was targeting conservative political groups received six-figure bonuses for her work and is now charged with heading the IRS implementation of ObamaCare.

• Ensure that the people who targeted the President’s opponents have been removed from the government.

• Protections must be put in place and demonstrated to be effective to ensure that the IRS is no longer engaged in partisan warfare against citizens who may not share this President’s poitical views.

• HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebeilius must be full investigated for her extra-legal fundraising activities from organizations and companies she is empowered to regulate under the Affordable Care Act.

• There must also be a full accounting of Sebelius’ prior violation of the Hatch Act, which appears to have gone unpunished.

• There must be a full investigation of the AP subpoena issue, including the actions of the Attorney General and the handing of his alleged recusal.

As I said, this is just a partial list of issues that must be addressed and corrective action taken before the House of Representatives does a damn thing.

Debt ceiling hike? No. Maybe in exchange for something concrete like SebeliusÂ’ resignation or a delay in the implementation of ObamaCare until these investigations are complete and corrective actions are made.

Budget? Sure, as long as it doesnÂ’t include any funding for ObamaCare and the IRSÂ’ role in implementing it.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform? Hell no. At this point does anyone trust the IRS or Department of Homeland Security under this President to actual enforce any provisions other than giving the maximum number of illegal immigrants legal status as quickly as possible? Do you really think the IRS is going to disqualify illegals from legal status over unpaid back taxes?

Nothing moves Mr. Speaker. Nothing.

This will not be a politically popular stand, at least at first. People will think itÂ’s simply partisan gamesmanship. It will be up to Republicans to explain the stakes here.

In the past IÂ’ve opposed government shutdowns because thereÂ’s no identifiable path to winning and because yes, when you know you canÂ’t win, you have to live to fight another day. But if stopping this country from sliding into a 3rd world banana republic where the politically powerful can crush their opposition by using the power of government isnÂ’t a hill worth fighting on what is? If the GOP wonÂ’t make this stand, what exactly is their purpose?

Shut it down Mr. Speaker. Shut it down.

Added: I originally wrote this to be posted on Friday but things got busy and I never found a spot to post it, so I put it up at my little blog. Allah was kind enough to link to it from Hot Air but as part of a post with a disturbing theory...all the scandals make things like amnesty easier to pass.

I am under no illusions that Boehner or the GOP would actually go the route I propose but he should.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:19 AM | Comments (322)
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A certain forgettyness.

Oh, by the way, he was also asked if he made any notes about these matters. Notes which could be subpoenaed.

His answer: "I don't remember."

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Posted by: Ace at 07:20 AM | Comments (328)
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Who will rid me of this troublesome Tea Party?

President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.

But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.

Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. "He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?" asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.

And of course there's more there.

Peggy Noonan is also worth reading.

We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they're seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration's credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don't look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone.

Something big has shifted. The standing of the administration has changed.

As always it comes down to trust. Do you trust the president's answers when he's pressed on an uncomfortable story? Do you trust his people to be sober and fair-minded as they go about their work? Do you trust the IRS and the Justice Department? You do not.

The president, as usual, acts as if all of this is totally unconnected to him. He's shocked, it's unacceptable, he'll get to the bottom of it. He read about it in the papers, just like you.

But he is not unconnected, he is not a bystander. This is his administration. Those are his executive agencies. He runs the IRS and the Justice Department.

A president sets a mood, a tone. He establishes an atmosphere. If he is arrogant, arrogance spreads. If he is to too partisan, too disrespecting of political adversaries, that spreads too. Presidents always undo themselves and then blame it on the third guy in the last row in the sleepy agency across town.

Posted by: Ace at 06:45 AM | Comments (191)
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Good luck to all you morons who are playin' Powerball or MegaMillions. Of course, you'd have better odds just playing some poker with your neighbors or playing some blackjack at the local casino but hey, it is fun to dream of winning a large jackpot like that.

At this point in scandalpalooza, I don't think the IRS can ever be trusted to do their job in a non-political, professional way. Not when you have a largely unioned work force that overwhelmingly donates and supports Democrats and is largely incompetent. Are you willing to now trust them to oversee Obamacare compliance? I'm not. I have zero faith in their ability to their jobs in a fair and impartial way. Factor in the Administration's response by asking for resignations from someone who was retiring anyway and from another guy who had been in the job a week, they really aren't serious in addressing what is wrong with the IRS. Resignations aren't enough either. Jail time needs to happen. You know, serious repercussions. Otherwise it's like the 4 State Department folks that got fired for Benghazi. They lay low, wait a bit and then come right on back into a job paid for with taxpayer money.

Now, in regard as to how to proceed, I think Ben Domenech is exactly right here. Republicans and the long game.

HereÂ’s the hard thing Republicans have to do if they donÂ’t want this crisis to go to waste: they have to ignore their id, the temptation of the sugar high of partisan point-scoring. They must willfully set aside ObamaÂ’s presence in the fray, leaving the short term personalized attacks on the table, and go after the much bigger prize. Obama isnÂ’t running for office again. Liberalism is. Making this about him is a short term boost to the pleasure center of the conservative brain. Making this about the inherent falsehood of the progressive project will help conservatism win.

The point is that these scandals cut at the core conceit of ObamaÂ’s ideology: the healthy and enduring confidence of big government to be good government.

Posted by: CDR M at 05:56 PM | Comments (908)
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The IRS hearing on Capitol Hill has begun. At the moment, notorious tax cheat and scumbag Charlie Rangel is speaking.

Don't worry, the administration and Democrats will get to the bottom of this. They have their best low level men working on this. Low Level Men!

Live feed below the jump.

It Depends on What the Definition of "Is" Is [Rick Tempest]: Every scandal needs a catchphrase, and Steve Miller just offered one up.

Speaking of his previous testimony, he said:

"It was inccorect but not untruthful."

Miller just also asked for more money for the IRS, so that they could do their jobs better.

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Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:58 AM | Comments (416)
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• Low Information Americans Not Paying Attention To Obama Scandals
  
• Want To Keep Obama's IRS Scandal In The News? Use Dem Tactics Against Them
  
• Detroit's So Broke That It's Sending Trustees To Hawaii
  
• Venezuela Facing A Toilet Paper Shortage
  
• Another Gosnell?
  
• What Kind Of Person Fakes A Right-Wing Hate Crime Against Themselves
  
• Barack Obama's Bizarre Movie Idol
  
• Toronto Mayor Involved In Crack Cocaine Scandal
  
• The News Agency Obama Was Spying On Is Still Licking His Boots
  
• Michael Barone: In Defense Of Jason Richwine And Charles Murray
  
• Jay Carney Has Really Enjoyed This Past Week
  
• Woodward, "I Would Not Dismiss Benghazi"
  
• This Is Why I Never Jump On Those Hero Of The Week Stories
  
• Man Arrested For Rubbing A Pepperoni On His 'Pepperoni' In A Grocery Store
  

Sorry for the short news dump, my dog rolled in deer crap this morning and I had to spend 30 minutes washing it out.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:14 AM | Comments (252)
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Happy Friday.
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:44 AM | Comments (335)
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What the Modern Spy is Carrying

On Tuesday the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested  Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and accused him of being a CIA agent and attempting to recruit a Russian as an agent.

The FSB also released a list of the equipment he was carrying:  wigs, sunglasses, lots of cash, a map, compass, a recruitment letter, cellphone, flashlight, pocket knife, key holder, pepper spray, batteries, notebook,  and a cigarette lighter.

It's decidedly lo-tech but then there's no school like the old school. Hell I carry about half of this on a daily basis - and more when I'm out looking to have a pretty good weekend in Vegas.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:52 PM | Comments (787)
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:49 PM | Comments (29)
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The woman actually in charge of the tax-exempt division during the scandal, who oversaw the political persecution of Tea Partiers?

Now the head of the IRS' ObamaCare enforcement division.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRSÂ’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

So she gets a promotion, and her successor, who knew about the scandal and didn't tell anyone but did not actually oversee it, takes the fall.

And another Fall Guy has been offered, too-- the current commissioner of the tax-exempt division is now resigning.

But he was appointed to this position just eight days ago.

We don't know yet if this is a complete farce, but it sure looks like one.

The worst case scenario is if he was just promoted to a higher position so that Obama could announce "Another high-ranking official has been asked to resign."

We don't know yet what he was promoted from. But we do need to know.

So this guy, who may have been promoted to the position just to be fired from it, takes the fall, while the woman actually responsible for the regime is now enforcing ObamaCare.

How many flunkies are going to be made to fall on their swords to avoid the call for the resignation of Sarah Hall Ingram?

Meanwhile, two pro-life groups were denied 501(c)4 status. It gets worse.

“In one case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa. In a phone call to Coalition for Life of Iowa leaders on June 6, 2009, the IRS agent ‘Ms. Richards’ told the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board’s signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside of Planned Parenthood,” the Thomas More Society announced today. “Once the IRS received this letter, their application would be approved.”

Get In Their Faces: Was their a link between Obama's "Fight the Smears" snitch-on-your-neighbors-for-free-speech site and IRS retribution?

During the debate over adopting ObamaCare the White House encouraged liberal activists to report Obama’s critics to a “Flag@WhiteHouse.gov” email address. At least one of those reported tells RedState.com editor Erick Erickson he was then targeted with audits. “Remember that website Obama set up to report neighbors who opposed Obamacare? A friend reported himself and got audited shortly thereafter,” Erickson tweeted May 13.

“We need to know if there were any others. This certainly fits the rapidly-expanding pattern of people who criticize Obama suddenly finding themselves targeted by the IRS,” said Stockman. “Obama’s IRS scandal is spreading like a cancer.”

Bonus: To be more precise, Sarah Hall Ingram received over $100,000 in bonuses for her yeowoman work from 2010 to 2012.

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Posted by: Ace at 02:55 PM | Comments (958)
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