Overnight Open Thread (5-21-2012)

—Maetenloch

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....

Thousands of Criminals Commit Anti-American Speech Acts, Defiling Exalted Temples of Government

—Ace

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.

Flashback: Zimmerman Prosecutor Finally Releases Minor Fact:
There Was An Eyewitness Who Saw Trayvon Martin On Top of Zimmerman, Beating Him "Mixed Martial Arts Style"

—Ace

Ummm...

This entire post has to be retracted: It dates from May 21st... of last year.

So, it's true. But it's not. This information was released a year ago.

Darn. This is terribly embarrassing.

Oh, I'll just throw a "FLASHBACK" into the headline; that will fix everything.

The Smoking Gun highlighted this bit of eyewitness testimony – released to the public by the Sanford police only a few days ago, but known to the prosecution when Zimmerman was charged – tendered to the police only 90 minutes after the shooting occurred, by a resident of Zimmerman’s community who heard the altercation and decided to investigate:

The man recalled seeing “a black male, wearing a dark colored ‘hoodie’ on top of a white or Hispanic male who was yelling for help.” The black male, he added, “was mounted on the white or Hispanic male and throwing punches ‘MMA (mixed martial arts) style.’”

The witness–who was in his living room and about 30 feet away from the confrontation– said he called out to the two men that he was dialing 911. “He then heard a ‘pop,’” police reported, and saw the black male “laid out on the grass.”

I remind you: This evidence was just released to the defendant a few days ago.*

* Or a year ago. Either/or.

You know, I actually did check the date, to make sure it was New News. I got as far as "May 21st." I really should have finished up reading the entire date.

Watch the New York Times' Editors Go To Work on an Accurate, Important Story That Hurts Obama

—Ace

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.

PJMedia: Two More Benghazi Witnesses May Step Forward with Explosive Revelations
Caution: Don't Get Too Attached to the Story Until It's Actually Out

—Ace

The key here is "may." They feel -- rightly -- that they may be prosecuted or otherwise punished for their truthful testimony, and do not want to offer the testimony until they have protection.

I don't know how that will happen. This Administration is punishing anyone who crosses them.

But if they do speak, they'll have a tale to tell.

According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel.

Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.

And there's more. Guess who urged arming the "insurgents" with the Stingers, despite the warnings of their membership in Al Qaeda?

Via @dostoevskyghost

Update: I missed the most important part. Read Page 2. Holy shit.

Caution Flags: There are questions being raised about this story. The chief questions are "Why would Panetta call Ham's subordinate when he could just talk to Ham, right in the room with him" and "Why arm the insurgents with Stingers when we had air power committed to the effort?"

On the "Stingers" point, I honestly never thought they actually armed anyone with "Stingers." I assume they mean any kind of heavy rocket arm.

At any rate, while this all looks like Very Serious News, it has to be noted, at the very least, that this information is not on the record yet. It's just being whispered about, what so-and-so would say if he were asked, and had whistleblower protection.

I think the major problem that animates skeptics is that this article has a strong odor of Too Good To Be True. I didn't even see the stuff about the Petraeus stuff at the end; that has long been suspected by some, and this seems a little Too Good To Be True on that ground.

Carney's Follies: Claims that Questions about Sebelius' HHS Fundraising Scandal are Like Questions About Obama's Birth Certificate

—Ace

Jay Carney likens HHS questions to Birth Certificate questions.

It's an interesting gambit, because it's so childish. He's essentially trying to tell the kids that they can only be Cool Kids if they agree to dismiss questions Carney doesn't like as silly.

If you ask about HHS, you're not a Cool Kid. You're a Weird Kid.

The gambit has worked in the past but does not appear to be working any longer.

Carney looks, dare I say, Ziegleresque in attempting to pretend a laugh at the question.

Spotted: Ezra Klein, Other JournoList Juiceboxers Seen Heading Over to the White House for a Private Briefing

—Ace

Question: What spin will he offer them -- in order that they may ventriloquize his own arguments and spin -- that he can't or won't offer from his own mouth?

Consider: Obama's stated position is that the IRS scandal is "outrageous" and that he's "outraged" by it.

Now if Ezra Klein et al. begin peddling a line that "It's really not that bad" and "It's all overblown" and "It's just a partisan witch-hunt," doesn't this mean Obama's public declarations of outrage are lies?

Jay Carney Shows Off His Superpower

—JohnE.

Precognition.

Lois Lerner Will Plead The Fifth Tomorrow, Rather Than Answer Questions About IRS Partisan Targeting

—Ace

From the LA Times.

Oh, don't bother looking for this huge scoop on their website. They have buried it, and I do mean buried, at the bottom, well under "Sports," in a little "Politics" headline scroll.

Since they have no interest in advertising their scoop I don't know why I bother citing them at all. But I suppose I must maintain appearances, even if the LATimes no longer feels required to.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening – or why she didn’t reveal it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor 3rd.

Shit Status Update: Real. via jgs.

Fantastic Vid from Drew

—Ace

Reject these voices. And, maybe, audit them.

Daily Kos Poster: Damn, I Gots T' Tap S.E. Cupp's Fine Ass!

—Ace

Uh huh.

And I'm 14th level Druid!!!! I cast Fire Seeds !!!

Pew-pew! Pew-pew-pew!

(Safe link to Daily Caller.)

* Corrected! It's not Markos. It's some other Shemp who has the ability to post on his blog.

Sorry, I thought it was Markos.

Though, now that I think about it, that makes zero sense, eh?

Reporter to Jay Carney: No One Would Ever Call You Forthcoming

—Ace

A little bit of heat in today's Festival of Lies.

Why Dan Pfeiffer Calls the Law "Irrelevant:" Because the White House Doesn't Want to Prosecute Its Minions

—Ace

One of the biggest jokes in politics is when a corrupt administration starts talking exclusively about reforming policy.

When Al Gore took money from Chinese nuns who were pass-throughs for illegal donations from the Chinese government, what spin did he and his media allies employ? That The System needs to be reformed.

And what of Al Gore? Does Al Gore himself need to be held accountable?

Nay. Just The System.

From the Washington Post, note how Dan Pfeiffer strains to push the investigation away from anything resembling personal consequences for law-breakers:

“I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant,” Pfefiffer said on ABC News’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed to ensure it never happens again.”

Stephanopoulos replied: “You don’t really mean the law is irrelevant, do you?”

Pfeiffer responded: “What I mean is, whether it’s legal or illegal is not important to the fact that the conduct doesn’t matter. The Department of Justice has said that they’re looking into the legality of this. The president is not going to wait for that. We have to make sure it does not happen again, regardless of how that turns out.”

The law is "irrelevant." We do not need to talk about who broke what law, or who should be charged with what crime. All we need to do is change some policies and call it a day.

Is that the way an Administration which is alleged "outraged" speaks? Is this the language of an Administration which is determined to find out who's at fault?

No. It's the language of an Administration which doesn't want anyone prosecuted.

And why should that be? Why does Obama care about the legal jeopardy faced by a "low level employee"? He's got the YouTube filmmaker in jail; this is obviously not a man much concerned with the welfare of useful political scapegoats.

You can either throw a "policy" under the bus or you can throw a person under the bus.

There is one huge advantage to throwing a policy under the bus: Policies do not begin leaking to the media and then turn on their higher-ups when they're thrown under the bus.

People do. People will keep quiet... so long as you protect them from legal consequences. But when faced with such consequences, they tend to talk.

Policies do not.

Policies are the most useful scapegoat at all.

Obama's spokesman Dan Pfeiffer only wishes to discuss Severe Consequences which will befall a Policy. He only wants to talk about the future, not about punishing past misdeeds.

Why?

I know one thing: He's pursuing the Perfect Strategy if he wants people to stay shut-up and wants to keep people from sharing all they know.

I don't think this is an accident.

I think it's the plan.

And if it is the plan -- which it is -- why would Obama want to keep the investigation as small and limited as possible, if he really has no fear of what people might say were they to be charged with a crime?

Sharyl Attkisson: I'm Not Pointing Fingers, But I Think My Computer Was Breached Since at Least February 2011

—Ace

She's a little tentative about stating, as a fact, that her computer was breached; I think she's saying she suspects it, and has people looking into it, but isn't quite sure yet.

I sure hope she hasn't jumped the gun on this allegation, because she's one of the only "mainstream" media reporters who doesn't take Obama's word as the Gold Standard, and actually bothers checking up on whether he's telling the truth.

All other "mainstream" reporters take it as a fact that Obama cannot like -- being Jesus-like -- and so if he says "I've looked into and cleared myself," that's the end of the inquiry.

This would be the End of Things if true.

Incidentally, the DoJ says it doesn't "anticipate" filing charges against James Rosen for espionage.

Of course not. That was just a fraud perpetrated on the court to get access to his emails.

Senate Hearings on IRS Scandal

—Ace

Livestream.

The Democrats only want to discuss whether the 501(c)4 rules should be tightened, that is, they don't want to talk about politically targeting at all. They are coming very, very close to flat-out justifying Obama's IRS' actions.

Some small news: Steve Miller now admits the question asked of Lori Lerner was planted, walking back his previous ambiguity.

The author of the IG Report notes that the IRS staffers who denied a political motivation in their targeting did so not under oath.

Not under oath? There's almost no point in asking questions, then.

The News Isn't Buying What Carney's Selling

—Gabriel Malor

And, now that it's been in the news, President Obama might even know it. (Sorry to canibalize twitter content, but it's this or a music video.)

And to cap it off, 50% say President Obama deserves at least a little blame for the IRS targeting of conservatives.

The Only Person In State Department Bureau That Oversaw Libya Who Has Been Punished For Benghazi Had Nothing To Do With It

—DrewM.

Meet Raymond Maxwell, the man who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs at the time of the Benghazi attack.

Raymond Maxwell was placed on forced “administrative leave” after the State Department’s own internal investigation, conducted by an Administrative Review Board (ARB) led by former State Department official Tom Pickering. Five months after he was told to clean out his desk and leave the building, Maxwell remains in professional and legal limbo, having been associated publicly with the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American for reasons that remain unclear.

...

The decision to place Maxwell on administrative leave was made by Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills, according to three State Department officials with direct knowledge of the events. On the day after the unclassified version of the ARB’s report was released in December, Mills called Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Beth Jones and directed her to have Maxwell leave his job immediately.

"Cheryl Mills directed me to remove you immediately from the [deputy assistant secretary] position," Jones told Maxwell, according to Maxwell.

The decision to remove Maxwell and not Jones seems to conflict with the finding of the ARB that responsibility for the security failures leading up to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi should fall on more senior officials.

“We fixed [the responsibility] at the assistant secretary level, which is in our view the appropriate place to look, where the decision-making in fact takes place, where, if you like, the rubber hits the road," Pickering said when releasing the ARB report.

So what happened to the Maxwell's superior (the above mentioned Assistant Secretary of State for Near Easter Affairs, the level at which the State Departments on review said was where responsibility should be fixed? Nothing. But her top deputy did get promoted to the number two spot in London. If that's punishment, then sign me up.

Maxwell and others at State say he had nothing to do with security decisions and that he's essentially taking the fall for Hillary. In a wonderfully Clintonian twist, the forced leave isn't considered a punishment so Maxwell can't avail himself of internal State Department disciplinary mechanisms to try and clear his name.

Lovely stuff, huh?

In related news, State released a statement on how they will implement the findings of the Accountability Review Board. Short version...more bureaucracy.

1. The Department must strengthen security for personnel and platforms beyond traditional reliance on host government security support in high risk, high threat posts.

The Department established a High Threat Board to review our presence at High Threat, High Risk posts; the Board will review these posts every 6 months.

We created a Deputy Assistant Secretary for High Threat Posts in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), who is responsible for ensuring that such posts receive the focused attention they need.

2. The Board recommends that the Department re-examine DS organization and management, with a particular emphasis on span of control for security policy planning for all overseas U.S. diplomatic facilities.

The Department established a six-person panel to thoroughly review DS’s organization and management structure; the panel has developed draft findings.

There are more items but all in the same line. They are acting as if the issue is the information on the situation either wasn't available or didn't get to the right people. This is simply not what happened.

People on the ground had an accurate read on the situation, they made repeated requests for additional security resources and the people in decision making positions simply said, "no".

All this "action" list does is give you a preview of the people who will be blamed the next time this happens. Unless this new Deputy Assistant Secretary has control of the security budget and the power to assign resources, whoever is dumb enough to take this gig will simply be the next Raymond Maxwell.

Tuesday News Dump

—BenK

• OK Tornado Winds Went Up To 200mph
• Tornado Survivor Finds Her Dog Under Rubble During A TV Interview
• Pictures Of Tornado Aftermath
• At Least 91* Dead As Of Right Now
• Daily Show Creator Mocks Victims Of Tornadoes
• NARAL Opposes Ban On Elective Third Trimester Abortions
• Obama Scandals Bring MSNBC To Seven Year Low
• Has An Iron Curtain Descended On The Cincinnati IRS Office?
• How Hope And Change Gave Way To Spying On The Press
• Three Signs There Is A Cover-up
• Left Wastes Now Time Politicizing The OK Tragedy
• Texas Drops Anti-American Curriculum
• Conservatives Concerned About Immigration
• This Teen's Invention Could Allow You To Charge Your Phone In 30 Seconds Or Less
• Majority Believe Obama's IRS Targeting Of Tea Party Was Intentional And Illegal
• It's Never A Good Idea To Mess With Israel
• The President's Budget Numbers Don't Add Up
• Woman Tries To Get Rid Of Her Toddler On Craigslist
• When Fascism Comes To America..
• Emily Miller: DC Mayor Was In On David Gregory Cover-up
• Nidal Hassan Has Received More Thant 278,000 In Salary Since The Fort Hood Terror Attack

*It looks like that number is being revised down due to accidental double counting.

Follow me on twitter.

Top Headline Comments 5-21-13

—Gabriel Malor

Happy Tuesday.

On IRS scandal, 56 percent think it's a deliberate attempt to harass conservative organizations. (The other 44 percent are apparently dumber than dirt.) 45 percent suspect a cover-up, while 42 percent instead see full transparency.

The White House's claim that the GOP "doctored" the Benghazi emails gets three Pinocchios. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

Labor unions are starting to freak out about Obamacare. Apparently, they thought they'd be getting more favorable treatment than they're getting.

PSA: Where you can meet your Two Minutes Hate quota [Purp]

—Open Blogger

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2011/tables/table-12

Table 12 - The FBI hate crime data Morris Dees has nightmares about.

Compare/contrast the "progressive" enlightened northern states with the redneck racist southern states.

NB. Mississippi, had a grand total of "1" (one, uno, ein) hate crime reported in 2011.

NY and FL ( both with ~18-19M population sizes reporting) had respectively 544 and 123. IOW - NY had ~5X more reported hate crimes per unit population reporting than FL did.

Perhaps the SPLC should relocate their base of operations to say NYC or Boston?

And WTF is up with CT? for a small progressive state, they really know how to bring the hate. CT is definitely "punching above their weight class".

Of course the FBI is like totally racist publishing such reichwing, planted KKK faked data poppycock. Dude overseeing that shit must be a freaking Grand Wizard or sumthin...I'm just saying.

Overnight Open Thread (5-20-2013)

—Maetenloch

Bookworm: The IRS Scandal is the Worst Political Scandal in American History

And she makes a good case that it is. I can't think of any other scandal where the government actually engaged in widespread extra-legal stifling of dissent on ideological grounds.

Ignore all that. The absolute worst scandal that's emerged lately, and the worst administration scandal in American history is the IRS scandal. Why? Because you, the People, became the targets of a comprehensive federal government effort to stifle dissent, one made using the government's overwhelming and disproportionate policing and taxing powers.

All of the other scandals, going back to Andrew Johnson's post-Civil War scandals, Warren G. Harding's 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, Nixon's Watergate, Reagan's Iran-Contra, and Clinton's Oval Office sexcapades have actually been narrowly focused acts of cronyism, garden-variety political chicanery, or personal failings. It's been insider stuff.

The IRS scandal, by contrast, is a direct attack on the American people. Right now, Progressives throughout America are pretending that this scandal doesn't matter: "Obama wasn't involved." "Tea Partiers had it coming because they're all corrupt." "Obama would have won the election anyway." "It was just a coincidence that the only groups that had their applications scrutinized, sometimes for years, were politically conservative. It means nothing that, when one group changed its name to sound Progressive, its application was approved in only three weeks." "This is just a bureaucratic snafu." "It's a few rogue agents in Ohio."

And whenever you see illegal thuggery, be sure and look for the union label. No doubt the NTEU's 94% donation rate to Democrats is completely irrelevant to how they would treat conservatives as IRS employees.

Or maybe not. And clearly they're not willing to go after these known tax scofflaws.

So if the president and the NTEU are colluding to punish their enemies, do we have any recourse at all?

White House, Leftist Defenders Can't Get Enough of the "Doctored Emails" Lie

—Ace

Wait, so changing a report in order to advance your political interests is now a bad thing?

The attack is based on a very small error -- an error made because the Administration did not permit House investigators to copy the emails, only to view them and take notes.

Apparently one (1) single error was found in their notes-- and from that, we get this Doctored Emails Spin.

Breathtaking.

Obama is Nixon?

That may appear looking like a charitable description.

MSNBC: See, What Probably Happened is That the GOP Told the IRS to Target Tea Partiers Because Establishment

—Ace

False flag.

When Alex Jones makes up absurd False Flag theories, we call it crazy.

What about MSNBC? Do they get a pass? Why? Just because they're feeding the appetite of unhinged leftists for political pornography?

Dan Pfeiffer: The White House ♥ Sarah Hall Ingram

—Ace

The White House sees no reason to believe the woman who oversaw the tax-exempt division during the scandal did anything wrong.

They fake-fired Steve Miller quickly enough, and he wasn't even in charge at the time.

But the woman in charge, promoted and showered with taxpayer-paid bonuses? She's worth defending.

Gee, I wonder why.

Critics of the administration expect many more heads to roll as the true scope and intent of the IRS actions come to light, but Mr. Pfeiffer on Sunday strongly defended Ms. Ingram.

“No one has suggested that she did anything wrong yet,” Mr. Pfeiffer said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Before everyone in this town convicts this person in the court of public opinion with no evidence, let’s actually get the facts and make decisions after that. There’s nothing that suggests she did anything wrong,” he said.

Live Coverage From KFOR-Oklahoma

—JohnE.

Embedded below. Horrible.

A KFOR tornado reporter called it "the worst tornado damage in the history of the world".

Via DaveinTexas, here's the path of the storm:

Close it up

What Did Obama Discuss with IRS Union Chief Colleen Kelley the Day Before the X-Files Were Opened on the Tea Party?

—Ace

Interesting.

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.

The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

I'm a little skeptical that things unfolded that quickly. I also have in mind that the IG Report redacted a February 25, 2010 incident as the event that began the whole process -- and February 25, 2010, while close in time to March 31, 2010, isn't the same date.

Nevertheless, this is extremely interesting. Think about what could be accomplished by such a scheme.

Suppose you're a president. A hypothetical one. Let's call this hypothetical president President Tee.

Suppose he wishes a federal agency to pursue a certain policy but does not want this policy traceable back to himself. He does not want a published order.

Let's say a union friendly to him, which actually endorsed him in the election, controls the agency concerned. We'll call this hypothetical union Union N, and we'll call the agency it controls Agency I.

It would seem that President Tee could choose to go outside the normal chain of command to issue an illegal order by simply telling the head of Union N to inform the union members she leads to pursue the policy, rather than issuing a formal order to the head of the IRS.

I don't think this meeting is a smoking gun, as I said; I think the actual incident which kicked this all off happened on February 25, 2010. It's a scandal in itself that this important information is being kept from us; we paid for the IG Report.

But it is terribly interesting that a hypothetical President Tee -- say a president with a history of "community organizing" -- could simply ignore the normal chain of command and normal channels for issuing his orders by delivering his policy directives not to his actual inferior executive officers, but to a big-wig union leader who then relay the command to the troops.

Is This Crazy? I'm not necessarily sold on this -- I'm not sure it could or would work, or that it has any benefits over simply sitting down with someone you know who's "on your side" and giving him the order off-the-record.

But it is, I think, a possible avenue. And I think it's important to think about the Government Interest in all these things-- that is, the interest of the Government Bureaucracy itself, which has its own agenda and has its own favored political policies.

Unfettered: Evidence Against Co-Cospirator Spy James Rosen Includes Fact That He Flattered His Source and Played Into His Vanity

—Ace

I am speechless.

Three FoxNews Reporters Spied on by DoJ

—Ace

Conspiracy.

As I mentioned below, Megyn Kelly reported the reason for making the claim that these men were "co-conspirators" in a crime was to take advantage of the legal provision that co-conspirators do not have to be advised that a probe has begun against them-- that is, if you allege they're co-conspirators, you do not have to inform the targets, they do not get to send a lawyer to the hearing to plead their side, and the whole investigation is kept a State Secret.

Here's my question:

If James Rosen, William La Jeunesse, and Mike Levine are "co-conspirators" -- officially designated as such by the apparatus of the State -- for talking to a government source, which reporters in Washington are NOT also "co-conspirators"?

"Unprecedented:" Brit Hume Cannot Think of a Precedent For Obama's DOJ's Claim that a Reporter Acted Illegally in Conspiring to Commit Journalism

—Ace

Update: This is bad. Megyn Kelly just reported that Rosen was named as a criminal co-conspirator because when you so name a reporter, the rules say that you do not have to inform the target, and he is not entitled to have his side of things heard by the court.

This allegation makes it an ex parte hearing with only the government and, most likely, one of its favorite judges, in the room.

...

This is scary.

What scares me is what Obama will do in reaction to investigations to what he's already done.

Meanwhile, Nice Deb recaps Dan Pfieffer's appearance on five Sunday shows yesterday. Apparently his goal was to use the word "irrelevant" in as many ways as possible.

Chris Wallace wanted to know what Obama was doing the night of the Benghazi attack.

Pfieffer's answer? It's irrelevant.

Carney Press Conference: At Foxnews. It's almost over. Sorry.

Enemies List: Founder of "True The Vote" Harrassed by IRS, OSHA, FBI, and ATF

—Ace

This woman has a story to tell.

In July 2010, Catherine filed with the IRS seeking tax-exempt status for her organizations. Shortly after, the troubles began.

That winter, the Federal Bureau of Investigation came knocking with questions about a person who had attended a King Street Patriots event once. Based on sign-in sheets, the organization discovered that the individual in question had attended an event, but “it was a come-and-go thing,” and they had no further information on hand about him. Nevertheless, the FBI also made inquiries about the person to the office manager, who was a volunteer.

The King Street Patriots weren’t the only ones under scrutiny. On January 11, the IRS visited the Engelbrechts’ shop and conducted an on-site audit of both their business and their personal returns, Catherine says.

Two months later, the IRS initiated the first round of questions for True the Vote. Catherine painstakingly answered them, knowing that nonprofit status would help with the organization’s credibility, donors, and grant applications. In October, the IRS requested additional information. And whenever Catherine followed up with IRS agents about the status of True the Vote’s application, “there was always a delay that our application was going to be up next, and it was just around the corner,” she says,

As this was occurring, the FBI continued to phone King Street Patriots. In May 2011, agents phoned wondering “how they were doing.” The FBI made further inquiries in June, November, and December asking whether there was anything to report.

The situation escalated in 2012. That February, True the Vote received a third request for information from the IRS, which also sent its first questionnaire to King Street Patriots. Catherine says the IRS had “hundreds of questions — hundreds and hundreds of questions.” The IRS requested every Facebook post and Tweet she had ever written. She received questions about her family, whether she’d ever run for political office, and which organizations she had spoken to.

...

On the same day they received the questions from the IRS, Catherine says, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) launched an unscheduled audit of their machine shop, forcing the Engelbrechts to drop everything planned for that day.

...

That was in February. In July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration paid a visit to Engelbrecht Manufacturing while Bryan, Catherine, and their children were out of town. The OSHA inspector talked with the managerial staff and employees, inspecting the premises minutely. But Bryan says the agent found only “little Mickey Mouse stuff, like, ‘You have safety glasses on, but not the right kind; the forklift has a seatbelt, but not the right kind.’” Yet Catherine and Bryan said the OSHA inspector complimented them on their tightly run shop and said she didn’t know why she had been sent to examine it.

Not long after, the tab arrived. OSHA was imposing $25,000 in fines on Engelbrecht Manufacturing. They eventually worked it down to $17,500, and Bryan says they may have tried to contest the fines to drive them even lower, but “we didn’t want to make any more waves, because we don’t know [how much further] OSHA could reach.”

I don't know what to say.

Justice Department Providess Reporter James Rosen With "Pretty Horrible Customer Service," i.e., They Spied on Him for Reporting the News

—Ace

In an article at the Washington Post, linked at Hot Air:

When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.

They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.

The case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, the government adviser, and James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, bears striking similarities to a sweeping leaks investigation disclosed last week in which federal investigators obtained records over two months of more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the Associated Press.

It's a little worse than that-- an FBI report named Rosen as a criminal accessory for reporting the news. I imagine this was done as part of a justification for getting his personal emails.

[FBI Agent Reginald] Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”

The claim is made that Rosen employed "covert communication" techniques to speak with his source... sort of like Bob Woodward meeting Deep Throat in parking structures late at night.

In other words: The very fact that he used any sort of technique for protecting his source becomes evidence of a crime against the State.

Shocking.

Thanks to the Obsidan Owl for the headline joke.

Obama: I Fantasize About Dropping the Act and Just Telling Everyone My Truth

—Ace

Does this mean he's not quite on the level when he constantly claims he's just all about the middle class?

Buried in the 17th paragraph of one of those mewling New York Times pieces on the woes of Obama — can we start calling him Woe-bama yet? — appeared these two words: “going Bulworth.”

Obama himself, the Times explained, has been “longingly” telling his inner circle that what he’d really like to do is what Sen. Jay Bulworth, played by Warren Beatty in his 1998 movie “Bulworth,” did: to go public as an unabashed, angry and admitted socialist.

It’s as if Ronald Reagan had been caught saying he wanted to “Go Strangelove.”

In confessing his dreams of “going Bulworth,” Obama confirmed that what he thinks and what he says out loud are two different things. He let slip the mask of a center-left moderate — a “pragmatist” who only cares about “what works.” The press and even right-of-center columnists like Ross Douthat and David Brooks have always insisted that this completely unconvincing masquerade is genuine.

No follow-up from the New York Times, of course. It's natural to ask What would the Truth sound like, should you utter it? At least it would be natural if you were interested in gathering and then reporting new information.

But the Times isn't interested in that. They realize Obama is best served by signaling the left while continuing to proclaim his same rehearsed horseshit for the rest of the country, so they do not inquire any deeper.

Likewise, the rest of the media will never ask about this provocative statement. They understand that this was just pillow-talk intended to stay between lovers, and not intended for wider dissemination.

So corrupt. So, so corrupt.

Shut It Down--An Open Letter To Speaker Boehner

—DrewM.

The revelations about the corruption and abuses of power within in the Obama administration has shown one thing very clearly…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.

We’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 we’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 Sebelius’ 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 doesn’t include any funding for ObamaCare and the IRS’ 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 it’s simply partisan gamesmanship. It will be up to Republicans to explain the stakes here.

In the past I’ve opposed government shutdowns because there’s no identifiable path to winning and because yes, when you know you can’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 isn’t a hill worth fighting on what is? If the GOP won’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.

Monday Morning Link Dump

—BenK

• Obama Was Lying When He Claimed He Found Out About The IRS Scandal From The Media
• Tea Party Plans Nationwide Protests At IRS Office
• This Is Funny Advice Coming From A Man Who Rarely Works
• Good Read: Too Big To Jail
• Two IRS Offices Targeted Hawaii GOP Leader At The Same Time
• IRS Source No Way Low Level Paper Pusher Acted On Their Own
• Don't Blame Citizens United For The IRS Scandal
• Introducing The Obama Scandal Bracket
• DOJ Spied On Fox's Rosen
• Scandals Vs. Sway
• Mia Love Announces Bid For Congress In 2014
• This Will End Well: A Florida Resident Is Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Richer Today
• Anthem Singer Forgets Words To US National Anthem And Begins Making Some Up
• Candy Crowley: Better Late Than Never
• A Bushel Of Pinocchios For IRS's Lois Lerner
• At Least 19 Tornadoes Hit 3 States
• Two FBI Agents Killed In Training Accident
• Best Collapse Of Civilization Ever
• I Hope This Is True

Follow me on twitter

Top Headline Comments 5-20-13

—Gabriel Malor

Happy Monday.

Christian Heinze continues to do good work dissecting the 2012 election. He's right that there are a lot of folks who don't want to talk about these numbers.

The Keynesians have been loudly proclaiming victory in their endless war against what they sneeringly refer to as "austerians." But, not so fast, says Jim Pethokoukis, who inconveniently notes that, despite "suffering" from more austerity than Europe, the U.S. is nevertheless better off.

Tim Carney writes that the message Obama's White House sends is pretty clearly reprehensible: "watch what you say about Obama's White House." My own weekend thoughts on the White House's scandal behavior, ICYMI, are here.

The union for DHS' U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees is publicly opposing the Senate's immigration bill. "Insurmountable bureaucracy," says the union.

Star Trek led the box office this weekend, but not by as much as some folks had hoped. I saw it Saturday and liked it a lot more than 2009's reboot. MOVIE SPOILERS AT THE NEXT LINK: Buzzfeed does some original reporting involving (no, really: spoilers)10 TV-series Star Trek references in the movie (/spoilers). As I said on Twitter, this film felt a lot more like the Star Trek that I grew up with than the too-chaotic and too-convenient reboot.

Overnight Open Thread (5-19-2013)

—Maetenloch

End of the weekend for some, just another day for others, but all are welcome at the ONT party.

Eurovision 2013

So the Eurovision song contest just finished and Danish singer Emmelie de Forest won with her song, Only Tears.

The contest has been going on for 57 years and in it a single singer/group from each country compete for votes. It's mainly European countries and Israel although some North African countries have participated.

Here a roundup of all the 2013 entries. Interestingly most of the songs are in English.

Be Safe Out There (Niedermeyer's Dead Horse)

—Open Blogger

Terrible storms raging across the Midwest this afternoon and into the evening. Several tornadoes have developed as four states, IA, KS, OK, and WI are under alert.

To our fellow morons in the path, hunker down, stay safe, and we'll keep you in our prayers.

For those so inclined, updates and photos posted here.

Open thread.

Forrest Gump II [CBD]

—Open Blogger

First treatment of the planned sequel to Forrest Gump.

[Casting notes: Tom Hanks is too fat, but he has demonstrated that he can lose the weight, so let's try to get him to reprise his role. Haley Joel Osment is perfect for Forrest Jr. because he is a druggie, and has no career to speak of]

Prologue: Forrest is told by his doctor that he has AIDS, contracted from his grasping harpy of a dead wife.

The Balls Deep Gaming thread

—Gang of Gaming Morons!

New Xbox reveal is on Tuesday at 1PM Eastern, lasts an hour and there will be a IRC chat happening through it. Hopefully there is more than myself in the room. Go to Freenode.net and in webchat, look for the #AOSHQ room

Gaming below

Hi, The Dude back with the weekly installment of gaming stuff. Quite week as everyone seems to be in a holding pattern till E3.

Maybe it's me but hearing a Namco PR dude say "balls deep" just makes me shake my head when talking about the upcoming Dark Souls 2. It's not a new phrase of course and some people at Riot (biggest game in the world, League of Legends) say it occasionally but something about a legit publisher just doesn't sit well. And of course the full quote is more hilarious for a PR dude than just saying balls deep: "We're going to go balls-deep and guns-blazing with it, and hope to God that it works," he continued." And as a hardcore fan of FROM (for the love of Christ, give me a new Otogi or Metal Wolf Chaos as US President Michael Wilson hasn't kicked enough ass in his mech) but they're not exactly a dev that should have a lot of cash put behind them in the west for advertising because as much as I love them, they don't have the technical grace of something on the level of a AAA game. I just see a massive advertising budget hurting them.

Platnium Games lets it slip on Twitter that Metal Gear Rising will be coming to the PC

EA is Dreamcasting the Wii U

The interesting looking Wonderful 101 from Platinum Games gets a release date, September 15th

Nintendo buys an exclusive Sonic game from Sega, the last two games (Colors and Generations were decent so hopefully it's along that instead of every other Sonic game in the last 12 years).

GI.biz spits fire at Nintendo. Sure, there is some venom in it but you would be hard-pressed to disagree with any of it.

And as much as I would love to just embed this gif from SunhiLegend from NeoGaf, I can't in good conscious throw a 15 meg gif into this post but damn is it good and sums up Nintendo.

Big ass PC game sale started on Wednesday at Amazon, runs through the rest of the month
Furries get to rejoice as the interesting Dust: An Elysian Tail gets it's PC release date. Out on Friday for for $14.99

Nvidia opens up pre-ordering for the Shield, a piece of tech that has no niche at a $350 price tag

Valve brings achievements to their natural conclusion on their service with earning trading cards for simple playing games that you can then sell on the marketplace

Sony gives a reason why you shouldn't buy a PS4 when it releases with the expected announcement of Gran Turismo 6 for the PS3 this upcoming Christmas season

Joe Biden sees no problem taxing "violent videogames"

GungHo announced that they made $118 million just in April from Japanese sensation game, Puzzle & Dragons.

I'm out, peace
the Dude

full set of pics of this girl dressed up as Makoto from Blazblue here (yeah, slightly nsfw)

Close it up

Senior Advisor to Obama: "The Law Is Irrelevant."

—Gabriel Malor

The White House has decided not to take seriously either the accelerating Benghazi scandal (more on that here) or the IRS scandal. Obama flatterist Dan Pfeiffer decided that "irrelevant" is the word of the day.

When asked on ABC’s This Week whether President Obama believes the IRS broke laws when it harassed conservative groups and released confidential donor information to Pro Publica, Pfeiffer dismissed the idea:

"I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again."

There is a fundamental disconnect between the White House's actions and the White House's words on the IRS scandal. The White House has repeatedly claimed that the President is "outraged" over the targeting -- but there are surprisingly few actual consequences for outraging the leader of the free world. One of the folks involved in harassing conservatives got a promotion. Another got several thousands of dollars in bonuses. Even the thought of legal consequences is tossed aside as "irrelevant."

There seems to be a concerted effort to suggest that nothing illegal occurred at the IRS. For example, the Washington Post's Aaron Blake suggests that nobody is going to jail over the IRS thing because he cannot put their finger on just what crime occurred. Astonishingly, he misses the most obvious of crimes related to the IRS scandal -- the public release of confidential information, something punishable by up to a year's jail time.

Far from being irrelevant, the legality of IRS behavior is a key issue. We know that neither the IRS, nor the Obama Administration, is going to hold anyone seriously accountable for IRS malfeasance. The so-called resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who was set to resign anyway, demonstrated that clearly. This gives us little choice but to turn to the law in the hopes that IRS officials can be scared into proper behavior and other federal bureaucrats can be deterred from similar misadventures in anti-conservative discrimination.