IRS Scandal: Stage Managed To Leave President Obama In The Dark

By William Teach May 22, 2013 – 8:37 am

Those who’ve read my blog posts know that I always refer to him as Obama or (NMP) Obama (not my president). When I refer to Obama as President Obama I do it to make a point. Case in point, per this McClatchy article at the Raleigh News and Observer

With Obama in the dark, administration planned how to stage-manage news of IRS scandal

Weeks before the world – and apparently President Barack Obama himself – heard about the details of the Internal Revenue Service scandal, top people in his administration started planning how to stage-manage the release of the information.

Senior aides in the White House, the Treasury Department and the IRS debated the best way to tell the public what surely would ignite a storm of criticism, the coming report that the IRS earlier had targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny. The plan eventually chosen: the “incredibly bad idea” of secretly planting a question in the audience when an IRS official spoke on May 10. (snip)

While White House officials insisted that aides and advisers deliberately kept Obama in the dark about the coming report, they said they and the Treasury Department started debating the best way to inform the country.

And, as we all know, President Obama stated that he first heard about this from watching the news. Now,I dearly love how McClatchy simply takes this all for granted, forgoing any sort of investigative journalism, but, then, perhaps Obama really was kept in the dark.

Which begs a question: why are any of these people, at least at the senior officer position, still employed? In any company in the world, if senior underlings engaged in this behavior they would have already been “promoted to customer”, as we say in the sales world. The same applies to most governments in the world. No leader, especially a head of a company or a government, wants to be bushwacked by a scandal, especially in politics. They always want to get ahead of the game so they can be prepared. Certainly, if the story makes it the White House chief of staff, this is something that President Obama needed to know. Why didn’t he?

Conversely, this could be the exact thing Obama wants, either because he has a stated policy or because this is the atmosphere he creates, namely that no one tells him about Bad Things. Which shows a dereliction of duty and an unwillingness to be President. It would validate what Conservatives have said for a long time, that “Obama likes to BE president; he doesn’t like to DO president.” Any leader who created an atmosphere or told his underlings “don’t tell me” would be terminated along with the underlings.

Of course, in order to cover what is sheer incompetence and what are surely mule fritters talking points (we all know that no one withheld this from Obama, he surely knew, at least back in April), we get talking points from various Obama sycophants

(USA Today) “Some matters are not appropriate to convey to him, and this is one of them,” spokesman Jay Carney said.

“You do not intervene in an independent investigation,” Carney said. “There was nothing we could have or should have done about it.”

(Fox News) Pfeiffer defended Obama’s statement that he didn’t know anything about the incidents or the investigation until he heard about them in the press.

“No president would get involved in an independent IRS investigation,” Pfeiffer said. “It would be wholly inappropriate.”

That’s cute, where they conflate being informed with “getting involved”. Obama didn’t seem to have a problem yapping his mouth, getting involved, when it came to the Trayvon Martin situation, arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. (saying the Boston PD “acted stupidly” and his beer summit), and a host of other issues.

But, I’ll say it again: if President Obama, the guy whose desk the buck is supposed to stop at, is being kept in the dark by “employees”, why are they still employed? The answer to that question should tell us that Obama knew.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: IRS Scandal: Stage Managed To Leave President Obama In The Dark »

Posted in Barry Obama, Current Affairs | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Lois Lerner To Plead 5th At IRS Hearing

By William Teach May 21, 2013 – 7:13 pm

As Ace points out, the LA Times originally buried their own scoop way down on the page. They’ve moved it up near the top as of my looking at it, and is now showing on the National page of their Droid app

A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

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 disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Perhaps not, but as a government official with Power she should provide details as to exactly what happened, and why she failed to disclose these details to Congress before, which, unless I miss my guess, is considered “lying to Congress”, obstruction, and perhaps a few other charges.

Meanwhile, her lawyer is saying “hey, since she’s pleading the 5th, there’s really no point in Congress having her testify, so, why bother?” Somehow, I doubt Darrell Issa is going to let her go get ice cream.

Read: Lois Lerner To Plead 5th At IRS Hearing »

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats | 17 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Change Charts And Graphs

By William Teach May 21, 2013 – 2:45 pm

John wanted a few, here we go (Any “click larger” applies to the preceding graphic). Data from various sites, including Real Science, C3 Headlines, UN IPCC AR1, and others. I’m creating a new Page for all these, which I will add on over time.

photo 6a010536b58035970c01543563f4be970c_zpsd71bc0ed.png

Click larger

(click the more tag to see rest)

Read More »

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Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 21, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a planet killing dog causing seas to rise and flood all the land, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is All American Blogger, with a post on plausible deniability.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Gov. Cuomo Attempted To Silence Sheriffs Over Gun Law

By William Teach May 21, 2013 – 11:37 am

Is it any wonder Conservatives worry about tyrannical government?

(Times Union) The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York’s gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet.

In January, the New York State Sheriffs’ Association wrote Cuomo with an analysis, and later suggested tweaks.

Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the meeting said. The group included Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss.

“We didn’t get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration,” Moss said. “When we got there, we never got to the contents of the letter.”

Instead, Cuomo pushed the sheriffs to stop publicly speaking out against the act, Moss said.

One person briefed on the meeting said Cuomo threatened to remove sheriffs from office, a little-used power afforded the state’s chief executive under the state constitution. Moss would not confirm this. He did say the meeting was heated at times, but overall he described it as “cordial.”

Progressives are very intolerant towards Constitutionally guaranteed Free Speech and other 1st Amendment Rights.

Via Steven Goddard, who notes that something similar happened in his home state of Colorado.

Read: Gov. Cuomo Attempted To Silence Sheriffs Over Gun Law »

Posted in 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Democrats | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Publishes Op-Ed Supporting The Justice Dept. Going After Reporters

By William Teach May 21, 2013 – 9:28 am

Most in the press are taking a position similar to Brit Hume’s

(Mediaite) “That places this administration in the position of saying normal news gathering activities are criminal. That is chilling.”

Juan Williams, who likes to tick off both sides, said something earlier on Fox News about 20 minutes ago. Others are saying similar things. Former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs says Team Obama needs to explain this (they won’t. Expect them to engage in their typical behavior, circling the wagons, obfuscation, denial, deflection, and casting blame. Oh, and their newest one “we don’t know”). Even Chris Matthew, Mr. Thrilling Up My Leg, has lost patience.

But not the NY Times, which publishes an op-ed by William P. Barr, Jamie “wall between law and intelligence” Gorelick, and Kenneth L. Wainstein

Stop The Leaks

FOLLOWING the disclosure that the Justice Department obtained the telephone records of Associated Press journalists, The A.P. and other news organizations have sharply criticized the action as investigative overreaching and unwarranted interference with the ability of journalists to report on government operations.

As former Justice Department officials who served in the three administrations preceding President Obama’s, we are worried that the criticism of the decision to subpoena telephone toll records of A.P. journalists in an important leak investigation sends the wrong message to the government officials who are responsible for our national security.

Oh, noes, those poor gubmint officials!!!! How are they going to do their jobs with that pesky 1st Amendment in their way. Hitler, Staling, Chavez, and many other dictators would be proud of these three nincompoops.

While we cannot know all of the facts and considerations that went into the department’s decision, we do know that prosecutors were right to try to find out who gave this damaging information to The A.P. They were right to pursue the investigation with “alternative investigative steps” for eight months first. And ultimately, they were right to take it to the next stage when they still needed more to make a case against the leaker. If the Justice Department had not done so, it would have defaulted on its obligation to protect the American people.

So, these three do not have any facts, but, hey, let’s investigate the Press, which was doing its job. Which is funny, considering that the NY Times was all for publishing serious national security information and programs when Bush was president and protecting reporters. Remember what they called “domestic wiretapping” (which wasn’t)? How about the monitoring of Islamist bank data? The White House begged the Times not to publish this program, as it would cause serious problems and endanger people. And leaking the name of a CIA interrogator. Running the stolen Wikileaks information. And many, many others. The Times loved the Abu Ghraib story, which wasn’t really secret, the DoD just hadn’t released information on what happened because they were engaged in an on-going criminal investigation. The Times found out through a leak.

It was just May 9 that another op-ed contributor, Margaret Sullivan, wrote about the danger of suppressing the leaks. Now, Gorelick et all say something different. They do have a point, that government should protect against leaks. True. But the Government should not attack the 1st Amendment and the Press because the government is incompetent. This op-ed essentially calls for trashing the 1st Amendment because government has “acted stupidly”.

More: Even Eugene Robinson, a hugely huge ObamaZombie, is upset, writing that the “Obama admin mistakes journalism for espionage”.

Read: NY Times Publishes Op-Ed Supporting The Justice Dept. Going After Reporters »

Posted in 1st Amendment, Current Affairs, Wonky Media | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Despicable Liberals Use Bodies Of Dead Children To Push “Climate Change”

By William Teach May 21, 2013 – 8:48 am

It’s like clockwork: there’s some event, be it a holiday or breaking news, and Liberals use it to push one of their unhinged belief sets. If it’s bad weather they push “climate change”. Here’s disgusting and abhorent Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

(Daily Caller) “So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

There’s no point in providing any scientific evidence that shows Whitehouse is bat guano crazy, Warmists will never believe real facts, they have a political position to push, one which gives The Government more and more power over citizens and the private sector.

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats, Global Warming, Unhinged Tools | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Senate Immigration Bill Requires Fingerprinting

By William Teach May 20, 2013 – 3:50 pm

But, it forgets one big thing as the Gang Of 8 pushes amnesty

(CBS News) Foreigners leaving the country through any of the nation’s 30 busiest airports would undergo mandatory fingerprinting under an amendment senators added Monday to a sweeping immigration bill. Lawmakers called it a step toward a more expansive biometric system that would use identifiers such as fingerprints to keep track of immigrants and visitors exiting the U.S. Currently no such system is in place, something viewed as a security weakness, particularly because some 40 percent of the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally overstayed their visas and there’s no good system for tracking them.

“This is an agreement that we need to build toward a biometric visa exit system,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who offered the amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who was absent Monday. “Implementing this biometric exit system is long overdue.”

A full-fledged biometric entry-exit system is favored by many senators but was deemed too expensive and unworkable to include in the bill. Current law already requires such a system to be in place, but the Department of Homeland Security has not implemented it. Instead the bill seeks electronic scanning of photo IDs.

Sadly, this is one of the better ideas offered by Republicans looking to strengthen the shamnesty bill. But, exactly how does it reduces illegals to print visitors when they’re exiting the country throught the 30 busiest American airports? How about we track the hell out of them when they arrive?

Read: Senate Immigration Bill Requires Fingerprinting »

Posted in Idiot GOPer's, Illegal Immigration | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 20, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible CO2 infused beer which will make the seas rise and cause islands to tip over, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Sentry Journal, with a post on Obama setting a terrible example.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

Democrats Introduce Hotcoldwetdry Preparedness Bill

By William Teach May 20, 2013 – 11:17 am

It’s not the first time they’ve tried this: they attempted to include it in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, but it did not pass

(Noozhawk) Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, joined by Reps. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Doris Matsui of California and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, on Friday introduced legislation to improve the nation’s public health response to climate change.

The Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act would address the negative health effects related to climate change by supporting research, surveillance, planning, and interagency coordination to develop national plan for action.

Strange, these are all Reps who take fossil fueled flights to get to Washington.

“One of the most troubling and immediate impacts of climate change is its harmful effects on public health,” Capps said. “Regardless of what one believes about its causes, climate change is very real. The heat waves, droughts, wildfires and extreme weather events that are happening with greater frequency and intensity have a profound impact on public health that we’re only beginning to understand. We have to provide our public health officials with the tools and resources they need to effectively track and prepare for these significant public health challenges.”

We have to save you from bad weather. Only Government can Do This. It’s Good And Right And You Should Listen To Your Betters.

Capps’ legislation would help improve the public health response to the challenges posed by climate change by directing the secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a National Strategic Action Plan to assist health professionals in preparing for and responding to the public health effects of climate change.

Hmm, seems it would create more Big Government and government employees, all to tell you what to do (at the force of law). Why does it seem that every prescription is about Progressivism and erosion of liberty? All for a 1.4F increase in temps since the end of the Little Ice Age, with a miniscule 0.28F increase since 1990, 0.14F since 1997, and the reality that it was much warmer during the Global Climate Optimum, when excellent wines were grown in Britain and Vikings turned farmers in Greenland, things that could not happen with today’s temperatures.

Read: Democrats Introduce Hotcoldwetdry Preparedness Bill »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Democrats, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL
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