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  • It's been a busy day at the IRS

    So, first, they started the day off right, with a report from the Office of Special Counsel that the IRS has routinely violated the Hatch Act, everything from displaying Obama election bumper stickers and buttons right down to actually telling people on the phone that they should vote for Obama. Major no-nos.

    Then, they rounded out the morning with Lois Lerner formally being charged by the Ways and Means Committee with abusing her office and perjury, among other things. As was quickly noted, the Committee referred this to Eric Holder, who is himself under a contempt charge from Congress and is overtly hostile toward Congressional oversight. So, it's going nowhere, right? Not so fast. The Committee won't rule out using their own power of arrest if Holder refuses to act.

    After this bit of fun and frivolity, people started actually reading the filing with the DOJ, and among other things, learned that Lerner was apparently considering angling for a job with Obama's campaign organization. So buy this afternoon, this was breaking:

    While it's possible that she was saying this in jest, but it's absolutely not something someone in a high government position should be talking about on a government e-mail account, even in jest.

    And, to wrap up the afternoon, it broke that Elijah Cummings and Lois Lerner shared information on True The Vote, an utterly flagrant violation of a whole lot of laws. Furthermore, three days ago, Elijah Cummings vehemently denied that he had ever gotten any information on True The Vote, but this evidence is utterly damning, and the best that he could muster was calling getting caught "McCarthyism."


    This is sounding more and more like Watergate by the minute. Well-past time for a Special Prosecutor.
    It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
    In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
    Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
    Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

  • #2
    But no one will care. People were outraged by Watergate and I mean average people. It was such a betrayal of public trust.

    Today, we expect our overlords to violate our rights, their office, and anything else they come in contact with. It the New Normal.
    "Alexa, slaughter the fatted calf."

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Gingersnap View Post
      But no one will care. People were outraged by Watergate and I mean average people. It was such a betrayal of public trust.

      Today, we expect our overlords to violate our rights, their office, and anything else they come in contact with. It the New Normal.
      And that's why I say it's time for a Special Prosecutor. People sit up and take notice over that.

      Impeachment of Obama is a non-starter for dozens of reasons, not the least of which is that no one can draw a straight line to Obama (besides impeachment being a really, REALLY bad fucking idea). If there's a straight line to Cummings, though, then the House would be wise to begin impeachment proceedings against him. That will certainly shake up things, should it come to that. My guess is that Cummings will negotiate for some bullshit reprimand, but it will mean collapsing him and maybe, maybe forcing Cummings to turn on Obama.
      It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
      In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
      Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
      Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Gingersnap View Post
        But no one will care. People were outraged by Watergate and I mean average people. It was such a betrayal of public trust.

        Today, we expect our overlords to violate our rights, their office, and anything else they come in contact with. It the New Normal.
        So depressing and so true.
        If it pays, it stays

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Adam View Post
          Lerner was apparently considering angling for a job with Obama's campaign organization. So buy this afternoon, this was breaking:
          She was angling for a job with his campaign organization in January, 2013?
          Enjoy.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
            She was angling for a job with his campaign organization in January, 2013?
            Of course she was. Here's a great big hint: Obama's multi-billion-dollar campaign has never stopped, which is precisely why they "migrated" his campaign organization into a 501(c)4 organization. In short, they couldn't legally bus protesters into Obama campaign events any more, so instead they bused paid protesters into other Obama campaign events.

            No, that's not a contradiction.



            Someone let me know when the e-mails detailing how Lois Lerner was so incredibly worried about OFA's status as a 501(c)4 that she audited their records.
            It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
            In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
            Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
            Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
              She was angling for a job with his campaign organization in January, 2013?
              Yes, angling for a job in what the campaign became, Organizing for Action.

              Read the latest headlines, news stories, and opinion from Politics, Entertainment, Life, Perspectives, and more.


              You didn't know this?
              "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
              -John Locke

              "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
              -Newman

              Comment


              • #8
                So, if she was thinking about maybe applying for a job at "Obama's campaign organization" after Obama has already been re-elected and can never run again, this is conspiratorial somehow?
                Last edited by Norm dePlume; Wednesday, April 9, 2014, 9:15 PM.
                Enjoy.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
                  So, if she was thinking about maybe applying for a job at "Obama's campaign organization" after Obama has already been re-elected and can never run again, this is conspiratorial somehow?
                  Who said it was conspiratorial?
                  It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
                  In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
                  Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
                  Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
                    So, if she was thinking about maybe applying for a job at "Obama's campaign organization" after Obama has already been re-elected and can never run again, this is conspiratorial somehow?
                    It's not conspiratorial, it shows her partisan bias.

                    IRS employees are not supposed to be political operatives and any political activity on the job is prohibited.



                    Lobbying for a job in a political organization using the IRS computer system is prohibited.
                    "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
                    -John Locke

                    "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
                    -Newman

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by scott View Post
                      It's not conspiratorial, it shows her partisan bias.

                      IRS employees are not supposed to be political operatives and any political activity on the job is prohibited.



                      Lobbying for a job in a political organization using the IRS computer system is prohibited.
                      And commenting to Sharon P. Light that "Maybe I can get the DC job!" is lobbying for a job? It sounds like she's just talking to a friend about her retirement plans.
                      Enjoy.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
                        And commenting to Sharon P. Light that "Maybe I can get the DC job!" is lobbying for a job? It sounds like she's just talking to a friend about her retirement plans.
                        On a government computer. Via a government e-mail account.

                        That's a big no-no, even if it's done in jest.


                        You people spent years shitting boulders about e-mails from the White House and how terrible it was if someone said ANYTHING not directly related to government business on a government e-mail account. You don't get to try to pretend that didn't happen now.



                        There's a lot more than a "smidgen" of corruption at the IRS.
                        It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
                        In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
                        Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
                        Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Adam View Post
                          On a government computer. Via a government e-mail account.

                          That's a big no-no, even if it's done in jest.


                          You people spent years shitting boulders about e-mails from the White House and how terrible it was if someone said ANYTHING not directly related to government business on a government e-mail account. You don't get to try to pretend that didn't happen now.



                          There's a lot more than a "smidgen" of corruption at the IRS.
                          I'm one person. Also, I haven't shit anything unusual. I remember some controversy about email in the Bush White House, but it wasn't about about personal business in government inboxes. It was about government officials doing government business on personal accounts. Not because they were wasting government electrons, but because official business was escaping the traceability and discoverability of government archives.

                          And I take it that's a very elaborate "no" on the question of "is it lobbying".
                          Enjoy.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Adam View Post
                            There's a lot more than a "smidgen" of corruption at the IRS.
                            It would be interesting to know what information, if any, changed his tune.
                            May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
                            Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
                            And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
                            may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
                              And commenting to Sharon P. Light that "Maybe I can get the DC job!" is lobbying for a job? It sounds like she's just talking to a friend about her retirement plans.
                              I'm sure her underling was just trying to inform people in the interest of public knowledge about the change in structure of the campaign, but if it's political that is prohibited too.
                              "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
                              -John Locke

                              "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
                              -Newman

                              Comment

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