There are just some jaw dropping discoveries coming forth from the Congressional IRS Hearings and the investigative reporting being done into the background and substance of the claims.

(*note* liar avoidance 101 teaches you that when a person says “to be honest with you” as the lead to their next statement – they are NOT to be trusted.  Ever.   Honest people do not need to qualify when they are honest, and when they are lying.)

First: The IRS intentionally withheld the information last year until after the 2012 election cycle because they knew it would destroy the chances for the Democrats and President Obama specifically. Even to the extent they intentionally misled congress:

The Treasury Department’s inspector general testified at a congressional hearing Friday that he had informed Obama administration officials of an investigation into improper scrutiny of conservative non-profit groups by the Internal Revenue Service during the run-up to the 2012 election.

J. Russell George told Treasury’s general counsel of the investigation on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin — then-Sec. Timothy Geithner’s No. 2 — “shortly thereafter,” according to the New York Times.  (link)

(more…)

(Via Slate)  If you are a customer of Verizon Wireless, you might want to consider switching carriers in light of the Associated Press phone snooping scandal.

When the feds came knocking for AP journalists’ call records last year, Verizon apparently turned the data over with no questions asked. The New York Times, citing an AP employee, reported Tuesday that at least two of the reporters’ personal cellphone records “were provided to the government by Verizon Wireless without any attempt to obtain permission to tell them so the reporters could ask a court to quash the subpoena.” (more…)

(more…)

This has all the indicators of reaching the West Wing. Prior Democrats in Congress had espoused the IRS *should* take this approach. With such blatant admissions in 2010, and even 2011 after they lost the House they continued the approach, this is going to be VERY difficult for the administration to firewall.

……Obama said this:  “Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.  Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works; they’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.”

Now Consider: (more…)

The DOJ having the authority to do warrantless wiretaps without presenting justification to a judge is alarming. The DOJ having the authority to do such wiretapping against reporters in the media, who provide the fourth estate to protect -and check- the balance of power, is well beyond alarming.

It was only fair that Associated Press reporter Jim Kuhnhenn got the first question to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at Tuesday’s press briefing. Coming just one day after news broke that the Department Of Justice had secretly seized two months worth of phone records from AP reporters, Kuhnhenn used his question to tie the AP scandal together with the other troubling news stories of the week for the Obama administration.

“For fear of stating the obvious,” Kuhnhenn began, “the White House right now is confronting a confluence of issues: Benghazi talking points, IRS reviews of political groups, Justice Department’s review of journalists’ phone records, and in every instance either the president or you have placed the burden of responsibility someplace else… But it is the president’s administration, so I wonder, doesn’t responsibility for setting tone, for setting direction ultimately rest with the president on these matters?” (more…)

Listen to what Jay Carney is stating here in regard to the White House knowledge of the issues surrounding the targeting of Tea Party and Conservative groups.

Last Friday the same original media sources (the reporters on the phone conference with the IRS official who apologized) said the report was to be released within the next day.  As a result of the admission the media story quickly took off.

Now The White House is saying:  We’ll defer comment, and “wait for the report” etc.

You know this “report” has not only been scrutinized at length by the protectors, but has been re-written more than a few times as the points are critiqued by all the concentric circles that compromise the White House and Cabinet political machine. Revisions, revisions, revisions…..

WASHINGTON DC – Republicans are training their attacks on acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller amid new revelations that he and the agency’s former top official knew employees were targeting conservative groups but failed to notify Congress despite repeated requests.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, and 10 other GOP lawmakers wrote to then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman on June 18, 2012 demanding answers about why the agency requested donor information from groups seeking nonprofit status.

By the time this letter was sent, Shulman and Miller, who was the deputy IRS commissioner at the time, were aware of the extent of the targeting program for about a month. (more…)