Justice Department and Holder Declining to Prosecute Alleged IRS Abuse… As Questions Continue to Arise

Exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington Photo: AP File

By Marion Algier – Ask Marion

A top Republican senator is pressing Attorney General Eric Holder for answers following allegations by a government watchdog that the IRS may have improperly accessed the tax records of a political donor or candidate -- but the Justice Department declined to prosecute the case.

J. Russell George, the inspector general who audited the IRS has claimed he turned over evidence of criminal behavior that the DOJ refused to press charges on. Among George's claims was that politicians were targeted for audits and that confidential donor and candidate tax information was accessed.

Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), questioned whether these breeches were politically motivated. 

George pointed out one case where information was willfully accessed against the current US law and in his letter to congress said, "we presented evidence of a willful unauthorized access to the Department of Justice, but the case was declined for prosecution."

The DOJ is refusing to pursue any charges against the IRS for audits or harassment of politicians, Conservative Groups or Donors or related individuals.

This is hardly the first time Eric Holder has refused to prosecute a case against democrats and liberals.

He also refused to prosecute the two New Black Panthers, who committed voter intimidation, even though career attorneys at the DOJ, strongly recommended it. Holder has also refused to prosecute Wall Street big wigs like Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jon Corzine, and the board of Solyndra, all large contributors to President Obama's campaigns, and how about all the other Obama administration scandals from Fast and Furious to Benghazi, just to mention a few.

And for anyone out there that thinks these scandals don’t or won’t affect them… There has also never been an answer as to why none of the Tea Party and other Conservative Groups were never granted their non-profit status through the IRS in 2012… or any answers to 2012 Voter Fraud allegations in general. When it affects our votes or the election process, it affects all of us.

Daily Mail Reported:

'Coincidence? You decide': Sarah Palin's father 'horribly harassed' by IRS under probe led by Obama donor, her brother claims

• In a January 11 Facebook post, Chuck Heath Jr. accused the IRS of going after his dad Chuck Heath Sr.
• He said the elderly man said he had been 'horribly harassed' six times since Palin became the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008
• Heath Jr. suggested the new found interest was no coincidence, but part of an IRS's heightened security of conservative groups

Sarah Palin's father has been 'horribly harassed' by the IRS, her brother has claimed.

In a January 11 Facebook post, Chuck Heath Jr. accused the tax man of going after his dad Chuck Heath Sr. six times since Palin became the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008, suggesting the new found interest is no accident.

'Coincidence? You decide,' he wrote on his page.

Harassed? Sarah Palin's father Chuck Heath Sr, pictured above, has been 'horribly harassed' by the IRS, her brother has claimed

'My father, who worked multiple jobs and faithfully and honestly paid his taxes for fifty years, had never heard a word from the IRS.

'In 2008, his daughter was tapped to run for vice president of the United States. Since that time, he has been, in his words "horribly harassed" six times by the agency.'

He added: 'They've tried to dig up something on him but he's always operated above board. Government and politics are ugly. Kudos to the few that are trying to clean it up.'

Attack: In a January 11 Facebook post, Chuck Heath Jr., pictured working his sister's campaign, accused the tax man of going after his dad Chuck Heath Sr six times since Palin became the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008, suggesting the new found interest is no accident.

Support: After streams of anti-Obama comments to his post, Heath Jr responded, 'Thank you guys for the support. I know Dad appreciates it'

Heath Jr. was suggesting the attention allegedly directed towards his father was part of the IRS's heightened scrutiny of conservative groups.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI doesn't plan to file criminal charges in the probe, after it failed to find enough evidence of political bias to prove a violation of criminal law had occurred.

The news will likely intensify debate over the politically charged scandal.

After streams of anti-Obama comments to this post, Heath Jr. responded.

'Thank you guys for the support. I know Dad appreciates it,' he wrote.

'I wasn't going to say anything about the IRS targeting him when he told me about it a few months ago. I guess I feared some kind of retaliation from them.

'But when I heard the person heading up the IRS investigation for their targeting of Tea Party groups was a major Obama donor, I felt compelled to say something.

'We are all so sick of cronyism and backdoor tactics that bring good people down.'

Barbara Bosserman, a trial attorney within the IRS's Civil Rights Commission, is leading the internal investigation. According to reports she is a frequent donor to the Democratic National Committee and President Obama.

Chuck Heath and Chuck Heath Jr., Sarah Palin’s father and brother, like her children, are private citizens who are being harassed at every turn by the media and now the IRS because they are related to her.  Sarah’s great sin… she stood up to the corruptocrats in Alaska and won and gave life to the McCain ticket after her rousing VP nomination acceptance speech and scared the Hell out of the establishments in both parties and the ruling elite everywhere.  Why? Because she is and would represent the American people and continue to call out the beltway politicians and power elite.  So they had their minions in the media destroy her with lies, frivolous law suits… all of which she won, and continuous attacks on her and her family.

In a recent interview Roger Ailes said, “The only two people I knew who got worse press than Sarah Palin were Richard Nixon and George W. Bush — much of it unfairly, most of it unfair to her family.”, and she is still standing strong and Undefeated.  CNN Said Palin Influence Far from Diminishing and Jim DeMint at the Heritage Foundation said there was no more valuable endorsement in conservative circles than that of Sarah Palin… as Ted Cruz and others have said, Palin is the Kingmaker.  Ailes also knows that Palin just might take another shot at the big job herself… after all who better to go head to head with Hillary Clinton. The DNC’s carrot would be electing the first female president.  It truly would be the battle of the Century! And Ailes as well as the powers that be know it!

Election 2016 is a make or break it election for America’s future direction and definitely for Conservatives the Republican Party! Conservatives have lost their credibility because the don’t stand up for their own! And Progressives, Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Holder will do anything and everything to steal that election (2014 and 2016).

Time for all of us to get involved!!

Read more:

Criminal charges not expected in IRS probe The Wall Street Journal

Chuck Heath Jr 

Issa, Republicans Blast Decision Not to Pursue Criminal Charges in IRS Scandal 

Holder implicated in IRS Cover Up

Book by Chuck Heath Sr. and Chuck Heath Jr. - Our Sarah: Made in Alaska (Kindle)

Technorati Tags: IRS,Big Brother Tactics,Holder,Cronyism,Chuck Heath,Palin 2016,Scandals,Sarah Palin,DOJ,Undefeated,CNN,Eric Holder,Wake-Up,Watch the Other Hand,Tea Party,Stealing Elections,Conservatives,Progressives

The Lois Lerner Defense

File it the next time the IRS calls you up…

Lois Lerner

By Mark Steyn

We have the president of the United States’ word as a gentleman that he knew nothing about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of his enemies until he “learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.”

Furthermore, although the commissioner of the IRS, Douglas Shulman, visited Obama’s White House no fewer than 157 times, which is 156 times more than his predecessor Mark Everson ever visited the White House, we know that this was for legitimate Easter-egg rolls, as he testified to Congress, and meetings to discuss Obamacare. The Easter Bunny, one should note, visits the White House two to four times as often as the average IRS commissioner did before Mr. Shulman came along. But you can’t make a health-care omelet without breaking Easter eggs: It is one of the many distinctive features of Obama-style “health” “care” “reform” that, while it has not led to the hiring of a single additional doctor, nurse, or hospital janitor, it did require the biggest expansion of the IRS since the Second World War. So, when he wasn’t rolling Easter eggs and advising the moppets on whether they needed to declare the luxury Belgian white chocolate balls with praline filling, he was participating in vital meetings on how many extra SWAT teams he was going to need to enforce the new colonoscopy non-compliance penalty.

Let us also overlook the excellent treatment received from the IRS by members of the president’s family. Although acting commissioner Steven Miller apologized for the “horrible customer service” conservative taxpayers had gotten, a gentleman by the name of Malik Obama received impeccable, express service when he took the precaution of mailing in his non-profit application from N’giya, Kenya, rather than notoriously slower mail processing centers such as Phoenix and Dallas. Malik, the brother of President Obama, runs the Barack H. Obama Foundation, named for the president’s father. On May 30, 2011, they applied for tax-exempt status, and had their approval signed less than a month later by Lois Lerner herself, and conveniently backdated by Lois to cover the two-and-a-half years the enterprising Malik had already been raking in “tax-deductible” donations from Americans. The Washington address of the Barack H. Obama Foundation appears to be bogus, and it’s not clear whether the funds are being used back in Kenya for anything other than supporting the famously lavish lifestyle of Malik and his twelve wives. Given that the IRS is not shy about asking American conservatives for Facebook posts and lists of who attends their meetings, Ms. Lerner surely would have been within her rights to ask Malik Obama about the “exclusive” photographs currently displayed on the Barack H. Obama Foundation website of a recent meeting in Sudan, one of only four countries the U.S. government designates as a “terrorist state,” and the Foundation’s apparently extensive association with the Sudanese president and blood-soaked genocidal war criminal Omar al-Bashir. Given that the IRS likes to ask conservative taxpayers whether their friends and relatives are planning on running for office, Ms. Lerner might like to ask Malik Obama when his friend President Bashir is planning on leaving office. After another quarter million corpses?

Whatever. Let’s take it as read that, when U.S. taxpayers wind up giving tax breaks to an entity linked to the butchers of Darfur, it’s pure coincidence that the racket turns out to be run by the president’s brother. Let’s accept that Malik Obama just got lucky that his letter landed on the desk of Lois Lerner, and that, when she backdated his application for two-and-a-half years, she’d momentarily forgotten that it’s illegal for her to backdate it more than two-and-a-quarter years. Indeed, let’s take the president at his word that the existence of this shadowy IRS entity working deep within the even shadowier U.S. Treasury planted in deep cover within the shadowiest conspiracy of them all, this murky hitherto unknown organization called “the Executive Branch,” that all this was news to him. What that means then is not that this or that elected politician is corrupt but that the government of the United States is corrupt.

There seems to be ever more evidence for that. Every day brings revelations that the IRS conservative crackdown went way beyond the Tea Party. McClatchy Newspapers reports that a woman known only as “Ms. Richards” in the Cincinnati office of the IRS told Coalition for Life of Iowa that their application for nonprofit status could only be approved if they signed a letter promising not to picket in front of Planned Parenthood. Mark Drabik, a military veteran, became politically active and started giving to conservative groups only to have the IRS challenge his church donations. Catherine Engelbrecht founded True the Vote to protect ballot integrity, and within a few months her family’s business, farm, and personal taxes had all attracted IRS audits. Hundreds and hundreds of groups were consigned to the purgatory of “pending” — a term for IRS customers not as favored as Malik Obama can stretch leisurely from six months to ten to twenty to thirty, and beyond. When the most lavishly funded government on the planet comes after you, eventual guilt or innocence is irrelevant: The process is the punishment.

I am an immigrant to this great land, and I love it, but I will make a small observation from my years in the United States which I hope won’t be taken the wrong way: Like citizens of almost all Western democracies in the 21st century, Americans are overly deferential to bureaucracy, but, in my observation, they are uniquely fearful of the state’s tax collectors to a degree I have never seen with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs in London or equivalent agencies in Paris, Ottawa, Rome, Canberra. The IRS has, in American terms, extraordinary powers. It was, for example, amusing to see Lois Lerner plead the Fifth Amendment and exercise her constitutional right not to put herself at risk of self-incrimination. As the great Walter Williams pointed out the other day, every single American waives his Fifth Amendment rights every time he signs that tax return on April 15. Americans are fearless if some guy pulls some stunt in a shopping mall, but an IRS assault is brutal and unending. Many activists faded away, and the media began writing stories about how the Tea Party had peaked; they were over; they wouldn’t be a factor in 2012. And so it proved. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out the other day, the plan worked.

But, of course, there was no plan, was there? So let’s take Obama at his word that he had no idea all this was going on. In that case, he might like to take the lead in calling for the abolition of a corrupt agency and its grotesque tax code, and their replacement by a bureaucracy with more limited powers commensurate with a free society and a simplified tax regime with lower rates and thus fewer bewildering, mercurial “exemptions” that make the citizenry dependent on the caprices of Ms. Lerner and her colleagues. That’s a prize worth fighting for. In the meantime, the next time the IRS call you up with demands for this and demands for that, simply tell them, “I am filing the Lois Lerner defense,” and then say as she did to Congress “I have not done anything wrong. And I will not answer any questions.” Every man his own Lois Lerner!

— Mark Steyn, a National Review columnist, is the author of After America: Get Ready for Armageddon. © 2013 Mark Steyn

IRS in Defense Over Dance Video:

(CNN) – A newly obtained video has the IRS running damage control on a new front, as the embattled agency prepares for the release next week of an inspector general report that will be critical of how money was spent on staff conferences.

In the video, an apparent team-building exercise, employees are taught the Cupid Shuffle dance move as they prepare to present the dance as a group at a 2010 conference.

The IRS said Friday night the video “was unacceptable and an inappropriate use of government funds.”

The video’s narrator describes the group of individuals as executives from the Small Business/Self Employed (SBSE) department. They say they’re competing “to become the next great dance sensation.”

The IRS said the video cost $1,600 to produce, and it played at the end of a 2010 leadership and education meeting in Anaheim for 2,600 managers in the SBSE division.

“The meeting took place at a time where the IRS needed to ensure that managers had proper training to address significant new programs, major staff turnover and a substantial increase in security threats following the suicide attack on an IRS facility in Austin earlier in the year,” the IRS said in a statement.

Throughout the nearly-three minute video, the employees poke fun at each other as they try to learn the dance moves.

The new video comes as the IRS takes heat over its admitted targeting of conservative groups who sought tax exempt status.

Next week, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) will release an audit showing excess spending at the IRS conference.

The IRS has already come under scrutiny for Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island-themed training videos it produced that costs tens of thousands of dollars. The Star Trek video, reported earlier this year, played at the same conference as the dance video.

“And I thought doing the Star Trek video was humiliating,” one woman says in the new video.

In fact, one of the employees in the Star Trek video was also in the new dancing spot.

Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel, appointed in recent weeks, said in a statement that the report will focus on an IRS conference that took place in 2010 and labeled it an “unfortunate vestige from a prior era.”

Really????

Keep reading…

Obama Is In Charge; This Is on Him - David Limbaugh

Time to Kill the IRS Says Mark Levin

Incredible: The Official in Charge of the IRS Office Responsible for Targeting Conservative Groups Now Heads the Agency’s Obamacare Office

Obama Fires IRS Commissioner as Scandal Grows

Chief IRS council William Wilkins helped Rev. Wright’s church get out of probe

Why the IRS Scandal Should Lead to Obama’s Impeachment

Incompetent-gate, Corruption-gate and Progressive-gate – Part 1

IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups

Technorati Tags: Lois Lerner,IRS,scandal,Obamaland,Mark Steyn,National Review,IRS-gate,smoke and mirrors,cover-up,cover-ups,lies,corruption,demand the truth,Internal Revenue Service

Watcher’s Council Nominations – Takin’ The 5th Edition

JoshuaPundit on May 22 2013 |  Nominations:

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

‘Nuff said.

This week’s contest is dedicated to Rep. Darrel Issa..for relentless courage.

Council News:
This week, Ask Marion and Liberty’s Spirit earned honorable mention status with some great pieces.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano going back…
• The Noisy Room – The Enemy Among Us – Even in Idaho
• Simply Jews – Glenn Greenwald or the douchebag’s lines of defense
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Shock And Shush
• Bookworm Room – Is the IRS scandal the worst political scandal in American history? I say “yes
• Gay Patriot – In 2008, we told you Obama wasn’’t the man you (thought you) were voting for. . .
• Joshuapundit-DHS Is Training Law Enforcement To Give Muslim Brotherhood, Radical Islamists A Pass
• The Razor – Scandal Scorecard
• The Colossus of Rhodey – New “Scotty” Spouts Off on the New Trek’s Politics
• Rhymes With Right – My Response To @WhiteHouse #ObamaCareInThreeWords Meme
• The Glittering Eye -A Series of Unfortunate Incidents
• The Mellow Jihadi – Autumn Sandeen, a Sailor with No ESWS Pin?
• VA Right! - VA GOP Convention: Conservatives and TEA Party Send Republican Establishment a STRONG MESSAGE! Overcome DIRTY TRICKS and WIN!
• The Right Planet – #Scandalpalooza

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Incompetent-gate, Corruption-gate and Progressive-gate – Part 1
• Liberty’s Spirit – The IRS, Obamacare,and Abuse of Political Power: An Issue

Non-Council Submissions

• Craig McMillan/WND -The Chicago mob in D.C.submitted by The Political Commentator
• Caroline Glick – Obama and the “Official Truth” submitted by The Noisy Room
• A.J. Adler/The Algemeiner – A Campaign of Willful Blindness on Terrorism submitted by Simply Jews
• Contentions – Exploit Hizballah’s Vulnerability submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• American Thinker/Thomas Lifson-Never Mind Impeachment; Keep your Eyes on the Prize submitted by Bookworm Room
• Commentary -Accepting Responsibility Would Blow Obama’’s Circuits submitted by Gay Patriot
• Jonathan Rosenblum – The Price Of Blindness submitted by Joshuapundit
• Reason –The Myth of the Scientific Liberal submitted by The Razor
• OpenMarket.org – IRS Abuse of Americans Is Nothing New submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Big Jolly Politics – The Real Scandal with the IRS: Organizing for Action and the Chicago-style Misuse of Governmental Power submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Ta-Nahisi Coates/The Atlantic – How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Amil Imani –Saluting Pamela Geller: a Champion of Liberty submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Tea Party News Network – Lerner Pleads the Fifth, Issa Issues Subpoena for her to Appear Anyway submitted by VA Right!
• Doug Ross – That Crazy Benghazi Conspiracy Theory? It Just Got Less Crazy submitted by The Right Planet
• Mark Steyn – The Autocrat Accountants submitted by The Watcher
• Kirsten Powers/Daily Beast – How Hope and Change Gave Way to Spying on the Press submitted by Watcher

Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Technorati Tags: Watcher’s Council,collection of articles,news,news nuggets,alternative media,bloggers,blogosphere,educate yourself,history,Lois Lerner,IRS,politics,scandals,cover-ups,morality,responsibility,knowledge,lies,media,Obamaland,Obamaville,ep. Darrel Issa,Congressional Hearings

Incompetent-gate, Corruption-gate and Progressive-gate - Part 1

By Marion Algier – AskMarion

The list of corruption, fraud, scandals, cover-ups, overreach and incompetence by the Obama administration is staggering and growing by the day. Voter fraud and manipulation in both 2008 and 2012, Fast and Furious, Benghazi-gate, IRS-gate, Press-gate and now Sebelius-gate and EPA-gate are all coming to light, yet we are really only seeing the tip of the iceberg and if it were any other president he would never have been elected for a second term and impeachment would be on the table.

But when you start looking at the long list of infractions, it really narrows down to 3 main ‘gates’: Incompetent-gate, Corruption-gate and Progressive-gate. Everything else falls within the parameters of those 3.  It is a story of incompetence or feigned incompetence and lies, a Culture of Corruption and the philosophy of Progressivism.  The amazing part is that President Obama himself, former Secretary Hillary Clinton, and head cop Eric Holder have all already admitted both directly and indirectly to the first one: Incompetent-gate. They have all admitted over and over again through their testimonies, speeches and press conferences that they were, have been and are incompetent. And anyone paying attention has realized that the buck stops with anyone they can pin it on except themselves. Even Obama’s detachment is strategic!

We are finally reaching the point where half of America wants Obama impeached; worshippers like Chris Matthews are questioning what President Obama likes about his job; courageous journalists are saying it like it is and whistleblowers are coming out of the woodwork.

The panic is obviously building on the left when you look the amount of energy and time both Obama himself and the administration have spent denying their involvement and tap dancing, especially the past 10-days.  IRS official Lois Lerner To Plead the Fifth At Congressional Hearing Tomorrow.  If you know the law, you can only take  the Fifth if you testimony could incriminate you of a crime, not just because you don’t want to answer.

You know they are nervous or someone is getting close when they throw a liberal icon like Bob Woodward under the bus!

But for the first time the mainstream media outlets, that has always been in Obama’s pocket, are beginning to cover the “gates” getting some information to the average Americans who don’t pay a lot of attention to politics.

Joseph Curl tweeted a report from a CIA source on Monday afternoon regarding the Obama administration's developing scandal surrounding monitoring the email accounts of Fox News' James Rosen:

Urgent -- CIA: Fox News Scandal “Goes Much Deeper,” White House Sitting On Something Top Obama Aides “Terrified” About…

We will continue to monitor and review the proceedings and updates as we have since 2007 to help the truth come out before the 2014 Election.  Drastic changes in the make-up of the U.S. House and Senate are perhaps the only and last hope to turn the tide back toward the center and save America.  Check back next week for part 11 and daily for updates.

It is now time for all Americans to pay attention, demand answers, stand up, and share what they know and suspect for you cannot love or honor what you do not know, miss or understand … and you certainly won’t fight for it.  Yet the details of the scandals before us will (and already have) affect all our lives (including those of the libs) as well as the lives of our children, grandchildren and future generations of America!!  But those with the courage to stand up will surely pay a price if we don’t all stand together for the truth!

Sign the GOP petition and demand accountability from President Obama and his Administration.

Sign the petition urging Congress to impeach Obama.

Related:

What Did the President Know About the IRS Scandal and When Did He Know It?

The Great Unifier Didn't Need to be Told About the IRS Targeting Conservatives

WH spokesperson stumped: Where was Obama on night of Benghazi attack?

Foreign vote-count firm expands U.S. reach

Hey, IRS: Here’s the WW II prison camp survivor you asked about

Obama Isn't Just Too Big to Fail, He's Too Big to Know

‘First they came for Fox News…’

Chief IRS council William Wilkins helped Rev. Wright’s church get out of probe

For anyone who really still thinks there is no connection between the IRS and the White House… as the administration tried to sell America on this past weekend, read this:

FireAndreaMitchell.com: Now-chief counsel of the IRS, William Wilkins helped (Obama’s friend, mentor and pastor of 20-years) Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his church get out of an IRS probe in 2008. William Wilkins was working as a private attorney at the time. I’m sure this yet another amazing coincidence, isn’t it Hussein?

William Wilkins, then a WilmerHale law firm partner, said, “We were so interested in the case we offered to do it pro bono.”

Lowe wrote that Wilkins and other firm lawyers worked with the church’s national counsel, Donald Clark, and proved they had invited Obama to the event before he announced his candidacy for president. “Evidence presented in a letter sent to the IRS in late March pointed to ground rules the organization had established for Obama’s visit; the church even cautioned churchgoers against engaging in any political activity,” Lowe wrote. “Had the IRS pursued the matter, it would have raised serious questions about the First Amendment’s application to church activities, Wilkins says.”

When President Obama nominated Wilkins to be the IRS’s chief counsel on April 17, 2009, his White House cited Wilkins’ experience as an attorney on issues relating to tax-exempt status organization. “He has a broad tax practice that includes counseling nonprofit organizations, business entities, and investment funds on tax compliance, business transactions, and government investigations,” according to the White House release announcing Wilkins’ nomination.

More at: Chief IRS Counsel Got Jeremiah Wright's Church out of IRS Probe Before Joining Agency

Technorati Tags: IRS,radicals in the White House,watch the other hand,Reverend Wright,Jeremiah Wright,Obamaland,BHO needs to go,lies,manipulation of the public,IRS-gate,connect the dots,William Wilkins

Incredible: The Official in Charge of the IRS Office Responsible for Targeting Conservative Groups Now Heads the Agency’s Obamacare Office

Updated: ‘Absolutely chilling’: IRS admits targeting conservative groups for ‘inappropriate’ scrutiny

Incredible… It Just Keeps Getting Worse: The Official in Charge of the IRS Office Responsible for Targeting  Conservative Groups Now Heads the Agency’s Obamacare Office

TheBlaze/TV:

Well, this can’t be good.

It appears that the official who oversaw the Internal Revenue Service office responsible for targeting conservative groups has moved on from that post and now heads the agency’s Obamacare division.

From ABC News:

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

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 IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant said Thursday he would resign as commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division on June 3, TheBlaze reported. He was appointed to the post just eight days ago.

Here’s a May 8 press release announcing his extremely short-lived promotion.

Grant, Kay Named to IRS Leadership Posts

But here’s something ​really ​interesting: Ingram received more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012, slightly before and well after her office started targeting conservatives, the Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott reports.

“Ingram received a $7,000 bonus in 2009,” the Examiner report adds, “then a $34,440 bonus in 2010, $35,400 in 2011 and $26,550 last year for a total of $103,390. Her annual salary went from $172,500 to $177,000 during the same period.”

News that the IRS official heading the agency’s Obamacare office used to run the division responsible for conservative discrimination comes on the heels of House Speaker John Boehner calling for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

“Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs,” Boehner said shortly after the House passed a “repeal Obamacare” measure.

“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-In.) added. “Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell summed up his reaction to the Ingram revelation: “stunning, just stunning.”

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Featured image C-SPAN. This post has been updated.

Related:

IRS official who oversaw unit targeting Tea Party now heads ObamaCare office

IRS official in charge during tea party targeting is now directing the agency's health care unit

‘Scandalous Hat Trick’: Sarah Palin Shreds Obama & His Scandal-Embroiled White House

The President's Non-Answer on IRS

Obama Fires IRS Commissioner as Scandal Grows

The President’s Non-Answer is an Admission that the White House Knew What the IRS was Doing

Confused by Obama’s Incredibly Brief IRS Statement? Here’s Krauthammer’s Take

Pelosi on IRS: It’s Bush’s Fault – Really??

Obama Administration Under Siege From 3 Huge Scandals: Here’s Why It Could All Come Crashing Down

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly Mocks Obama Team’s “I Know Nothing” Response to Scandals with “Sgt. Schultz” Clip!

IRS, Benghazi, and the AP: What do all three scandals have in common?

Why the IRS Scandal Should Lead to Obama’s Impeachment

IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups

Obama is Putin or Chavez, Not Nixon

Benghazi, IRS Create Perfect Storm Threatening Obama's Credibility

Beck Ties Together Benghazi, IRS, & AP Scandals: ‘Fundamental Transformation’

Will Progressives Underwrite Obama’s Impeachment… You Be the Judge

You Cannot Love and Honor What You Don’t Know or Miss

Technorati Tags: defund ObamaCare,IRS,smoke and mirrors,lies,ObamaCare,Big Brother,ObamaCare surprises,manipulation of the public,The Blaze,truth,Sarah Hall Ingram,destorying America,saving America,fraudsters,fundamental transformation of America,pray for America,Perfect Storm,tea party,grassroots movements,conservatives

‘Scandalous Hat Trick’: Sarah Palin Shreds Obama & His Scandal-Embroiled White House

Associated Press (AP)

May 16, 2013 9:37pm - Becket Adams – TheBlazeTV

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a lengthy message to her Facebook wall Thursday criticizing the Obama administration for its handling the Benghazi, IRS, and Associated Press phone records scandals:

Scandalous Hat Trick

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. Today in the Rose Garden you dismissed the idea of a Special Counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. With that, your galling political hubris shined bright in the midst of today’s dark clouds.

Mr. President, how can we trust your Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation when there is a systemic violation of the Hatch Act throughout your administration?

Surely you are aware that the Hatch Act prevents certain federal employees from engaging in political activity. Specifically, it’s illegal for these federal employees to engage in action in support of or in opposition to a political party, a candidate for partisan political office, or a partisan political group.

Yet that is exactly what’s happened within the IRS, the Justice Department, and in the Benghazi cover-up. This scandalous hat trick is on your watch. It is not believable that you knew nothing about Obama administration actions in dealing with these scandals. And in regards to Benghazi, when you should have taken appropriate action to save American lives – for instance by calling in the Marines – you were AWOL. Just weeks before the election your team scrubbed the Benghazi talking points in 12 different versions, lied to the American people about some YouTube video being to blame for the deaths of brave Americans who put our country first, and you prove Michael Barone right when he writes, “What actually happened in Benghazi was out of sync with the Obama campaign line.” That’s why you all did what you did. Pure raw politics were at play during a horrific time of loss.

For more evidence of Hatch Act violations right under your nose, simply consider DOJ’s “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the free press. Do you think they picked up some political talk when tapping the phones in the House press gallery?

Your team is out of control. Those who cannot remember the past and learn from it are doomed to repeat it, and that is exactly what is happening. Look back exactly 40 years ago this week and apply that disheartening chapter of American history to the team you’ve chosen and lead today.

Some of us warned America; we cautioned voters in 2008 that a community organizer with no executive experience and no sense of accountability would be a very poor choice for the nation’s top management position.

Mr. President, you said today that you have “complete confidence” in the Attorney General. America doesn’t. Eric Holder needs to appoint an unbiased Special Counsel to investigate the illegal political action of this administration. And then Eric Holder needs to resign.

Most Americans see ominous dark clouds looming beyond the White House Rose Garden, Mr. President. They’ll roll away only when light is shined on the Obama administration’s antics, and America will only recover when you cease avoiding responsibility in this mission of yours to fundamentally transform America. For that to happen, the press had better learn from their experiences of being duped and provide a deserving public fairer, more intelligent coverage.

Speaking of coverage, glad you finally called in the Marines… shame it was just to hold your umbrella.

- Sarah Palin

Well then. Tell us how you really feel.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

(H/T: Right Scoop). Featured image Getty Images.

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IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Oversight Committee. The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, May, 10, 2013. Carney responded on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, calling on top-to-bottom review of the Obama administration after the IRS admitted that it had targeted conservative groups during the 2012 election. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

By: STEPHEN OHLEMACHER (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

The agency — led at the time by a Bush administration appointee — blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But that wasn't good enough for Republicans in Congress, who are conducting several investigations and asked for more.

"I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

White House spokesman Jay Carney declared it was indeed inappropriate for the IRS to target tea party groups. But he brushed aside questions about whether the White House itself would investigate.

Instead, Carney said the administration expects a thorough investigation by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration. The inspector general has been looking into the issue since last summer, and his report is expected to come out next week, the IG's office said Friday.

Carney said he did not know when the White House first learned that tea party groups were being targeted.

Lerner acknowledged it was wrong for the agency to target groups based on political affiliation.

"That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.

About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.

The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department that enforces the nation's tax laws. Revelations that the agency was targeting political groups because they were affiliated with a movement that is critical of President Barack Obama could become a new headache for the White House.

"The admission by the Obama administration that the Internal Revenue Service targeted political opponents echoes some of the most shameful abuses of government power in 20th century American history," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Many conservative groups complained during the campaign that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on politics.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

The IRS said senior leaders were not aware that specific groups were being targeted at the time of the hearing.

"While we acknowledged centralization of these applications last year, the IRS did not acknowledge the use of names as part of the process earlier because the details were not initially known to senior leadership and (the inspector general) has been reviewing the situation," the IRS said in a statement. "Their work is now far enough along that it was appropriate to address the issue when it came up during (Friday's) tax conference."

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, requested a trove of documents from the IRS on Friday, including all communications containing the words "tea party" and "patriot."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Friday he will hold a hearing on the matter has not yet set a date.

"The IRS absolutely must be non-partisan in its enforcement of our tax laws," Camp said. "We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have also promised investigations.

Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley said the department will support the inspector general's investigation.

"The Treasury Department expects all individuals and organizations to be treated fairly by the IRS. Anything less is inappropriate and unacceptable."

There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections — conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group, Crossroads GPS, and the liberal Moveon.org.

These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

Lerner said the number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words, "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner told The AP. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

The IRS statement said that once applications were chosen for review, they all "received the same, even-handed treatment."

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale," the IRS said in a statement. "We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system."

"I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, who until recently was president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, an alliance of tea party groups in the state.

Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as discriminatory treatment. The group first applied for nonprofit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said — one month after Election Day.

"It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. "President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grass-roots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again."

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report. – h/t to MJ

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Obama Lies, Taxes Rise

The People’s Cube – OBAMACARE: Let’s Celebrate the Sweet Road to Serfdom

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton – TheNoisyRoom

The Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare came as a severe shock to me as I am sure it did to all of you. I was literally ill after I heard the decision. It has taken me a couple of days to settle down enough to write on this and I am sure that my take will differ from many of my colleagues who are willing to read into Justice Roberts’ betrayal some sort of Constitutional maneuvering. Even among conservatives at NoisyRoom there is disagreement on this. But that is what makes being free even sweeter. We can each have our own opinions, for now at least.

Let me state that I don’t give a crap whether Roberts was trying to finesse the Constitution or promote his own reputation on the backsides of hard working Americans – he betrayed those he serves. He put himself above Americans and instead of doing his job and acting as legal arbiter in a protective role, he dumped it back on Americans to either sink or swim in a poisonous sea of Obama-crafted regulation. He could have handled the Commerce Clause issue and Obamacare at the same time, but that is not what happened. Roberts did ensure two things though… The first is that he will be remembered as a Progressive coward – that he took the self-serving way out, no matter how many intellectuals try to spin it otherwise. The second is that he has energized the Tea Party and awakened a giant who will surely deliver a mandate in November sending Obama and the other Marxists packing.

Does anyone out there genuinely believe this is what the Founders had envisioned? Passing the largest tax increase in American history that if not stopped, will surely break the back of a once great nation. While putting into place an IRS Gestapo, 16,500 and more strong that will act as a jack booted thuggish arm of the Obama administration. Taxation will be thoroughly (even more than now) weaponized and will be used to punish enemies of the state. Remind you of anyone? Comply or else and everyone is a criminal. How very Atlas Shrugged.

From Rush Limbaugh:

“Obamacare is nothing more than the largest tax increase in the history of the world and the people who were characterizing it as such were right and were telling the truth,” Limbaugh said.

“The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Roberts said ‘it’s not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices. Not our job.’ Well what about when we are deceived?” he asked.

“The court upheld a law that was not what we were told it would be. What has been upheld here is fraud and the Internal Revenue Service has just become Barack Obama’s domestic army. That is what we face now.”

Video: Rush Reacts To SCOTUS Decision On Obamacare: Largest Tax Increase In The History Of The World

Somewhere between 18 and 22 new taxes will be levied because of this ruling. Some begin next year. I don’t know about you, but we are having trouble making it now and we are already worried about the heavy food inflation we are seeing here. I definitely wonder how we will make it with these new taxes if they come into play. I know the Republicans have sworn to repeal Obamacare, but until conservatives control the Senate and House and have taken back the White House, I don’t see it happening. Even then I have grave doubts because I keep hearing “repeal and replace.” What the hell? Just repeal the damn thing and forget replacing it. Let the free market do its job and keep the government out of it.

I see this whole tax situation akin to the Jizya tax placed on infidels as they do under Shariah law. That is what this feels like. Convert or pay the tax or die. Well, I will not submit. I will fight for this next election to see Romney elected. He wasn’t my first choice and he is Progressive light, but he’s not a communist and I believe he is a moral man. I will fight to help us regain the Senate and expand in the House. It’s life or death and as Paul Ryan said, this November is our last chance. We dare not fail or America as we know and love her is over.

Obamacare will add $1.15 trillion to the national debt. Americans need to confront that and understand what that means. There is no coming back from that. We are bankrupt and it will finish us off. Forget about a Depression, this will be a financial Armageddon. As a matter of fact, there is an argument to be made that that boat has already sailed because the US now carries a mind numbing $15 trillion in debt and another $65 trillion in unfunded liabilities related to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Obamacare is the final nail in the fiscal coffin of America and Obama knows it. If implemented, Cloward and Piven will succeed so massively not even they could have dreamed of attaining such complete success.

Consider the following:

• Congressional Budget Office report says ”Affordable Care Act” could cause 20 million private sector employees to lose their health care coverage
• Full CBO report (PDF)
• Study finds “Affordable Care Act” will impose more than $500 billion in tax increases on U.S. private sector
• Study finds “Affordable Care Act” will impose 18 separate tax increases
• Study finds “Affordable Care Act” will increase budget deficit by more than $1.15 trillion
• Full study (PDF)
• 85% of small businesses are not hiring new employees, and nearly half of those businesses say the potential cost of health care regulations is a major reason
• 46% of American doctors say they may leave the profession if federal government takes over the U.S. health care system
• Top doctor’s chilling claim: British National Health System kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year
• “Up to 20,000 people have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the NHS”
• A useful analysis of the folly of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion from the Wall Street Journal

My opinion is not unique. It is shared by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. All of whom I admire and respect. The decision was lawless and unconstitutional. Allen West puts it best:

“The United States Supreme Court has ruled to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by extending the power of the United States Congress to tax Americans’ behavior. This is a sad day for Americans, as they will be taxed to pay for benefits they may not need or want as part of the insurance they are forced to buy. With this decision, Congress has been granted infinite taxation power, and there are no longer any limits on what the federal government can tax its citizens to do.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will hit the middle class especially hard, as hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost as businesses try to avoid the penalties and costs created by the healthcare law. The healthcare law will cost trillions of dollars, raise costs for employers and create huge incentives for them to drop health insurance.

Benjamin Franklin did indeed state, ‘In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’ However, Dr. Franklin never envisioned the federal government would use its power of taxation to punish people for not purchasing health care. Today, individual sovereignty in America has been defeated.” – Congressman Allen West

This horrific ruling (one in which a 1st grader could have made a more informed constitutional decision than Roberts) will empower the most arrogant man in the world even further. If he is not booted out of office in November, there will be no stopping his ‘change.’ Even then, the damage he will do as a lame duck will be thunderous.

Video:  Barack Obama: The Most Arrogant Man in the World

The power to tax is the power to destroy and so Obamacare will. It will destroy jobs, what’s left of our economy, our sovereignty and our defenses. It will finish off the Constitution. What Obama denied as a tax, is THE tax of all time and those that feel it won’t affect them are dangerously delusional.

Time to fight – time to grow up and get out there and get everyone you know to vote. It’s mandate time. Roberts screwed the pooch on this one, now we have to roll up our sleeves and realize that no branch of our government supports us. We have to make sure this next election is a blow out. Stand up and scream, “I will not comply!” Vote the arrogant bastard out of office and let us begin to heal.

Obama lies, taxes rise…

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The Roberts’ Supreme Court Ruling Was the Shock Heard Around the World That Just Might Save America If It Woke People Up and Gets Them Involved and Voting on Election Day - November 6, 2012

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