WORSE THAN BENGHAZI:

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President Obama, congressional Democrats slam the IRS for singling out Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations
The FBI revealed Friday that organizations with the words 'Tea Party' or 'patriots' in their names were flagged for closer review. 'If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous,' Obama said at a news conference.

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BY DAN FRIEDMAN AND JAMES WARREN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

PUBLISHED: MONDAY, MAY 13, 2013, 12:58 PM
UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013, 8:32 AM
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ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

President Barack Obama speaks at White House news conference on Monday. He called reports that the IRS targeted conservative groups "outrageous."
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WASHINGTON — President Obama and congressional Democrats on Monday joined Republicans in ripping the Internal Revenue Service for singling out Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations for extra scrutiny.

“If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous, it is contrary to our traditions,” Obama said at a news conference. “And people have to be held accountable, and it's got to be fixed.”

“This is something that I think people are properly concerned about,” Obama said.

Two Senate committees, both controlled by Democrats, on Monday announced investigations, joining committees run by House Republicans that vowed to do the same.

RELATED: IRS APOLOGIZES FOR PROBING CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL GROUPS

Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called the IRS actions “an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust.”

The scandal erupted Friday when the FBI revealed that organizations with the words “Tea Party” or “patriots” in their names were flagged for closer IRS review when they applied to the agency for tax-exempt status.

The goal was to determine if the groups planned to function mostly as political organizations, which would make them ineligible for special tax treatment.

Members of Congress said they were especially angry because they epeatedly raised concerns that conservative groups were getting extra scrutiny — only to have the IRS repeatedly insist that this was not the case.

RELATED: IRS OFFICIALS KNEW AGENTS WERE TARGETING TEA PARTY: REPORT

In letters to Congress, IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller detailed how applications for tax-exempt status were screened — without mentioning that conservative groups were targeted.

At the time of the letters, people Miller oversaw knew that such targeting was taking place, according to an upcoming report by a Treasury Department inspector general.

Miller is now the acting head of the IRS.

In one response, Miller said a revenue agent uses “sound reasoning based on tax law training” to determine which applications s need additional scrutiny.

RELATED: OBAMA SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR IRS TARGETING: SENATOR

The IRS has said that about 300 groups were singled out for additional review; a quarter of them were targeted because they had “Tea Party” or “patriot” somewhere in their applications. Half the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

The IRS blamed low-level employees in a Cincinnati office trying to deal with a surge in applications for tax exempt status. The IRS said no high-level officials were aware. But on June 29, 2011, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, learned that groups were being targeted, according to a draft of the report by the inspector general.

Obama said he first learned about the issue from news reports on Friday.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....342575#ixzz2THzJsYpy

REMEMBER:

those who control the information control the masses
those who control the $$ control the masses
those who control the legislation control the masses

etc etc

GOP Fears Scandal Backlash

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GOP Seeks to Avoid Scandal Backlash
New York Times: "The most pressing question for Congressional Republicans is no longer how to finesse
changes to immigration law or gun control, but how far they can push their cases against President
Obama without inciting a backlash of the sort that has left them staggering in the past."

"Working against those methodical plans, however, are the personal passions of the rank and file."

And:

Republicans are Worried They'll Blow It

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Politico: "Republicans are worried one thing could screw up the political gift of three Obama
administration controversies at once: fellow Republicans. Top GOP leaders are privately
warning members to put a sock in it when it comes to silly calls for impeachment
or over-the-top comparisons to Watergate.
They want members to focus on months of fact-finding investigations - not rhetorical fury."

One Senate GOP leadership aide said the coming investigation "has the capacity to be debilitating"
for the administration: "It will take months, and it will ebb and flow in terms of its national attention.
But the ebbs will be white hot."

Your Republicans Hard at Work...

House Votes For Obamacare Repeal Again, and Again, and yet Again...

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The House of Representatives held another vote to repeal Obamacare Thursday afternoon.

The House voted to repeal Obamacare 229-195. However, the bill will have little hope of passing in
the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The decision to hold a vote to repeal Obamacare -- which has already been done 37 times --
was made by Republican leaders looking to appease freshman GOP lawmakers.

“We’ve got 70 new members who have not had the opportunity to vote on the president’s health care law.

Obamacare 37, Republicans 0
So far the cost to the taxpayers of the Republicans voting to repeal Obama care, Over and Over and Over and
Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and
Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and
Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and AND OVER...
37 TIMES... $51 MILLION DOLLARS.  (Thanks Republicans)

Quoted from Box A Rox

Your Republicans Hard at Work...

House Votes For Obamacare Repeal Again, and Again, and yet Again...



So far the cost to the taxpayers of the Republicans voting to repeal Obama care, Over and Over and Over and
Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and
Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and
Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and Over and AND OVER...
37 TIMES... $51 MILLION DOLLARS.  (Thanks Republicans)

Yeah!  That money could have been given to a bankrupt green energy company.  GEEZ, what a waste.

Quoted from CICERO

Yeah!  That money could have been given to a bankrupt green energy company.  GEEZ, what a waste.

As twisted as your post is... you're right.  If the $51 million that the Republicans wasted by voting
37 times on a bill they knew would never pass.... had been spent on some crazy green energy company,
that then went bankrupt... the US economy would be a total of $51 million better off.
Those who were employed by the bankrupt company would have had checks, supported their families,
paid taxes, and improved the economy,  until the company folded...
the Republican vote cost the taxpayer $51 million and gave the economy $0.

Confirming that Boxy is in full damage control mode.

You think President Biden has a nice ring to it?

Quoted from BuckStrider

Confirming that Boxy is in full damage control mode.

You think President Biden has a nice ring to it?

Not really...
After 3 1/2 more successful Obama years, I expect Hillary will be the front runner, not Biden.

Left wing nuts are blinded by just plain ignorance/stupidity.

Only Republicans Think They're Scandals

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The latest polling and finds that in the case of the IRS and Benghazi stories, "the lurid and nefarious
view of Obama's involvement in them being peddled by the right is held only by Republicans -- big majorities
of them -- while most moderates and independents, i.e. the middle of the country, believe the
White House's arguments."

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....inds-of-republicans/

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"One reason Republicans are so obsessed with exploiting these 'scandals' is because the one
issue that Americans truly care about -- jobs and the economy -- is getting better."

The Week
http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/244407/dc-is-obsessed-with-scandal-america-isnt

Monday, May 20, 2013
By Ron Fournier
Updated: May 20, 2013 | 10:08 a.m.
May 20, 2013 | 9:40 a.m.

Swamped in controversies, President Obama and his slow-footed team are essentially telling the American public, “We’re not crooked. We’re just incompetent.”

The IRS targeting conservatives, the Justice Department snooping at The Associated Press, the State Department injecting politics into Benghazi, the military covering up sexual assaults, and the Department of Veterans Affairs leaving heroes in health care limbo – each of these so-called scandals share two traits.

First, there is some element of “spin," the cynical art of telling just enough of the truth to avoid political embarrassment. Obfuscation and demagogy, the dirty tools of political quackery that Obama pledged to purge from Washington, enjoy top-shelf status at his White House.

Second, there is almost comical bungling. While denying involvement in high crimes and misdemeanors, the Obama administration appears to be pleading guilty to lesser crimes of bureaucratic incompetence.  But that is an unsustainable position for a president who wants Americans to believe again in the power and grace of good government, particularly as it relates to the implementation of Obamacare.

--IRS agents targeted conservatives. Their bosses lied about it for months.

--Justice Department investigators violated internal guidelines to secretly spy on The Associated Press.

--White House and State Department officials minimized their role in shaping initial explanations for the Benghazi attack.

--Military officers assigned to sexual assault prevention units are charged with sexual battery.  The Pentagon’s own study finds that 26,000 service members experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2012. It’s not a new problem.

--Despite a 40 percent increase in funding, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs cannot ease a backlog of cases. The typical wounded warrior waits more than 300 days for action on a claim. In major cities, the wait can be 642 days.

The backdrop to this parade of buffoonery is a decades-long decline in the public’s faith in government, a trend continued under Obama.  Restoring the public’s trust in his governance is the only way Obama can survive the controversies with his agenda and legacy intact.

In interviews, allies of the White House privately suggested a few things Obama could do, including:

Appoint a bipartisan oversight board to oversee the implementation of Obamacare. There is no way around the fact that a vast majority of voters will not trust the IRS to implement the greatest piece of social legislation in decades. Before the tempests, Obamacare was unpopular and largely misunderstood by most Americans.  The law’s success hinges on the government recruiting young adults into insurance pools. And polls show young adults are the least likely to trust government.

Layer the White House communication team with experienced crisis managers.  As I wrote here last week, Obama needs to realize that the dedicated public servants in the West Wing are not getting the job done.

Apologize to the AP and announce a new policy for leaks investigations. The White House needs to punish people who leak classified information that endangers national security. But the scope of the snooping at AP combined with Obama's unprecedented zeal for leaks investigations raises doubts about his commitment to transparency and to an unfettered media. He has pursued more such cases than all previous administration combined, according to the Washington Post. The paper also reported that the administration spied on a Fox News reporter at the State Department. Again, this is a matter of trust.

Appoint a special prosecutor on the IRS. The last thing the country needs is another subpoena-powered fishing expedition like the Whitewater inquiries.  But we might need a special prosecutor with a narrowly defined mission to investigate the actions and motives of IRS agents and their superiors. Is there a better way to restore the agency’s integrity? The administration investigating itself will not lift the cloud from Obama’s White House.

Reset the narrative and public expectations with a major speech on trust. Obama has spoken eloquently and convincingly about this issue. If his next address included painful solutions such as the ones above, he might restore the public’s audacity to hope.        http://www.nationaljournal.com.....-presidency-20130520

Biden is just a stumbling old drunk.  He would never get elected president -- except maybe in Russia because they like old drunks in high office (Yeltsin).