By Susan Jones
The Internal Revenue Service has told Congress that many of
the emails to and from Lois Lerner were lost in a computer crash in 2011.
"You've never heard of a computer crashing before?" White House
spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday, when a reporter asked if that was a
"reasonable explanation."
"I think it's entirely reasonable, because it's the truth and it's a fact, and speculation otherwise I think is indicative of the kinds of conspiracies that are propagated around this story," Earnest said.
"I think it's entirely reasonable, because it's the truth and it's a fact, and speculation otherwise I think is indicative of the kinds of conspiracies that are propagated around this story," Earnest said.
By Eliana Johnson
It’s
not just Lois Lerner’s e-mails. The Internal Revenue Service says it
can’t produce e-mails from six more employees involved in the targeting
of conservative groups, according to two Republicans investigating the
scandal.
The IRS told Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp and subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany that computer crashes resulted in additional lost e-mails, including from Nikole Flax, the chief of staff to former IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who was fired in the wake of the targeting scandal.
The revelation about Lerner’s e-mails rekindled the scandal and today’s news has further inflamed Republicans. Camp and Boustany are now demanding a special prosecutor to investigate “every angle” of the targeting. They expressed particular outrage that the agency has known since February that it would not be able to produce the e-mails requested by the committee yet did not apprise the committee of that fact, and they charged in a statement that the IRS is attempting to “cover up the fact that it convenient lost key documents in the investigation.”
If Lerner is the central figure in the scandal — Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa said Monday evening he believes she was the senior-most official involved — Flax may be an important auxiliary figure. E-mails produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the group Judicial Watch show Flax giving the green light to Lerner’s request to meet with Department of Justice officials to explore the possibility of criminally prosecuting nonprofit groups — at the suggestion of Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse — for engaging in political activity after declaring on their application for nonprofit status that they had no plans to do so.
E-mails uncovered by the committee last week showed that, in preparation for her meeting with the Department of Justice, Lerner and one of her advisers transmitted 1.1 million pages of data on nonprofit groups, including confidential taxpayer information, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, potentially in violation of federal law.
The IRS told Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp and subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany that computer crashes resulted in additional lost e-mails, including from Nikole Flax, the chief of staff to former IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who was fired in the wake of the targeting scandal.
The revelation about Lerner’s e-mails rekindled the scandal and today’s news has further inflamed Republicans. Camp and Boustany are now demanding a special prosecutor to investigate “every angle” of the targeting. They expressed particular outrage that the agency has known since February that it would not be able to produce the e-mails requested by the committee yet did not apprise the committee of that fact, and they charged in a statement that the IRS is attempting to “cover up the fact that it convenient lost key documents in the investigation.”
If Lerner is the central figure in the scandal — Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa said Monday evening he believes she was the senior-most official involved — Flax may be an important auxiliary figure. E-mails produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the group Judicial Watch show Flax giving the green light to Lerner’s request to meet with Department of Justice officials to explore the possibility of criminally prosecuting nonprofit groups — at the suggestion of Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse — for engaging in political activity after declaring on their application for nonprofit status that they had no plans to do so.
E-mails uncovered by the committee last week showed that, in preparation for her meeting with the Department of Justice, Lerner and one of her advisers transmitted 1.1 million pages of data on nonprofit groups, including confidential taxpayer information, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, potentially in violation of federal law.
Krauthammer’s comparison of Obama to Nixon is absolutely brilliant
By Joshua Riddle
“These guys are living on a different planet. They asked for this a year ago, it’s now discovered that they are lost.”
“Nixon lost 18 minutes, Obama’s now lost two
years of email,” Krauthammer continued. “And one thing that people don’t
remember, the second article of impeachment for Richard Nixon was the
abuse of the IRS to pursue political enemies. This is a high crime. This
is not a triviality.”
A Canadian TV anchor called out Hillary Clinton for refusing to answer his question about the Keystone pipeline during an interview.
“Keystone, yes or no?” the anchor asked Clinton.
“Well I can’t say that, because I was there,” Clinton began to reply.
“I don’t understand that,” the anchor interjected, “you can talk about so many other things, why can’t you talk about that?”
Clinton continued to evade the question, saying, “Because that was a decision that rests with the secretary of state, and my successor is going to have to make that decision one way or the other and so I have said it’s inappropriate for me to comment on it. “
Justice Department’s Latest Action Violates Federal Immigration Law
By Hans von SpakovskyAttorney General Eric Holder announced on June 6 the Justice Department will use taxpayer funds to “enroll approximately 100 lawyers and paralegals as AmeriCorps members to provide legal services” to “young people who must appear in immigration proceedings.” This will be accomplished through Justice Department grants to the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that administers AmeriCorps. Holder is calling it a “strategic partnership” that will establish a “justice AmeriCorps.”
There is one big problem with Holder’s plan to fund legal representation for illegal aliens: It violates federal law. Federal immigration law (8 U.S.C. §1229a) lays out the rules governing removal proceedings in the immigration courts, which are administrative courts run by the Justice Department, not Article III federal courts. Under Section 1229a(b)(4)(A), aliens have the “privilege of being represented, at no expense to the government, by counsel of the alien’s choosing.” Thus, there is no question illegal aliens can be represented by lawyers in immigration removal proceedings, but it also is clear representation cannot be at the expense of the government.
Holder’s press release cites no legal authority for this move other than a supposed “direction” from Congress to the Executive Office of Immigration Review “to better serve vulnerable populations such as children and improve court efficiency through pilot efforts aimed at improving legal representation.” Where this “direction” came from is not explained. In any event, any such “direction” from Congress cannot overcome a direct, statutory prohibition on providing legal representation at the expense of the government.
...Not only has Congress not authorized the use of federal funds by the Justice Department to provide legal representation to illegal aliens in removal proceedings, it has absolutely banned it. But that doesn’t seem to matter to Attorney General Eric Holder. Whether you are a liberal, a moderate, or a conservative, everyone should fear having an attorney general who establishes the precedent that prior laws passed by our elected representatives and signed into law by a popularly elected president can be wiped out by one person in a new administration deciding the Department of Justice will ignore or even violate the law.
Court Rules Warrantless Cell Tracking Unconstitutional
By Curt AndersonInvestigators must obtain a search warrant from a judge in order to obtain cellphone tower tracking data that is widely used as evidence to show suspects were in the vicinity of a crime, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
In the first ruling of its kind nationally, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined people have an expectation of privacy in their movements and that the cell tower data was part of that. As such, obtaining the records without a search warrant is a violation of the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, the judges ruled.
"While committing a crime is certainly not within a legitimate expectation of privacy, if the cell site location data could place him near those scenes, it could place him near any other scene," the judges wrote. "There is a reasonable privacy interest in being near the home of a lover, or a dispensary of medication, or a place of worship, or a house of ill repute."
The ruling does not block investigators from obtaining the records that show which calls are routed through specific towers as well as which phones are nearby. It simply requires a higher legal showing of probable cause that a crime is or was being committed to obtain a search warrant rather than a less-strict court order.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said Tuesday, “Secretary Kerry, in my view, should be on a plane right now for Baghdad.”
“Diplomacy is what is crucial right now,” Crocker advised. “We need to work with the Iraqis at the highest level. That would be Secretary Kerry, backed by the president, so that they can demonstrate the national unity, Kurdish, Sunni and Shia, that is going to be essential, if there is going to be any hope of turning back the ISIS threat.”
Asked whether the Obama administration failed to monitor Iraq over the past several years, Crocker replied, “I would have liked to have seen more sustained high-level diplomatic engagement with the Iraqis. This is a very young democracy that has a lot of challenges. We are hard-wired into their political system. We helped create it, we can’t walk away from it. So I would have preferred, since 2011, to see us more deeply and intensively engaged at the highest levels of government. I don’t think it’s too late, but we better move now.
Kerry Immersed in Conference on Clean Oceans as Iraq Falls Apart
By Bridget Johnson
As Iraq is overrun by terrorists and President Obama said “intensive diplomacy” is needed to solve the crisis, Secretary of State John Kerry is spending the beginning of the week hosting celebs and royalty at Foggy Bottom to discuss clean oceans and climate change.
Kerry welcomed Monaco’s Prince Albert at a luncheon yesterday, lauding him for “doing whatever he can do to protect the ocean.”
...Kerry announced that the State Department will be making a $320,000 contribution to Monaco’s effort this year, and the Department of Energy will match that contribution with another $320,000 of its own “in order to help kick the acidification study into even higher gear.”
....Today, Kerry’s schedule was packed with opening remarks on the second day of the Our Ocean Conference and a conference luncheon with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, White House Senior Counselor John Podesta, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Whitehouse makes a weekly speech on the Senate floor about climate change.
Kerry was also hosting a Twitter Q&A on climate change today with Bill Nye the Science Guy.
ISIS, Iran, and the Rot of Political Islam
We should take the fanatic Islamists at their word: They hate freedom, and the whole world is their target.
By Tom Rogan....But consider Iran — more strategically astute than ISIS, yes, but no less evil. Whether in its support for Assad’s chlorine-gas attacks in Syria or in its own numerous atrocities at home and across the world, Iran has no qualms about using death and fear as political weapons. A case in point is Iran’s plot in 2011 to blow up a crowded restaurant in Washington, D.C., in order to kill a Saudi diplomat. Former CENTCOM commander James Mattis tells the story here.
Of course, it isn’t only ISIS and Iran. In Yemen, fighters from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) film themselves massacring unsuspecting villagers. In Kenya, Al-Shabaab has just murdered fans watching the World Cup. In Nigeria, Boko Haram slit throats and kidnaps children. (A celebrity-led hashtag campaign has thus far rescued no children.) In Beirut, Iran’s ally Hezbollah casually murders its democratic opponents. These cases are just a few from the swamp of Islamic terrorism.
We need to recognize that whether it’s Iran or ISIS or Islamic terrorists elsewhere, what’s happening around the world is proof of a deeper truth: the rot of political Islam. Far removed from the Islamic age of medieval enlightenment, much of the world’s Islamic political discourse is now defined by corruption and hate.
Deceiving world about number of state-ordered murders
Iran has been caught carrying out “secret executions” of falsely imprisoned political opponents and is said to be poised to execute four more on charges of “enmity against God” and “corruption on Earth,” according to an Iranian opposition group and human rights observers apprised of the situation.
Two members of Iran’s Ahwazi minority were secretly executed this month after being “held in conditions amounting to enforced disappearance since March 2014,” according to the human rights group Amnesty International.
The illegal executions, which violate international law, only came to light in recent days and were revealed amid reports that the Iranian regime is gearing up to execute another four Sunni prisoners who activists say were falsely imprisoned in 2009.
The secret executions have been taking place as the Iranian regime and its state media seek to downplay the soaring rate of executions in Iran, which have reached at least 320 in 2014, or more than two killings a day.
Opposition sources and human rights groups only learned of the execution after the families of those killed, Ali Chebieshat and Sayed Khaled Mousawi, were informed their children were dead, according to Amnesty.
Little information has been publicly provided by the Iranian regime, which is accused of breaking its own laws by carrying out the secret executions.
Why Have Americans Stopped Asking These 5 Vital Questions?
By John Hawkins...Just as the richest, healthiest, happiest man can be undone if he stops doing what made him successful, America can be undone if we stop asking the crucial questions that guided previous generations.
1) Is this worth the cost? As Thomas Sowell has written,“Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.” That sort of thinking is exactly how America ended up with a 17 trillion dollar debt. You often hear politicians from both parties call that “unsustainable.” Another way of putting that is if we don’t focus on what’s worth our money today, we won’t have the money we need for Defense, Medicare and Social Security tomorrow.
2) Is this good for society? No man is an island and any American who believes he’s a “citizen of the world” should ask himself when the last time was that he spent a great deal of time fretting about how the people of Djibouti are doing these days. This country is like a fish tank. The culture, the economy, the morality, and the corruption all impact your life and will make a big difference in how your kids grow up. If the oxygen in the water gets low, if mosquitoes move in, or if someone drops a spoonful of ammonia in the tank, we all suffer for it. The less we worry about what’s good for all of us economically, morally, and socially, the more of us will end up getting flushed down the toilet in the end.
3) Is this politician fit for office? Paradoxically, Americans say that, “Morals don’t matter,” when it comes to politicians; then they complain incessantly about how corrupt and dishonest Washington has become. Along similar lines, they vote for politicians who’ve never accomplished anything in office and then they bemoan their ineffectiveness and incompetence. There was a time when Americans actually held politicians to a HIGHER STANDARD than the average person. What’s wrong with expecting our politicians to be as moral as a preacher, as honest as an accountant, and as competent as a firefighter? How is it that we hold 18 year old kids fighting in Iraq to a higher standard of behavior and performance than men three times as old that we expect to lead our country?
4) What's the long term impact of this decision? Thomas Paine once said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." What happened to that mentality? What happened to preserving Medicare and Social Security so that future generations of America can retire? How about paying off our bills today so our kids don’t end up as debt slaves? What about insuring that Iran doesn’t get nuclear weapons so we don’t end up on a planet full of nuclear-armed basket-case states? Our decisions have to be based on factors bigger than whether the stock market goes up or down tomorrow, which interest group is going to get its panties in a bunch, or which political party benefits from today’s news cycle. Whether you plan for it or not, the future eventually arrives and it belongs to those who prepare.
5) Would God be pleased with what we're doing? If you believe in God, you should DEFINITELY be concerned about whether He approves of what our nation is doing. Even if you don’t believe, this country has been successful in large part because of Judeo-Christian ethics, a puritan worth ethic, and Christian philosophy. Maybe you don’t like all of Christianity or maybe you think parts of it are oppressive and silly, but that doesn’t change the fact that it has borne fruit for America. At the end of the day, even if you don’t know how a light switch works, you should still be able to appreciate the fact that if you flip it, a light comes on.
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