Friday, June 27, 2014
More Doubt Cast on IRS Story on Lerner's Hard Drive
The story line of the IRS that Lois Lerner's missing e-mails and crashed hard drive cannot be retrieved has been further cast in doubt by industry experts.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/27/industry-group-irs-lost-email-story-makes-no-sense-records-should-have-been/
Of course, the issue of computer hard drives is beyond my expertise, but it sure looks like the IRS at the highest levels has destructed evidence and is engaging in a massive cover-up. At this point only a fool would believe the excuses given by the IRS and its smirking commissioner John Koskinen. Lois Lerner, the central character in this scandal, has now twice taken the 5th before Congress. Of course, you can't put a dog in the pound for taking the 5th, but public opinion is entitled to draw the obvious conclusions.
We know that the Democrats in the House and the Senate were putting pressure on the IRS to investigate and prosecute, if possible, conservative tea party groups that were applying for tax-exempt status so they could participate in election activism. The IRS did the next best thing; they stuffed their applications in a drawer and sat on them. They also bogged the organizations down with needless and detailed questionnaires. They effectively kept them from organizing in the 2012 election. In addition, they shared private tax-payer information with people in the White House.
Ten days after the IRS received a written request from House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) as to IRS monitoring of conservative groups, Lerner's computer mysteriously crashed as well as the computers of 6 other high-ranking officials. You wonder why Lerner took the 5th? And that smug Koskinen sits there before Congress with that Cheshire smirk and says there is no apology owed to anybody for this.
Just as the Obama White House has corrupted the Department of Justice, it has corrupted the IRS. An entire agency and an entire department engaging in cover ups of scandals that go right back to the White House.
So my question to all you liberals and Democrats out there is; are you happy with this? Your side is winning. But at what cost-that our government has been corrupted in this manner? Is this what our democracy has become-that whoever is in power can do whatever they want? We have had Fast and Furious and a now open border. People are still dying from the weapons that were allowed to cross unhindered into Mexico, and the death toll includes a Border Patrol agent in Arizona and possibly an ICE agent stationed in Mexico. The corrupt Eric Holder lied under oath, withheld records with the help of Obama and executive privilege, and because the Democrats are in power, nobody is held accountable. It will probably be the same with the IRS. There will not be a special prosecutor because Holder will not appoint one. At this point, the Republican House holds hearings while the Democratic Senate sits silent.
Bottom line: They will get away with it.
So what? My question is, why were these idiots so afraid of their own shadow that they thought they had to run and hide. Because some radio talk show host was going to open his mouth? Talk about chicken little.
ReplyDeleteWhat they should have said was "Yes, this Tea Party phenomenon was relatively new, and most of the organizations adopting that designation, a diverse bunch competing with each other claiming to the true Tea Party patriots, were obviously political in character. That put them right on the line between non-profit advocacy, and partisan politicking that is ineligible for non-profit status. So we decided we'd better go slow and take a good hard look. We're so glad we did.
(Hint: Gary, most voters don't care a fig about Lois Lerner's hard drive, nor Lois Lane's neither. Nobody is getting all worked up about a bunch of hot-heads crying over getting their big donors a tax deduction for donations to a campaign against big bad government.)
Siarlys,
ReplyDelete"Gary, most voters don't care a fig about Lois Lerner's hard drive, nor Lois Lane's neither."
Sadly, you are right. See my post today on Benghazi and GMU. Most of the students queried probably think Lois Lerner is Superman's girlfriend.
Face it Gary, for all the foaming outrage Republicans manage to work themselves up to, for all their rhetoric about "where's the outrage?", for all their subpeona envy, they don't have REAL scandals to talk about, just hot air balloons that they blew up and tried to convince us were big bad boogy men.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing there to be outraged about.
Now the VA scandal is outrageous, but its a culture that has developed under several administrations. One contributing factor is that congress has never given the VA an adequate budget to hire enough medical and support staff to meet the reasonable targets for how short the waiting periods to get an appointment should be.
So, for all the political grandstanding by both Republicans AND Democrats over that one, none of them have clean hands. The question for the Obama administration is, now that the whistle blowers have finally brought this into the open, are you competent to address the obvious problem? We won't really know the answer to that for a year or so. And congress is going to have to pony up the necessary funds to do the job right, if they expect anyone to take them seriously.