On Wednesday, House hearings on the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) political targeting of conservative groups uncovered a startling revelation about the interview process used to construct the Inspector General’s report: Obama donor-turned-IRS director of tax exempt organizations Holly Paz sat in on 36 of 41 interviews with IRS employees.
“Why was Holly Paz… in almost all of the interviews you conducted?” asked Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). “Why would you have someone from the IRS in those meetings? Is that proper protocol?”
“I am unaware of it,” said Inspector General J. Russell George. “This is the first I’ve heard this.”
George then requested time to research the revelation. “This is the first time that I was made aware of this,” said George.
George then clarified he and his agency performed an audit, not an investigation.
“The operative word, Mr. Chairman, is audit,” said George. “It was not conducted as an investigation.”
Still, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) seemed unsettled that Paz was allowed to sit in on the IG’s interviews of IRS employees.
“Usually when you are conducting an investigation—I know this was an audit, I got that—you want to keep your witnesses separate because you’re in search of the truth and you are trying to make sure there’s no advantage of a person hearing what somebody else said,” said Cummings. “That’s pretty standard procedure.”
George ultimately conceded to Cummings that, “in hindsight, given this matter, obviously this seems somewhat unusual. I need to do a little more research.”
Cummings pressed on, suggesting that Paz’s reason for sitting in on interviews may have been to protect herself or the IRS.
[The prosecutor, Machen] argued that disclosure of the search warrant would preclude the government from monitoring the account, should such a step become necessary in the investigation. Machen added that “some investigations are continued for many years because, while the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring charges, it is sufficient to have identified criminal subjects and/or criminal activity serious enough to justify continuation of the investigation.”As Epa might say, EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT PERMITTED IS A FEDERAL FELONY.
Machen insisted the investigation would be compromised if Rosen was informed of the warrant, and also asked the court to order Google not to notify Rosen that the company had handed over Rosen’s e-mails to the government. Rosen, according to recent reports, did not learn that the government seized his e-mail records until it was reported in the Washington Post last week.
According to recently unsealed documents in the case, the Obama Justice Department sought an extensive amount of information from Rosen’s e-mail account. In addition to Rosen’s correspondence with Kim, the government wanted to know about Rosen’s contacts with other government officials, including “records or information relating to the Author’s communication with any other source or potential source of the information disclosed in the Article.”
Police in Stockholm are to seek reinforcements after youths set cars ablaze and threw stones at police for a fifth night running, officials said.
About 30 cars were set on fire in poorer districts in north-western and south-western parts of the Swedish capital on Thursday night, with rioters causing widespread damage to property, including schools. However, a police spokesman said the overnight violence was less intense than in previous nights.
Despite Sweden's reputation for equality, the rioting has exposed a faultline between a well-off majority and a minority, often young people with immigrant backgrounds, who cannot find work, lack education and feel marginalised.
"In terms of extent, it is a little less, a little quieter," said the police spokesman, Kjell Lindgren. Eight people, mostly in their early 20s, were detained during the night.
He said police planned to request reinforcements from other areas to help deal with the rioting as well as upcoming football matches and the wedding of Princess Madeleine, third in line to the throne, on 8 June.
He said the police needed to be prepared to maintain a heavy presence on the streets. "We will do that for days, weeks, as long as it is necessary," he said.
The violence appears to have been prompted by the death of a 69-year-old man shot by police this month in Husby, now the centre of the rioting.
One recent government study showed that up to a third of young people aged 16 to 29 in some of the most-deprived areas of Sweden's big cities neither study nor have a job.
The gap between rich and poor in Sweden is growing faster than in any other major nation, according to the OECD, although absolute poverty remains uncommon.NONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTED PARTS OF THE ABOVE STORY HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE STORY.
It's worth noting that this isn't the first time Bauer has called for criminal investigations and prosecutions into the donors to independent groups critical of Obama, including one supporting John Edwards and another supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton. His words did have the effect of scaring their donors and consultants, but haven't yet appeared to result in any prosecution.
“First of all you’ve got a long way to go to try to prosecute the press for publication of material. This has not fared well in American history… In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.“
Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.
What you get a sense of is an Attorney General who saw himself as an abler of the Administration, as opposed to somebody that was actually trying to look out for the American people’s interests. And for that reason, I think it’s time for him to step down.
Labels: Always On Watch, corruption, Department of Justice, Leftist Hypocrisy, the Obama administration, tyranny
President Obama on Thursday nominated Victoria Nuland, a State Department official involved in the editing of the administration’s talking points on Benghazi, to be the next assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
Nuland, a career foreign service officer who was until recently State’s top spokesperson, had long been expected to be nominated the post to replace Philip Gordon, who Obama picked to serve as Middle East coordinator for the National Security Council.
Nuland’s nomination — which requires Senate confirmation — could come under scrutiny from Republicans who see her as playing a central role in shaping the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used when she appeared on Sunday shows several days after the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead. Emails show that Nuland had “serious concerns” about an early draft of the talking points, and conveyed the State Department’s wishes that references to Al Qaida and the CIA’s warnings about the dangers to U.S. diplomats in Libya removed from the document.
All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.
OBSESSION
UNDERCOVER MOSQUE
GERT WILDER'S
Original Artwork By Bosch Fawstin
The Blasphemous Book of Queen Kafirtiti
CULTURISM
by John Kenneth Press
The Martyr's Prize: A Tale of American Exceptionalism and Ruthlessness in the Age of Religiously Inspired Terrorism 
