Thin Issa
Author: Raine
Date: 05/22/2013 12:52:23
Darrell Issa - Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee - gave an interview last week regarding the IRS situation. A Treasury Department official, Neal Wolin, was informed that the IG was looking into the situation this past summer, a revelation the media and GOP have seized on to suggest the White House may have covered up the scandal in the midst of a campaign.
(snip) "I know approximately what's in it," Issa told Bloomberg Businessweek on Monday when asked if he knew what would be in the report. "I knew what was approximately in it when we made the allegations about a year ago. This is one of those things where it's been, in a sense, an open secret, but you don't accuse the IRS until you've had a nonpartisan, deep look. That's what the IG has done. That's why the IGs in fact exist within government, is to find this kind of waste and fraud and abuse of power." )
|
Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec
Date: 05/21/2013 10:18:53
Good Morning. Today is our 4,244th day in Afghanistan. We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com: US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,219 Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,088 We find this morning's cost of war passing through: $ 1, 440, 949, 100, 000. 00
Continue reading...
68 comments )
|
Building the Future
Author: BobR
Date: 05/20/2013 13:13:37
After the economic crash of 2008, there was an immediate clamor for "New Deal"-esque infrastructure rebuilding. With all types of "shovel-ready" projects lined up, the initial stimulus bill was passed. Most of these projects dealt with road and bridge repair. Very little, however, was allocated for Big projects, large infrastructure items that America has done in the past, like Hoover Dam. With dangerous bridges and an antiquated electrical grid, it seemed like we were poised to finally make that commitment for the future.
Continue reading...
72 comments )
|
INVESTI-GATE
Author: velveeta jones
Date: 05/19/2013 14:29:03
Do we have enough investigations going on at the moment? I'm a bit worried that there might be some Republicans that don't own a piece of the investigation pie; and they'll go home hungry. Let's see, we have Benghazi-gate, IRS-gate, Umbrella-gate, AP-phone-gate, Not-calling-Boston-Bombers-"terrorists"-quick-enough-gate and of course we have the old standby's which still need attention: Birth Certificate-gate and Muslim-gate. Though technically it is still not yet illegal to actually be a Muslim, so...
Continue reading...
3 comments )
|
Just when the Benghazi scandal was dying down, along came the controversies over the IRS investigating conservative groups and the Department of Justice obtaining the phone records of several AP reporters and editors. The former seems to have died down some with the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner (Why was there no formal commissioner? Ask Congress) and the AP scandal has likewise subsided.
Continue reading...
2 comments )
|
Stub
Author: wickedpam
Date: 05/17/2013 12:37:18
Until my brain kicks in to write something this morning   
Continue reading...
48 comments )
|
Throughout our history, the federal budget has always been a focus of discussion and debate. How much is too much? Can we cancel or reduce programs that help the less fortunate (or in Republicans' eyes: lazy freeloaders)? Is austerity or stimulus spending the best way to get the economy moving, and why? It was these incessant arguments to the point of dysfunction that led Congress to create the "trigger" and the "sequester", a "nuclear" warning to get things done. Things didn't get done, and this economy-killer went off. Congress has been trying to clean up the mess ever since. Many of the aforementioned safety net programs took a beating, including WIC, which provides food for families with children.
Continue reading...
57 comments )
|
Last year, there was a controversy about national security leaks in the White House. BuzzFeed published the following June 12, 2012. The news of an interrupted Al Qaeda bomb plot—first reported by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Adam Goldman of the AP—prompted the White House and the CIA to ask the wire to withhold the story.
The AP complied with the request until the next week, finally publishing the story over White House objections. The AP story was picked up by most major outlets, including the Times, adding new details, including the nationality of the double agent. White House insiders said that leak pushed James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, over the edge—furious at both the media and the source or sources of the leaks. (snip)
(The Department of Justice declined to say when the FBI started its investigations, and did not respond to the question of whether the White House asked Holder to investigate.)
Another consequence of the investigations, however, is that it puts the Obama administration on a collision course with some of the most powerful media outlets in the country. )
|
Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec
Date: 05/14/2013 10:24:47
Good Morning. Today is our 4,237th day in Afghanistan. We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com: US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,216 Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,085 We find this morning's cost of war passing through: $ 1, 439, 059, 950, 000 .00 "To Protect and Serve" is a phrase we normally associate with the police. However, this saying just as easily crosses over to the military. While they're off "protecting and serving" us, we're supposed to reciprocate and make sure that being in the military is as safe as being in the military can be, and that when they come home, there is something worth coming home to. We've failed on both counts.
Continue reading...
55 comments )
|
Insane or Liars?
Author: BobR
Date: 05/13/2013 12:43:07
Republicans are going nuts. That may seem like an obvious statement. The root cause of their distress is a Democrat in the White House. They went nuts when Bill Clinton was president, and they've been losing it ever since Barack Obama became president. They tried hard to make his presidency ineffectual by blocking him in Congress at every step, especially after the mid-term elections in 2010 when they took control of the House. Their goal was to make him a one-term "failure". Instead, it was they who failed, and President Obama was re-elected by a healthy margin. So now the focus (beyond the continuing obstruction) is on tainting his presidency, trying to find grounds for impeachment, and pre-smearing the most likely candidates for 2016. Hence my previous blog on the "Ground Hog Day"-like Benghazi hearings. They have a new chew toy, however, in that some low-level IRS agents were targeting tea party groups for additional scrutiny (yeah, because when you have a name that's an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already", there's absolutely no reason for the IRS to be concerned).
Continue reading...
60 comments )
|
| Order by most recent comment Complete Blog Entry List |
