Free Republic

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his top staff thwarted efforts by an investigatory commission to uncover political corruption and expose campaign finance loopholes because the panel... got too close to the governor's own politics... Cuomo's top aide, Larry Schwartz, interfered with the commission's attempts to investigate campaign spending for a media company that the governor also used....the commission's executive director reported back to Schwartz while its staff grew increasingly suspicious and frustrated that the governor's office was meddling in the investigations. The commission developed a list of promising targets, including a lawmaker suspected of using campaign funds to...

An investigation has found that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s aides deeply compromised the panel’s work, objecting to any inquiries about groups tied to Mr. Cuomo.

After touching down around 3:15 p.m. at Boeing Field, Obama's first stop will be to a mansion in Seattle's Madrona neighborhood where 250 people will attend a fundraiser. From there, he'll head to former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal's Eastside home at Hunt's Point for a fundraiser there.

IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane said in transcribed congressional testimony that more IRS officials experienced computer crashes, bringing the total number of crash victims to “less than 20,” and also said that the agency does not know if the lost emails are still backed up somewhere. The new round of computer crash victims includes David Fish, who routinely corresponded with Lois Lerner, as well as Lerner subordinate Andy Megosh, Lerner’s technical adviser Justin Lowe, and Cincinnati-based agent Kimberly Kitchens.

One of the architects of the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping technology told a radio host today the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, has “direct access” to the NSA’s domestic spying data and was likely using it to target the tea party. NSA whistleblower William Binney was being interviewed on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s 970 AM The Answer when he disclosed the startling revelation. “For example,” Binney said in response to a question on how the NSA can use data and metadata to identify potential threats, “if you started to communicate with people involved in the tea party...

Something has gone wrong in our civil service. Consider some recent developments. The IRS was forced to pay the National Organization for Marriage $50,000 for leaking the group’s donor list. Tea-party organizations and donors were much more likely than others to be audited by the IRS. This misbehavior was not the work of a few rogue employees in Cincinnati. In general, the IRS stalled tea-party applications for status as 501(c)(4) groups. Meanwhile, April Sands, an employee of the FEC, recently pleaded guilty to violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from campaigning at the office. Ms. Sands, who worked...

Lois Lerner's pension defunded and a whole lot more Saturday, July 19, 2014 9:15 pm | Updated: 1:29 am, Sun Jul 20, 2014.By Rick ManningLois Lerner was apparently patient zero of deadly computer viruses within the United States government as it has been learned that some of her former colleagues at the Federal Election Commission also mysteriously lost their computer hard drives. Of course, they had to be destroyed as well.The evidence must be pretty damning to have involved what appears pretty clearly to be an interdepartmental cover up. Two separate federal courts are now involved demanding an explanation from...

Goal is 'greater accountability' ... for foreign nations' governments...[C]hanges to government transparency are in the works with a plan to spend up to $600 million of U.S. taxpayers’ money to launch programs to “foster greater accountability of institutions and leaders to citizens.” However, Obama’s plan won’t benefit the U.S. taxpayers, who will be on the hook for the changes. His plan is to help make foreign governments more accountabile to their citizens. The Democratic, Responsive, and Accountable GOverNance, or DRAGON, project is to develop strategies to encourage citizens “to participate actively in governance,” according to a “concept paper” that WND...

Living in a city that had 82 shootings over the Fourth of July weekend, Chicagoans could be forgiven for envying the residents of Indianapolis. Imagine living in a place where homicides have been reduced by more than half in the past two decades, where robberies are less common than they've been in nearly half a century, where car theft is at levels not seen since "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was still in production. Actually, that's where Chicagoans do live. I was only pretending to talk about Indianapolis. Those developments have all occurred right here. Right now, the city...

The IRS is running but cannot hide due to citizens; citizens who obtained two important victories this week. Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the watchdog group Judicial Watch has taken the government to federal court seeking answers to the IRS missing emails; emails that are important in determining the extent and guilt of the IRS targeting the political opinions of ordinary Americans. This past week, the US Federal District Court for the District of Columbia has mandated two important rulings taking effect on Friday July 18, and no later than August 11, forcing the “most transparent administration in...

Footage shows allegedly drunk Pawhuska official By Angela Hong TULSA, Okla. — Footage obtained by FOX23 shows the Pawhuska city manager telling a police officer not to arrest a man suspected of drunk driving -- the man is also the city attorney. The footage has gone viral in the Osage County community and people there are upset. The Pawhauska police officer was wearing a body camera and it recorded the exchange he had with the city manager. The footages shows the manager telling the officer to let City Attorney Jesse Worten sober up instead of arresting him right away. On...

Albuquerque police’s new chief says the latest officer involved shooting that killed a homeless man in the foothills is justified. But new video police released Friday is raising a lot of questions about how it all played out. The release came Friday as APD’s first press conference since the shooting. http://krqe.com/2014/03/21/apd-officer-involved-shooting-was-justified/ Read more at

America’s most effective extortion racket, the Department of Justice, just bullied another big bank into surrendering billions of dollars in fines. Citigroup has agreed to pay an astounding $7 billion settlement to the DOJ for apparent wrongdoing leading up to the financial crisis. Why am I suddenly reminded of Al Capone’s observation about government coercion?"A crook is a crook, and there's something healthy about his frankness in the matter. But any guy who pretends he is enforcing the law and steals on his authority is a swell snake. The worst type of these punks is the big politician.” – Al...

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is highlighting a a fundraising phone call former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis made to an department employee as evidence that the Obama administration has a history of illegal fundraising activities. During a Wednesday Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Issa played a recording of a voicemail message from March 2012 that he said Solis left on the phone of a Labor Department subordinate asking the person to contribute to Obama's re-election campaign, Organizing for America, at a restaurant that Friday. “Hi, this is Hilda Solis calling, um, just calling you off the record here. Wanted to...

"As Senior White House Advisor Defies Congressional Subpoena, Committee Releases Audio Recording of Cabinet Secretary Making Illegal Campaign Solicitation" Then Labor Secretary: “Off-the-record here—Wanted to ask you if you could help us get folks organized to come to a fundraiser that we’re doing for Organizing for America for Obama campaign” As Director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, David Simas, in defiance of a congressional subpoena, failed to appear today to testify before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on taxpayer-funded political campaign activity by government officials, the Committee released an audio recording of...

A Miami police officer pulled a car over for speeding last month, which turned out to be a plainclothes internal affairs lieutenant who shoved the door open on the officer after refusing to provide his drivers license, leading to a struggle on the side of the road that was caught on camera. As the two were on the ground wresting, another three Miami cops who just happened to be in the area pulled up and piled on the screaming driver– only to pull off when they realized the man at the bottom was an internal affairs lieutenant from their own...

A canon lawyer alleging a widespread cover-up of clergy sex misconduct in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has made her most detailed claims yet, accusing archbishops and their top staff of lying to the public and of ignoring the U.S. bishops' pledge to have no tolerance of priests who abuse.

The Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding regulations allowing the agency to garnish wages of those it says are delinquent on debts. A notice to be published in Thursday’s Federal Register formally withdraws the rule, issued earlier in the month. “In the direct final rule, EPA stated that if adverse comments were received by August 1, 2014, the direct final rule would be withdrawn and not take effect,” according to the terse notice. “EPA received adverse comments on that direct final rule.” However, the agency did not rule out proceeding with another version of the measure via a more deliberative rulemaking...

Well before Mr. Smith went to Washington D.C., politicians and civil servants have set out to change the Washington culture and bring about serious change, only to be ensnared in it themselves. Between the Georgetown dinner parties, the media obsession with the city that borders on self-parody, and the allure of power and prestige, the DC experience has proven itself to be an intoxicating one for even the most civic minded bureaucrat. While there have been calls to change the culture of the city for nearly as long as it has existed, few real solutions have been put forward to...

Congress should get the major accounting firms, consulting firms and law firms on board to investigate the administration on the VA, the IRS, Fast & Furious, the border crisis, Obamacare, the stonewalling, the lies, the coverups and even Benghazi. They have the manpower and the expertise to unearth the corruption, lies, deceit and the truth that the administration is hiding.........