Posted on 06/05/2013 7:59:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - President Obama is being hit by new scandals almost weekly in a growing web of investigations and revelations that have further damaged his troubled administration.
The U.S. Treasury's Inspector General released a new report Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service spent $50 million on 220 conferences for IRS employees over a three year period beginning in 2010.
Despite annual federal budget deficits of more than $1 trillion throughout Obama's first term, the IG found many of the IRS's expenditures to be downright wasteful.
In one of its findings, the IRS focused on a conference in Anaheim, Calif. -- home of Disneyland -- where some 2,600 employees in the agency's small business division gathered for a little fun and relaxation paid for by the American people.
In a conference that cost taxpayers about $4.1 million, IRS workers were shown two training videos that cost at least $60,000 to produce. One of them was a parody of Star Trek in which employees, wearing Star Trek uniforms, talked about how to dig out tax fraud in a full-scale mock-up of the bridge of the starship Enterprise.
In the video, an IRS employee portraying the Russian character Pavel Chekov tells one of his colleagues, "Back in Russia, I dreamed someday I'd be rich and famous."
"Me, too. That's why I became a public servant," his starship colleague replies.
In the other video, IRS employees are seen dancing the "Cupid Shuffle," as a female IRS agent remarks, "They don't pay me enough to do this."
Two keynote speakers together at the conference were paid at least $44,000, plus $2,000 for first-class air travel. In a speech about how art influences leadership, the speaker painted six paintings and gave two to them to IRS employees attending the event.
"The outrage toward the IRS is only growing stronger. Clearly this is an agency where abuse and waste is the norm and not the exception," said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. of Louisiana who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee oversight subcommittee.
This IRS scandal comes on the heels of the IG's bombshell disclosure that dozens of conservative groups who filed for tax-exempt status were targeted by the IRS for intensive, delay-provoking scrutiny.
It also forced the resignation of the IRS's acting commissioner and led to a wave of congressional hearings and investigations, a Justice Department criminal probe, and calls in Congress for a special prosecutor.
Then there was a troubling report from the U.S. Labor Department's Inspector General who charged that the Job Corps has badly mismanaged its budgeting operations by allowing program costs to rise far above its appropriations. The IG said out-of-control spending led to $60 million in red ink.
The Job Corps has been one of Obama's pet agencies over the course of his presidency as the White House has sought to boost its budget in the midst of persistently high unemployment over the past four and a half years.
The IG's report "sheds new light on the persistent failure to adequately budget, plan and monitor costs," said Sen. Robert Casey Jr., Pennsylvania Democrat, who asked for the audit. Jane Oates, the department official who headed the Job Corps when the budget deficit occurred, resigned last month.
More recently, a lengthy investigation by the Associated Press revealed Tuesday that a number of appointees in the Obama administration have been using "secret e-mail accounts" that raised suspicions they may be attempting to circumvent future investigations or public inquiries.
"The secret e-mail accounts complicate an agency's legal responsibilities to find and turn over e-mails in response to congressional or internal investigations, civil lawsuits or public records requests because employees assigned to compile such responses would necessarily need to know about the accounts to search them," the AP news wire service said. "Secret accounts also drive perceptions that government officials are trying to hide actions or decisions.”
One of the administration's top Cabinet officials using a secret government e-mail account is Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who has been in the thick of Obama's continuing controversies and legal fights over his health care law.
How secret is Sebelius's off-the-books e-mail account? Google, the global search engine, said it could not find any reference on the Internet to her e-mail address.
Bear in mind, this is a tightly closed administration that zealously guards its secrets to the point where the Justice Department has secretly seized and searched the phone records of Washington journalists and the e-mails of a Fox News reporter -- another scandal that has triggered a rash of investigative hearings in the House and Senate.
Part of that widening investigation centers on Attorney General Eric Holder's sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15 when he said he was not involved in the "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," Holder said.
News accounts have reported that Holder signed off on the decision to obtain the Fox News reporter's e-mails and Republicans are looking into whether he lied under oath when he made that statement.
These investigations -- plus ongoing inquiries into the administration's misinformation about the deadly terrorist attacks at our consulate in Benghazi, where four Americans were killed, including the ambassador -- casts a darkening cloud of scandal and possibly criminal activity over Obama's second term.
Sen. John McCain says Obama has become "mired" in a swamp of scandals and that "the president's credibility obviously is at stake here."
The Gallup Poll said Monday that Obama's job approval score has sunk to 47 percent, a 12 month low, and, lately, the West Wing is increasingly sounding like it's coming unglued.
As McCain observed Monday on CBS's "This Morning" in a delicious bit of understatement, administration officials are "not covering themselves with distinction here."
IF Obama doesn’t get impeached, then it will seal the deal for me to move out of this country.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. Conservatives seem to be the only ones who see what’s going on. Obama supporters will only see what they want to see about all of these scandals. It sickens me.
By the time obama is through you’ll think you ARE ALREADY in a different country.
And Valerie Jarrett said " We are ready to REIGN"! OMG!! BANANA REPUBLIC......with NO bananas.
Good point......I’ve reached that point!
“Democrats were terrified of the Tea Party”
They were right to be because in local elections liberals got their butts kicked. I guess local libs didn’t have access to the IRS auditors like Obama did.
Darkening cloud? How would we know, when this administration has turned day into night, and it's pitch black?
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EXHIBIT ONE---A "PATTERN" OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR under RICO laws is considered "racketeering" and is eminently prosecutable. Note: Anyone can file a RICO suit (how-to's online)
PAPER TRAIL PATTERN OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR At the IRS, the FEC, the ATF, at Justice, at DOE, at the FBI, at Boston and Benghazi, at the Federal Reserve Bank, at Solyndra, the govt factotums answers is always the same: “Oops. We made a mistake.” And they don’t just make one mistake; they make a series of mistakes, they obfuscate, then they lie, they then lie about the lie.......
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EXHIBIT TWO----(a) DOJ went after journos, (b) the IRS and FEC targeted and harrassed conservative/Christian groups, and it appears that (c) Obama has ordered "hands-off." Taxpayers are being extorted---having to pay Lerner while she steps down. No one at IRS has been formally reprimanded and a spokesperson for their powerful federal union said it hasn’t been called in, as yet. Most IRS employees involved in the targeting program are given federal protections that could drag out the termination process.
FReeper showme_the_Glory reminds us of the practice of "pencil whipping."
DEFINITION To complete an official form, record, or document without having performed the implied work or without supporting data or evidence. Pencil-whipping an official document incurs jailtime. As well, faslsifying official documents incurs 4-5 felonies and could involve criminal forgery.
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EXHIBIT THREE----FREEPER DIOGENESIS WISELY SUGGESTS local grand juries should begin indicting Congresspeople and Senators for FAILING TO UPHOLD THE LAW AGAINST FELONIES.A few felony convictions and imprisonment oughta wake up the treasonous Congress (that supports al Qaeda and Communism).
KEEP IN MIND---those elected to office are supposed to adhere to a higher standard of law than we peons....but have never been held to account.....til now.
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EXHIBIT FOUR----Dump impeachment----in favor of our taking over Congress. When conservatives are running things---we screw up his agenda---and wont need to waste our time and resources impeaching this guy.
AS FREEPER GRAMPADAVE INSIGHTFULLY POSTED: Take over both the house and $inate and keep Obozo in office as a living reason for sane Americans to get rid of Rats in Congress and across the country. Tell the rats we want to keep Herr Obozo in office while we remove his fellow rats. If they/the rats want him out of office because he is killing their party, they can do it.
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EXHIBIT FIVE---he Bank Secrecy Act passed by Congress, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering, govt fraud and other financial crimes.
“The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted to protect the tax-paying public from harm by identifying and detecting money laundering from criminal enterprises, govt fraud, tax evasion, and other unlawful activities."
Taxpayers should demand copies of (1) checks, (2) wire transfers, (3) bank account statements, (4) invoices, (5) bills, (6) delivery tickets, (7) correspondence including e-mail, employment contracts, loan agreements, and, (8) any other govt books or records. Scrutinize govt bank accounts for suspicious activites: (A) large deposits, (B) funds transferred from one account into another, (C) request for withdrawals.
CONTACT
enforcement@SEC.gov
FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov/
The excellent series "American Greed" recently ran the segment on conman Mouli Cohen who conned people out of millions.....very smart people gave him millions even AFTER they were convinced he was a fraud. The judge who sentenced Mouli to 22 years said he had never encountered a con artist of the likes of Mouli.....That judge clearly never encountered the con artists in our WH.
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BACKSTORY 2008 Obama made nice campaign noises to appease edgy voters....
<><> to curb drone strikes,
<><> to protect media freedoms,
<><> to close Guantanamo).
Instead, Obama escalated drone strikes, spied on the media, hung the treason label on Fox's James Rosen, and Gitmo is still open for business...
FOCUS-GROUP TESTED RESPONSES ONLY on the campaign trail 2008 Ohaha was on a tight leash. He was rigorously coached, saying only cute things that would keep we, the people, in abeyance. He even said he wanted to be "another Reagan." (waiting for hysterical laughter to die down).
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The belatedly-alert media must NOW ask the questions they should have asked THEN---when Ohaha first surfaced as a candidate.
NUMBER ONE Who is this guy in the White House?
Remember that O's 2008 PR person----Anita "Mao" Dunn--- said AFTER the election that the O Team "allowed" the media to know only what THEY wanted them to know.
Ohaha was tightly scripted saying only cute things that would get him elected----revealing none of his anti-America hatred. The Chi/mob Dunn/Axelrod/Enmanuel/Jarrett allowed NO probing questions and up-close interviews. Hillary and Bill had ominous pics of Obama in Muslim garb--but Teddy Kennedy warned them not to use them.
=================================================== THIS WE KNOW The Obamanations are a tight-knit clique of socialists/communists/unions/progs/liberals----they see themselves as superior---bound together by "enlightened" values — reason, tolerance, diversity and equality. The rest of us are unworthy and are to be suppressed and marginalized.......using any means possible. Obamatoids dump on Bush and blames all of O's screw-ups on "evil Repubs").
TO DATE The Ohaha savages duped the citizenry, led us over a multi-trillion dollar deficit cliff, into massive corrupt bailouts, and atrocities like amnesty and Obamacare. Their motto: "Everything For Us-- Nothing For You."
In the wake of Benghazi, media abuses, IRS targeting, etc, we are reminded that the Obamanoids are ruthless predators w/ no empathy for others and no remorse; anti-social psychopaths who recognize no moral boundaries--aggressively going after what they want, irregardless of the consequences to others.
Our liberal 'elites' think they're living in a banana republic - they're wrong. What jerks.
I’d rather pay more in taxes and dump the IRS thugs altogether. Washington elites knew these goons were targeting American citizens...and did nothing.
Great posting today, Liz!
If he's correct...START LOIS LERNER'S IMPEACHMENT, CONGRESS!!
The safeguards and THE MECHANICS to protect our freedoms were put there by the founders-———THEY JUST HAVE TO BE MOBILIZED.
REFERENCE: Checks And Balances—The Constitutional Structure For Limited And Balanced Government-—to guard the people’s liberty against government power.
The Constitution was devised with an ingenious and intricate built-in system of checks and balances to guard the people’s liberty against combinations of government power. It structured the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary separate and wholly independent as to function, but coordinated for proper operation, with safeguards to prevent usurpations of power. Only by balancing each against the other two could freedom be preserved, said John Adams.
Another writer of the day summarized clearly the reasons for such checks and balances:
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“If the LEGISLATIVE and JUDICIAL powers are united, the MAKER of the law will also INTERPRET it (constitutionality).
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Should the EXECUTIVE and LEGISLATIVE powers be united... the EXECUTIVE power would make itself absolu te, and the government end in tyranny.
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Should the EXECUTIVE and JUDICIAL powers be united, the subject (citizen) would then have no permanent security of his person or property.
“INDEED, the dependence of any of these powers upon either of the others ... has so often been productive of such calamities... that the page of history seems to be one continued tale of human wretchedness.” (Theophilus Parsons, ESSEX RESULTS)
What were some of these checks and balances believed so important to individual liberty? Several are listed below:
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HOUSE (peoples representatives) is a check on SENATE - no statute becomes law without its approval.
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SENATE is a check on HOUSE - no statute becomes law without its approval. (Prior to 17th Amendment, SENATE was appointed by State legislatures as a protection for states’ rights - another check the Founders provided.)
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EXECUTIVE (President) can restrain both HOUSE and SENATE by using Veto Power.
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LEGISLATIVE (Congress - Senate & House) has a check on EXECUTIVE by being able to pass, with 2/3 majority, a bill over President’s veto.
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LEGISLATIVE has further check on EXECUTIVE through power of discrimination in appropriation of funds for operation of EXECUTIVE.
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EXECUTIVE (President) must have approval of SENATE in filling important posts in EXECUTIVE BRANCH.
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EXECUTIVE (President) must have approval of SENATE before treaties with foreign nations can be effective.
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LEGISLATIVE (Congress) can conduct investigations of EXECUTIVE to see if funds are properly expended and laws enforced.
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EXECUTIVE has further check on members of LEGISLATIVE (Congress) in using discretionary powers in decisions regarding establishment of military bases, building & improvement of navigable rivers, dams, interstate highways, etc., in districts of those members.
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JUDICIARY is check on LEGISLATIVE through its authority to review all laws and determine their constitutionality.
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LEGISLATIVE (Congress) has restraining power over JUDICIARY, with constitutional authority to restrict extent of its jurisdiction.
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LEGISLATIVE has power to impeach members of JUDICIARY guilty of treason, high crimes, or misdemeanors.
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EXECUTIVE (President) is check on JUDICIARY by having power to nominate new judges.
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LEGISLATIVE (Senate) is check on EXECUTIVE and JUDICIARY having power to approve/disapprove nominations of judges.
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LEGISLATIVE is check on JUDICIARY - having control of appropriations for operation of federal court system.
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LEGISLATIVE (Peoples Representatives) is check on both EXECUTIVE and JUDICIARY through power to initiate amendments to Constitution subject to approval by 3/4 of the States.
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LEGISLATIVE (Senate) has power to impeach EXECUTIVE (President) with concurrence of 2/3, of members.
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The PEOPLE, through their State representatives, may restrain the power of the federal LEGISLATURE if 3/4 of the States do not ratify proposed Constitutional Amendments.
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LEGISLATIVE, by Joint Resolution, can terminate certain powers granted to EXECUTIVE (President) (such as war powers) without his consent.
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It is the PEOPLE who have final check on both LEGISLATIVE and EXECUTIVE when they vote on their Representatives every 2 years, their Senators every 6 years, and their President every 4 years. Through those selections, they also influence the potential makeup of the JUDICIARY.
It is up to each generation to see that the integrity of the Constitutional structure for a free society is maintained by carefully preserving the system of checks and balances essential to limited and balanced government. “To preserve them (is) as necessary as to institute them,” said George Washington.
Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
http://www.nccs.net/articles/ril31.html
The biggest jerk is that deranged creep from washington state on Ways and Means-—McDermott—who insulted the Tea Partiers testifying about IRS abuse.
How this degenerate slob ever got elected is a mystery.
He must be getting hammered by the state’s citizenry—b/c he actually guested on Megan Kelly’s Fox show-—and was more obnoxious than ever, if possible.
I had to restrain myself from throwing something at the TV.
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