It's not the crime, it's the cover-up
The IRS-Lerner scandal looks like it has the potential to be a lot bigger than Watergate ever was:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cancelled its longtime relationship with an email-storage contractor just weeks after ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer crashed and shortly before other IRS officials’ computers allegedly crashed.It would certainly be unexpected if it turned out to be IRS shenanigans that took down the Obama administration. At this point, even the cowardly House Republicans and the RINOs in the Senate have to be seriously discussing a special prosecutor and a possible impeachment. Especially in light of the amnesty-related debacle on the southern border.
The IRS signed a contract with Sonasoft, an email-archiving company based in San Jose, California, each year from 2005 to 2010. The company, which partners with Microsoft and counts The New York Times among its clients, claims in its company slogans that it provides “Email Archiving Done Right” and “Point-Click Recovery.” Sonasoft in 2009 tweeted, “If the IRS uses Sonasoft products to backup their servers why wouldn’t you choose them to protect your servers?”
Sonasoft was providing “automatic data processing” services for the IRS throughout the January 2009 to April 2011 period in which Lerner sent her missing emails.
But Sonasoft’s six-year business relationship with the IRS came to an abrupt end at the close of fiscal year 2011, as congressional investigators began looking into the IRS conservative targeting scandal and IRS employees’ computers started crashing left and right.
Labels: politics
52 Comments:
Every summer you fall for this hook line and sinker. Last summer was going to be the summer that the IRS brought down Obama.
Whatever happens in the IRS-Whitehouse debacle, it won't be by the Republicans. They only see government power as a means to win elections. They have no interest or capacity of actually governing. The special House committee to investigate Benghazi is all the proof you ever need. There are some very serious, very motivated, and very equipped House members in the GOP who have both the skill and inclination to do a real investigation of anything in the Whitehouse or Executive branch. But they are not the folks who were selected.
What may light a fire under their reluctant butts is the idea that the Obama administration made an effort to cut off their funds. The GOP "leadership" has been content to be pretend political opponents so long as they could milk funds from their donors, but Obozo and his Chicago-ish antics threatened that.
s the idea that the Obama administration made an effort to cut off their funds.
Wrong again. They made, apparently, an effort to cut off the funds of the people who want to pressure and terrorize establishment Republicans.
There is a 50% that whatever program actually exists was prompted by or done for the benefit of establishment Republicans afraid of their own base and billionaire donors.
Here's my prediction: The mainstream media will do everything in their power to protect the first white-African American president, and allow him to finish his second term on time.
"Therefore, I will resign the Presidency..." will never be spoken by Señor Barack.
Whatever happens in the IRS-Whitehouse debacle, it won't be by the Republicans [or the Democrats]. They only see government power as a means to win elections. They have no interest or capacity of actually governing.
There, fixed it for ya and that's probably a fair assessment. I expect, however, that, by dragging IT guys into this, they are going to accidentally stumble their way onto something that will significantly change the climate and remove a bit of the Teflon coating this administration enjoys.
My faith in the GOP's willingness to clean up any amnesty debacle is zip zero nada non nichego. Further, I agree with dh about who the tea party groups targeted by the IRS terrorize the most: the GOP establishment.
"
There is a 50% that whatever program actually exists was prompted by or done for the benefit of establishment Republicans afraid of their own base and billionaire donors."
dh, I think where you're going off the rails here is the notion that it is actually in congress' hands. Lapdogs are lapdogs... but they'll bite the hand that feeds them if it suits them. Journalists are lefties... but they are still ambitious... and breaking a huge story is still extremely appealing to them... and there are still journalists who only route for the story. Not the parties involved in it.
We all see the end of watergate... but we forget it did not happen suddenly. Watergate took a good two years or more to develop into a big enough story to bring real pressure on government.
Presidents don't step down because they are embarassed. They don't step down because congress is mad at them... or because of anything congress really does.
Presidents step down when they become more trouble than they are worth to the powers that be, or worse, keeping them in office threatens to destabilize the whole house of cards. That's when things change.
We haven't gotten there yet. We may never get there. The events at the border actually appear to be a much bigger deal than this IRS thing. This is a WACO level of screw up... but on a much broader scale.
This is the first thing I've seen in a long long time that has the very real potential to kickoff a civil war in the US.
"My faith in the GOP's willingness to clean up any amnesty debacle is zip zero nada non nichego. "
You don't have to worry about the GOP. Texas is already putting troops on the border. Anyone with a brain should realize that this is a step toward civil war.
I do love how dh lies by omission when he talks shit about Republicans but neglects to mention that Democrats are just as bad, at the very least, and almost always worse on all the points he mentioned.
You're more honest than most progs, but you're still a liar. You have to know that people here will notice, so why do it? Just goes to illustrate that lying is in the left's DNA.
Re Texas puts troops on the border. If true then maybe, MAYBE, this is the first step towards civil insurrection. For some fun reading about same and Texas read Kratman 'State of disobedience'. Its excellent.
Every summer you fall for this hook line and sinker. Last summer was going to be the summer that the IRS brought down Obama.
That's simply not true. I never said anything about the IRS and Obama last summer. And if he survived his birth certificate debacle, he'll certainly survive this. Hence my statement about the possibility of this taking down Obama being "unexpected". That doesn't change the fact that the conspiracy is apparently a lot bigger than Watergate.
As I said in a comment on a post over at http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/
"Look at the attitude of the IRS commissioner at the congressional hearings. His contemptuousness, arrogance, and cluelessness.
Look at the attitude of the representatives, the Dems vs the Repubs, and read between the lines.
Putting it together, I see a clear picture: The IRS thinks it's above the law, and it's actions are by definition good and legal because they ARE THE LAW (they think). The Republicans are telling them "Buddy, when we get to the bottom of this, we are going to cut you down to size." The Dems are sucking up to the top bureaucrat, telling him "keep doing what you are doing, and as long as you target THEM, we have your back and they'll never get to the bottom of it! Destroy them!" Who do you think the IRS bureaucracy and leadership will be supporting, moving forward at this and all elections? What will happen to conservative whistle-blowers in the agency? I can't be the only one that sees this as the obvious way forward, can I?"
IF w can get to the bottom of it, and find out who did what, and IF we can get the legacy media to care and tell the people, then we MIGHT see of real movement on tax and IRS reform. OTOH, if the IRS because the hired gun for investigating and shutting down opposition to incumbents of both parties, then the republic is over, the rule of law is a joke because it does't serve as a means for justice and preserving individual rights, and the only question is how many people have to die quietly from government abuse before the abusers start to die.
and Congressman Stockman continues his 501 course in Apex Black Knighting.
http://stockman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/stockman-bill-allows-taxpayers-to-use-same-lame-excuses-as-irs
...And if he survived his birth certificate debacle, he'll certainly survive this.
But gawd it'll be fun to watch!
At this point, even the cowardly House Republicans and the RINOs in the Senate have to be seriously discussing a special prosecutor and a possible impeachment.
You give them too much credit. Way too much. Discussing the possibility of discussing prosecution, and leaking the reports of discussions to the press? Sure. But discussing actual prosecution? Sit be raciss. They backed off when Dick Holder played the Angry Negro act and said "I aint want be hear no contempture mess upin here."
"This is the first thing I've seen in a long long time that has the very real potential to kickoff a civil war in the US."
Your real problem is, you think there is still something called "the US." There isn't. There is only The Empire.
The 'new' civil war has already been fought and concluded without a shot being fired. And guess what: we lost. Look at what's standing around in front of your local Home Depot. Look at what runs the HR dept at your company. Look at the staff of your (well, not "your", really) Post Office and 'your' DMV. It's over, man, there's no more USA, there hasn't been for years. It's turtles all the way down.
what do the donor's think? answer that question and then you'll exactly what the republicans will do. (nothing)
The IRS people are assholes. I normally save my completed tax forms for 7 years based on their recommendations. If they themselves cannot maintain their own data longer than a year, who the fuck are they to insist that taxpayers do the same?
The situation here in Texas is not quite as some of you may think. The state government is sending extra law enforcement officers to the border. Their job is to help maintain order among the invaders, not to seal the border. Defense of the Texas border would require military forces, not law enforcers. Texas has a substantial military force of its own (both the Texas National Guard and the Texas State Guard, the latter an independent, state-only organization), but if Governor Perry were to send the Texas National Guard to the border, Washington would federalize them and order them to disregard the governor faster than you can say "Eisenhower, Little Rock 1957". The Feds are very, very wary of the states having access to substantial military forces, and for obvious reasons.
(The Texas State Guard is the official state militia of Texas, but it is an unarmed force used primarily for civil defense purposes; the state legislature would have to pass a law authorizing the State Guard to bear arms.)
Judging by what is happening now, I'd guess that it has been made very clear to our governor that these new invaders are not to be interfered with. These kids are here to stay, and any attempt to stop them or send them back will result in -- shall we say --- an awkward response from Uncle Sam, an awkward response the State of Texas and her people are not ready to face.
Yet.
" Look at what's standing around in front of your local Home Depot. Look at what runs the HR dept at your company. Look at the staff of your (well, not "your", really) Post Office and 'your' DMV. It's over, man, there's no more USA, there hasn't been for years. It's turtles all the way down."
Funny.. I don't know where you live... but where I live... the answer to those questions is "white southron people".
The G sent the Nat'l guard to the Arizona border at least 5 years ago when I was a Patrol Agent. But it didn't make much of a difference. The bodies still crossed just as heavy as they had (just in other grids of the air), and eventually just went to other areas of the border. It was never more than a political gesture to placate the "close the border" bunch who thought we were just willfully not doing it when we totally lacked the numbers
"The state government is sending extra law enforcement officers to the border. Their job is to help maintain order among the invaders, not to seal the border."
Right. I'm not saying they were sit down there to start a fight. I'm saying that by being down there they are potentially complicating an already bad situation.
Look there is NO point in using anything that happened before 1980 to predict what will happen now. There will be no more "gates." Watergate was a scandal only because there were people in position of notoriety or power whose sense of justice was deeply offended. For there to be a scandal there has to be a foil.There has to be someone who is scandalized!!
Don't people who keep talking about Obama being taken down by "scandal" totally fail to grasp how deeply the mores of US culture have radically altered?
I suspect that most of the people who would be "scandalized" by liberal actions are the fast shrinking demographic group that either grew up before 1968 or who tenaciously hold to values based on the 10 commandments.
Vox's recent blog on why liberal editors never fail tells it all. When one of them drives a publishing company into the ground, they take a hard turn left as fast as possible so as to be seen as a martyr for the liberal cause be given another job. Thus they can't fail.
"It's over, man, there's no more USA, there hasn't been for years. It's turtles all the way down."
Indeed.
With regards to Texas, no way we would be able to organize quickly enough on our own. At least in Dallas it would take a couple months just to cull all the neolib large black ladies in administrative positions, who would break down into epileptic seizures at the mere thought of white southern males in power. But if the feds have to march through a couple states to the north first...
As I have pointed out before: the president could slaughter roast, and eat a baby while standing in the Rose Garden and no one but a few Internet cranks would care ( as long as the baby was white ). There is literally nothing Barack Obama could do that would cost him the support of the Party, the media, or the little white girls on Facebook who control political expression in this country. He is immune, invulnerable, and invincible because he's black, he's Black, he's BLAAAAAAACK.
Nate: Sorry for the confusion. I understand the point you were making and I agree with you.
The IRS-Lerner scandal looks like it has the potential to be a lot bigger than Watergate ever was
Just like Gunrunner and Fast and Furious were supposed to be. I doubt much will come from this. They'll brush it under the rug and create a new disaster to focus attention on, be it a war, school shooting, or whatever.
Watergate was only "BIG" because the insiders wanted to get rid of Nixon. Much like Kennedy, Nixon actually thought he was President.
The Obama scandals will only become "BIG" when the wealthy ruling elite determine Obama's cost/benefit ratio to no longer profitable.
At this point, even the cowardly House Republicans and the RINOs in the Senate have to be seriously discussing a special prosecutor and a possible impeachment. Especially in light of the amnesty-related debacle on the southern border.
At this point, they are TIRED. They've been carrying water for the Magic Negro for five long years, through scandal after scandal, doing everything in their power to support the Progressive agenda while pretending to oppose it. They will stop even pretending to oppose the statist/socialist/leftist minority since the historic landslide of an ass-whupping suffered by Cantor (Statist, Israel/Beltway) shows that the pretense isn't working any longer. Are you ready to see the Lizard Queen openly endorsed Boehner, Graham, Rubio and co.? After all, they can work with her and promoting Jeb Bush is simply too much work. Paul, Cruz, Portman, etc. scare them because they have not yet been fully assimilated.
When you have one half of a bipartisan constituency that's as cargo cultish as it is, that thinks for instance that guns are imbued with a magically bad juju, all you then need is a single shooting to pull attention - if there was any - away from the larger picture like the above mentioned IRS situation, all the while the public is conditioned to think that they are focusing on the bigger picture, reciting their doubleplusgood incantations to stave off teh evol: Guns bad, gun owners even badder; 2nd Amendment the doubly most bad thing that white man has plagued the earth with besides the tyranny of the free market and country music.
Yes, nevermind that the baddest of them all is the bureaucratic entity which, when not losing emails, seeks to monopolize that bad juju all for themselves.
And since the spam trap caught my response last time:
"It's over, man, there's no more USA, there hasn't been for years. It's turtles all the way down."
Indeed.
We'll see. I'll believe it when I see It. My guess is it'll be another ho-hum business as usual. The Democrats could assassinate half the Republican leadership and it would still be ho-hum.
This is the first thing I've seen in a long long time that has the very real potential to kickoff a civil war in the US.
yep.
BTW, while all this has been going on, Wikileaks just released a secret trade agreement that will affect 68% of the world trade in services:
"The leaked draft also shows that the US is particularly keen on boosting cross-border data flow, which would allow uninhibited exchange of personal and financial data."
I'm sure the IRS wasn't intended to participate in any of this, of course...
My guess is that some of Lerner's lost email can be found on the computers/servers of House and Senate GOP leadership... and that the IRS incoming includes messages from them saying, "By all means, go after the Tea Party".
Much depends on how the question gets phrased.
There are 34 Senators who will vote agains removal under ANY circumstances...including Obama murdering a 5-year-old girl in public. The House may impeach, but removal by the Senate isn't going to happen.
The key is to phrase this NOT as a crime of Obama, but as a crime of the Left and the Democrats in general. Nixon had the votes to have survived an impeachment - he was tossed out by his own party because he'd become a lead millstone around the neck of EVERY Republican.
And it's the demolition of the Left that has to be the goal. Obama is out the door in 30 months in any event. The objective is sending him from the White House to the Big House...followed by about three-quarters of the elected Democrats, and half of the Propaganda Press.
Here's my question. There are two parties to every email. Even if one side deletes it, the other side may have it. Can they go after every recipient email account that was likely to have received email from Lois Lerner?
The 'new' civil war has already been fought and concluded without a shot being fired. And guess what: we lost.
No, "we" haven't lost. For one thing, you and me ain't on the same side, because nobody really on my side is spreading defeatist propaganda. You're just another enemy agent as far as I'm concerned.
@Jack Amock.
thx.
Obama will not be impeached because it is now pointless to do so. If Republicans take the House and Senate, they can completely neuter Obama while engaging in 2 years of investigations that cover the Democratic party in 6 feet of mud. Unless the Republicans have a double secret deal with Biden.
Give it time Nate.
They are busing these kids all over the USA, for the "Futrue". The real reason it that we are ten years past the date for the NAU, and the other parties are getting worried. So if you import a few million new voters, the agenda can be advanced.
I fear Vox had the right idea. Only I do not have the resources to go live in Italy.
People are looking past the fact that these are probably going to be child soldiers to terrorize the nations streets. Now it is becoming more clear who all that ammo the government purchased was for, arming central American gangs that they are shipping all over the US. That's a guess on my part, but they got more stuff than they got people to shoot it.
"They are busing these kids all over the USA, for the "Futrue". "
Ok chicken little.
Both the left and established right want immigration reform (amnesty) and the right wants more high tech worker visa immigration as part of that plan. Even though you have IEEE and other tech organizations saying that there is NO shortage of STEM workers in US. The push for women to be coders, in addition to importing them from India, now has me thinking software must be one of the last bastions of white male earning power that must be brought down.
FOX's Murdoch is pro immigration reform.
What purpose do the elite want 10's of millions of poor and uneducated (the poorest and most ignorant of their home countries) to be US citizen's?
- To eventually make an end round around the Constitution? In the next 10-20 years half our population will be Mexicans and South Americans with no history or allegiance to Constitution.
- To extend the collapse by another 5-10 years by giving millions of poor access to credit and college loans to the "Dreamers"?
- Cover for when the financial collapse hits? We will be too busy fighting each other to challenge "them"
- All of the above?
For what purpose? Certainly not to make the US financially stronger.
I knew the moment Senor Shithead infested the White House that he'd be brought out feet first. Chairman Mao is the Only Communist that EVER SAID ANYTHING INTERESTING! "The Law comes from the Barrel of a Gun!" Say GoodBye and Good Riddance to Democracy the Bullshit that FAILED!
Civil War II will CLEAR THIS SHIT THE RIGHT UP! Everything from 1861 to Now will be SPUN BACK OVER THE DEAD BODIES OF THE LEFT! LOCK AND LOAD! SADDLE UP!
Dear Mr. Dredd:
Have you ever been to a war? I have. It wasn't really a war per se, being merely one of the U.S.'s famous "police actions"; and nobody actually shot at me, although the possibility existed. Nevertheless, I have found myself at my battle station during General Quarters while serving on a ship of the Navy, sitting in the dark in foreign waters waiting for an enemy to shoot a missile at me.
War isn't quite as cool in real life as it looks in the movies.
I'm no pacifist. I personally always enjoyed fighting, and I accept the obvious fact that, in some circumstances, war is the best solution to the problem.
Still, I have to say that among the people I know personally who have been to war, none have ever exhibited the positive enthusiasm for it that you seem to here in this forum.
The struggle between good and evil may someday come to war, Mr. Dredd. If it does, why, I suppose we will all do our duty.
But -- in my opinion, of course -- it will be nothing to look forward to.
If I have misinterpreted your words, please forgive me.
But -- in my opinion, of course -- it will be nothing to look forward to.
Neither will tyranny.
As a child, I could never figure out why people went to war. now I know why. I want my freedom back; I am not gonna let those fuckers take it from me without a fight.
Hell, even PJMedia has a column with sentences like, With the old order’s restraints gone, whose to say those that midwifed the collapse shouldn’t swing listlessly against the backdrop of a crow-filled sky?
time to choose.
Obama will not be impeached because it is now pointless to do so. If Republicans take the House and Senate, they can completely neuter Obama while engaging in 2 years of investigations that cover the Democratic party in 6 feet of mud. Unless the Republicans have a double secret deal with Biden.
You can't neuter the executive without cutting off the money, and the Tea Party/GOP has proven they are unwilling to do anything like that. Even with a totally divided government, it's pointless. The executive can do anything that Congress won't prevent him from doing. Full stop.
Whatever short-term gains that come are realized in 2014 will be overrun with the 2016 wave that's coming.
I never said anything about the IRS and Obama last summer.
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2013/06/obama-administration-caught-lying.html
Headline: "Obama administration caught lying"
The struggle between good and evil may someday come to war, Mr. Dredd. If it does, why, I suppose we will all do our duty.
But -- in my opinion, of course -- it will be nothing to look forward to.
You're right of course, but there's a caveat. At some point, bloodshed becomes inevitable. At that moment, war when victory can be gained quickly is something to be desired, because waiting until victory will be harder to come by and the war longer and more uncertain means more bloodshed, misery and pain.
You underestimate the depths of cowardice (and complicity) among the RINOs, Vox.
The GOP is just false opposition. Do not expect 2014 to change the trajectory of the US Government. The System has collapsed. Power in Washington D.C. is merely an illusion. Like ISIS crushing the Iraqi Army, Russia annexing Crimea, and China establishing a foothold on Africa, the US Government is simply impotent to do anything. The UN is also completely useless, and the EU is a house of cards awaiting collapse. These invasions are a last ditch effort by idiots to hold onto the Wild Fantasies of The New World Order. Russia and China are not following the script. Without US Hegemony to power the useless debating society of the UN, none of the Internationalist Agenda is moving anymore. The New Left in South America has crumbled. Venezuela is in ruins, Brazil is bankrupt and socialism is again stinking like a Dead Fish.
What you are seeing is the Last Gasp of Socialist Fantasies from the 1960s Yippie Generation. Kenyan Clown Boy is the Last Chance of an aging cohort of True Believers on the way to the Boneyard. Its really amazing just how bad and Stupid he really has turned out to be! I expected amateur, but this is just embarrassing. Even his supporters are probably shocked at how badly he's screwing up!
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