[WASHINGTONTIMES] Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS tea party targeting scandal, retired from the agency Monday morning after an internal investigation found she was guilty of "neglect of duties" and was going to call for her ouster, according to congressional staff.
So she gets to keep her pension, then? That's justice, that is.
Her departure marks the first person to pay a significant price in the scandal, though Republicans were quick to say her decision doesn't put the matter to rest, and pointed out that she can still be called before Congress to testify.
The IRS confirmed Ms. Lerner's retirement in a statement, but said it couldn't release any more information because of privacy concerns.
But Rep. Sander Levin, ranking Democrat on the HouseBoodle Central, said an Accountability Review Board set up to investigate the people at the agency involved with the scandal, completed their review and were set to recommend her ouster. The review board, though, found no evidence of political bias, he said.
Ms. Lerner was head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, which oversaw applications for tax-exempt status, including those from political groups.
Several congressional committees had been looking into her behavior and into emails that seemed to suggest she was looking for reasons to deny political groups approval for tax-exempt status.
Last week acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said he'd asked both a review board and the agency's inspector general to look at the emails.
Republicans said Ms. Lerner's resignation, while a first step, isn't the end of the scandal.
"Just because Lois Lerner is retiring from the IRS does not mean the investigation is over. Far from it," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "In fact, there are many serious unanswered questions that must be addressed so we can get to the truth."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2013 00:00 ||
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Please tell us everything you know about this Tea Party business in this here signed [by you] sworn affidavit and your retirement checks will start coming next month. If we find out you lied.... the pension stops immediately.
#6
Well g(r)om, a pensioned learner simply proves the US Gov't has no desire for discovery with regard to the IRS affair.
A Federal pension must be APPLIED for, and approved. Again, a retirement pension does not come automatically. It must be applied, requested, and approved by the agency of the gov't acting as the employer.
The famous 'delayer', Lois Lerner could easily experience a little 'delay' in receiving her pension. Good enough for us, good enough for her.
Under the circumstances, Lerner's pension would have had to have been approved at the highest levels of the IRS, DOJ, or possibly the White House. The shielding of harm and criminal discovery of the first black president continues.
#8
I suspect it's already been approved and backdated as well. I know of no provision for a federal employee to sit at home indefinitely, on some kind of administrative leave [other than medical] and receive normal compensation.
#9
IIRC she isn't normal civil servant and the position is subject to the old patronage hiring and firing that goes with all administrations. Couldn't have taken this long for the appropriate government lawyer to determine that she could/should have been fired long ago. Of course when you can name names and point fingers, the 'other' people would be making sure that either you had a smooth transition to another job in the 'Party' or maybe a visit to Fort Marcy Park. Too high profile for the latter right now.
#11
If Lerner's position as a top IRS enforcer were to place her in a special 'law enforcement officer' retirement category, that amount would jump to over $61,700.
Who wants to bet that Lois considers herself a "law enforcement officer"?
#12
..well, she does appear to have been an 'enforcer' for the WH. In the military the commander sets the tone of the organization, so yeah, for the WH.
Obama said he chews Nicorette nicotine gum and that "I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years."
He then jokes: "That's because I'm scared of my wife."
Michelle Obama previously said that Obama quit smoking sometime around 2010.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/24/2013 05:56 ||
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#1
Lord take me there, and away from these people.
The Lost Village
No-one grows old, no-one gets ill
In the little lost village beyond the hill.
Nobody comes and nobody goes,
Nobody tells and nobody knows.
The crops never die, the livestock runs free,
Fish fill the rivers and fruits fill the tree.
Nobody argues, no-one's in charge,
The whole village lives like a family at large
And the secret's no secret, so nobody cares,
They live in a lifestyle that everyone shares
And no-one from outside will ever hear tell
Of the little lost village where these people dwell.
No telephone, radio, coinage or till -
Just a little lost village, beyond the hill.
- Author unknown.
#2
More bs. He didn't quite smoking and as cute as he thinks it is to say she is scary and as scary as she is, he isn't afraid of her. He just thinks the optics are right to say this.
#5
When did he quit smoking Reggie's...never mind.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
09/24/2013 16:10 Comments ||
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#6
"I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years."
"Except for the ciggies I sneak out on the porch."
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/24/2013 19:00 Comments ||
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#7
I suppose marriage + kiddies ultimately changed or toned her down, but FLOTUS Michelle was a bit of a hellion back in the day, + most certainly was unafraid to crush male gonads as necessary.
Still, AFAIC its unsettling for me to see her go from Molotovs-n-Protest-Signs to promoting kiddie diets.
[PAGESIX] Anthony Carlos Danger Weiner ...aka Hot Dog Tony, the remarkably offensive sex maniac six-term New York congressman who resigned in 2011, then decided everybody had forgotten by 2013, when he decided to run for mayor of New York City... can't even manage to play nice on the playground.
The scandal-ridden mayoral primary loser -- who reportedly flipped the finger after delivering his concession speech -- was spotted at Union Square Park playground with his and Huma Abedin's son, Jordan Zain, on Thursday when another child had an accident and peed on a swing. We're told the father grabbed his kid and went to find a napkin to clean up, as Weiner made his way over to the exact swing.
A spy tells us Weiner was heard screaming, "Thanks for leaving this thing soaking wet."
"The other dad said he was going to clean it up and told him, 'It's funny you're the one talking about other people's self--control,' " says the witness.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
You would think he would know about uncontrolled wieners by now.
I guess some people are simply incapable of learning....
In one of his first acts as President Obama's new health-care adviser, Chris Jennings traveled to Harlem last month to pay a visit to his old boss, Bill Clinton.
Armed with a PowerPoint presentation detailing how the new health-care law will go into effect, Jennings made his pitch: Obama needs your help, both to persuade millions of uninsured Americans to sign up for coverage and to combat Republican attempts to undermine the law. I'm sure a lot of folks are still upset about the efforts to undermine the 18th amendment. That'd be Prohibition of alcohol - another progressive health care initiative.
For Obama and Clinton, whose relationship has been tense and sometimes hostile, selling health care gives them a chance to nurse old wounds while also helping each other politically. Whether this fall's high-stakes rollout of Obamacare is successful could define both Obama's legacy and the contours of the 2016 presidential contest, which Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is considering entering. How could it not be successful? Poor folks have been waiting four years for more free stuff.
"Bill Clinton is to politics like a 12-year-old boy is to baseball: There's nothing he wouldn't do to be in the game," said Don Fowler, a longtime Clinton friend and former Democratic National Committee chairman. "That sense of being permitted to play and being appreciated and having people pay attention to him -- that's his ultimate motivation. That's what this circumstance gives him." Not all that different from the present occupant of the White House, is it?
When Clinton and Obama appear together at the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday Hillary Clinton is expected to introduce them. Clinton was the face of her husband's unsuccessful legislative effort. And she has a lot on the line politically with the Obamacare rollout. If she runs in 2016, she will want Obamacare to be considered a success by voters of all stripes, not as the polarizing issue it is now. Polarizing issue? Has the WaPo let the mask slip? In addition, the closer Obama gets to her husband, the better Clinton is positioned to be the heir apparent, said a Democratic strategist. "Obama's not endorsing Hillary Clinton, but he's Clintonizing the Obama presidency on an issue that really matters," he said. "If I were [Md. Gov.] O'Malley or Joe Biden, I'd be jumping through the ceiling right now. I'd be very angry with President Obama for being with the Clintons." Sorry boys, it's The Chicago Way.
Six in 10 Americans do not understand what changes will occur as the new law takes effect, because even those who have read the law are still not sure what it means according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll this month. While 42 percent said they support the law, 52 percent said they oppose it and just 34 percent approve of the way the Obama administration is handling the implementation. Why isn't that a headline, somewhere? Instead all we get is the evil right-wing crazies trying to stop progress to please their greedy big-business overlords. Rhetorical question.
Divisions on health care long have split along party lines, but Clinton is one of the few political figures with crossover appeal. Nationally, over seven in 10 registered voters held a favorable view of Clinton in an April Fox News poll with four of the seven liking him better now that he is not in office anymore. Clinton was nearly universally liked among fellow Democrats, while nearly half of Republicans saw him positively.
A former Clinton campaign strategist said, "It's a wonderful thing to be able to have someone who clearly knows the subject, who strongly supports it and who's not a polarizing figure stand up and say, 'I've looked at this carefully, read four or five pages myself and got a quick briefing from Nancy Pelosi and this is a good deal.' "
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/24/2013 06:01 ||
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#6
in addition to his nutty leftist ideas, De Blasio is close to the muslim community in NYC and is against special monitoring of Islamic institutions for terrorism precusors
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/24/2013 17:51 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
So-called 'property taxes' are simply proof we now actually own nothing, but rather lease our homes from the gov't. Private ownership of real estate has long been a myth. But of course Christie is not part of the problem, as he sends his kids to a private school.
The migration of property owners and tax-payers from Blue States is likely to continue. Illinois is sinking rapidly under the public employee retirement pension debt load.
#3
Actually property taxes are THE single capitalist tax.
The state says this areas is excluded from the rest of the country. No-one created that land, except the state, and it should charge for it, because otherwise it's value becomes a subsidy to the land-owner.
#4
So-called 'property taxes' are simply proof we now actually own nothing, but rather lease our homes from the gov't.
"Now", and in the far remote past, and for the indefinite future. Nothing new except the extent of government's extravagant spending.
#5
California voters passed a law in 1978 called Proposition 13. It effectively limits the amount of property tax that can be levied. You should have heard the piggies squeal when it passed. These days they'd probably take it to the Supreme Court and it'd be overturned. The voters, of course, have no standing.
#7
He showed his colors in a new conference a couple of years ago when he screamed and belittled a woman for asking about the school he sent his kids to. I intentionally remembered the incident as a tab on the kak file of life. No use for the fellow, none at all.
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] The State Department today announced that John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... would spend $10 million "to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies worldwide."
"Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday the provision of $10 million in funding for a new U.S. initiative, Safe from the Start, to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies worldwide. Secretary Kerry emphasized that in the face of conflict and disaster, we should strive to protect women and girls from sexual assault and other violence," reads the State Department blurb.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2013 00:00 ||
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Atop John Kerry, Secretary,
Visionary emissary,
In a hairy topiary
Of an aspect funerary,
Sang a merry cassowary:
"Pursuing my itinerary,
Winging far across the prairie,
Wending up an estuary,
Past an ancient Cemetery,
Wandering very weak and weary
Back across a tributary,
Looking for a perch, an aerie,
Or a tree, perhaps that cherry...
No, there is my sanctuary
Spot for me to rest and tarry!
"I landed softly, sedentary,
On the coiffure unitary
Of altitude extraordinary,
Like the head-dress honorary
That crowns cigar-store statuary.
One moment he was stationary,
The next he up and sang, unwary,
A bittersweet, morose canary:
'Oh, to be a Legionary,
That my exploits military,
Mercenary, sanguinary
(certainly not imaginary!)
Might inspire the commentary
Literary, salutary,
Of an ink-stained functionary:
Sing my prowess legendary!
For I am far from ordinary,
Always there when things get scary,
Chasing down the adversary,
Cuz I'm a hunter, not a fairy!'
Here he stopped and sipped his sherry."
Also sprach dass cassowary.
Just a footnote cautionary:
Of poetic fowls be wary
If ye rimes be arbitrary
See a bird apothecary
#10
Perhaps he took out a second mortgage on his yacht.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/24/2013 11:49 Comments ||
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#11
He just whip out his checkbook?
From reading just the headline, that's what I thought. But reading the article it looks like he's gonna spend government money...tax money...other peoples' money. Maybe he should ask Teresa if she wants to pony up some of that Heinz money.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS tea party targeting scandal, retired from the agency Monday morning after an internal investigation found she was guilty of "neglect of duties" and was going to call for her ouster, according to congressional staff.
Obama said he chews Nicorette nicotine gum and that "I haven't had a cigarette in probably six years."
In addition, the closer Obama gets to her husband, the better Clinton is positioned to be the heir apparent, said a Democratic strategist. "Obama's not endorsing Hillary Clinton, but he's Clintonizing the Obama presidency on an issue that really matters," he said. "If I were [Md. Gov.] O'Malley or Joe Biden, I'd be jumping through the ceiling right now. I'd be very angry with President Obama for being with the Clintons."
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] The State Department today announced that 
