[An Nahar] The U.S. Treasury Friday stopped re-investing in a retirement fund, a major step in its efforts to avoid exceeding the debt ceiling, according to a letter to politicians from Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
This is one in a slew of "extraordinary measures" announced earlier in the month by Lew, to help the government continue functioning until at least September 2 without borrowing any new funds, as Congress refuses to raise the debt limit.
Starting Friday, the Treasury will stop reinvesting "G funds" -- non-negotiable short term Treasury bonds.
The measure will give the government maneuvering room to the tune of $160 billion, a Treasury official said on condition of anonymity, adding that federal retirees will not be affected.
The measure had already been implemented during previous budget impasses, according to the official without giving further details.
On May 21, the Treasury Department started temporarily suspending investments in other public pension funds, to a much lesser amount.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2013 00:00 ||
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maneuvering room to the tune of $160 billion
That's all? Could easily be accommodated by quit writing checks to foreign governments every time a Secretary of State travels abroad.
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] Writing for Salon, Curtis Morrison, a self-titled "liberal activist," admits to bugging Mitch McConnell's office. He claims to have been inspired by Julian Assange and claims, "If given another chance to record him, I'd do it again."
"Earlier this year, I secretly made an audio recording of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican on the planet, at his campaign headquarters in Kentucky. The released portion of the recording clocks in at less than 12 minutes, but those few minutes changed my life," writes Morrison.
I leaked the recording to Mother Jones, which published it with a transcript and analysis in April, and over the days that followed, blogs and cable news shows lit up with the revelations from that one meeting. At the time, McConnell was prepping for a race against the actress Ashley Judd -- it was "the Whac-a-Mole stage of the campaign," McConnell said smugly -- and the recording captures his team in some Grade-A jackassery, including plans to use Judd's history of depression against her.
But also up for debate was the the ethics of the audio recording itself. Here's the latest: An assistant U.S. attorney, Brian Calhoun, telephoned my attorney yesterday, asking to meet with him next Friday as charges against me are being presented to a grand jury.
In a technology age marked by vigilante heroes like Julian Assange and Anonymous, the line between journalism and espionage has grown thin. McConnell was quick to frame himself as the victim of a crime, which was to be expected. It was the guilty repositioning of a politician who has been caught being craven.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2013 00:00 ||
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A fundamental tenet of the Left - accuse others of what you intend to do with power.
#2
Someone should tell this stooge that McConnell has not been the one stepping all over the constitution and that 'McConnell' is the type of 'rightwing' politician to allow it to happen. He bugged the wrong guy.
#4
Ass-hanger didnt break the law by direct action - he only outed things given him by others. What this yo-yo seems not to know is that he actively committed a crime: an illegal wiretap. Thats a huge leap - like moving up from fencing stolen goods to actually committing the burglary,
Put this guy in jail - remember a political bugging of someone headquarters a long time ago, in the Watergate hotel?
#5
Laws only apply to the right and never, ever, to the left. Wasn't there an illegal 'wiretap' of Newt's conversations by a couple of DNC 'operatives'? The 'operatives' were celebrated by the left and became heroes of the media.
WASHINGTON The House Judiciary Committee could be called on as early as this week to adjudge whether Attorney General Eric Holder offered false testimony regarding his participation in a federal probe involving Fox News reporter James Rosen. False testimony before congress? Oh no! Not again ?
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News on Friday that Holders insistence that he did not contribute to an investigation that included the issuance of a subpoena for Rosens email records appears to be contradicted by the facts. Appears to contradict the facts ?
Goodlatte said a letter has been sent to the attorney general seeking an explanation for the apparent inconsistency. Holder has until Wednesday to address the issue.
The committee will wait for Holders response, Goodlatte said, before passing judgment on whether that constitutes perjury.
On Thursday, the Justice Department issued a statement maintaining that Holder was accurate and consistent with the facts during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15 and that he is committed to striking a balance between protecting classified national security information and protecting the first amendment rights of journalists to gather and report the news. The old "national security" crutch again. We knew it was arriving soon. Charges of racism soon to follow.
At issue is Holders statement about the Justice Departments decision to obtain a search warrant for Rosens emails in May 2010. It was issued in the wake of a June 2009 report by Rosen that allegedly contained classified material.
The 44-page search warrant, initially obtained by The New Yorker magazine, maintained that information regarding a possible nuclear bomb test by North Korea came from Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employee. Kim was indicted in August 2010 for unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty.
Rosen has never been charged. Nor will he ever be.
In the affidavit in support of the search warrant, FBI Agent Reginald B. Reyes stated there is probable cause to believe that the Reporter (Rosen) has committed a violation of the Espionage Act at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator of Mr. Kim.
The search warrant asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to issue an order prohibiting the email provider from disclosing the issuance of the search warrant to Rosen or anyone else out of concern it would endanger the life and safety of an individual, lead to a possible flight from prosecution, destruction and tampering of evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, or otherwise seriously jeopardize the investigation.
The Justice Department subsequently acknowledged that the Rosen search warrant was approved at the highest levels of the Department. DOJ further indicated that Holder wasnt involved in the approval process although he was involved in some discussions. He just signs whatever is placed before him without reading it.
During Holders appearance before the committee on May 15, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) asked the attorney general about the Justice Departments intention to use the Espionage Act to prosecute members of the media for publishing classified material, a move that media outlets and others claim would have a chilling effect on the First Amendment.
In response, Holder said, You got a long way to go to try to prosecute people, the press, for the publication of that material. Those prosecutions have not fared well in American history. He subsequently added, Well, I would say this. With regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I have ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be a wise policy.
[THEHILL] The House Oversight Committee is holding another hearing on the IRS -- but not one dealing with the agency's targeting of conservative groups.
The panel, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), will hear on Thursday from Treasury's inspector general for tax administration about "excessive spending" at IRS conferences.
"The IRS is an agency in crisis," Issa said in a statement. "The American people expect that their tax-dollars will be used responsibly and not for financing lavish hotel suites and entertainment for government employees. The Oversight Committee will examine these egregious abuses of the public trust and an IRS culture that shuns accountability."
Danny Werfel, the acting IRS chief, said that the inspector general report would discuss an IRS conference from 2010 -- "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era," as Werfel put it.
"While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred," Werfel said.
Werfel said the sort of conference that will be described in the report, which he expects to be released on Tuesday, could not happen today, and that travel and training expenses at the IRS have already dropped more than 80 percent since 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2013 00:00 ||
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No outrage or whistleblowers from inside the organization, how strange.
[POLITICALTICKER.BLOGS.CNN] The Internal Revenue Service has told House GOP Sherlocks they have identified 88 IRS employees who may have documents relevant to the congressional investigation into targeting of conservative groups, according to a congressional source familiar with the investigation.
The IRS asked these employees to preserve all the "responsive documents" on their computers, and it has been in the process of collecting it all to comply with congressional requests for information. The IRS missed its May 21st deadline to turn over documents to the House Boodle Central.
The same source said the IRS argues it missed its deadline because of the scope of documents it is collecting.
The request for documents was a bipartisan one, but Republicans are privately preparing to seize on the fact that if nearly 90 IRS employees may have been somehow involved in this targeting, it is evidence that the controversy extends well beyond the mistakes by a few low level employees.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... with no documents in hand, there is no way to know how many of the employees being asked to preserve documents were truly involved in the activity in question. The IRS, in a statement to CNN, said the large number reflects its effort to ensure they are as responsive as possible to the Congressional requests.
"The IRS and Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel are moving aggressively and taking the data requests very seriously. As a precautionary measure, the IRS is casting a wide net to capture any potentially related materials. Our goal is to be exceedingly thorough during this process to ensure we identify any and all pertinent records," the IRS statement said. "The IRS has received numerous congressional requests involving an extensive set of questions and calls for data. Responding to these requests is a top priority for us. We have been in contact with committee staff, and we continue to provide them updates as we diligently work through these requests."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2013 00:00 ||
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10:1 they're handing out horseshoe magnets right now
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2013 11:05 Comments ||
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Document collection is so the unnamed higher ups can review and shred them if'n names above the lowest level appear. must protect the WH clown and his sycophants.
#7
Ironic that the very type of power the Southern States claimed to be worried about during the Civil War, now show up under the watch of the first African-American President.
I'm starting to think Nixon wasn't such a bad guy.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/02/2013 13:02 Comments ||
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If Nixon hadn't been so incompetent the Left wouldn't have gotten so damn much power.
[BREITBART] On Friday, reports broke that Former IRS chief Doug Shulman's wife works with a liberal lobbying group, Public Campaign, where she is the senior program advisor. Public Campaign is an "organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics."
The goal of Public Campaign is to target political groups like the conservative non-profits at issue in the IRS scandal. The Campaign says it "is laying the foundation for reform by working with a broad range of organizations, including local community groups, around the country that are fighting for change and national organizations whose members are not fairly represented under the current campaign finance system."
CEO of Public Campaign Nick Nyhart has offered words of support for the IRS' targeting: "There are legitimate questions to be asked about political groups that are hiding behind a 501(c)4 status. It's unfortunate a few bad apples at the IRS will make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias."
Public Campaign gets its cash from labor unions like AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, and Move On.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2013 00:00 ||
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Obviously no bias here.... I'll say it again 118 times.
These people make train robbers and horse thieves appear harmless by comparison. Speedy trial and public hanging.
#2
"organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest moneyconservatives in American politics."
Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/02/2013 9:10 Comments ||
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Synopsis: The IRS sez 88 of its employees have docs related to the 'Tea Party' congressional investigation. IRS also sez it's still collecting documents; they missed the May 21st House Ways and Means Committee deadline.
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.
[An Nahar] The U.S. Treasury Friday stopped re-investing in a retirement fund, a major step in its efforts to avoid exceeding the debt ceiling, according to a letter to 
