B-Man Posted August 1, 2014 Share Posted August 1, 2014 Did The White House Know About the IRS Emails? The IRS, the President, and his No. 1 Muse: Kathryn Ruemmler, by Sidney Powell: New York Observer The president’s longest serving White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, was, until her sudden departure for Latham & Watkins, “a regular presence in the Situation Room and the Oval Office, making legal judgments and helping coach other senior officials on how to discuss them publicly,” according to the Washington Post. Our first article, “All The President’s Muses,” described Ms. Reummler’s outsized role in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy. It’s undisputed she starred in the president’s expansive use of executive powers, increased secrecy and recent Supreme Court reversals. With the near daily revelations from the IRS, the question becomes, what exactly might Ms. Ruemmler know? The Inspector General of the Treasury confirmed that the IRS targeted the president’s political opposition with audits, harassment and denials of tax-exempt status. Patrick Howley reported from congressional hearings that even more IRS computers surrounding Lois Lerner and the White House had crashed. Now the IRS is claiming that the number is greater than seven (the prior count) but fewer than 20. There may be emails on back-up devices, but the IRS still claims it isn’t sure. The burning question is: have they looked in the White House? ... Ms. Ruemmler’s recent midnight departure from the White House left her actions largely unscrutinized. Yet, she was squarely in the middle of the IRS controversy from the very beginning. As she told the Wall Street Journal, “The White House really sees everything, and you touch everything.” ... As White House counsel, Ms. Ruemmler led the president in all federal appointments. Her fingerprints are all over the president’s attempt to appoint Mary Smith, a colleague from Ms. Ruemmler’s days in President Clinton’s Counsel’s office, to head the powerful Tax Division of the Department of Justice. Senator Grassley blocked that confirmation, leaving the White House “very upset.” In response, Lois Lerner suggested auditing Senator Grassley. More at the link: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted August 1, 2014 Share Posted August 1, 2014 Did The White House Know About the IRS Emails? The IRS, the President, and his No. 1 Muse: Kathryn Ruemmler, by Sidney Powell: New York Observer The president’s longest serving White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, was, until her sudden departure for Latham & Watkins, “a regular presence in the Situation Room and the Oval Office, making legal judgments and helping coach other senior officials on how to discuss them publicly,” according to the Washington Post. Our first article, “All The President’s Muses,” described Ms. Reummler’s outsized role in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy. It’s undisputed she starred in the president’s expansive use of executive powers, increased secrecy and recent Supreme Court reversals. With the near daily revelations from the IRS, the question becomes, what exactly might Ms. Ruemmler know? The Inspector General of the Treasury confirmed that the IRS targeted the president’s political opposition with audits, harassment and denials of tax-exempt status. Patrick Howley reported from congressional hearings that even more IRS computers surrounding Lois Lerner and the White House had crashed. Now the IRS is claiming that the number is greater than seven (the prior count) but fewer than 20. There may be emails on back-up devices, but the IRS still claims it isn’t sure. The burning question is: have they looked in the White House? ... Ms. Ruemmler’s recent midnight departure from the White House left her actions largely unscrutinized. Yet, she was squarely in the middle of the IRS controversy from the very beginning. As she told the Wall Street Journal, “The White House really sees everything, and you touch everything.” ... As White House counsel, Ms. Ruemmler led the president in all federal appointments. Her fingerprints are all over the president’s attempt to appoint Mary Smith, a colleague from Ms. Ruemmler’s days in President Clinton’s Counsel’s office, to head the powerful Tax Division of the Department of Justice. Senator Grassley blocked that confirmation, leaving the White House “very upset.” In response, Lois Lerner suggested auditing Senator Grassley. More at the link: Wow, some heavy speculations there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdnlng Posted August 1, 2014 Share Posted August 1, 2014 Wow, some heavy speculations there. Was it heavy speculation when a Treasury Dept. IG confirmed the allegations that the IRS targeted conservative groups and most likely covered it up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdnlng Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 (edited) http://www.oleantime...19bb2963f4.html IRS employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. Most Americans are not aware that union representatives working at the IRS are not paid through union dues, but by the taxpayer. More than 200 IRS employees — yes, 200 — are paid government salaries (some in excess of $100,000 per year) to do union work. In a perfectly Orwellian formulation, this union work is called “official time.” The cost of this taxpayer subsidized union work, which amounted to 573,319 hours in 2013, was $23.5 million. Here is a good place to look for funds for a new IRS computer backup system. What do these union workers do? They are essentially paid to lobby the very same government for which they work. In order to combat the apparently permanent federal employee problem of “low morale” — well earned in the case of the IRS — they lobby for higher salaries, more extensive benefits, better working conditions and untouchable job security. Among the activities of the NTEU is lobbying for outrageous, unearned government bonuses. At the time the IRS was under investigation for illegal political targeting in 2013, the IRS paid $70 million in bonuses to its employees as a result of a previously negotiated contract with the NTEU. By the way, Lois Lerner — who has ungraciously declined to offer any information which might be helpful — received a total of $110, 035 in bonus payments between 2006 and 2012. Not bad for government work. The NTEU also makes political contributions through its Political Action Committee, TEPAC as part of its lobbying activities. These contributions do not come directly from union dues, but from voluntary contributions to TEPAC from union members. In the case of the IRS, they come largely out of salaries which taxpayers are paying to IRS employees to do union work, not government work. Where do these political contributions go? In the 2012 election cycle, TEPAC gave a total of $583,912 to federal candidates. A full 94 percent of these contributions went to Democrats, 4 percent to Republicans. The current president of the NTEU is Colleen Kelley, a vocal opponent of the tea party. Kelley has visited the White House no fewer than 11 times during the Obama administration, the most recent of which included an event with President Barack Obama on March 31, 2010. On the following two days, the IRS developed its guidance to treat tea party applications for tax exempt status differently than other requests. Kelley was earlier nominated by Obama to the Federal Salary Council, no doubt to share her wisdom about raising employee morale more widely across the federal government. Edited August 5, 2014 by 3rdnlng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 (edited) http://www.oleantime...19bb2963f4.html IRS employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. Most Americans are not aware that union representatives working at the IRS are not paid through union dues, but by the taxpayer. More than 200 IRS employees — yes, 200 — are paid government salaries (some in excess of $100,000 per year) to do union work. In a perfectly Orwellian formulation, this union work is called “official time.” The cost of this taxpayer subsidized union work, which amounted to 573,319 hours in 2013, was $23.5 million. Here is a good place to look for funds for a new IRS computer backup system. What do these union workers do? They are essentially paid to lobby the very same government for which they work. In order to combat the apparently permanent federal employee problem of “low morale” — well earned in the case of the IRS — they lobby for higher salaries, more extensive benefits, better working conditions and untouchable job security. Among the activities of the NTEU is lobbying for outrageous, unearned government bonuses. At the time the IRS was under investigation for illegal political targeting in 2013, the IRS paid $70 million in bonuses to its employees as a result of a previously negotiated contract with the NTEU. By the way, Lois Lerner — who has ungraciously declined to offer any information which might be helpful — received a total of $110, 035 in bonus payments between 2006 and 2012. Not bad for government work. The NTEU also makes political contributions through its Political Action Committee, TEPAC as part of its lobbying activities. These contributions do not come directly from union dues, but from voluntary contributions to TEPAC from union members. In the case of the IRS, they come largely out of salaries which taxpayers are paying to IRS employees to do union work, not government work. Where do these political contributions go? In the 2012 election cycle, TEPAC gave a total of $583,912 to federal candidates. A full 94 percent of these contributions went to Democrats, 4 percent to Republicans. The current president of the NTEU is Colleen Kelley, a vocal opponent of the tea party. Kelley has visited the White House no fewer than 11 times during the Obama administration, the most recent of which included an event with President Barack Obama on March 31, 2010. On the following two days, the IRS developed its guidance to treat tea party applications for tax exempt status differently than other requests. Kelley was earlier nominated by Obama to the Federal Salary Council, no doubt to share her wisdom about raising employee morale more widely across the federal government. The above is why I don't understand the WH's approach to this at all. Now, it's the IRS union's turn to take the beating? It seems we won't be done with this until every constituency in the Democratic party has taken a political, and/or real, hit for this. Why? Why are they willing to keep stopping punches with their faces, and why do they keep lining up everybody to take the next punch? How is this the "better" solution? IF they had come clean day 1 this would have been dead for more than a year, and it would have been mostly forgotten in the subsequent elections. Instead: this turns into gallons of bad will, for years on end, FUD, and limitless freedom for the right to cast aspersions on just about everything. This allows the right to raise endless sums of $, email by email, one drop at a time. Moreover, the "dog ate my email" legitimized this story for most of leftist media, who had been treating this like it was pure political hackery. Now their credibility has been damaged as well. Yet another punch stopped by face. The whole thing seems inequitable. The value of refusing to admit wrongdoing is far outweighed...when the wrongdoing becomes a matter of self-evident fact.Why lose so much, so badly, over 1-2 misguided employees, who, once fired/given immunity/whatever, can look forward to book $, a nice comfortable do-nothing job at somebody's political payoff "strategy" firm? There's no rational explanation for being willing to take this much of a political beating...for being "loyal" to a WH lawyer, and a few bad IRS employees. You can bet the IRS is going to be an negative issue for the Ds for the next 3 elections at least. What is worth allowing that to happen? That's why I've always thought that there had to be more people involved in this. Protecting them, either IS worth the political beating, or, they are powerful enough to command the protection personally(um, Valerie Jarrett? ). In all cases, there's no way this makes sense. Edited August 6, 2014 by OCinBuffalo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azalin Posted August 7, 2014 Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 You can bet the IRS is going to be an negative issue for the Ds for the next 3 elections at least. What is worth allowing that to happen? I think the answer to your question lies in the first part of your statement. fear of the IRS is bipartisan with voters. even 40 years after his resignation, accusations of using the IRS against political opponents still dogs the legacy of Richard Nixon. no one wants the IRS getting into their business. I think there's plenty to motivate this administration into hiding any such activities they may have engaged in, and I think they're willing to settle for being able to play this off like it's just a bunch of partisan accusations from the right. that way they can at least hang on to their base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 They are posts and they are never, never coming back.... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/12/irs-submits-declarations-to-federal-court-to-explain-missing-lerner-emails/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TakeYouToTasker Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) They are posts and they are never, never coming back.... http://www.foxnews.c...opular Content) "Posts"? Also, how can that possibly be construed as a good thing? Or restore any faith in governemnt? Can you speak to the time-line, in which requests were rebuffed, right up until they couldn't be anymore, and then the hard drive was suddenly damaged? Can you speak to the fact that one of the technicians who worked on the hard drive suggested that the data was "very recoverable" and that it was suggested that the drive be passed along to private sector specialists, a suggestion that was declined? Can you speak to the fact that multiple hard drives, also under subpoena, also experienced mysterious crashes just after the subpoenas? Can you speak to the endless streams of inconsistant story changes coming out of the IRS as this has unfolded? The bottom line is that the use of the IRS as a political hit man is an American tragedy which has undermined the legitimacy of our government. It is utterly indefensible, and should be a uniting rally point for all citizens, regardless of party or ideology: while we may disagree about taxation and the actual impact of social spending, we should all agree that the government should not be secretly working to make adherence to peacful philosophies subject to punative measures, or discriminate against individuals or associations because they subscribe to them. Politics are not more important than legitimacy, and a government which doesn't treat us as equals is illegitimate. Edited August 12, 2014 by TakeYouToTasker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 "Posts"? Also, how can that possibly be construed as a good thing? Or restore any faith in governemnt? Can you speak to the time-line, in which requests were rebuffed, right up until they couldn't be anymore, and then the hard drive was suddenly damaged? Can you speak to the fact that one of the technicians who worked on the hard drive suggested that the data was "very recoverable" and that it was suggested that the drive be passed along to private sector specialists, a suggestion that was declined? Can you speak to the fact that multiple hard drives, also under subpoena, also experienced mysterious crashes just after the subpoenas? Can you speak to the endless streams of inconsistant story changes coming out of the IRS as this has unfolded? The bottom line is that the use of the IRS as a political hit man is an American tragedy which has undermined the legitimacy of our government. It is utterly indefensible, and should be a uniting rally point for all citizens, regardless of party or ideology: while we may disagree about taxation and the actual impact of social spending, we should all agree that the government should not be secretly working to make adherence to peacful philosophies subject to punative measures, or discriminate against individuals or associations because they subscribe to them. Politics are not more important than legitimacy, and a government which doesn't treat us as equals is illegitimate. Ya, good call. Not sure why I wrote posts. I meant "gone" * I woke up and was reading about George Washington's "war of posts" strategy. That's where I got it. And lost emails just happen, the right wing seizing on non-evidence as proof of anything is silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 And lost emails just happen, the right wing seizing on non-evidence as proof of anything is silly. You do understand that, while it does happen, it's not supposed to. The government is supposed to have coherent and comprehensive archival policies and procedures in place, by law. A government office should NEVER lose emails irretrievably because an employee's hard drive crashes - what's more, if they do, they're breaking the law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 You do understand that, while it does happen, it's not supposed to. The government is supposed to have coherent and comprehensive archival policies and procedures in place, by law. A government office should NEVER lose emails irretrievably because an employee's hard drive crashes - what's more, if they do, they're breaking the law. HA, ha, ya sure. Squeeze their budget as hard as you can and then complain when something goes wrong. I'm sure they wished the computers didn't crash. But the GOP scandalmongers are happy, while able to prove nothing, they still have the lost "evidence" to string along this no where story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azalin Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 HA, ha, ya sure. Squeeze their budget as hard as you can and then complain when something goes wrong. I'm sure they wished the computers didn't crash. But the GOP scandalmongers are happy, while able to prove nothing, they still have the lost "evidence" to string along this no where story who's 'squeezing the IRS budget when they're hiring 16 thousand new employees just to handle Obamacare? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 who's 'squeezing the IRS budget when they're hiring 16 thousand new employees just to handle Obamacare? Why are you guys having a such a hard time understanding the knob-gobbler? One more time...slowly: when something bad, corrupt or illegal happens on Obama's watch, it's Bush's fault. When something perceived to be good happens on Obama's watch, it's because of Obama's policies, unless something makes the good thing turn bad, then it's Bush's fault, but if a bad thing turns good, then it's due to Obama, unless, of course, it turns bad again. If at any time it is undeniably proven that Obama is at fault, then the fault is never as bad as it would have been had it been Bush's fault. You see, if we were in Italy, he'd have to make your bunk. But we're not. We're in Germany. So he has to make your bunk. It's regulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 HA, ha, ya sure. Squeeze their budget as hard as you can and then complain when something goes wrong. I'm sure they wished the computers didn't crash. But the GOP scandalmongers are happy, while able to prove nothing, they still have the lost "evidence" to string along this no where story Even if the IRS's budget is squeezed, they aren't allowed to cut archiving out of IT, because they're required BY LAW to archive information. There's no "We didn't have enough money" exemption to not following the law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Even if the IRS's budget is squeezed, they aren't allowed to cut archiving out of IT, because they're required BY LAW to archive information. There's no "We didn't have enough money" exemption to not following the law. Really Tom ? Common sense and truth. You expect Gator to understand that ? You should have just gone with "you're an idiot" . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdnlng Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 The left would have us believe that up to 20 separate hard drives crashed beyond retrievibility and none of them were backed up. It's also quite curious that all those hard drives were on computers of people connected to an investigation. Furthermore, nobody told the committee that this had happened for a year after they were demanded. Why were the hard drives destroyed? Doesn't anyone on the left feel that this blatant of an offense should not be allowed? Do any of you fear the shoe being on the other foot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TakeYouToTasker Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) Ya, good call. Not sure why I wrote posts. I meant "gone" * I woke up and was reading about George Washington's "war of posts" strategy. That's where I got it. And lost emails just happen, the right wing seizing on non-evidence as proof of anything is silly. You'll remember that this all began with the IRS stating that it had knowingly acted inappropriately. And, no, lost emails don't "just happen", especially in the middle of an investigation in which the aforementioned emails are central to evidence, and the non-arhcival of them, in and of itself, is a federal crime. Again, this is not some jacked up political scandal. This is an enforcment arm of the federal government abusing it's powers to punitively harm citizens who don't adhere to a preferred philosophy. This is the delegitimization of government. It creates objective moral reasons for non-compliance with government, and undermines it's authority, which, in America, is derived from the consent of the governed. Anyone who doesn't see that as a profound issue doesn't belong at the table where ideas are discussed. Edited August 12, 2014 by TakeYouToTasker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azalin Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 Why are you guys having a such a hard time understanding the knob-gobbler? it's not a question of trying to understand, it's all about the entertainment of getting a reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Even if the IRS's budget is squeezed, they aren't allowed to cut archiving out of IT, because they're required BY LAW to archive information. There's no "We didn't have enough money" exemption to not following the law. Well, maybe they will do a better job next time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TakeYouToTasker Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Well, maybe they will do a better job next time We know the IRS acted inappropriately because the admitted to it at the begining of the whole fiasco. Do you find it acceptable that they did so? Do you find their further criminal behavior acceptable? If so why, and how is this an acceptable behavior by a government deriving it's power from the consent of the governed? If not, what should be done to hold those involved accountable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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