This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • Can You Say, “Stonewall It”? Sure. I Knew You Could.

    Provided without comment, except to say that I’m shocked, shocked.

    Feds balk at releasing docs showing IRS
    sharing tax returns with White House

    “Most transparent administration in history?” Um-huh. Sure. Whatever.

    Yeah, your leg’s wet again. And it’s not rain.

  • Another “Global Warming” Update

    Well, let’s take a look at some climate news from the past couple of weeks.

    Buffalo Snowfall:  7+ Feet In Places.  In November.

    Snowfall Forces Move of NFL Game from Buffalo to Detroit

    Disaster Declared in Western NY; 13 Confirmed Dead

    Grand Rapids, MI:  New Record for Snowiest November Ever – With 9 Days Left in the Month.

    9,000 Low-Temperature Records Set During November.

    That “Collapsing Glacier” In Antarctica?  Um, Turns Out That’s Not Due to Global Warming.

    And Remember:  That Global Warming Is Making Antarctic Sea Ice . . . Both Thicker and More Extensive Than Expected?

    Maybe it’s just me.  But if the planet is getting warmer, shouldn’t measured climate data show that – rather than a modest decline since the 1930s or 1940s? And shouldn’t we be seeing thinner, less-extensive sea ice at the poles?

    But as you might have guessed: yeah, they’re still claiming all this excess cold and growing ice is due to “global warming”.

    That last shouldn’t really be any surprise. When someone has their head firmly inserted in their fourth point of contact, all they have is hindsight.  Actually seeing anything right in front of them becomes damn near impossible.

    “Follow the money.”

  • Yeah, This IS Getting Interesting

    Remember that IRS scandal? You know, where the IRS was blatantly playing politics with nonprofit group applications for tax-exempt status – slow-rolling those from conservative groups, and fast-tracking those from liberal groups?

    Remember how that was supposed to be “IRS only”, with no involvement from the White House?

    Well, in response to a suit filed by Cause of Action (a government transparency watchdog group), the Treasury Department IG has apparently located a few relevant documents. Those documents apparently show that, “Yes, Viirginia – taxpayer info was sent to the White House by the IRS.”

    How many documents, you ask? Don’t worry; only a handful.

    Handful, as in around 2,500.

    This is in addition to the 30,000 “lost” emails to/from Lois Lerner, former head of the IRS Tax-Exempt Division and key player in the scandal, that have recently been discovered. Maybe now we’ll find out why she “pleaded the Fifth” when subpoenaed to testify before Congress.

    Stay tuned. This does seem to be getting quite interesting. It’s probably also getting quite uncomfortable for a number of folks in the current Administration, too. And that last . . . is a good thing. (smile)

    But I do have to wonder why all of this is coming to light right after the election this month – as opposed to before.

    Nah, I’m kidding. I don’t wonder much at all about the reason behind the timing.

  • This Could Be Interesting

    Can you say, “Lois Lerner”? Sure. I knew you could. (smile)

    For those who’ve forgotten: Lois Lerner was the former head of the IRS division that rules on nonprofit groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. That division was caught apparently blatantly playing politics with nonprofit applications – e.g., fast-tracking those of leftist groups, while slow-rolling and otherwise obstructing those of conservatives.

    Lerner later resigned, and has “taken the Fifth” when asked to testify in Congress. Conveniently, tens of thousands of her official IRS emails from the period greatest interest for the scandal were “lost”. The same happened to emails of some of her closest associates who were also believed to have been hip-deep in the scandal.

    Jonn and I have written numerous times about this and other instances of missing IRS email. Use the site’s search features if you want to see them.

    Lerner’s emails were initially held to be “lost permanently” – until very recently, that is. Now, it appears that the IRS has now magically “found” some “disaster recovery tapes” from the period in question that contain many if not all of Lerner’s missing emails.

    Now, maybe it’s just me. But if I had a bunch of, you know, missing email – and I had a disaster recovery system in-place that stored stuff like, say, copies of email traffic or email databases/transaction records – those records would probably be one of the first places I’d look for a bunch of missing emails to/from a high-ranking official. But apparently the IRS doesn’t do things that way.

    Or maybe it took so long because of, well, some little thing like an “upcoming Congressional election”. Nah – that can’t be it. The “most transparent administration in history” would never pull such an underhanded trick. Besides, that would require blatantly lying to Federal investigators and Congress multiple times. They’d NEVER stoop that low!

    In any case, it will still take a while to recover Lerner’s emails from those tapes. But you might want to follow this one for a while.  It looks like this just might get even more interesting.

    That just breaks my heart. (smile)

  • Oh, Fer Christsakes – Send the Little Idiot Back!

    You’ve probably all heard about the DNI – James Clapper – and his trip to North Korea earlier this month.  During that trip, the DNI secured the release of two Americans detained there – Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae.  He brought them back to the US.

    Well, guess what.  One of them now reportedly claims he really wanted to stay in North Korea.

    Seriously.

    Fine.  Then give the little dumbsh!t the paperwork to renounce his US citizenship – and once he’s done that, put him on a plane to Korea, bus him to Panmunjum, and march his stupid butt north across the “Bridge of No Return”.  Problem solved.

    For some reason this keeps running through my mind.  I’m guessing it’s also what must be running through Clapper’s mind right about now.  With apologies to Strother Martin:

    What we’ve got here is . . . failure to communicate.  Some men, you just can’t reach.  So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it . . . well, he gets it.  I don’t like it any more than you men.

  • About Those Online VA Systems

    We’ve all heard about the troubles the VA has been having lately. But give them credit where credit is due.

    Take their new online system, MyHealtheVet. It’s a way you can sign up to do a load of stuff online related to VA healthcare. You can check appointments, access medical records, renew prescriptions, and stuff like that.

    Or so I’m told. I don’t have an account.

    And given what is says in this little GAO report – and the multiple VA data breaches that seem to happen periodically – maybe not having an account is a good thing. Seems like the VA’s IT security still kinda, well . . . sucks.

    Yeah, take MyHealtheVet. Please. And secure the damn thing – along with the rest of the VA’s IT systems.

    Because until then, getting on-line access to your electronic information at the VA certainly sounds like a case of caveat emptor.

  • About That New ObamaCare “Open Season” . . . .

    Well, it’s ObamaCare sign-up season again. By all accounts, things are going better than last year – though that wouldn’t take much, given last year’s fiasco.

    So, that means all the problems are fixed, and everything is just “hunky-dory”, right? Um, well . . .

    I swear, you just couldn’t make this sh!t up if you tried. No one would buy it as fiction.

  • Oh, Fer Christsakes – Not Again?!

    Geez. Will someone PLEASE give the     clueless fools in charge in DC      current Administration a quarter and tell them where they can buy a clue?

    Title of the article says it all:

    U.S. weighs expanded CIA training, arming of Syrian allies struggling against Assad

    “Bad idea, sir. Very bad idea.”