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IRS Commissioner Had Far More Visits to White House than any Cabinet Member

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Publicly released records show that embattled former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president’s Cabinet.

Shulman’s extensive access to the White House first came to light during his testimony last week before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Shulman gave assorted answers when asked why he had visited the White House 118 times during the period that the IRS was targeting tea party and conservative nonprofits for extra scrutiny and delays on their tax-exempt applications.

By contrast, Shulman’s predecessor Mark Everson only visited the White House once during four years of service in the George W. Bush administration and compared the IRS’s remoteness from the president to “Siberia.” But the scope of Shulman’s White House visits — which strongly suggests coordination by White House officials in the campaign against the president’s political opponents — is even more striking in comparison to the publicly recorded access of cabinet members.

An analysis by The Daily Caller of the White House’s public “visitor access records” showed that every current and former member of President Obama’s Cabinet would have had to rack up at least 60 more public visits to the president’s home to catch up with “Douglas Shulman.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans Deserve the IRS

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Photo Credit: Townhall

Individually, Americans do not deserve to be subservient to such a fear-mongering, intimidating and powerful agency as the Internal Revenue Service; but collectively, we do. Let’s look at it.

Since the 1791 ratification of our Constitution, until well into the 1920s, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product never exceeded 5 percent, except during war. Today federal spending is 25 percent of our GDP. State and local government spending is about 15 percent of the GDP. That means government spends more than 40 cents of each dollar we earn. If we add government’s regulatory burden, which is simply a disguised form of taxation, the government take is more than 50 percent of what we produce.

In order to squeeze out of us half of what we produce, a government tax collection agency must be ruthless and able to put the fear of God into its citizens. The IRS has mastered that task. Congress has given it powers that would be deemed criminal if used by others. For example, the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment protects Americans against self-incrimination and being forced to bear witness against oneself. That’s precisely what one does when he is compelled to sign his income tax form. However, a Fifth Amendment argument can’t be used as a defense in a court of law. The IRS will counter that you voluntarily provided the information on your tax return.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: House Judiciary Committee Investigating Holder for Perjury (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters

By DAVID MARTOSKO. The House Committee on the Judiciary is investigating whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress during a May 15 hearing, with one Republican aide close to the investigation telling MailOnline that ‘perjury is on the table’ as one possible outcome of the congressional probe.

In the hearing, Holder addressed what was then the only known instance of his Justice Department obtaining private phone records of journalists without notifying them. That case involved the records of approximately 20 journalists at the Associated Press, and the DOJ spying to determine the source of a leak about a CIA operation in Yemen.

‘With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material,’ Holder testified, ‘that is not something that I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be a wise policy. In fact, my view is quite the opposite.’

Days later, news emerged that James Rosen, a Fox News Channel correspondent, was also the subject of a DOJ subpoena targeting his phone records and personal emails, and that Holder personally signed off on the secret application to a judge for the seizure of those records.

That report, from NBC News, cited a statement from the DOJ acknowledging that the Rosen search warrant application was approved ‘at the highest levels’ of the agency, including ‘discussions’ with Holder himself. Read more from this story HERE.

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House Republicans express “great concern” about possible Holder perjury

By JAKE MILLER, JILL JACKSON, STEPHANIE LAMBIDAKIS. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday expressing “great concern” about the possibility that Holder lied under oath during his testimony earlier this month on the Justice Department’s seizing of journalists’ records, CBS News has learned.

On May 15, Holder told the committee he wasn’t involved in “the potential prosecution” of a member of the press under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information. “This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy,” he said.

Shortly thereafter, reports began to surface that the Justice Department, in addition to seizing telephone and email records of Associated Press reporters, had seized the the emails and phone records of Fox News correspondent James Rosen. While Holder had recused himself from the AP proceedings, the Washington Post reported that the attorney general had personally signed off on the search warrant for Rosen’s records.

In the search warrant, the FBI called Rosen a “criminal co-conspirator” and suggested there’s probable cause that he violated federal law. Rosen was not charged with any crime.

House Judiciary Republicans, in their letter, raise the possibility that Holder perjured himself by issuing an ironclad denial of any involvement in the investigation and potential prosecution of reporters. “The media reports and statements issued by the Department regarding the search warrants for Mr. Rosen’s emails appear to be at odds with your sworn testimony before the Committee,” they wrote. “We believe – and we hope you will agree – it is imperative that the Committee, the Congress and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement in and approval of these search warrants.” Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Brother Working With Enemy Combatant, Using IRS to Fund Polygamy

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Photo Credit: WNDObama’s Brother Works With Man Who Attacked US Embassy

By Walid Shoebat…Obama’s brother, Malik Obama, is deeply associated with Omar al-Bashir, the one who was behind the attack on the US embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, which occurred at around the same time as the Benghazi attack. I was the first to write on this in English when the attack first happened, stating:

The attacks by Muslims on American embassies in Egypt and Libya has shocked the media enough, but now North Sudan has just exploded, with mobs raiding both the British, German and American embassies. Who is responsible? According to Al-Rakoba, a Sudanese news site, it is Omar al-Bashir, the president of North Sudan, and his despotic government who is behind this. Al-Bashir is a modern Hitler, an Islamic tyrant responsible for the deaths of over three-million people, all in the name of Jihad and war against Christians.

Obama’s brother is working with an enemy to the United States. Is it any wonder, then, as to why he has been so pompous toward American liberty, and yet so helpful to Bashir?…

Malik is the Executive Secretary for the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), which is stationed in Khartoum, Sudan, and which has its primary focus in expanding Wahhabist Islam in the African subcontinent. It was also in Khartoum, as I have written on before, where Bashir declared that he was going to make Sudan’s new constitution “100 percent Islamic”.

Malik Obama shares the same desires as Bashir, in fact both of them attended the General Conference of the Islamic Council of South Sudan, and both attended a meeting for the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Da’wa Organization… Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama half brother uses IRS statutes to fund polygamy?

By Jerome R. Corsi. Funds contributed in the United States to a 501(c)3 foundation run by President Obama’s older half-brother, Abongo “Roy” Malik Obama, have been diverted to support Malik’s multiple wives in Kenya, an expert on Islamic extremism has charged.

Walid Shoebat, an Arabic-speaking former Muslim Brotherhood member, has detailed his allegations in a 22-page investigative report titled “New IRS Scandal: Islamic Extremism and Sex Slaves: Report Reveals Obama’s Relatives Run Charities of Deceit,” published on his website

After a thorough examination of available evidence, Shoebat explained to WND his allegations against the Obama family tax-exempt foundations:

“When Malik Obama and Sarah Obama raised money in the United States as the respective heads of foundations claiming to be charities, not only did the Internal Revenue Service illegally grant one of them tax-deductible status retroactively, but these foundations have supported – to varying degrees – illegal operations that acquire funding for personal gain, philandering, polygamy and the promotion of Wahhabism, the brand of Islam practiced by Al-Qaeda.”

For the past two years, long before the current IRS scandals became public, WND has been reporting irregularities in two IRS-approved 501(c)3 organizations operated in the U.S. by Obama’s half-brother and step-grandmother in Kenya… Read more from this story HERE.

Is Attorney General Eric Holder About to be Thrown Under the Obama Bus?

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Photo Credit: Irish Central It’s getting pretty crowded under the Obama bus, but it looks like there might be room for one more.

In an Ominous sign for embattled Attorney General Eric Holder, longtime Obama confidante and senior campaign advisor David Axelrod, zeroed in on Holders handling of security leak investigations.

Axelrod, a shrewd political operative, would never openly call into question President Obamas closest cabinet appointee without prior approval from the President himself.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Axelrod criticized the Attorney Generals Justice Department’s probe involving a Fox News reporter and said it raises some “very disturbing questions” about the department’s policies on leak investigations.

Axelrod said he was troubled by a search warrant that labeled Fox News reporter, James Rosen, a “co-conspirator” in a case involving national security leaks. “The notion of naming a journalist a co-conspirator is something I find disturbing,”

This is a signal that Holder is a liability for the Obama Presidency and might have to be sacrificed.

Holder was already tainted by being the first Attorney General in history to be censured by the House of Representatives. He had brazenly refused to turn over thousands of key documents to Congress in their investigation into the gun running scandal known as Fast and Furious.

But the Obama administration is now under the pall of three new major scandals, each one getting messier as the days go by. From IRS abuses, to press phone taps, to the explosive Benghazi scandal that resulted in the deaths of four Americans.

In all of these scandals President Obama has expressed outrage and has asserted any malfeasance or wrongdoing was done without his knowledge…..Yet no one has really been fired. This leads many observers to believe Presidents Obamas outrage is of the faux variety.

With new revelations that Attorney General Holder may have lied to Congress while he was under oath while being questioned about press surveillance, President Obama may have to show the country he is taking these scandals seriously and fire someone.

The Attorney General seems to be the likely candidate.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Holder: Now Even Liberal Media, Democrats are Attacking Him (+video)

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The Republican criticism of Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department — first, over the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation and now, the subpoena of reporters’ phone and email records — is growing to include outcry from liberal media outlets and Democrats.

“It seems to me clear that the actions of the department have in fact impaired the First Amendment,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said earlier this month. “Reporters who might have previously believed that a confidential source would speak to them would no longer have that level of confidence.”

The congresswoman has been joined in her concerns by Democratic commentators and the liberal-leaning Huffington Post, which recently ran a giant headline saying it’s time for Holder to go.

Read more from this story HERE.

Like Dumber Follows Dumb, GOP Calls For Special Prosecutor for Holder (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube Like dumber follows dumb, the scandal of politicized IRS tax enforcement has been followed by calls for a “special prosecutor.” Republicans are predictably leading this call against a Democratic Administration, but this is one case in which the GOP should hope it doesn’t get its way.

The case for a special counsel is that Attorney General Eric Holder can’t be trusted to investigate his Administration, and that the Administration will stonewall Congress. We don’t trust Mr. Holder either, but letting him pass the buck to a special prosecutor is doing him a favor. This scandal is best handled in Congressional hearings that educate the public in the next year rather than wait two or three years for potential indictments.

While it’s possible some T-men or White House officials broke the law, the heart of the matter so far is the extent of the selective tax enforcement against conservatives and why auditors thought that was kosher. Perhaps they were taking orders from their IRS bosses, or maybe they were responding to Democratic Senators, but whatever the case the public deserves to know.

Read more from this story HERE.

Charlie Daniels Unloads on Obama’s ‘Cowardice’

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Photo Credit: WNDCountry-music legend Charlie Daniels isn’t buying the White House line that President Obama simply “didn’t know” about the scandalous actions plaguing his administration.

From the gun-running “Fast & Furious” debacle of 2011 to recent revelations the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting tea-party groups, Obama has denied knowledge of his underlings’ actions, even stating he only discovered the improprieties after the evening news reported them.

But in an exclusive interview with WND, the ever-outspoken Daniels blasted the president’s “excuses.”

“If I had a drunk bus driver, for instance, and I told everybody, ‘Don’t tell me about that, I don’t want to know about it,’ and that way if we get sued I can say, ‘I didn’t know it,’ basically that’s got to be what’s happened,” Daniels said. “[But] when you hide behind plausible deniability, that is not leadership. That is cowardice. You’re not leading the country, you’re misleading the country.”

Daniels further charged the blame-shifting is “pervasive” throughout the Obama administration.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Pushes for Independent Investigations of DOJ, IRS

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Photo Credit: J. Scott ApplewhiteSenators say Holder can’t ‘review’ himself on news media snooping

By David Eldridge. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s direct involvement in the Justice Department’s decisions to spy on the press should disqualify him from heading any review of the unfolding controversy, Republicans said Sunday.

Questions have been raised about the attorney general’s role in two Justice Department investigations of leaks, one involving a massive seizure of Associated Press phone records and another an aggressive probe of Fox News reporter James Rosen’s private emails.

According to multiple media reports, Mr. Holder personally approved targeting Mr. Rosen. He earlier told Congress that he had recused himself from the decision to seize AP phone records.

President Obama, responding to critics from both parties who say the Justice Department is undermining press freedoms, said Thursday he has directed Mr. Holder to lead a “review.” That idea has been flatly rejected by Republicans, several of whom voiced their objections on Sunday’s political talk shows.

“A total conflict of interest,” Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said Sunday on CBS‘ “Face the Nation.” Read more from this story HERE.

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GOP reiterates push for independent IRS investigation

By Valerie Richardson. Republicans ramped up calls Sunday for an independent investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny.

“This really does call for a special counsel,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, on “Fox News Sunday.” “The culture of going after tea party groups that were on the president’s case about ‘Obamacare’ did not accidentally happen. I think it comes from the top with the tone.”

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, reiterated his call for a special counsel to investigate the scandal, warning that President Obama risks losing his “moral authority” as the nation’s leader unless he shows that he’s taking the problem seriously.

“I think the constellation of these three scandals ongoing really takes away from the president’s moral authority to lead the nation,” Mr. Paul said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he’s really losing the moral authority to lead this nation. And he really needs to put a stop to this. I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat; nobody likes to see the opposite party punishing you for your political beliefs, using the power of government to do so.”

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, defended a letter he wrote to the IRS in October 2010 asking the agency to look into the tax-exempt status of Crossroads GPS, a group founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove. Read more from this story HERE.

White House Misleads Again: IRS Misconduct Didn’t End in 2012

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Photo Credit: National Review ‘The misconduct had stopped in May of 2012,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Monday about the IRS’s improper targeting of conservative groups. Not so, say two D.C. attorneys, each representing a number of conservative groups that — after years of waiting and countless rounds of invasive questions — have yet to receive recognition from the IRS.

The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands of the nation’s tax authority continued long past the White House’s purported end date — and, for a number of them, continues still. Of the 27 organizations the ACLJ has represented to date, ten still have not received approval, two years after applying. Two others gave up.

Take the Albuquerque Tea Party. In December 2009, it applied for 501(c)(4) status, which would exempt the group from corporate taxes but does not make donations tax deductible). Its application is still pending — and the group received a letter from the IRS promising its status was “currently being reviewed” just one month ago.

Linchpins of Liberty, a Tennessee-based conservative leadership-development organization, applied to the IRS for tax-exempt status in January 2011. Two years later, their application is still pending as well — and the IRS sent its most recent dilatory letter on May 6 of this year, four days before the agency admitted its political targeting and a full year after the White House claimed the activity had ceased.

Says Sekulow, “Without question, the IRS misconduct of harassing and abusing our clients was still in high gear from May 2012 through May of this year. . . . To suggest this tactic ended a year ago is not only offensive, but it is simply inaccurate as well.”

Read more from this story HERE.