IRS Targeted Conservative Hispanics

Here's another IRS targeting abuse. Same old story but a new victim, conservative Hispanics.

Snowden Seeking Asylum in Iceland

Edward Snowden is seeking political asylum in Iceland. In a column in Icelandic daily newspaper Frettabladid, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson wrote that a middleman had approached him on behalf of Snowden. In the past Snowden has expressed fear that Iceland would cave to pressure from the US. "Iceland could be pushed harder, quicker, before the public could have a chance to make their feelings known, and I would not put that past the current U.S. administration," Snowden said in an online forum in the Guardian on Monday.
The Icelandic government has declined to comment on the alleged request. "The main stipulation for seeking asylum in Iceland would be that the person must be in Iceland to start the process," said Johannes Tomasson, the chief spokesman for Iceland's Ministry of Interior in Reykjavik. "That would be the ground rule No. 1."

State Senator Elbert Guillory Tells Why He Left The Democratic Party

After Karen Carter Peterson, the Louisiana Democratic Party Chairwoman and state senator took to the senate floor to suggest that opposition to Obamacare was based on a prejudice toward "the black man in the White House" another black Democratic senator left his party. This defection gave Republicans control of the senate for the first time since reconstruction. Senator Elbert Guillory is graced with an affable, natural, eloquence that is very rare in politics today. Listen as he explains why he left the Democratic Party.

And By The Way, We Are Now Arming Al Qaeda-Backed Guerillas In Syria

Not since the Nixon Reign of Terror has this country known so much chaos. Whether it is by design or just the logical result of handing the keys to the White House to a community organizer, I cannot say. But our country is seriously mismanaged.

In other times, US involvement in a civil war would be page one. US involvement in a civil war where the US supported AL QAEDA!!! if only by proxy would not just stop the presses, it would stop the country. Today, that news item is #37 on the hit parade. The competition for coverage has grown fierce, so it seems.

So, how about Kim and Kanye and their new ratings grabber?

James O'Keefe Tracks Down New Hampshire AG for Surprise Interview

James O'Keefe tracks down New Hampshire Associate Attorney General Richard Head. This is the first I've heard of this case so there is little I add can beyond the contents of the video. In Head's defense I have to admit he handled the ambush interview fairly well.

Holly Paz Admits Scrutinizing Tea Party Application in DC - Placed on Leave

Since her named popped up in the IRS scandal the name Holly Paz has invoked a special fascination in me. Maybe it's because the name reminds me of a character in Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly. At first I thought Paz was employed in Cincinnati, also the home of Proctor and Gamble and reasoned that Holly Paz sounded like a P&G creation; something that would make the air smell fresher, something that would prevail over smelly socks and doggy odor. No, Holly Paz is a real person who works for the IRS in Washington and who evidently been cooperating with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Cooperating? Well, probably motivated by a sense of self preservation but cooperating in part nevertheless.
Paz has acknowledged she was personally involved in reviewing 20 to 30 Tea Party applications for tax-exempt status as far back as 2010, a detail that further challenges the agency's initial claim that the practice of singling out those groups was limited to a handful of employees in Ohio. Naturally Paz won't go so far as to admitting any political motivation behind the targeting but her admission that she and an IRS lawyer Carter Hall were reviewing the cases in Washington pretty much kills the "Cincinnati rogue agent" narrative which been used to excuse the viewpoint discrimination practiced by the IRS. The day after Paz was interviewed by committee investigators Lois Lerner invoked the 5th amendment.

Update: From Cincinnati Com:

Paz’s lawyer confirmed Saturday that she has been placed on administrative leave from the agency, but he said she’s done nothing wrong. “Holly Paz was the whistle-blower and was the first to point out the problem,” said Roel Campos, her Washington attorney, in an emailed statement.
He noted that Paz was on maternity leave during two key time periods – when the targeting started in early 2010, and again when the IRS sent letters to tea party groups asking questions the agency now admits were improper. Both times, Paz returned from leave to discover problems, and both times she brought them to the attention of her boss, Lois Lerner, Campos said.

Yeah, everything went to hell every time she left. What will she find if she returns after her administrative leave?

Congress to Investigate IRS Scandal Number 3

I posted on this case when the story first broke. The story involves a California health insurance company that was raided by the IRS and the health files of 10,000,000 Americans were unlawfully seized. This includes, according to the complaint which you may read here, "the medical records of every state
judge in California, every state court employee in California, leading and politically controversial members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild, and prominent citizens in the world of entertainment, business and government, from all walks of life."
This case has not drawn much national media attention but perhaps that is about to change. Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service acting chief Daniel Werfel requesting information about the seizure. The committee leaders asked Werfel to respond to the letter by Tuesday, June 25. This will bring to 3 the number of House committees investigating the IRS in addition to the Senate Finance Committee.
Reading the details of the case in the complaint engenders, aside from outrage, real and genuine embarrassment that the government would hire individuals so overbearingly arrogant and incredibly stupid. Did anyone in the IRS think the company was just going to forget the 10 million personal medical records it needs to do business? Why were 15 armed agents sent? Why did the IRS take medical records which are protected from seizure by federal law? The IRS was investigating a former employee of the company and the medical records were not germane to the investigation. Quoting from the complaint;

No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no subpoena authorized the
seizure of these records; none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known
criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS
search. IT personnel at the scene, a HIPPA facility warning on the building and the IT portion of
the searched premises, and the company executives each warned the IRS agents of these
privileged records. The IRS agents ignored and discarded each of these warnings, ignored their
own published and public-reliant rules and governing ethical requirements, and ignored the
limitations of the court’s search warrant authorization, seizing the records under threat of
destroying company property.

Regarding the honest, hard working, and dedicated public servants of the IRS we have heard so much about from Democratic Senators and Representatives but have yet to see for ourselves these sections of the complaint paint a different picture.

Adding insult to injury, after unlawfully seizing the records and searching their intimate
parts, Defendants decided to use John Doe Company’s media system to watch basketball, ordering pizza and Coca-Cola, to take in part of the NCAA tournament, illustrating their complete disregard of the court’s order and the Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights.

Then there is the employee of the month described here:

A special agent involved in the matter has a known and legally documented history of
misconduct, ethical breaches, and criminal activity, including, but not limited to, making
false statements to a grand jury, making false statements to prospective witnesses in his
investigations, misleading prospective witnesses about their rights in his investigations,
obstructing independent investigations into his conduct or the matter at hand, disclosing
  without authorization grand jury secret material in violation and contempt of federal court orders, invading and abusing search warrants and subpoenas for privileged information, including patient privileged information, attorney-client privileged records, and marital privileged information. 

The irony of this case is that under Obamacare the IRS will be responsible for maintaining confidential insurance medical records. What could possibly go wrong?