Treasury Omits All IRS and Other Bureaus’ Conference Costs in 2012 Response to Coburn; Politico Calls It ‘Incomplete Disclosure’
[Newsbusters.org]
By Tom Blumer | June 09, 2013 | 16:59
Although there are stories at Fox News and the Daily Caller, there appears to be almost no interest on the part of the establishment press in covering the Treasury Department’s failure to report over 99% of its conference costs when Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn asked for an itemized listing a year ago.
The Politico, the repository for stories which cause Democrats and the left discomfort that the rest of the press would prefer to ignore (“Oh, the Politico did something with it, so we don’t have to”), buried the item in a “Morning Tax” report Thursday. Writer Lauren French held off as long as she possibly could presenting how the $50 million in omitted IRS costs dwarfed the measly $500,000 which was reported (paragraph breaks added by me; bolds are mine throughout this post):
Coburn questions incomplete disclosure from Treasury
MORE MISSED DISCLOSURES. The inspector general audit detailing the nearly $50 million the IRS spent on conferences shocked members of Congress. But none more than Sen. Tom Coburn.
That’s because the Oklahoma Republican had already been told by the Treasury Department of each conference the department held from 2005 to 2012 — and that response did not mention any of the 200 IRS conferences included in the IG report.
The Treasury, responding from a 2012 request from Coburn, said it hosted only five conferences with more than 50 staffers and the cost for the events were under $500,000. Now Coburn is asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to explain the discrepancy.
House Republicans express “great concern” about possible Holder perjury
[CBS News]
This post was updated at 2:08 p.m. ET
WATCH CBSNews VIDEO Here
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.
US attorney, Obama ally takes heat for handling of leak probes
[FoxNews.com]
Published May 24, 2013
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen Jr. (AP)
While Attorney General Eric Holder is taking heat for his department’s seizure of reporter records, the U.S. attorney who is personally overseeing those investigations is himself starting to face complaints that he’s gone too far in pursuing leaks.
Ronald Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, was nominated by President Obama in 2009 and now runs the biggest federal prosecutor office in the country. His hundreds of attorneys handle everything from gang violence to corruption.
But in recent years, leak investigations have become a hallmark of his portfolio. And his dogged pursuit of the squeaky wheels in government has led him into the tenuous — and some say unprecedented — territory of lumping in leakers with journalists.
State Dept. Won’t Say Its Own Officials Set to Testify on Benghazi Are ‘Credible People’
[CNSNews.com]
May 6, 2013
By Penny Starr
The burnt-out interior of a building at the U.S. State Department Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hannon)
(CNSNews.com) – When asked at a press briefing on Monday to say that two State Department officials set to testify in Congress on Wednesday about the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi are “credible people,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell would not do it.
The two officials are Greg Hicks, who was the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, and Mark Thompson, who was the deputy coordinator for operations in the department’s counter-terrorism division.
“Before we get to the specifics of what they’re expected to testify, I wonder if you could provide us with your assessment of the caliber of these two individuals,” James Rosen of Fox News asked Ventrell. “Are they credible? They’ve been working at fairly senior posts here and abroad for years and years. I wonder first what thoughts the Department has about the caliber of these two individuals.”
Special forces could’ve responded to Benghazi attack, whistle-blower tells Fox News
[FoxNews.com]
Published April 30, 2013
A military special ops member who watched as the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi unfolded last September told Fox News the U.S. had highly trained forces just a few hours away, and said he and others feel the government betrayed the four men who died in the attack.Speaking on condition of anonymity, and appearing in a Fox News Channel interview with his face and voice disguised, the special operator contradicted claims by the Obama administration and a State Department review that said there wasn’t enough time for U.S. military forces to have intervened in the Sept. 11 attack in which U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, an embassy employee and two former Navy SEALs working as private security contractors were killed.
“I know for a fact that C-110, the EUCOM CIF, was doing a training exercise in … not in the region of North Africa, but in Europe,” the operator told Fox News’ Adam Housley. “And they had the ability to act and to respond.”
“You know, it’s something that’s risky, especially in our line of profession, to say anything about, anything in the realm of politics, or that deals with policy.”
- Special Forces operator
The C-110 is a 40-man Special Ops force capable of rapid response and deployment specifically trained for incidents like last year’s attack in Benghazi. During the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Libya, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in Libya, the C-110 were training in Croatia, just 3 ½ hours away.
“We had the ability to load out, get on birds and fly there, at a minimum stage,” the operator told Fox News. “C-110 had the ability to be there, in my opinion, in a matter of about four hours…four to six hours.”
Obama meets with House Republicans, downplays ‘immediate’ debt crisis
[FoxNews.com]
Published March 13, 2013
Pro-Obama group picks up president’s sequester…
President plays defense on the sequester
President Obama met Wednesday with House Republicans in an apparent bid to find consensus on fiscal policy, even as he seemed to antagonize the other side by claiming there’s no “immediate crisis in terms of debt.”
His statement would be sharply at odds with a core Republican principle that the debt must be addressed soon — and which underpinned the cost-cutting GOP budget released Tuesday. The president also acknowledged, in an interview aired earlier in the day, that differences with the GOP might be “too wide” to bridge.
Still, the president made the rare visit with House Republicans on Capitol Hill as part of what some are calling his charm offensive. The president is making a renewed effort to meet with Republican leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers amid overlapping budget battles and a series of deadlines on the horizon.
The president is trying to find common ground with Congress in order to halt the sequester spending cuts, which have already taken effect — as well as pass a stopgap budget bill in order to avert an end-of-the-month government shutdown, pass a bona fide budget for next year and once again raise the debt ceiling.
A source in the room during the meeting with Republicans told Fox News that Obama told them he’s looking for bipartisanship on a range of issues, including fiscal matters, immigration, gun regulation and foreign policy.
One skeptical source told Fox News, “we shall see.” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., though, later emerged saying the president “did himself some good.”
Obama went into the meeting with his aides and allies ripping House Republicans for their newly introduced budget, which aims to balance the country’s finances in 10 years. In an interview with ABC News, the president declared that there is no “immediate” debt crisis and that “for the next 10 years, it’s going to be in a sustainable place.”
That message is likely to rile Republicans, who cite widespread economic warnings in saying the debt — which is nearing $17 trillion — must be addressed.
“We are addressing the most predictable debt crisis in this country’s history,” Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Tuesday while introducing his budget plan.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that “everybody” recognizes there is a “long-term debt challenge.”
And he said the president “believes that bipartisan cooperation is possible.”
Senate Democrats were unveiling their budget proposal Wednesday afternoon, in response to the House Republican plan introduced Tuesday.
The Republican plan touts longstanding party proposals to cut funding for domestic programs, repeal Obama’s health care reform law and overhaul the Medicare health care program for the elderly. It would balance the federal budget in 10 years with steep spending cuts alone — a nonstarter with Democrats.
“Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide,” Obama said in the interview broadcast Wednesday.
If Republicans insist that their only solution is to avoid tax hikes and “gut” entitlement programs, “then we’re probably not going to be able to get a deal,” he said.
Obama has continued reaching out to lawmakers in hopes that he can somehow reach a “grand bargain” that reins in deficit spending without hurting the economy and stops Washington from lurching from one self-induced fiscal crisis to another.
The fence-mending campaign started with an unusual dinner Obama hosted last week at a hotel near the White House for a dozen Senate Republicans and continues Wednesday with his meeting with House Republicans.
Obama, who also will meet with Senate Republicans and House Democrats on Thursday, has shown a willingness to reduce spending on big entitlement programs but has not agreed to the kinds of changes Ryan and other Republicans have sought.
Republicans, however, object to any more tax increases, insisting that Obama got his way with tax hikes on top earners in the New Year’s Day deal that averted the “fiscal cliff.” That last-minute deal prevented automatic tax hikes for all federal income tax payers, but merely delayed $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts.
The parties were unable to reach a compromise on a deficit-cutting plan, so the automatic spending cuts began taking effect March 1 and are set to continue through the decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
EPA chief Jackson resigns amid transparency investigations
[DailyCaller.com]
Posted: December 28, 2012
A Washington attorney says that Environmental Protection Agency Chief Administrator Lisa Jackson’s resignation and investigations into the EPA’s use of secret email accounts are not coincidental.
“Life’s full of coincidences, but this is too many,” Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Chris Horner told FoxNews.com. “She had no choice.”
The Justice Department also plans to release emails Jan. 14 in which EPA Chief Jackson’s alias account discusses coal regulation. According to Horner, this clearly is a factor
behind Jackson’s decision to leave the agency.
“Two full committees and one investigative subcommittee of the House of Representatives have asked several federal agencies, including EPA and the White House,” Horner said in a press release, adding that the Department of Justice acknowledged “12,000 emails from Lisa Jackson’s ‘secondary’ email account that discuss the Obama administration’s war on coal, in response to litigation we have filed over this practice.”
EXCLUSIVE — Soros-Backed Attack Dog Expands War on Fox
[Breitbart.com]
by Capitol Confidential 21 Dec 2012, 7:31 AM PDT
“Gabe Sherman is Jayson Blair on steroids.” That’s one tough assessment of Gabriel Sherman, the over-eager reporter and from-a-great-distance biographer of Roger Ailes. Who said it? A well-placed source close to Fox News. And the source makes a very strong case.
Jayson Blair, of course, was the serially dishonest reporter for The New York Times who was fired, finally, in 2003.
Today, in the opinion of many, Sherman is following in Blair’s disastrous and disgraced footsteps. On December 17, under the headline, “Rupert Murdoch Wants Stricter Gun Laws After Newtown, But Fox News Doesn’t Get the Memo,” Sherman falsely claimed that Fox News had put out an “edict” against discussions of gun control in the wake of the Newtown, CT shooting. The next day, Sherman’s claim was knocked down here at Breitbart.com, among other news outfits.
Now, having been nailed for his incorrect story, Sherman is currently scrambling to save his reputation by enlisting his Fox-phobic allies in the MSM.
Ryan on tap to deliver ‘hard truths’ in VP nomination speech
[FoxNews.com]
Published August 29, 2012
If Chris Christie lit a fire under Republicans last night, it’s now up to Paul Ryan to provide the fuel to keep it burning for what promises to be a hard-fought two-month battle to win the White House.
The Republican vice presidential candidate is teed up Wednesday to deliver the “hard truths” Christie talked about in his rousing keynote address on opening night. While Christie is known as the GOP fighter, Ryan is the point-man for budget-balancing solutions the party claims to represent.
The Wisconsin congressman has been quietly preparing his speech for days. Members of Ryan’s staff contacted by Fox News earlier this week said they couldn’t say precisely how long it would be, but that he has “teased” some of the ideas in it before.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is best known for his controversial plans to overhaul Medicare and the tax system. They are likely the kinds of “hard truths” Christie raised Tuesday night, as the New Jersey governor claimed Mitt Romney and Ryan would lead a “new era of truth-telling” in Washington.
Years later, Ground Zero workers battle bureaucracy, health problems
[FoxNews.com]
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published June 01, 2012
The attacks on the World Trade center on Sept. 11 2001 released toxic particles in the air around the site causing many first responders to develop a variety of serious illness including respiratory ailments and cancer. (AP2001)
Workers who suffered health problems long after the rescue and cleanup at the Ground Zero “pile” following the 9/11 attacks say they are frustrated by a “complex” claims process that is hindering their access a $4.3 billion fund set up for them – prompting officials to promise they’ll streamline the application process.
The fund, created under the 2011 James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, is earmarked for workers and volunteers whose symptoms remained dormant for years. So far, none of the money has been disbursed, as claimants struggle to prove their presence at the toxic site in the days and weeks following the attacks, which released a toxic stew of deadly chemicals. Successful applicants can get compensation for health care expenses and lost wages.
Brother says Pakistani doc tortured, appeals to US for legal help
[FoxNews.com]
By Dominic Di-Natale
Published May 29, 2012
The Pakistani doctor sentenced last week to 33 years in prison for helping track Usama bin Laden suffered torture, isolation and starvation during his interrogation, his brother told Fox News — as he made an appeal from the family for the U.S. Embassy to help fight his legal case.
Jamil Afridi told Fox News in an interview that the Embassy so far has not reached out to the family of Dr. Shakil Afridi.
The brother said the family wants the U.S. to provide lawyers as well as pay the legal bills — as questions surround the dubious legal process used to convict Afridi and hand down what amounted to a life sentence. He also said the broader family of roughly 30 people wants asylum in America.
“The blame has been placed on my brother because of America. We are facing a tough time and they should now support us. We should get justice and protection,” he told Fox News. “Me, my brother, my family don’t have any protection here. When I leave from this place, I don’t know what might happen to me. I don’t know in which guise someone might come for us. I am afraid of the government agencies, the Taliban and terrorists.”
Jamil Afridi said security forces insiders told him his brother was tortured during the interrogation. Afridi was so emaciated when he arrived at prison after last week’s conviction that he has put on five pounds just from being fed properly, his brother said.
Palin: press ‘wee-weed up’ over Santorum Satan speech
[FrontPorchPolitics.com]
Written on February 23, 2012 at 7:32 am by FPP
Sarah Palin has criticized the ‘lame-stream media’ for making too much of Rick Santorum’s 2008 statement that Satan is attacking America. But the media aren’t the only ones concerned.
Sarah Palin says the lame-stream media are getting all “wee-weed up” about Rick Santorum’s Satan speech. By that, we believe she means the mainstream press is making too much of it. Is she right?
Well, we’ll note here that the media gets wee-weed up about many subjects, because if they don’t, it can be very hard to stay awake during a slow news day. Mr. Santorum’s remarks were made four years ago, in a different context than a presidential race, and are easy to misinterpret if you have a dissimilar religious background.
Media Matters enjoyed fundraising surge at start of Obama administration
[FoxNews.com]
Published February 15, 2012
Media Matters — Shown here is Media Matters founder David Brock.
Media Matters enjoyed a surge in fundraising after the start of the Obama administration — nearly doubling its revenues in the first two years of the president’s administration, according to tax returns obtained by The Daily Caller.
The Daily Caller found that Media Matters and its lobbying arm Media Matters Action Network raked in $14.6 million in 2010, compared with $8.1 million in 2009.
The nonprofit organization, whose tax-exempt status has been questioned by several lawmakers curious about its political activities, saw its fundraising on the rise, according to the latest available returns, even though about half of the groups earnings in 2010 came from just 21 donors, including two unidentified contributors who gave more than $1 million apiece.
Perry’s Flat Tax Proposal Puts Him Back in the Saddle Again
[BigGovernment.com]
Posted Oct 26th 2011 at 2:11 pm
by AWR Hawkins
Around lunchtime on Tuesday I sat down in front of my computer, opened foxews.com, and immediately texted my brother: “Gov. Perry is back!” I did this because the largest portion of the Fox News homepage was taken up by a photo of a confident looking Gov. Perry telling Americans about his economic plan – “Cut, Balance, and Grow” – and it was obvious he was swinging at pitches that were in his wheelhouse.
In such a setting, and on such a topic, Gov. Perry exudes the kind of confidence that took him to the top of the polls in August.
Far less complicated than McRomney’s “59 point” plan, Perry’s plan can be easily summed up thus:
- Introduce a 20 percent flat rate on individual and corporate income, down from the current top rate of 35 percent.
- Provide an exemption of $12,500 per person, so that a family of four would face no tax on its first $50,000 in income.
- Preserve deductions for mortgage interest, charitable donations, and state and local taxes on incomes below $500,000.
- Allow anyone to file under the current system if they choose.
- Shift to a territorial system of corporate taxation, allowing corporations to repatriate profits still parked overseas at a 5.25 percent rate.
O’Reilly: Revoke Media Matters’ Tax Status
Newsmax.com
Friday, 24 Jun 2011 11:29 AM
By Tom O’Connell
IRS to “revoke its status immediately,” reports ediaite.com.Former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, appearing on O’Reilly’s show, said an organization called the American Campaign Academy “run by Republican operatives” had been turned down for tax-exempt status by the IRS because of its obvious political slant, while on the other side of the spectrum, Media Matters is allowed to propagandize while not paying taxes.O’Reilly points out that the group received its status under the President George W. Bush administration. Gray said it had presented itself at the time as an organization whose aim was “distributing materials that analyze media bias.” Eventually, though, it became “a war against [Fox News] and a media boot camp…. This is not what they said and not what they were given tax exempt status for.”
EXCLUSIVE: The Truth Behind Beck Shutting Down Daily Fox Show
Yesterday I was all confused, when I originally heard the news that Glenn Beck was leaving his daily Fox TV show, I wasn’t surprised. Beck had been dropping hints about it since the end of 2010. He was saying things like, “You must prepare yourselves to carry on without me,” which was a signal that he was either looking for other opportunities, God-forbid had a fatal illness, or that girl he dated finally admitted to the police that he was fully aware of the fact that she was only nine.
On the other hand, the folks at Media Matters claimed victory, they said their efforts to slander Beck had finally worked and Fox was getting rid of him. According to the Soros funded group, Beck’s audience was way down (even though he still beats most prime time cable audiences) and thanks to their efforts, every TV advertiser in the universe refused to advertise on his program (even those in the Gamma Quadrant).
The Jewish Funds for Justice agreed, in fact they said that the efforts of the 400 Rabbis who condemned Beck in the Wall Street Journal was a big factor in what they claimed was the cancellation of the Beck show. Apparently those “Rabbis” were praying to God non-stop ever since someone explained to them what prayer was (and what God was also). (more…)
How’s That New Civility Workin’ Fer Ya?
BigGovernment.com
Didn’t take long for Democrat activists to violate their call for civility. We knew this would happen, but where is activist old media holding these protesters accountable?
It was the media who told us (before any of the facts were in) that it was incivility on the part of Republicans and tea party members who created the environment that led to the tragic shooting in Tucson. Of course, we all knew they were wrong, but they still continued with that template for two or three weeks after the shooting.
Now, Democrat activists have put Republican Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, in cross hairs, they have called to “reload,” they have compared him to Hitler and he and his family have been threatened. All of this is happening because he is working to balance the state’s budget.
Tucson Aftermath Not the Left’s First Political Witch Hunt
BigGovernment.com
Posted Jan 13th 2011 at 3:01 pm
As he sits behind bars awaiting trial, Jared Loughner is undoubtedly relishing every moment of the ruckus that he managed to stir up with his deadly rampage in Tucson. In addition to murdering six innocent human beings and wounding more than a dozen others in an act of sheer evil, the deranged gunman has set off a media and political frenzy that refuses to abate.
By various accounts, this is precisely what Loughner was hoping for. As his close friend Bryce Tierney told Mother Jones, “I think the reason he did it was mainly to just promote chaos. He wanted the media to freak out about this whole thing. He wanted exactly what’s happening.” Ironically enough, then, many of those now engaged in the shameless finger-pointing are inadvertently advancing the goals of the madman, by fulfilling his desire to create an environment of mayhem in society.
Deploying the most acerbic members of its verbal firing squads, the left has launched volley after volley of vitriol in recent days in an effort to score some political points and paint conservatives as extremists. But in so doing, they are merely extending the damage inflicted by Loughner into the sphere of public discourse, thereby undermining the very same foundations of civilization that the gunman himself was targeting.
On a certain level, it is perhaps to be expected that the attempted murder of a popular Congresswoman would conjure a very human need in some quarters to pin responsibility on a larger collective. After all, none of us wish to believe that it is within the power of one scoundrel to set off such bedlam. Surely, there must be larger forces at work, we tell ourselves.
But that is little more than an illusion, a somewhat comforting tale we cling to in order to try and make sense of the otherwise inexplicable. Like it or not, one individual can, and frequently does, alter the course of history.
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