IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)

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From Drudge:

HOLDER: I WAS NOT INVOLVED...

'Can't Say As Matter Of Fact' Who Authorized Subpoena...

'Not Sure' When I Recused Myself...

'Ongoing matter about which I know nothing'...

NOT ME: Holder points finger at deputy for AP phone taps...

Atty Gen 'not sure' how often media records seized...

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Obama: IRS flap 'inexcusable,' announces resignation of acting IRS chief

By Michael O'Brien, NBC News
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was "angry" at IRS officials who inappropriately targeted conservative groups for scrutiny, announcing that his administration had sought and accepted Steven Miller resignation as interim commissioner of the IRS.

“I’ve reviewed the Treasury Department watchdog’s report, and the misconduct that it uncovered was inexcusable,” Obama said in a statement at the White House. “It's inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it.”

Saying he won't tolerate this sort of behavior from an agency, especially the IRS, President Obama announces the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner, and the implementation of new measures to prevent such activity again.

The president said that he expected the IRS to act with even higher levels of integrity than other government agencies and, to that end, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had sought and accepted Miller’s resignation – something which many Republicans had demanded.

Obama also pledged to work with Congress in its emerging investigation into the IRS controversy, pledging his administration would work “hand-in-hand with Congress” to further its oversight. But the president also cautioned lawmakers to conduct its probe “in a way that doesn’t smack of politics or partisan agendas.”

"If the President is as concerned about this issue as he claims, he’ll work openly and transparently with Congress to get to the bottom of the scandal—no stonewalling, no half-answers, no withholding of witnesses," the top Republican senator, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, said in a statement.

The president said as well that he thought the problems at the IRS were “fixable,” and he directed Lew to implement the IRS inspector general’s recommendations.

Obama’s remarks came amid news that two IRS employees who had engaged in activities targeting conservative groups had faced disciplinary action for their conduct.

An IRS inspector general’s released on Monday found that incompetence and ineffective management at the tax-collecting agency led to employees applying extra scrutiny to conservative and Tea Party advocacy groups. The report also found there was no evidence of outside pressure on officials to target conservative groups.


Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama makes a statement on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday May 15, 2013.

Still, the revelation has prompted a major uproar among Republicans, who have openly suggested that the Obama administration might have used the IRS to target its political opponents.

"My question isn't about who's going to resign," Boehner said at a weekly press conference on Capitol Hill. "My question is who's going to jail in this scandal?”

Democrats have largely joined their Republican colleagues in expressing outrage toward the IRS employees’ actions, and Obama himself condemned the agency on Monday, calling the targeting of conservative groups “outrageous,” and vowing to hold those responsible accountable.

“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again, by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards, and, going forward, my making sure the law is applied as it should be – in a fair and impartial way,” Obama said.

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Watch unbelievable video here http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/15/h...#disqus_thread

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Wow! What Leadership…Obama Fires IRS Commissioner 2 Weeks Before He Is Set To Leave Post

By: Curt



With headlines like this you would think Obama was getting serious about all these unconstitutional acts being committed:

Obama fires acting IRS commissioner as pressure grows surrounding political targeting of conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status
But it appears the commissioner was due to leave in two weeks anyways:

But in an email to IRS employees, Miller claimed he would only be leaving next month because his assignment would be over.
‘It is with regret that I will be departing from the IRS as my acting assignment ends in early June,’ Miller wrote. ‘This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation’s tax agency.’

I’m betting we find out the truth here in the next day but either way, a firing…a resignation…put on leave, what have you, is NOT enough.

There must be jail time involved in this and a simple IG investigation is not enough to get to the bottom this abuse of power.

Obama has much to explain as do Senate Democrats:

Over the last three years, Democratic senators repeatedly and publicly pressured the IRS to engage in the very activities that they are only now condemning today. At the same time, Republicans repeatedly and publicly warned against this abuse of government power and pointed to a series of red flags that strongly suggested conservative political organizations were being targeted by the IRS. Those warnings were deliberately ignored by the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress.

As the New York Times reported back in 2010 :

With growing scrutiny of the role of tax-exempt groups in political campaigns, Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democrats by warning about the possible misuse of the Internal Revenue Service to audit conservative groups….And the Republicans are also upset about an I.R.S. review requested by Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who leads the Finance Committee, into the political activities of tax-exempt groups. Such a review threatens to “chill the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights,” wrote two Republican senators, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a letter sent to the I.R.S. on Wednesday. … Democrats dismissed the Republicans’ complaints as groundless.

You read that correctly.

The same Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who this week is calling for hearings into IRS activities, specifically called on the IRS to engage in that very conduct back in 2010.

Now they are all scurrying to their foxholes condemning these act.

It was Obama’s leadership that caused this environment to occur as Bookworm so eloquently describes:

According to Obama’s defenders, even if one concedes that what the IRS did was a bad thing, Obama shouldn’t be touched by the scandal. It was not Barack’s fault. Leave Barack alone!! The IRS’s version of events is that “low level” employees committed these tyrannical acts. The New York Times goes so far as toblame the whole thing on the GOP (and certainly wins the George Orwell “1984″ Reporting Award for doing so). Message: this is not Obama’s fault. Barack Obama himself has gone on record as being surprised and dismayed.

You know what? This may be true. I’m perfectly willing to believe that Obama didn’t personally order these audits. But I can’t help thinking of Henry II. Once upon a time, early in his reign, Thomas Becket was Henry II’s closest friend. The relationship lasted right up until Henry elevated Becket to be Archbishop of Canterbury. It was then that Becket, who had been a priest for years, finally had his “come to Jesus” moment. He began opposing Henry vigorously on government policies that affected the Church, so much so that he became a thorn in Henry’s side.

Eventually, goaded beyond bearing, Henry cried out rhetorically “Will no one rid me of this turbulent (or meddling) priest?” (or, perhaps, the wordier “What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?”). It’s important to note that Henry never ordered Becket’s death. He just whined about the fact that Becket’s existence interfered with his goals. Four of Henry’s knights heard these words and decided to help out. They rode to Canterbury and stabbed Thomas to death inside the Cathedral itself.

Although the facts made it impossible to hold Henry guilty for having ordered Becket’s death, everyone understood that his attitude caused it. Henry was castigated throughout Europe. Four years after Becket’s death, he donned a sack-cloth and walked barefoot through Canterbury’s streets as eighty monks flogged him with branches. Henry then spent the night in the martyr’s crypt. Henry also promised the Papacy that he’d go crusading in Becket’s memory, although never did so.

I’m sure our media will give Obama a flogging soon right?


Documents: IRS Letters Harassing Conservative Groups Came From Washington, DC Headquarters And California Offices, Despite IRS’ Claims It Was “Rogue” Cincinnati Employees…



They wouldn’t lie to us, would they?

Via Daily Mail:

Letters from the IRS to tea party-related organizations in Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, New Mexico show that IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C., and two satellite offices in California, were directly involved with sending harassing letters to conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status.

The IRS has acknowledged only the involvement of its Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati, Ohio, which typically makes most decisions about granting or denying tax-exempt status to non-profit organizations.

And Wednesday afternoon, CNN cited a congressional source in reporting that the acting IRS Commissioner – whom President Obama fired later in the day – had identified two ‘rogue’ employees, both in Cincinnati, whom he thought were responsible for targeting right-wing organizations with tactics that were not applied to left-wing or non-political groups.

Steven Miller then the acting IRS Commissioner, described the two employees as being ‘off the reservation,’ according to the CNN source.

Miller, added CNN, had emphasized that the problem was not confined to just two staffers.

Tuesday’s report from the IRS Office of Inspector General, however, focused exclusively on the Cincinnati office.

This IG’s review, according to the report ‘was performed at the EO [Exempt Organizations] function Headquarters office in Washington, D.C., and the Determinations Unit in Cincinnati, Ohio.’

Keep reading…

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Oh My… Breaking: Holder Justice Department Also Tapped House of Representatives Cloak Room

Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 9:13 PM

Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) went on the Hugh Hewitt Show tonight and dropped this bombshell. The Holder-Obama Justice Department tapped the House of Representatives Cloak Room.



They tapped the cloak room, too.

Via the Hugh Hewitt website, via The Green Room:

HH: The idea that this might be a Geithner-Axelrod plan, and by that, the sort of intimation, Henry II style, will no one rid me of this turbulent priest, will no one rid me of these turbulent Tea Parties, that might have just been a hint, a shift of an eyebrow, a change in the tone of voice. That’s going to take a long time to get to. I don’t trust the Department of Justice on this. Do you, Congressman Nunes?

DN: No, I absolutely do not, especially after this wiretapping incident, essentially, of the House of Representative. I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.

HH: Wait a minute, this is news to me.

DN: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.

HH: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

DN: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…

HH: Wow.

The cloakrooms serve as a place for members to socialize, eat, and take naps without leaving the building. These rooms are closed to all except for Senators and Representatives, and a few of their trusted staffers, and even have their own phone numbers.

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The same IRS that targeted conservative groups for punitive audits will be demanding your private health insurance records in January

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) By now, everyone is aware that the IRS has been caught red-handed conducting politically-motivated audits of conservative non-profit groups. Non-profits that taught the Constitution or even mildly criticized the federal government were targeted for special scrutiny, and the IRS demanded they turn over names of all their donors and volunteers.

"The IRS came under fire on Friday when its Office of Inspector General released a draft of an investigative timeline showing that the agency had played political favorites with nonprofit groups seeking tax-exempt status," reports the Daily Mail.

"In 2010, according to that investigation, the Cincinnati-based IRS office responsible for vetting tax-exempt applications began targeting groups with 'Tea Party or similar' words in their names -- including words like 'patriots' and '9/12' -- for tighter scrutiny."

The Obama administration, in other words, has been using the IRS as a political weapon to silence dissent and threaten political enemies.

"This is obviously disturbing," said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Committee, in a USA Today article. "Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied to the American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeted conservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should take notice that top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don't have to answer to anyone."

Documents reveal the IRS scheme stretched all the way to Washington D.C. IRS offices

Apologists of criminal government have described all this criminal IRS activity as nothing but the "mistakes of a local IRS office" in Cincinnati. But documents just acquired by the Washington Post reveal that the punitive scheme went all the way up the ladder to IRS offices in Washington D.C.

"Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed," reports the Washington Post.

It continues:

...details of the IRS's efforts to target conservative groups reached the highest levels of the agency in May 2012, far earlier than has been disclosed, according to Republican congressional aides briefed by the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration*(TIGTA) on the details of their reviews.

Countdown to January, 2014

Beginning January, 2014, the IRS will become the enforcement arm of Obamacare. Part of this enforcement will include demanding private health insurance status information and ID numbers from all Americans. Anyone who refuses to provide this information will be financially penalized (i.e. "fined") an amount that increases each year until it reaches a penalty of $2,085 per family or 2.5% of your income, whichever is greater.

How much will it cost you to acquire this Obama-mandated health insurance, exactly? According to cost estimates from 17 of the nation's largest insurance companies, health insurance premiums are set to skyrocket 100% to 400% under Obamacare.

This means whatever you're paying now for health insurance -- say $1,000 a month -- double it to $2,000 a month and you begin to get an idea of what Obamacare is really going to cost you. It might actually cost you $4,000 per month!

But that's only the beginning. Given that the IRS has proven it is a criminal enterprise that uses its power to intimidate political opponents of the Obama administration, a very likely tactic to be pursued by the agency will include punitive scrutiny of any who refuse to participate in Obamacare mandates.

If you refuse to get Obama-mandated health insurance, in other words, and opt to pay the IRS penalty instead, you may be subjected to extra scrutiny by the IRS in exactly the same way conservative non-profits were targeted by the IRS over the last four years.

The IRS will, of course, deny their investigations are politically motivated, but after all the recent revelations about the IRS targeting political opponents of Obama, who will believe them?

Do you really want the IRS digging into your medical history?

All this questions the wisdom of putting the IRS in charge of enforcing a health care law. It's going to force all taxpayers to turn over personal medical details to an agency that has already admitted violating federal laws and abusing its power to punish political enemies of the current administration.

Have you ever thought about the enormous evil that could be accomplished by the IRS building a database of all Americans' health insurance records? This information could be covertly used by the government to do things like identify everyone taking antidepressant drugs then have them all declared mentally unstable and therefore unqualified to own firearms (as an example).

Once the IRS has your health insurance ID information -- which you are required to provide this coming January -- it could use that data to discover if you're seeing an infertility doctor, being treated for cancer, taking antipsychotic drugs, seeking medical treatment for substance abuse, were beaten or molested by a family member, were the victim of a rape assault or any other detail in your medical records. Is this the kind of information you trust the IRS to have on you?

Really?

And yes, it really is a simple matter for the government to gather all this data. Once you hand over your health insurance ID, the government can simply demand the complete medical records of all Americans from top insurers, then use your social security number to match your income and home address to your detailed medical records.

Feeling violated yet? Obamacare subjects us all to government data-rape.

Obamacare was passed when most people foolishly trusted the government

Obamacare was passed into law during a time when most Americans foolishly believed their government would never lie to them. They trusted Obama to be honest and tell them the truth. They trusted his administration to do what was best for the citizens and the country.

Heck, most people believed Obamacare was going to give them "free health care," remember? That was the big selling point of the whole thing. What a total con job...

Since then, the blinders have come off. People are waking up in droves, and most Americans now realize the Obama administration is wholly dishonest and deceptive. Many people believe it is the most dangerous and destructive administration ever to hold power in American history.

The Benghazi fiasco and the IRS being caught red-handed both prove to the American people that the Obama administration is full of liars who cannot be trusted. Suddenly in that context the idea that the IRS is going to be running Obamacare is horrifying. We're going to put this agency in charge of gathering, archiving and then protecting our personal health insurance records? We're going to let the prying eyes of the IRS have full access to private medical and biological details that we wouldn't even share with friends and family members?

Something is terribly wrong with this picture.

Obamacare may cost democrats the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016

Here's my prediction in all this: Obamacare is so onerous, so costly, so unjust and so widely hated by such a wide swath of Americans that it's going to cost democrats hugely in the 2014 and 2016 elections.

Consider these facts about the upcoming 2014 Senate race. The US Senate currently has 53 democrats, 45 republicans and 2 independents. Democrats are clutching to a majority that could be lost if just five seats flip:

• There are 35 seats up for election in 2014. Twenty-one of those are currently held by democrats.

• Most states where senators are up for election are Republican-leaning states.

• By the time the November, 2014 election arrives, people will have already been forced to comply with Obamacare penalties on April 15th of 2014. This will be remembered on voting day.

• Voters will also remember democrats' attempts to take away their legal and lawful firearms via unconstitutional gun control legislation. The pro Second Amendment vote is going to be powerful and determined in 2014.

• As Obama's scandals continue to grow, voter disgust will translate into an anti-Obama / anti-democrat vote at the polls. Benghazi is only the tip of the iceberg...

By the way, don't misinterpret this article to think I'm rooting for Republicans in 2014. Republicans, too, have proven they will operate as total criminals if they are in control. I only support people who defend and protect liberty, regardless of their party affiliation. Right now that happens to be senators like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, but I welcome any democrats, too, who wish to stop behaving like traitors to the United States and start defending the Bill of Rights for a change.

In just 18 months, we'll all have a chance to vote out 35 traitors in the U.S. Senate and replace them with representatives who will uphold their sworn oath to defend the Constitution. For the first time, Natural News plans to endorse U.S. Senate candidates who have solid voting records on key issues like GMO food labeling, vaccine choice for parents and protecting the liberties of the American people. It may be a very short list, but we're going to highlight those who have earned it.

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In addition to all the voter fraud....


Did The IRS Try To Swing Election To Obama?

Posted 05/15/2013 06:54 PM ET

Corruption: The inspector general's report on the IRS targeting of conservatives makes it seem like a case of bureaucratic bumbling. But the more we learn, the more it looks like a concerted effort to hobble Obama's political foes.

'Inappropriate criteria," "insufficient oversight" and "lack of managerial review." That's what led the IRS to target hundreds of conservative groups for intrusive, costly and lengthy scrutiny during their application for tax-exempt status, according to the IG report released on Tuesday.

In other words, it wasn't a politically motivated attack on conservative groups during a presidential campaign. It was just a case of some bad wording and a lack of good bosses.

Except that, as details of the IRS scandal emerge, it's increasingly giving the appearance of a wide-scale effort to tilt the playing field against conservative activist groups who might have been helpful to Republican candidates in the 2012 election, while at the same time coddling liberal groups helpful to Obama.
Consider what we now know the IRS did:

• Gave preferential treatment to liberal groups. On Tuesday, USA Today reported that while the IRS was hounding conservative groups and holding up their applications for tax-exempt status, it was quickly ushering liberal groups with names like "Progress Florida" and "Missourians Organizing for Reform" through the process.

USA Today found that in the 27 months after Feb. 2010, the IRS did not approve a single Tea Party application. Over those same months, however, dozens of applications submitted by liberal groups that were engaged in the same type of activities and were seeking the same tax status as the conservative ones sailed through the agency.

"As applications for conservative groups sat in limbo," USA Today reported, "groups with liberal-sounding names had their applications approved in as little as nine months."

Meanwhile, the IG found that of the 296 applications filed by conservative groups it examined, more than half were still in limbo, with some of them having been on hold for more than three years.

• Made unusual document requests. Not only did the IRS target conservative groups for extra scrutiny, it also asked for massive amounts of information that it couldn't possibly need to determine tax-exempt status.


Read More:
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editor...-reelected.htm

[American Patriot]

[American Patriot]

So a guy who was on his way out the door ALREADY tendered his resignation. (he was leaving in two weeks anyway)

Not good enough.

Everyone in the chain of command all the way DOWN and ALL THE WAY needs to go.

All of them. Not ONE guy.

What happened here was against the Hatch Act.

The White House is making a huge circus out of letting this guy go and the President screaming and acting "mad". This is the biggest fucking act since O.J. Simpson (who is in the news again).

The fact IS the law was broken, more than once. The IRS needs to be GUTTED. NOW. Tear it down.

[American Patriot]

Ego, Power and hatred for dissent....

Reince Prebius (however he spells his name lol) said this last night about Obama.

He got it dead on.

[American Patriot]

Just to follow up on some stuff I said earlier, FIRE OBAMA:



In wake of scandal, Obama ousts IRS chief -- who was planning to resign anyway

Published May 16, 2013

FoxNews.com

President Obama announced Wednesday that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller would resign in the wake of the agency scandal in which conservative groups were targeted -- though Miller was apparently set to step down anyway.

An official close to Miller told Fox News, shortly after Obama's brief announcement, that the IRS chief was "set to resign the position of acting commission as of early June." He was planning to leave the IRS entirely a "couple of months later, regardless of the current controversy," the source said.

These details were not mentioned by the president as he announced Wednesday evening Miller was resigning. Obama spoke following a meeting with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and other top department officials in which they reviewed a highly critical inspector general’s report on the practice. The report concluded poor management allowed agents to improperly target Tea Party and other groups for more than 18 months, starting in 2010.

Obama said Lew asked for the resignation and Miller agreed, after being on the job since November 2012.

“Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it,” Obama said from the White House.

Republicans, who along with Democrats have slammed the IRS for the practice, welcomed the resignation Wednesday but made clear they would continue to investigate and press for accountability.

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said the resignation "is a necessary first step but more heads need to roll."

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., reacting to the claim that Miller was leaving anyway, said it seemed like he was a "perfect scapegoat" for the administration.

Miller’s resignation was part of three-step plan Obama outlined to fix the problem.

The other steps are to put in place the safeguards recommended in the IG report and to work with Congress as it investigates.

“The good news is we can fix this,” Obama said.

Miller became acting commissioner after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush.

The president has proceeded cautiously since the IRS controversy was made public Friday. While he initially said the accusations were "outrageous," he also said he wanted to wait until the report was released before addressing what should be done to hold accountable those responsible.

Obama said he would hold a press conference Thursday.

The report lays much of the blame on IRS supervisors in Washington who oversaw a group of specialists in Cincinnati who screened applications for tax-exempt status. It does not indicate that Washington initiated the targeting of conservative groups, but it does say a top supervisor in Washington did not adequately supervise agents in the field even after she learned the agents were acting improperly.

The Justice Department is also investigating the IRS targeting, as are three congressional committees.

Sources told Fox News that Miller will remain on the job "for a couple of weeks."

The House Ways and Means Committee said after the announcement of Miller's resignation that he still will attend a hearing Friday.

And the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs sent a letter Wednesday afternoon to the IRS requesting five employees named in the IG audit be made available for transcribed interviews by committee staff.

The Republican-led committee wants to start the interviews Monday.

The names and titles of the IRS employees requested are Holly Paz, a director; John Shafer, a manager; Gary Muthert, a screener; Liz Hofacre, a case coordinator; and Joseph Herr, a manager.

"The resignation of Steven Miller is a positive and important step as this agency struggles to try to regain the public’s trust," said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "A clean slate at the IRS with new leadership is imperative to fix this egregious encroachment on the lives of honest, hard-working Americans whose only sin was that they want to express their beliefs."

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney sidestepped a question about whether Obama still had confidence in Miller, saying he wouldn't discuss personnel matters. He said Obama has expressed his overall view that IRS personnel had acted inappropriately.

"He wants to see that the actions taken, as revealed by the Treasury report, that are inappropriate, are met with consequences," Carney said. "He will make clear to Treasury Department leaders that he expects action."

Carney said Obama wants the public to "understand and believe that the IRS applies our tax laws in a neutral and fair way to everyone."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2TSm1If5f

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An Even Bigger Scandal: Why Are IRS Audits Being Used To Punish Obama’s Political Enemies?

By Michael, on May 15th, 2013




Is it right for Barack Obama to use IRS audits to punish his political enemies? As crazy as that sounds, there is a mounting body of evidence that indicates that this is actually happening. And if this can be proven, it is a much, much larger scandal than the IRS giving "extra scrutiny" to the applications of conservative non-profit groups. Let me be clear - if Barack Obama has been using IRS audits to punish his political enemies, that is an impeachable offense. Of all of the other scandals that are out there right now, this is the one that could actually bring down the presidency of Barack Obama. That is how serious this is. As you will read about below, there is a huge amount of circumstantial evidence that political enemies of Barack Obama have been singled out for IRS audits. We need to find out who initiated these audits. Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent, this kind of abuse of government power should sicken and horrify you. If it can be proven that Barack Obama has been using IRS audits to attack his enemies, every single U.S. citizen should be calling for him to resign. This is something that is beyond politics - this is a direct threat to the very integrity of our system.

The recent revelation that the IRS has been specifically targeting patriot groups and Tea Party organizations for "extra scrutiny" has opened up the floodgates. In recent days, a large number of highly respected people have come forward claiming that they were the subject of IRS audits that were politically motivated.

For example, Larry Conners, a respected local news anchor at KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, Missouri says that he was hit with an IRS audit almost immediately after he conducted an interview with Barack Obama in April 2012...

Shortly after I did my April 2012 interview with President Obama, my wife, friends and some viewers suggested that I might need to watch out for the IRS.

I don't accept "conspiracy theories", but I do know that almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me.
At the time, I dismissed the "co-incidence", but now, I have concerns ... after revelations about the IRS targeting various groups and their members.

Originally, the IRS apologized for red-flagging conservative groups and their members if they had "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their name.

Today, there are allegations that the IRS focused on various groups and/or individuals questioning or criticizing government spending, taxes, debt or how the government is run ... any involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the constitution and bill of rights, or social economic reform/movement.

In that April 2012 interview, I questioned President Obama on several topics: the Buffet Rule, his public remarks about the Supreme Court before the ruling on the Affordable Care Act. I also asked why he wasn't doing more to help Sen. Claire McCaskill who at that time was expected to lose. The Obama interview caught fire and got wide-spread attention because I questioned his spending.


I said some viewers expressed concern, saying they think he's "out of touch" because of his personal and family trips in the midst of our economic crisis.

The President's face clearly showed his anger; afterwards, his staff which had been so polite ... suddenly went cold.
That's to be expected, and I can deal with that just as I did with President George H. Bush's staff when he didn't like my questions.

Journalistic integrity is of the utmost importance to me. My job is to ask the hard questions, because I believe viewers have a right to be well-informed. I cannot and will not promote anyone's agenda - political or otherwise - at the expense of the reporting the truth.

What I don't like to even consider ... is that because of the Obama interview … the IRS put a target on me.
Can I prove it? At this time, no.


But it is a fact that since that April 2012 interview ... the IRS has been pressuring me.

Reverend Franklin Graham, the son of Reverend Billy Graham, recently wrote a letter to Barack Obama claiming that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse were both hit with IRS audits very shortly after they ran full-page ads supporting North Carolina's Marriage amendment. In fact, both organizations were notified about the audits on the same day. The following is from a recent article posted on redstate.com...

The man known as America’s pastor was among those targeted by the Internal Revenue Service after the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ran newspaper advertisements promoting traditional marriage and biblical values.

“I am bringing this to your attention because I believe that someone in the Administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us,” wrote Franklin Graham in a letter to President Obama. “This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.’”

Graham is president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association as well as the international charity Samaritan’s Purse. Both organizations received word of audits on the same day – not long after they ran full –page ads supporting North Carolina’s Marriage amendment.

The ads encouraged voters to “cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel.”

The ad concluded with the words, “Vote for biblical values this November 6, and pray with me (Billy Graham) that America will remain one nation under God.”

Graham said on Sept. 6, 2012 they received notification that the IRS would audit their taxes.

“In light of what the IRS admitted to on Friday, May 10, 2013, and subsequent revelations from other sources, I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable,” Graham wrote.

You can find a full copy of Franklin Graham's letter to Barack Obama right here.

The Blaze is reporting on another example of this phenomenon. A respected Catholic professor that had written things critical of the Obama administration was hit with an IRS audit that she believes was politically motivated...

On Wednesday, Dr. Anne Hendershott, a devout Catholic and a noted sociologist, professor and author, exclusively told The Blaze that she believes she may have been one of the IRS’s targets.

According to Hendershott, the IRS audited her in 2010 and demanded to know who was paying her and “what their politics were.”

It all started with a phone call she received at her home in May of that year — a call during which Hendershott was told she would be audited. A letter that followed on May 19, 2010 solidified the IRS’s request to meet her in person two months later in July.

Unfortunately, these are not just isolated incidents. In fact, attorney Cleta Mitchell recently told Newsmax that she has seen a systematic pattern of politically motivated IRS harassment that only began once Barack Obama entered the White House...

In the case of one such client, she and her family subsequently became targets for audits to their personal and business tax returns, and were even visited by three different government agencies. She also knows of other groups who had surprise visits from the FBI after they applied for IRS status.

Mitchell said she doesn't believe the president or the White House was uninvolved in the IRS activities, as the administration has claimed.

"I've thought for some time that this is politically motivated and that's the reason it was happening. And, as I said, I've been doing this for more than 20 years and I've never seen anything like this until 2009, 2010. And the only thing that changed was we had a different administration," she said.

There are some that have been trying to bring awareness to these politically motivated audits for quite some time. One of these individuals is a former classmate of Obama's named Wayne Allyn Root...

“I feel like a million bucks. I feel absolutely vindicated. I knew this was going on,” Wayne Allyn Root told WND.

Root, the Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate in 2008 who has claimed Obama was strangely unknown to him and his fellow Columbia University classmates, recounted his story to WND last October of becoming the target of unusual audits, beginning in January 2011, despite a “spotless” 30-year tax record.

He charged in October that the order to audit him came from Obama himself, and he is even more convinced now.
“I believe this is not rogue agents, who would be risking their pension and careers,” he said.

In October, Root said the order to audit him “must have come from the highest levels of government.”
“Obama is using the power of the IRS and other government agencies to punish his political opposition and intimidate and silence his critics,” Root charged at the time.

In that same article, a number of other examples of this phenomenon were cited...

Last year, billionaire Frank VanderSloot became the target of investigations by both the IRS and the Labor Department after he gave $1 million to a super PAC that supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The GOP’s biggest donor, Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, said a federal criminal investigation into his company’s business practices was politically motivated. Another casino giant, Steve Wynn, also has been investigated.

This week, Root has received many emails from people who identify as conservative and believe the IRS has been harassing them for political reasons.

What happened to businessman Frank VanderSloot is particularly noteworthy. The following is from an article that Rob Bluey authored last year...

On April 20, President Obama’s campaign named VanderSloot to the first presidential “enemies list” since the Nixon era. Eight private citizens were singled out for their donations to Romney. They committed no crimes, sought no attention, and yet they became the subject of Obama’s scorn.

VanderSloot is now facing persecution from the federal government. Kimberly Strassel reveals in The Wall Street Journal that two federal agencies — the Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department — both launched investigations of VanderSloot after his name appeared on Obama’s enemies list.

No matter what you think of Obama's politics, shouldn't we all be deeply alarmed that he has an "enemies list"?
With each passing day, the similarities between Barack Obama and Richard Nixon become more glaring.

And Obama has even joked about sending the IRS after people that he does not like. When Obama found out that he was not going to be receiving an honorary doctorate from Arizona State University, he made the following statement...

"President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

The IRS is not supposed to be used as a weapon, and the White House is not allowed to use information gathered by the IRS for political gain either. But apparently last year someone at the IRS was leaking tax information to someone within the Obama campaign. The following is from a recent article by Matt K. Lewis...

A little over a year ago, I reported that, ”It is likely that someone at the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked confidential donor information showing a contribution from Mitt Romney’s political action committee to the National Organization for Marriage, says the group.”

Now — on the heels of news the IRS’s apology for having targeted conservative groups — NOM is renewing their demand that the Internal Revenue Service reveal the identity of the people responsible.

“There is little question that one or more employees at the IRS stole our confidential tax return and leaked it to our political enemies, in violation of federal law,” said NOM’s president Brian Brow, in a prepared statement. “The only questions are who did it, and whether there was any knowledge or coordination between people in the White House, the Obama reelection campaign and the Human Rights Campaign. We and the American people deserve answers.”

The IRS has been doing all sorts of things that they should not be doing. They are a rogue agency that is completely out of control.

In fact, one new lawsuit alleges that the IRS stole the health records of approximately 10 million Americans...

The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.

According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data. "This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service agents," the complaint reads. "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," it continued.

And guess what?

The IRS is going to be the primary government agency in charge of implementing Obamacare.

Will we soon see the IRS use health information to attack the political enemies of the man or woman sitting in the White House?

Unfortunately, thanks to new "Big Brother" technology that the IRS has been implementing, pretty soon there will be very little about us that the IRS does not know. The following is from a recent article by Richard Satran of U.S. News & World Report...

Consumers are already familiar with Internet "cookies" that track their movements and send them targeted ads that follow them to different websites. The IRS has brought in private industry experts to employ similar digital tracking—but with the added advantage of access to Social Security numbers, health records, credit card transactions and many other privileged forms of information that marketers don't see.

"Private industry would be envious if they knew what our models are," boasted Dean Silverman, the agency's high-tech top gun who heads a group recruited from the private sector to update the IRS, in a comment reported in trade publications.

So what is the IRS going to do with all of this information?

Well, the following are just a few of the things that they have already said that they plan to do with it...

• Charting and analyzing social media such as Facebook
• Targeting audits by matching tax filings to social media or electronic payments
• Tracking individual Internet addresses and emailing patterns
• Sorting data in 32,000 categories of metadata and 1 million unique "attributes"
• Machine learning across "neural" networks
• Statistical and agent-based modeling
• Relationship analysis based on Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers

So are you alarmed by all of this?

You should be.

As I discussed in my previous article entitled "100 Years Old And Still Killing Us: America Was Much Better Off Before The Income Tax", Congress should close the doors of the IRS and throw away the key. It is a deeply, deeply corrupt government agency that has gotten wildly out of control.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...itical-enemies

[Ryan Ruck]

Oh My… Breaking: Holder Justice Department Also Tapped House of Representatives Cloak Room

I think the Zero Admin may have bit off far more than it could chew.

It has now effectively pissed off the people that were covering for him publicly and now the people in charge of impeachment proceedings (Senate convicts).

[American Patriot]

I think the Zero Admin may have bit off far more than it could chew.

It has now effectively pissed off the people that were covering for him publicly and now the people in charge of impeachment proceedings (Senate convicts).

Some times you just have to say "What the fuck!"

LOL

[vector7]

Top Constitutional Experts: Obama Is Worse than Nixon

Posted on May 15, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog


Objective Analysis: Obama Versus Nixon

In the wake of the twin scandals of the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Department of Justice spying on AP reporters, the comparisons between Obama and Nixon are everywhere.
But what do experts say?

Former New York Times general counsel James Goodale – who represented the paper during its Pentagon Papers fight with the Nixon administration – said in an interview yesterday that Obama is worse than Nixon when it comes to press freedoms. And see this.
Former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald noted last year:

We supposedly learned important lessons from the abuses of power of the Nixon administration, and then of the Bush administration: namely, that we don’t trust government officials to exercise power in the dark, with no judicial oversight, with no obligation to prove their accusations. Yet now we hear exactly this same mentality issuing from Obama, his officials and defenders to justify a far more extreme power than either Nixon or Bush dreamed of asserting: he’s only killing The Bad Citizens, so there’s no reason to object!

Jonathan Turley – perhaps the top constitutional law expert in the United States (and a liberal) – writes:

The painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments. Consider a few examples:

Warrantless surveillance
Nixon’s use of warrantless surveillance led to the creation of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). But the reform turned out to be more form than substance. The secret court turned “probable cause” into a meaningless standard, virtually guaranteeing any surveillance the government wanted. After hundreds of thousands of applications over decades, only a couple have ever been denied.

Last month, the Supreme Court crushed any remaining illusions regarding FISA when it sided with the Obama administration in ruling that potential targets of such spying had to have proof they were spied upon before filing lawsuits, even if the government has declared such evidence to be secret. That’s only the latest among dozens of lawsuits the administration has blocked while surveillance expands exponentially.

Unilateral military action
Nixon’s impeachment included the charge that he evaded Congress’ sole authority to declare war by invading Cambodia. In the Libyan “mission,” Obama announced that only he had the inherent authority to decide what is a “war” and that so long as he called it something different, no congressional approval or even consultation was necessary. He proceeded to bomb a nation’s capital, destroy military units and spend more than a billion dollars in support of one side in a civil war.

Kill lists
Nixon ordered a burglary to find evidence to use against Daniel Ellsberg, who gave the famed Pentagon Papers to the press, and later tried to imprison him. Ellsberg was later told of a secret plot by the White House “plumbers” to “incapacitate” him in a physical attack. It was a shocking revelation. That’s nothing compared with Obama’s assertion of the right to kill any U.S. citizen without a charge, let alone conviction, based on his sole authority. A recently leaked memo argues that the president has a right to kill a citizen even when he lacks “clear evidence (of) a specific attack” being planned.

Attacking whistle-blowers
Nixon was known for his attacks on whistle-blowers. He used the Espionage Act of 1917 to bring a rare criminal case against Ellsberg. Nixon was vilified for the abuse of the law. Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined [and see this]. While refusing to prosecute anyone for actual torture, the Obama administration has prosecuted former CIA employee John Kiriakou for disclosing the torture program.

Other Nixonesque areas include Obama’s overuse of classification laws and withholding material from Congress. There are even missing tapes. In the torture scandal, CIA officials admitted to destroying tapes that they feared could be used against them in criminal cases. Of course, Nixon had missing tapes, but Rose Mary Woods claimed to have erased them by mistake, as opposed to current officials who openly admit to intentional destruction.

Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half. Many Democrats and progressive activists find themselves unable to oppose Obama for the authoritarian powers he has assumed. It is not simply a case of personality trumping principle; it is a cult of personality.

Long after Watergate, not only has the presidency changed. We have changed. We have become accustomed to elements of a security state such as massive surveillance and executive authority without judicial oversight. We have finally answered a question left by Benjamin Franklin in 1787, when a Mrs. Powel confronted him after the Constitutional Convention and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His chilling response: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We appear to have grown weary of the republic and traded it for promises of security from a shining political personality. Somewhere, Nixon must be wondering how it could have been this easy.

Nixon’s “Enemies List” is famous, and the former head of the National Security Agency’s global digital data gathering program says that Obama also has an enemies list … which has been used to take down a wide variety of people, including the head of the CIA. The Washington Post’s Ed Rogers notes:

Obama doesn’t need a traditional Nixonian enemies list. In the digital age, with the Obama machine’s much-celebrated technological capabilities, the president can sort his enemies by keywords.

You’ve heard about the AP spying scandal, and the head of the Department of Justice implies that the government has spied on many other reporters.

Reporters who criticize those in power are being smeared by the government and targeted for arrest (and see this).

Indeed, the Obama administration is treating real reporters as potential terrorists.

After Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and others sued the government to enjoin the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans – the judge asked the government attorneys 5 times whether journalists like Hedges could be indefinitely detained simply for interviewing and then writing about bad guys. The government refused to promise that journalists like Hedges won’t be thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their lives without any right to talk to a judge.

Wikileaks’ head Julian Assange could face the death penalty for his heinous crime of leaking whistleblower information which make those in power uncomfortable … i.e. being a reporter.

Daniel Ellsberg notes that Obama’s claimed power to indefinitely detain people without charges or access to a lawyer or the courts is a power that even King George didn’t claim. Former judge and adjunct professor of constitutional law Andrew Napolitano points out that Obama’s claim that he can indefinitely detain prisoners even after they are acquitted of their crimes is a power that even Hitler and Stalin didn’t claim.

Indeed, Obama has turned America into the most spied upon nation in world history, and has rolled back liberties to the time of the enactment of the Magna Carta in 1215.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/...han-nixon.html

[vector7]

Arrest, NOT Impeach

• by Diane Sori on May 13, 2013 at 4:39am

Benghazi…MURDER, lies, and cover-ups…and 'whistleblowes' getting demoted for speaking the truth.

Cover-ups of the first degree. In fact, Senator Inhofe (R-OK) said that Benghazi “is going to go down as most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history.”
”We may be starting to use the I-word before too long” he added.

The thing is that the I-word is already being talked about but in the case of Barack HUSSEIN Obama and Benghazi impeachment is NOT the way to go.
In order to impeach a sitting president the House of Representatives needs a simple majority vote, but to obtain a conviction in the Senate a two-thirds majority (67 votes) is needed.

Unfortunately, with the current Democratic controlled Senate this is NOT likely to happen, so the Republicans are looking forward to the 2014 elections to try to take back the Senate.

But another year is too long to wait to avenge the MURDERS of Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and ex-Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Too long and with NO guarantee that the Republicans will even take back control of the Senate for we all know that Obama will ‘fix’ the mid-terms with voter fraud and machine ‘irregularities’ just like he did in November.
After all, this time his neck is on the line…literally.

And even if he was by an outside chance impeached, impeachment gives credibility to his presidency and all his misguided policies and laws would still stay in place…something we surely do NOT want. Also, remember that once charges are brought for impeachment and they fail in the Senate, it’s over and cannot be brought back again.

The simple fact is that Barack HUSSEIN Obama can and should be arrested for treason under Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution which states, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort…”

Meaning in NO uncertain terms that the betrayal of the United States of America by consciously and purposely acting to aid her enemies is indeed grounds for treason.

And treason fits Obama to a tee for this man NOT only sends monies to our enemies (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas), but I believe that Barack HUSSEIN Obama was sending, without Congressional approval, guns and weapons to Syrian rebels, rebels with direct ties to al-Qaeda, got caught by Ambassador Stevens, who then had to be silenced at all costs.

Benghazi…a cleverly crafted plan that used the fortunately timed release of a ridiculous YouTube video as an opportunistic point of blame and for a time…for eight long months…the masses bought into it as the media covered for him…spreading his lies and covering-up the truth.

I’ll even go one step further and speak of a nagging feeling deep inside that Barack HUSSEIN Obama might have set-up the entire Benghazi attack to cover his butt, because if caught for illegal gun and weapons smuggling that would indeed be grounds for immediate impeachment and arrest.

And could it be even worse than that for dare I say it…I dare…but could Obama himself have been behind the video…could he have ordered it made for he knew he’d need a cover story...something he could blame if all hell broke loose…NOTHING would surprise me with this miserable excuse of a man.


more
http://wramsite.com/profiles/blogs/arrest-not-impeach

[vector7]

Companion Post: Glenn Beck Maps Out How Scandals Reveal Obama's Goal Of 'Fundamentally Transforming' America


Fox's Kelly And Perino Say IRS Scandal Gives Glenn Beck Credence

Published on May 15, 2013
During a discussion about the latest news developing on the IRS targeting conservatives scandal, Fox News' Megyn Kelly and Dana Perino echoed a sentiment recently expressed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Just as Stewart said the Obama administration has vindicated conspiracy theorists, Kelly and Perino said that the IRS scandal will give people an excuse to trust Glenn Beck.

Perino said the IRS was "too quick to say it was only a couple of guys" today, calling for a full, independent investigation into the agency if the Obama administration wants to regain credibility with the American people.

[vector7]

IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs the Health Care Office

By John Parkinson
Steven Portnoy

May 16, 2013 6:15pm



The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

[American Patriot]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


FUCK!


Assholes!


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[American Patriot]

Outgoing IRS chief faces hearing after 'stunning' revelation on another scandal-tied official

Published May 17, 2013
FoxNews.com

• 
  May 13, 2013: A woman walks out of the Internal Revenue Service building in New York. (AP)
  
  
  
  

The outgoing commissioner of the IRS is in the hot seat Friday, scheduled to testify for the first time on his agency's scandalous practice of targeting conservative groups -- after it was revealed that another potentially implicated official is now in charge of an ObamaCare unit.


Steven Miller, the acting commissioner who was ousted by the administration earlier this week, will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday morning.


Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are sure to have plenty of questions for Miller, as they search for who was responsible for the program. Outrage mounted after lawmakers learned that the IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when the targeting took place -- Sarah Hall Ingram -- has since moved over to the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare.


"Stunning. Just stunning," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after learning of the move.


The acknowledgement comes after the administration announced that Ingram's successor Joseph Grant -- who had only been on the job a few days -- would be retiring.


The agency released a memo Thursday night that may give insight into Miller's talking points at the Friday hearing, although it was written by Grant. In the memo, Grant acknowledged "errors" but said the program was started to deal with an influx of applications, as well as allegations that some of the groups were engaged in political activity that would be "impermissible" under the tax-exempt status they were seeking.


The agency also directed those seeking a possible preview to Miller's testimony to a frequently asked questions page on their website.


Also scheduled to testify is J. Russell George -- the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration -- and the man whose report released this week exposed the IRS practice that led to Miller's ouster (though Miller was apparently planning to leave the agency anyway).


President Obama, meanwhile, maintained Thursday that he didn't know about the investigation into the IRS program until it was made public.


The ObamaCare official now drawing scrutiny had been serving as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations from 2009 to 2012 -- the division included the group that targeted Tea Partiers -- and has since left to serve as director of the IRS' Affordable Care Act division. That unit is responsible for enforcing parts of the health care law, including the fines associated with the so-called individual mandate -- the requirement to buy health insurance.


Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, citing her current position and history with the scandal-marred unit, reinforced his call Thursday for the IRS to be blocked from implementing the health care law. "Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans' health care," he said.


While still the commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, Ingram was assigned to head the implementation of ObamaCare at the IRS in 2010 after the law was enacted. It is not clear when she stopped being the head of the tax-exempt office or how active her role was there while she was implementing ObamaCare.

Meanwhile, Obama appointed a new acting commissioner after the prior IRS chief announced his resignation.


The revelations at the Friday hearing could add more headaches for the Obama administration, as it tries to juggle its response to several scandals at once.


It's unclear whether more officials will resign at the IRS in the days to come. This week's clean-up at the agency is part of the Obama administration's mad dash to save face and regain footing after being hammered by a series of scandals this week, including new questions over the Benghazi terror attack and the Justice Department's seizing of journalists' phone records.


On Thursday, Obama appointed senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.


Republican leaders were quick to call out Obama for being too passive with the situation and demanded more be done.


"This is runaway government at its worst," McConnell said Thursday. "Who knows who they will target next? The truth will come out. It always does."


However, the president knocked down the prospect of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, saying the congressional investigations and a separate Justice Department probe should be enough to nail down who was responsible for improperly targeting Tea Party groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.


Asked whether he previously knew about the IRS practice, Obama said Thursday: "I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the (inspector general) report" beforehand.


The president, though, did not say whether he was previously aware of the IRS' actions, which allegedly started as early as 2010, well before the inspector general's office began to investigate. Republican lawmakers were inquiring about the alleged targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS more than a year ago.


But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said no one in the White House knew about the practice.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2TYORdBLg