May 12, 2013

What did the President know and when did he know it?

An old question. It springs to mind upon reading today's news:
Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.
Over at the Isthmus forum — a Madison, Wisconsin site, where lefties try to cocoon — a regular commenter who uses the pseudonym Henry Vilas had said: "Sounds like an over-zealot functionary in a local office. While such partisan use of the IRS should be condemned, it's not like a presidential enemies list." And when confronted with the news that senior IRS officials knew, he said: "So did Obama sic the IRS on them, like Nixon did with his enemies list?"

Our own Meade followed the link to the Wikipedia article "Nixon's Enemies List," actually read it, and wrote:
Obamaphiles should hope so:
"On December 20, 1973, the Congressional Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation concluded that people on the 'Enemies' list had not been subjected to an unusual number of tax audits."

85 comments:

edutcher said...

As I said yesterday, the Choom Gang is coming apart at the seams. Clearly, they were terrified of the results of the "election".

All the dirty laundry is coming out and we only need wait for the economic impact of ObamaTax to see the backlash.

ndspinelli said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DCS said...

Like the well buffered Michael Corleone, Obama has his own corps of Willi Ciccis, ready to take care of the Don's business without needing to be specifically ordered to.

Anonymous said...

"IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing," the statement said. "The timeline does not contradict the commissioner's testimony. While exempt organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail."

The IRS is attempting to split hairs in a couple of ways. They attempt to wiggle out of the mess with not aware of this level of specific details and also by implying that the Chief Counsel is not "Senior Leadership"

In my experience if an Agency Director was called on the carpet by Congress about political bias in enforcement, there sure as hell would be a number of sessions before hand to synchronize testimony with the facts. I can't imagine the Chief Counsel, either not being involved, or withholding these sort of facts for nearly a year (Aug 2011 - Mar 2012). Then allowing the Commissioner to swing with what would be demonstratively false testimony for a year (Mar 2012- May 2013) till the IG report comes out.

Knowing that this was coming out, the IRS had to tell Lew about it weeks ago.

Lew's only prayer in not getting splattered would have been to do a public apology himself (as the outsider) and then fire people.

Anonymous said...

When all is said and done, it just may be that Obama was a rather arrogant but very naif guy that got propped up and used by a bunch of thugs to get in power.

And he's too inexperienced and too incapable to reign them in.

He used them to get himself raised up to heights to which is aspired and dreamed.

They used him to get in power.

Now the power grabbers are ruining his image and stature, but he's too inexperienced to know what to do.

Plus they don't need him anymore. He has no further value to them at this time.

Get your popcorn, folks, this is going to be something amazing to watch come unglued.

furious_a said...

As Instapundit posted yesterday...

...Shit just got real, yo.

ricpic said...

A cop he can call stupid excites him. Trayvon tugs at his heartstrings. Bitter clingers get his contempt juices flowing. Ambassador Stevens in mortal danger? "Wake me in the morning, Panetta. And, uh...do something...or don't...whatever."

Anonymous said...

People excuse the culpability and irresponsibility of the leader of a movement when he makes a "comment" and his followers interpret that as a command.

When will "journalists" realize the Pulitzer gold that can be mined from investigations and telling the truth about the criminality of this administration?

mariner said...

Fuck the Obama administration.

This COUNTRY is coming unglued.

furious_a said...

Happy Mother's Day, y'all.

TWM said...

He knew. Or at least he put people in positions of power that he knew would do this kind of stuff - the Chicago way of course - so he knew it was going to happen sooner or later because that's the way his people do things.

As to Inga and other apologists on here, they either can't admit when they are wrong or simply believe the leftist mantra "by any means necessary."

As to what it does to Barry. Past screwing up his agenda for the next four years I'd say nothing. He's immune to bad news as is evidenced by his being reelected. And they sure as hell aren't going to impeach the first black president no matter what (and no, Clinton doesn't count).

Oso Negro said...

I suppose the supporters of Obama will experience increasing cognitive dissonance as the tales of malfeasance further permeate the mainstream media. Except for the ones with IQs of 85 or lower. They will remain blissfully unaware.

James said...

To me it doesn't matter whether Obama issued an order to the IRS but rather the issue speaks to the culture among federal (and state) employees.

As I pointed out yesterday the same type of harrassment and prying was meted out to "Joe the Plumber" because he dared to ask Obama a question that elicited a telling response. That exchange occurred on a Sunday afternoon; by Sunday night at least two State of Ohio employees accessed the state's databases to search for negative information on "Joe" which they distributed to left-leaning blogs.

Similarly, it appears that IRS employees sympathetic to Obama (or invested in his re-election) harassed Tea Party groups with onerous document requests in an effort to forestall political opposition. It remains to be seen how high up the chain the knowledge of these actions went (or who authorized them in the first place).

virgil xenophon said...

I can tell furious_a is not a true Southerner else he would've said "All y'all." :)

Anonymous said...

I left off the one other definition of "is" is, cuteness in the story.

Their official story is that low level folks did this on their own, yet Ms Lerner is at level 3 in the agency. She learns of it in Jun 2011, and the Chief Counsel (level 2) in Aug 2011, yet they don't change their guidelines till late Jan 2012, 60 days before the Commissioner says "There's absolutely no targeting.

no current targeting...

furious_a said...

Didn't early in the ACA debate the White House set up a snitchli...er, website where supporters could forward emails they had received that were critical of the ACA? You know, so the White House could..."respond" to them?

And ATTAAAAACK WAAAAATCH is still up but they haven't been updating it.

edutcher said...

DCS said...

Like the well buffered Michael Corleone, Obama has his own corps of Willi Ciccis, ready to take care of the Don's business without needing to be specifically ordered to.

The same can be said of the Final Solution.

If all those exhortatory emails like the ones Ann shared with us were the inspiration, then he bears culpability.

Think Nuremburg.

Quayle said...

When all is said and done, it just may be that Obama was a rather arrogant but very naif guy that got propped up and used by a bunch of thugs to get in power.

Even if "Dreams" was written by William Ayers, that does not make Choom a naif.

It would appear our Little Zero was ambitious and narcissistic - he knew he was making a deal with the devil, but he is also an incompetent - he vastly overestimates his capabilities.

I do agree, though, the next couple of years will be quite a ride.

furious_a said...

I can tell furious_a is not a true Southerner...

That's because I only meant some of you. >:-P

edutcher said...

PS As one who worked at the IRS and knew more than a few TEs (tax examiners), you're not going to see this happen without some direction from higher up in the food chain.

Your average TE was so overworked, they don't even get up from their seat at break time. It just wasn't worth the effort.

As they're phasing out the Service Centers since everybody has TurboTax, that may change, but then you're going to have to have the software that audits the electronic returns to flag certain types.

Somebody somewhere has to order these changes. The drones aren't allowed that kind of autonomy.

Meade said...

"That's because I only meant some of you."

Oh, so you discriminate. How northerner of you.

Phil 314 said...

Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011

If a physician is aware of a billing practice in his/her that is ongoing and could be incorrect (i.e. consistently using the wrong code) that doc could be liable for Medicare fraud, leading to serious fines and/or imprisonment

ndspinelli said...

I see Meade is deleting this Sunday morning. How paternalistic. WTF is it w/ Sundays? A challenging, but fair comment deleted.

I'm Full of Soup said...

New ideas and competence and coming from outside the Beltway is what the Repubs should run on in 2014. They need to clean house and demote the Boehners, the McConnells, the Kristols, the Roves. Right now, the Repubs have two maybe three legit outsiders like Cruz, Sanford and Rubio [who unfortunately has been co-opted and seduced by Beltway spotlight].

The Dems have no outsiders IMO- they are all Beltway loving zealots.

Rusty said...

When all is said and done, it just may be that Obama was a rather arrogant but very naif guy that got propped up and used by a bunch of thugs to get in power.

I had a good laugh at that.
Look at his friends and you will know the man.
What you are seeing is Chicago politics in action and the current resident is a master at Chicago politics.
Who sent you?

ndspinelli said...

I'm not Mayor Dave. I'll battle night and day. Haven't you learned that yet? I've showmn your pettiness previously, and I'll do it again. Your wife can't "man up" and neither can you.

pm317 said...

This happened in 2011 before the election. If only our lapdog media was not so lapdoggy, we may have heard of it. Now, Drudge has a headline from a lefty rag calling this a second term curse.

Yeah, it is just a curse that happened to all presidents. Obama is not culpable here, not at all. He is above reproach. /snark

edutcher said...

Perhaps Ann should have put this at the top of the post.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ben Rhodes, the Obama wheenie, who probably helped scrub the CIA talking points, MAJORED IN FICTION IN COLLEGE. How great is that!

Anonymous said...

It is worth pointing out Senator Howard Baker described himself as a close Nixon friend, yet when faced with malfeasance was willing to ask: "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"


Where is a Dem Senator willing to challenge Obama rather than toe a partisan line?

Anonymous said...

Look at his friends and you will know the man.
What you are seeing is Chicago politics in action and the current resident is a master at Chicago politics.
Who sent you?


Obama is an insecure, narcissist (as are all insecure people.)

The friendships are all ones of convenience.

He's learned his role in the game, but he's not master of the game because he's too lazy.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Sgt- I know your question was rhetorical as the Dems never ever stray from their dogma on even a single issue.

Tom said...

The wealthy southern landed gentry didn't lynch many black men themselves. But by pitting poor whites against blacks and sowing racism, they created the culture where the lynchings were possible. It's the natural outcome of using fear and class warfare as a means of leadership.

rhhardin said...

Obama is a community organizer.

This is normal, this is what he does.

He knew about it in the same way that he knows that there's a green pencil on his desk. It's part of his environment but with no reason for any focus on it.

Aridog said...

edutcher said...

PS As one who worked at the IRS and knew more than a few TEs (tax examiners), you're not going to see this happen without some direction from higher up in the food chain....[snip]...Somebody somewhere has to order these changes. The drones aren't allowed that kind of autonomy.

True enough, however the technique today for senior leadership, and not just in any one agency, is to "infer" what you want done by subordinates and then let them do it, retaining plausible deniability for yourself.

When Jay Carney made the ignorant remark, with a straight face, that the IRS is an "independent enforcement agency" ... you just had to know the narrative was set...e.g., no one in Treasury is responsible, just some run amok subalterns in the civil service grades of the IRS. Carney went on to emphasize subordinate culpability by stating the IRS Commissioner at the time was a Bush 43 appointee.

It is still all Bush's fault. Really. Why can't you see it?

Anonymous said...

AJ,

Wyden has been caught off the reservation once or twice, and Lieberman was ultimately disowned over Iraq, but he is no longer a Senator.

Balfegor said...

RE: Rusty:

What you are seeing is Chicago politics in action and the current resident is a master at Chicago politics.

Not sure why you'd say Obama is a master at Chicago politics. He wasn't exactly a mover and shaker in Chicago.

Astro said...

What did The Isthmus Forum ignore, and how long will they ignore it?

Is it too easy to just say everything and always?

I'm Full of Soup said...

Drill - I agree with those examples. Wyden especially seems like a free thinker.

Balfegor said...

Re: Aridog:

True enough, however the technique today for senior leadership, and not just in any one agency, is to "infer" what you want done by subordinates and then let them do it, retaining plausible deniability for yourself.

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

Dante said...

Folks, don't get excited about this. The spontaneous mob at the the IRS got excited about constitutional ideas that don't align with their beliefs.

The IRS needs to find some Tea Partier tax cheats and throw them in jail. Then this will all blow over.

Elliott A said...

Post today on Drudge that the lawsuit against the IRS targeting Jewish groups will be heard in DC court on July 2. They were targeting anyone not with the program. Their whoops was targeting a purely religious group and not just pro- Israel groups. I still think we are seeing a classic case of absolute incompetence in many of these cases. There is no internal oversight of the various zealots. The administration hired on ideology not competence and are now paying the price.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Looks like Senator Feinstein will not deviate from Dem party line. Her big beef is that they substituted the word "extremist" for the word "terrorist". And she is already defending the Hildebeast.

Anonymous said...

"What did the President know and when did he know it?" applies as well to Benghazi. Even more I'd say.

Here's a heads up to our pathetic liberal friends who can't be bothered about Benghazi because "Ooh, the righties are just using it to get Obama":

Howard Baker, the Republican Senate Majority Leader in Watergate days, supplied the "What did the President know" question because he cared that the United States be run properly even if it hurt a Republican president.

Furthermore, he got that question from Fred Thompson, who later became a US Senator and Republican presidential candidate.

You can bet there will be no Howard Bakers or Fred Thompsons in Democrat ranks. Democrats and liberals don't give a damn about the country, just their own power and their war on conservatives.

edutcher said...

The Drill SGT said...

It is worth pointing out Senator Howard Baker described himself as a close Nixon friend, yet when faced with malfeasance was willing to ask: "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"


Where is a Dem Senator willing to challenge Obama rather than toe a partisan line?


That kind of integrity went out when Willie came in.

When he lied to his Cabinet about what the meaning of "is' is (as it were), not one resigned when they learned they truth.

Ozark Mafia, Hyde Park Mafia - it's all a gang any more.

Aridog said...

PS As one who worked at the IRS and knew more than a few TEs (tax examiners), you're not going to see this happen without some direction from higher up in the food chain....[snip]...Somebody somewhere has to order these changes. The drones aren't allowed that kind of autonomy.

True enough, however the technique today for senior leadership, and not just in any one agency, is to "infer" what you want done by subordinates and then let them do it, retaining plausible deniability for yourself*.


To a certain extent I agree, but usually there's somebody who's somebody else's drinking bud and this stuff may get discussed over Budweisers off site.

In the end, it rarely saves them.

* We had an Assistant Director who had been passed around the Service Centers because he liked to hit on other guys' wives. When he disappeared, we later learned he was in Utah.

rhhardin said...

Even if the House impeaches and the Senate convicts, Roberts will find something procedural that saves Obama.

Brian Brown said...

Small potatoes!

Low level staffers!!!


Shut up wingnutz!!!!

edutcher said...

Remember, it was the impeachment that finally soured people on Willie (assuming his "unbelievable" poll number weren't just that).

Anonymous said...

"So did Obama sic the IRS on them, like Nixon did with his enemies list?"

No/yes, Nixon never did his enemies. But Obama did sic the vicious dogs on the Adelsons of Las Vegas Sands, a Romney megadonor, and on the Koch brothers who refused not to support Obama's right wing enemies. Coincidence?

Funny, said dogs were never on Solyndra's Kaiser who funneled $535 million of taxpayers "stimulus" money, or on Buffett who received $150 million to close down A123, or on warm-monger big Al. Coincidence?

Brian Brown said...

Here is how the people on the left are reacting:

During a political election time, when there is clearly a Tea Party running for offices, the IRS has the DUTY to look into any and ALL of the groups forming under the name Tea Party, as Non-Profit organizations.

and:

The IRS said that none of the Tea Party groups it flagged for scrutiny was ultimately denied tax-exempt status. It must have just taken longer to get the ruling than Tea Party folks thought it should have. (Whine, whine, complain.) I guess they thought they deserved to go to the head of line of thousands of applicants for quick service because they are "patriots" with important "patriotic" work to do. Well, maybe if their anti-tax, anti-government Tea Party-backed Republican Congressmen had voted enough revenue to hire enough agents to review all the applications they would have gotten quick service.

and:
For the life of me, I do not understand why there was a need for an apology from the IRS. These unpatriotic entities that have all but declared war on the U.S. government, threatened to secede from the union and made not-so-veiled threats against the president of these United States, deserve hyper-scrutiny.

and:
Oh my. Big bad liberal government agency witch-hunting the Tea Partiers. Oh, those poor innocent souls. First the English wanted to tax them, now those liberals want it, too.

As I said the other day, these people hate you for disagreeing with them. Such hate is clear in everything they say and everything they do. And they have not one single concern about using the powers of the federal government to harass and punish you.

Why anyone on the right presumes good faith on the part of anyone on the left is beyond me.

edutcher said...

Jay, the authors of the first and third comments were the kind of people who always said something had to be done about the Joos because they were plotting against Germany.

cubanbob said...

Ben Rhodes, the Obama wheenie, who probably helped scrub the CIA talking points, MAJORED IN FICTION IN COLLEGE. How great is that!


As I said before on another thread Ben Rhodes is superbly qualified for this Administration. The last four years has been the triumph of of fiction over reality.

cubanbob said...

The next Administration-hopefully a Republican Administration will have a field day going after the left. After four years of investigations and prosecutions there will be a bi-partisan agreement to curb some of the excess of the government.

edutcher said...

PS Aren't these the same Lefties who are forever whining about McCarthyism and blacklisting?

As always, they project on other people their worst traits.

Kelly said...

In which Obama out Nixons Nixon. Barrack Milhouse Obama. I think it was Klein who wrote that Obama had not been touched by scandals up until this week. That's only because he and the rest of the media ignored what was going on in front of their faces.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Joe Klein, another librul Obamaphile, fails to see any scandals in Obama giving billions in green energy subsidies to many now bankrupt solar companies.

edutcher said...

Kelly said...

In which Obama out Nixons Nixon. Barrack Milhouse Obama. I think it was Klein who wrote that Obama had not been touched by scandals up until this week.

What he meant is no one he knew voted for the Romster.

Paco Wové said...

"Choom Gang is coming apart at the seams"

As long as 50+% of the populace thinks the emperor has clothes, then he does in fact have clothes.

Brian Brown said...

edutcher said...
Jay, the authors of the first and third comments were the kind of people who always said something had to be done about the Joos because they were plotting against Germany


Yep.

These people think the government is a moral agent for good. And if you're against their moral agent for good, you're evil.

Brian Brown said...

By the way, is there anything about Barack Obama's political career that indicates he would have a real big problem with what the IRS did here?

Remember:

KRUGMAN: But this is not something you negotiate over. You do not negotiate with hostage-takers. That’s the White House position. They’re right about that.

Andy Freeman said...

> When will "journalists" realize the Pulitzer gold that can be mined from investigations and telling the truth about the criminality of this administration?

The Pulitzers are voted on by journalist "elites". Those folks are falling on their swords to defend Obama so they're not going to give out awards to anyone who makes that necessary.

Rusty said...

Balfegor said...
RE: Rusty:

What you are seeing is Chicago politics in action and the current resident is a master at Chicago politics.

Not sure why you'd say Obama is a master at Chicago politics. He wasn't exactly a mover and shaker in Chicago.

Chicago schools are the way they are for a reason. he helped build that.
You don't get anywhere in Illinois politics unless somebody helped you.
Look at his friends. What kind of political people are they?

Aridog said...

I don't think Obama knew specifically about the details of this IRS malfeasance. He specializes in not knowing specifics, just making comments about things he likes and lets those beholden to him carry the water from what they divine his meaning to be.

All appointee positions are beholden and that includes the SES and FSO. Ambitious GS-15's and Full Colonels are also impacted in their striving for SES rank or Flag Rank, or SES rank on retirement (appointments). Say, hey...it comes with a special flag just like a General...in fact is is equivalent to Flag Rank up to 4 stars. How 'bout that, eh? [I wonder is the sequester eliminated that celebratory requirement? He he. ]

In other words, I think @ edutcher is right that there was some direction from senior (above civil service grades) IRS management, even if closeted at bit...e.g., over beers after work [off the record] or through pseudonym email addresses, as some agency senior folk are wont to do. Obama did not have to tell them, or even know about it per se. The perfect "Who me?"

I've heard rumors [shssssh!] that I did that myself back in the 1990's into the 2000's for protection after I discovered my work being altered to fit a narrative my research did not support with my name and attribution left on it. I had little choice. My email as it is listed in my Blogger Profile is one my employer knew very well in the 90's and 2000's and still does.

In short, there is a lot of "direction" provided by senior management, by various means, overt and covert, just as @edutcher has said. Very little of it comes directly from a POTUS or cabinet level position. Revenue Officers I knew and worked with on occasional [DoD exemptions, many that do NOT exist] said the same things.

This isn't a new protocol for Obama's folks...they presume forgiveness is better than permission...because forgiveness is only necessary IF you get caught.

Aridog said...

Correction: My email address as listed in my profile wasn't established until the 2000's...prior to that I used a different personal email (also dog related and well known to my employer) and did all my official correspondence on my *dot mil* account...or by hard letterhead copies FedEx'd when necessary. I used my Army AKO account very little. I acquired a covert email when necessity dictated it.

Balfegor said...

Re: Rusty:

Chicago schools are the way they are for a reason. he helped build that.
You don't get anywhere in Illinois politics unless somebody helped you.
Look at his friends. What kind of political people are they
?

Exactly -- other people helped him. He was their tool. He wasn't the big man handing out favours. In Chicago, he was a crony, a hanger-on. That doesn't make him a master. It means he's familiar with how the system works, not that he's any good at it.

David Davenport said...

Except for the ones with IQs of 85 or lower. They will remain blissfully unaware.

Only racists say things like that about Obama voters. :0] !

edutcher said...

Paco Wové said...

Choom Gang is coming apart at the seams

As long as 50+% of the populace thinks the emperor has clothes, then he does in fact have clothes.


Last I heard, 55% thought he was sartorially challenged.

Aridog said...

I don't think Obama knew specifically about the details of this IRS malfeasance. He specializes in not knowing specifics, just making comments about things he likes and lets those beholden to him carry the water from what they divine his meaning to be.

He's too brilliant for details.

Matt Sablan said...

Small potatoes.

hombre said...

Well, according to the comments on Ross Douthat's column in the NYT, many NYT readers think it is more than okay for the IRS to hound people who express views that question government policy - progressive policy, that is. (Link at Instapundit.)

Lefties are anti-Constitution sociopaths.

hombre said...

Obama's a Dem. No problem here. Move on, folks.

Cedarford said...

Tom said...
The wealthy southern landed gentry didn't lynch many black men themselves. But by pitting poor whites against blacks and sowing racism, they created the culture where the lynchings were possible. It's the natural outcome of using fear and class warfare as a means of leadership.
=====================

1. The stats on lynchings in US history (which are less than killed by black thugs in a single year) showed 40% whites lynched, 60% blacks. Which reflected racial allocations of heinous crimes in those days.

2. 98-99% of those lynched were gulty of their crimes. The "innocent or possibly innocent" typically fall into the "pool" of those falsely accused of rape.

3. While most lynchings fell under the connivance of the "white power structure" at the time, as whites were in charge generally, there were many all black towns - and in those - lynchings happened. They were all black affairs.

4. Much of the black community approved of lynchings and were part of the cheering crowd at lynchings. Only in later years, when Northern liberals, the black intelligensia in places like Harlem, and powerful jews in the media repulsed by lynching as reminescent of pograms, started an anti-lynching national campaign - did public opinion shift.

More and more people believed it backwards, and more were reassured that 19th Century ideas of repenitence and forgiveness or bribing officials to get off charges - would be changed under a new Rule of Law(yers). That would fairly try and swiftly execute the most evil in exchange for giving that power only to lawyers and whatever "juries" were made available for lawyers to manipulate.

5. Perhaps in future years, we will see the 12+ years to get Khalid Sheikh Mohammed convicted, the 5 years it took to get bloody-handed Jodi Arias convicted, the 20 years it may take to get Maj Nidal Hasan convicted and executed as being as shameful as lynching.


cubanbob said...

Choom seems to have the characteristics of Sgt. Schulz and Col. Klinck. Sees nothing, hears nothing and knows nothing and thinks he knows everything.

Gary Rosen said...

What's your problem with KSM, Fudd? He has the same Mideast policy and views on jooos and Israel that you do. You're more consistent when you're whitewashing and excusing ass-raping child molesters like Sandusky and Polanski.

Cedarford said...

I'm pretty well convinced that "Gary Rosen" is a sockpuppet of Trooper York, much as "Baron Zemo" is.
Rosen is Troopers passive agressive dig at some NYC jews he has known in his biz quite similar in personality to Rosen.

furious_a said...

He specializes in not knowing specifics, just making comments about things he likes and lets those beholden to him carry the water from what they divine his meaning to be.

Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?

furious_a said...

it just may be that Obama was a rather arrogant but very naif guy that got propped up and used by a bunch of thugs to get in power.

I dunno, maybe Rahm or Valerie Jarrett, but Obama isn't comfortable hiring people who are smarter than he is. I'm a better at policy/speechwriting/etc than my... is a tell.

Gary Rosen said...

Wrong as always, Fudd. What gender are your imaginary offspring going to be this week?

furious_a said...


To me it doesn't matter whether Obama issued an order to the IRS but rather the issue speaks to the culture among federal (and state) employees.


Those mid-level state employees in Ohio thought of data-mining Joe Wurzelbacher all on their own-some.

Not.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Our own Meade...

Your commenters are married to him, also?

I like this idea of group/public ownership of Meade! Yeay! Big Love on the Althouse range!

Baron Zemo said...

Sorry to disappoint you Cedarford but Gary Rosen is just another commenter who finds you anti-Semitism disgusting and vile.

But I guess Jew-hating is what you call your basic "good faith" commenting.

One thing though. I must admit nobody has ever seen you and Martin Bormann at the same place at the same time. Sort of like Michael and Latoya Jackson. Just sayn'

Rusty said...

Balfegor said...
Re: Rusty:

He knows exactly what he's doing. Keep in mind he put those people in positions of power.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well, Baron, extremely poor manners and barbarous beliefs are the sort of faith that is all the more credible to Yoko's wife. ;-)

Baron Zemo said...

Nice. Jude the obscure dude to the max.

Great call back.

Balfegor said...

Re: Rusty:

He knows exactly what he's doing. Keep in mind he put those people in positions of power.

Yeah, see -- I think he has only a vague notion of what he's doing. Other people decided he was their ticket to ride, and have ridden him up to the top. I find it difficult to believe that Obama is some kind of mastermind pulling the strings, given what we've heard about his decisionmaking capacity -- that he basically asks his aides to boil down hard questions down into a multiple choice exam for him so he can put checkmarks in the boxes he wants.

Cedarford said...

Funny how Gary Rosen and Baron Zemo (Trooper York) - always appear in close proximity.

Call out one, the other chimes in.

Anonymous said...

"If a physician is aware of a billing practice in his/her that is ongoing and could be incorrect (i.e. consistently using the wrong code) that doc could be liable for Medicare fraud, leading to serious fines and/or imprisonment."

You don't even have to be aware, all it has to be is repetitive, then it automatically becomes 'abuse' and exposes you to liability.