Part one: The IRS question.
Here is what he said as reported by HuffPo:
"This is pretty straightforward," said Obama. "If, in fact, IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that is outrageous, and there is no place for it, and they have to be held fully accountable, because the IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity and people have to have confidence that they are applying the laws in a non-partisan way. You should feel that way regardless of party."
"But I have got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it, and we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this," he added.
Once again I am of the position that considering the speed with which these Tea Party organizations kept cropping up, and the flood of requests for 501's that came the IRS's way, I do not think it imprudent of them to give the organizations increased scrutiny.
Yes I know how it looks politically, but I also think these assholes are using the political climate to redirect scrutiny that they may well deserve. I would not be at all surprised to find a number of Tea Party affiliated organizations being called out for unethical and perhaps even criminal behaviors in the next several months.
Now for Benghazi, where the REAL fireworks took place.
“The whole issue of talking points, frankly throughout this process, has been a sideshow.”
I could not agree more, and it is nice to see that the President is refusing to back down on the claim that there was no cover up and that the talking points provided "pretty much matched" the same assessments that the President was receiving at that time.
The next thing you know the Republicans will be demanding to know why he could not see into the future, BEFORE all of the information was known, and construct the White House talking points accordingly.
(H/T to the Obama Diary.)
The Minnesotan state senate will be voting on marriage equality this afternoon, it has already passed the house, Democratic Gov Mark Dayton has pledged to sign it into law.
ReplyDeleteI so hope the IRS HAS investigated Sarah Palin and her klan!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe FEC will be doing an audit if SarahPAC doesn't file an amended return. Go figure -- her numbers don't add up!
Deletehttp://images.nictusa.com/pdf/612/13330031612/13330031612.pdf
When will President Obama address the Todd Palin sex trafficking scandal in Alaska and why Homeland Security is obstructing Malia Litman's FOIA regarding the Secret Service and prostitution in Alaska?
ReplyDeleteThough I admire Litman's work and tenacity I recognize that the President has such a hefty list to operate on each day that this is not likely anywhere near a priority. After all resignations have occurred and no doubt there is ongoing scrutiny within the ranks.
DeleteI am not sure that people who have never been in charge of a large staff or a huge organization recognize the need to delegate, delegate, delegate in order to accomplish anything.
With all the criticism, racism, ugliness, threats etc.that come Pres. Obama's way I know that anyone with less intelligence and stamina would not have accomplished all that he has, nor have survived and won a 2nd election.
He is a gentleman and a scholar and as tough as nails, which serves us all well. Whatever he has accomplished has been with a minimum of support from all fronts and total obstruction from the one "paid by taxpayers to do nothing and make certain nothing gets accomplished" sector.
The Rabid GOP wants to impeach Hillary before she even becomes the president. It's pretty pathetic the degree of utter panic that is taking over with the possibility that she will beat them, hands down, and she hasn't even announced her intentions yet. This is such a blatant pre-emptive political strike that is so transparent as to be truly foolish. They are blowing their wad way too early, not untypical of bullies and butt hurt babies that are still smarting over losing to the black guy in 2012.
ReplyDeleteNow they're trying the spin that Obama would have LOST in 2012 if the small group of IRS employees had NOT scrutinized the Teaparty groups. Michelle 'nutcase' Bachmann is leading the pack on that little gem.
And finally, they are desperately trying to tie the IRS thing with Obamacare's ramp up and implementation because that is the next nail in the coffin of the GOP because once that gets locked in place, they are forever a lost party and they know it so they are scrambling to again, pre-emptively, take down the entire law.
I just cant keep up anymore. Someone please educate me. Solyndra will be Obama's Watergate, Fast and Furious will be his Watergate, Benghazi will be his Watergate, IRS will be his Watergate.
ReplyDeleteUmmmm you forgot to mention that President Obama's birth certificate scandal is his Watergate.
DeleteGetting outraged white people to the polls in staggeringly easy. If Benghazi never happened they would have figured out some way to make the Boston Bombing into how Obama let in some terrorist family into the country (before he was elected) and then under his watch the GREATEST TERRORIST ATTACK ON US SOIL SINCE 9/11 happened. Their Benghazi noise machine didn't get Romney elected and didn't sweep the Senate or Congress. What will get them back in total power is not only to keep their base in a fevered state of constant paranoia and anger (which they are good at) but to get enough of the Democratic voters to stay home.
DeleteAs Gryphen points out: They know jack about how the military operates.
DeleteThey rant about the cargoplanes (ok ok, they meant AC-130s) that were totally stationed in the area and ready to go....a year before for the Libyan revolution. They probably have been sitting there idle since, I'm sure.
Or the F16s in Italy that could afterburn all the way down to Libya and not run out of gas while providing CAS in a residential area.
Or the 4 man team in Tripoli that could have HALO jumped on surfboards down. If 2 ex-seals held off platoons by themselves for hours, 6 probably could have leveled the city!
Snark aside, BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI has become as fun as election night!
According to Sarah Palin's rhetoric, Rev Wright is Obama's earlier Watergate.
DeleteThe Repubs cannot believe President Obama won a second term. The majority of them are racist and do everything and anything they can to block/obstruct anything he says or does. It's friggin' amazing. Thank God the majority think they are friggin' idiots!
DeleteMatthews insisted that the GOP has been frustrated with having to embrace immigration reform and they do not want to be “the gun party.” This, he says, is the reason for the party’s focus on the Benghazi scandal.
ReplyDeleteMatthews played a clip of the president telling reporters in the East Room of the White House on Monday that his administration could not be complicit in a cover-up of the Benghazi talking points because within a week they had changed the focus of the investigation into the attack.
“What he’s actually talking about is this question which Republicans have never been able to nail down, which is motive,” MSNBC.com editor Richard Wolffe. “Why would the White House want this cover-up?”
Matthews And Wolffe agreed that the point which was established in the 2012 presidential debates, that Obama called the attack on Benghazi an act of terrorism, resolves the issue about the edited talking points.
“The motive question doesn’t stack up to the actual event, and nor does it stack up to the actual reporting – contemporaneously, wide-spread reporting – saying that this event in Benghazi had something to do with Cairo,” Wolffe said referencing the region-wide demonstrations against an anti-Islamic YouTube.
TIME Magazine reporter Aparisim “Bobby” Ghosh agreed that the GOP will find more fertile ground to attack Obama on the IRS scandal rather than the Benghazi controversy.
“I would say, at best, this is very, very weak beer,” Ghosh said. “If this is the issue that the Republicans are looking to use against the president over Benghazi, then they’re on very, very weak ground.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/matthews-msnbc-guests-agree-benghazi-is-weak-ground-for-gop-should-focus-on-irs-scandal/
Something that's really bizzare about the Bennghazi narrative is that its soley framed as "US Consulate attacked in a country" as if the fact that it was in Libya, mere months after that country had gone through a violent uprising, is totally irrelevant. Libya was and still is hardly a stable nation. Armed factions were still (and are still) roaming that country, ruling strips of land. Its not like as if the consulate in Belgium was suddenly shelled out of nowhere, it was a in a war torn nation with thousands of armed men, with differing agendas, walking around. Honestly, I would be surprised if it WASN'T attacked.
DeleteAlso the whole "didn't call it terrorism" narrative: Is attacking a building occupied by a foreign nation in your country, which is known to house soldiers (and CIA) really not just An Attack? You could argue that all attacks, civilian or military, are terrorism, but thats clearly not whats being discussed. At what point does targeting military and other government agents not simple a (wildly asystematical) attack?
Also, to say nothing of that fact that the Libyans themselves helped the US personnel escape the building and hunt down the people who did it.
On another happy note...or not...:
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin would have a narrow edge in the GOP primary to challenge Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) in 2014, according to a poll whose sponsors hope to draft her for the race.
Palin would take 32 percent of the primary vote, followed closely by Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell at 30 percent, according to the Republican firm Harper Polling. Joe Miller, the Tea Party-backed Republican nominee in 2010, would take 24 percent.
I'm guessing something in the water.
Quit spamming for your hero.
DeleteYou scream DESPERATE!
Who did that poll? There is no way in hell Sarah Palin would be elected to anything in Alaska. She quit as governor for crying out loud!
DeleteBegich would beat the shit out of her and I would cast my ballot for him.
Key phrase: Republican firm Harper Polling. If you feel so strongly about Palin's chances in a Senate Race, go ahead and waste your vote. She is too cowardly to run for any office. Her Scandals as well as her Family's Scandals are too close to being exposed. She can't take the unwanted pressure and embarrassment and possibly Jail for her and Todd.
Deleteanyone notice my question about the water? too subtle?
DeleteI do not think the IRS should be stopped at all from investigating anyone (LLC, Corporations, Partnerships or Individuals) that they suspect might be circumventing rules or being fraudulent in their filings. I think Tea Party groups, Sarah Palin, et al should be quesitoned, watched and audited! So should churches - i.e. Baptist Temple in Anchorage, AK!
ReplyDeleteUh, 'splain this to me, Lucy...if I were going around the country getting major media by wearing silly hats and holding misspelled "Taxed Enough Already" signs, don't you think the IRS would be the TEENSIEST bit interested in the sudden explosion of "grass roots" non-profit TP "educational" groups? Remember that most of the vacant-eyed TP cultists were calling to abolish the IRS, or worse. And do we think that this kind of sneaky scrutiny hasn't happened to Progressive groups in the past?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't make it right, but just sayin'.
The more they got NOTHING, the louder they squawk.
ReplyDeleteThey are losing the faint credibility they may have had with their over-the-top hyperbole and rhetoric that makes no sense at all. This 'the worst in history', 'bigger than watergate/911, worse than (insert anything bad that has ever happened in history) just makes them looks foolish and over reactive, as opposed to adult and considerate of the facts. As far as this IMPEACH crap, it's laughable. In their wet dreams, baby.
What a sham they have become with increasing speed since a black guy took over the Leader of the Free World. They just can't help themselves as they display their irrational behavior on the world stage.
Nobody in the Palin family could find Benghazi on a map, even if their life depended on doing it.
ReplyDeleteBristol is sort of sure she was in middle school with Ben Gazzi.
Didn't Ben get some of that ass when Bristol had her condo I believe it was in Anchorage?
DeleteThat Ben?
Ben must be thrilled he wore his condom and didn't ride that philly bareback?
DeleteCan't trust those Palin cramp pills, they failed before.
Right Wink wink?
Maybe that's why Levi wouldn't marry Bristol?
DeleteEvery time Levi popped her vigin cherry Bristol would holler out
OH GHAZZI OHHH GHAZZZIII GIVE IT TO MEEEEE
Really? I get that you people hate Sarah Palin but why drag her kids into it. How disgusting are you?
DeleteEverything Wrong With America In One Simple Image (INFOGRAPHIC)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/12/american-decline/
" I also think these assholes are using the political climate to redirect scrutiny that they may well deserve."
ReplyDelete~Immoral Minority, May 13, 2013
Well done!
This should be engraved on plaques and placed prominently in the Democratic Party headquarters and in every news bureau office. It's fking how the GOP rolls, no matter the issue.
re: SarahPAC, she pays a lot of OPM to consultants and lawyers and the highly paid treasurer submits simple reports with math errors. Shameful!
ReplyDeletere: Benghazi - I believe that the CIA annex was used for some classified purposes that can not be disclosed, that Issa knows this as does McCain and his gal pals Lindsey and Ayotte and they are just going to keep this up because they have nothing else they plan to do for the duration of Obama's presidency.
re: IRS - who had anything to gain from preventing the TeaParty groups from gaining 501(c)(4) status? Who was complaining that the TP groups were destroying the GOP? Who played in these circles and was being adversely impacted by funds not going to his group? Did the likes of Karl Rove actually put the IRS up to impeding the approval of the tax exempt status for some of the groups?
The Muslim Socialist is a world class liar
ReplyDeleteNobody believes a word he says.
Impeachment is the only answer
LOL! You can wet dream all you want, asswipe, but it ain't gonna happen. The American People believe their president, and they continue to support him, and Hillary, so you are fucked! LOL!
DeleteAnon 118
Deleteshut the fuck up you sound like a mindless retard!!
Man, its tiresome to see Tea Baggers WHINE so much. You'd think they have a history of being beat up by society for centuries, instead of a group of easily befuddled, old, privileged white people, none of whom have seen a hungry day in their lives.
ReplyDelete"Boo hoo...the gubmint's pickin' on me. Jes 'cause I say we should violently overthrow it."