Thursday, October 31, 2013
Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 31, 2013
Also known as... Halloween!
All Hallows Eve...
And as always... looking forward to heading over to the home of "He Whose Name Dare Not Be Mentioned" so as to be a part of something amazing!
Indeed, I've just returned home from BJ's; two big bags of candy for "His" house and a box of "Cow Tails" for here!
So... will I get any newsbites in before heading across the river...? Let me give it a shot!
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http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/362637/hillary-clintons-lucrative-goldman-sachs-speaking-gigs-alec-torres
Hillary Clinton spoke at two separate Goldman Sachs events on the evenings of Thursday, October 24 and Tuesday, October 29. As both Politico and the New York Times report, Clinton’s fee is about $200,000 per speech, meaning she likely netted around $400,000 for her paid gigs at Goldman over the course of six days.
* DISGUSTING.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-lois-lerner-gave-confidential-tea-party-group-tax-info-to-fec-violating-law/article/2538263
The IRS shared highly confidential tax information of several Tea Party groups with the Federal Election Commission, a clear violation of federal law, according to newly obtained emails.
The emails were produced to Judicial Watch last week by the FEC in response to an Aug. 9, 2013, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The email chain began Feb. 3, 2009, when the FEC made its request to Lerner.
She emailed back 10 minutes later, and said: “I have sent your email out to some of my staff. Will get back to you as soon as I have heard from them.”
According to Judicial Watch, the materials “from the IRS’ files sent from Lerner to the FEC containing detailed, confidential information about the organizations. These include annual tax returns (Forms 990) and request for exempt recognition forms (Form 1024), Articles of Organization and other corporate documents, and correspondence between the nonprofit organizations and the IRS. Under Section 6013 of the Internal Revenue Code, "it is a felony for an IRS official to disclose either ‘return information' or ‘taxpayer return information,’ even to another government agency.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/31/senate-committee-oks-nsa-snooping-restrictions/#disqus_thread
The Senate intelligence committee voted Thursday to officially affirm the NSA’s ability to collect records of Americans’ telephone calls, but imposes new restrictions on federal authorities who want to sift through the data.
* FOLKS. SENATE COMMITTEE VOTES DON'T CREATE LAW. ONLY FULL VOTES OF CONGRESS DO. THIS IS SIMPLY A RECOMMENDATION TO CONTINUE TRASHING THE CONSTITUTION.
The 11-4 vote marks...
* NO NAMES PROVIDED. NO LINK TO THE VOTE TALLY PROVIDED. JUST AS AN EXERCISE... TRY TO FIND THE TALLY FOR YOURSELVES, FOLKS... THEN ASK YOURSELF WHETHER THEY MAKE IT SO HARD ON PURPOSE. (MY GUESS? YES!)
...the first time any part of Congress has officially approved the bulk records collection program...
* AS ANOTHER ASIDE, FOLKS, EVEN THE FULL SENATE... EVEN THE FULL CONGRESS... ABSENT CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT... LACKS THE AUTHORITY TO TRASH THE CONSTITUTION.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said collecting information about phone calls is legal and is closely monitored, but she said it was right to put the NSA program on firmer legal footing and to add some privacy protections.
* AGAIN... READ THE CONSTITUTION. READ THE BILL OF RIGHTS.
The Senate committee’s work is just the first step toward a final bill — and Feinstein faces a formidable foe in Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which also has jurisdiction over the Patriot Act.
* A SCUMBAG... BUT ON OUR SIDE ON THIS ONE.
(*NOD*)
Mr. Leahy and Rep. J. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who was the chief author of the Patriot Act, introduced a bill this week that would specifically prohibit bulk collection of Americans’ records.
President Obama and the intelligence community are desperately fighting to preserve as much of the snooping as they can...
* YES. NO SURPRISE. BUSH ON STEROIDS.
Indeed, testifying to the House this week, Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the agency, said his analysts could live with only three years’ worth of records. (Mrs. Feinstein’s bill still lets the NSA collect five years of records...)
Sen. Mark Udall, Colorado Democrat, said he opposed the Feinstein measure, arguing it doesn’t do enough to reel in the snooping.
* GOOD FOR MARK UDALL!
“The NSA’s ongoing, invasive surveillance of Americans’ private information does not respect our constitutional values and needs fundamental reform - not incidental changes,” he said in a statement.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/362667/investigation-ids-irs-leaker-eliana-johnson
A House committee investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of right-leaning groups has identified the IRS agent who leaked the confidential donor list of the National Organization for Marriage, a conservative organization that opposes gay marriage.
NOM’s donor list, contained in a Form 990 Schedule B, which it is required by law to file with the IRS, was obtained in March 2012 by its chief political opponent, the Human Rights Campaign, and subsequently became the subject of several national news stories that centered on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s donation to the group.
Though the House Ways and Means Committee, which began investigating the scandal in the wake of revelations that the IRS had inappropriately singled out conservative groups, has identified the individual who divulged the information as an employee in the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division, it can’t divulge his name to the public or to NOM.
* WHY...?!?!
It can’t even confirm when the leak took place, whether the perpetrator was disciplined, or even whether he is still employed by the IRS or the U.S. government.
* WHY...?!?!
That’s because of a peculiarity of the Internal Revenue Code’s section 6103, which is intended to protect the confidentiality of taxpayer information. The law makes it a felony to disclose tax returns or related information to the public, but in an odd twist, the results of investigations conducted by congressional committees or by inspectors general are considered the confidential tax information of the alleged perpetrator.
* HUH...??? THAT'S MORONIC!
Having committed a felony by disclosing NOM’s donor list, the perpetrator is protected by the same law he broke. “I am astounded at the ease by which an individual was able to obtain and release confidential information including private citizens’ names and addresses,” House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) tells National Review Online. “What makes the situation even worse is that the law, intended to protect taxpayers, is being used as a shield for those that perpetrate this wrongdoing.”
* CHANGE... THE... LAW...!!!
* ANYWAY... THERE'S MORE TO THE STORY... BUT TO WHAT AVAIL? WE'RE CLEARLY LIVING IN WONDERLAND AND OBAMA IS THE RED KING.
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