Ted Cruz Releases Definitive List of 76 ‘Lawless’ Obama Actions

Ted Cruz: Legal Limit Report 4

Ted Cruz Releases Definitive List of 76 ‘Lawless’ Obama Actions. Read the full story here.

Video - ACLJ Jay Sekulow Testifies at the IRS Hearing. 'The idea that there is no outside influence is ridiculous.'

Watchdog reveals evidence was destroyed during probe of IRS targeting.

Watchdog reveals evidence was destroyed during probe of IRS targeting. (Fox).

WASHINGTON – The lead government watchdog for the IRS revealed Thursday that computer evidence was erased during the investigation into the agency's targeting scandal, months after the IRS was told to preserve documents.

J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that IRS employees erased computer backup tapes shortly after officials discovered thousands of emails related to the tax agency's Tea Party scandal had been lost.

As many as 24,000 emails were lost because 422 backup tapes were "magnetically erased" around March 4, 2014.

George said his office found no direct evidence the tapes were destroyed to hide information from Congress or law enforcement. But the destruction nevertheless defied a preservation order, and is sure to raise suspicions over motive.

"We have been misled. There has been evidence that has been destroyed," committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Thursday.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News the evidence was destroyed 10 months after a preservation order for the emails; seven months after a subpoena; and one month after IRS officials realized there were potential problems locating certain emails.

Fox News is told the destruction of evidence also occurred about three weeks before IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified to Congress that they would provide documents to Congress. Read the full story here.

'Missing' Lois Lerner Emails Found on Backup Tapes: “There is potential criminal activity”

'Missing' Lois Lerner Emails Found on Backup Tapes: “There is potential criminal activity”. (CNN).

Congress requested Lerner's emails from the IRS and agency officials told lawmakers an unknown number of emails had been lost when Lerner's computer crashed.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has since recovered a number of those emails. "There is potential criminal activity," Treasury Deputy Inspector General Timothy Camus told the House Oversight Committee Thursday.

Camus did not elaborate on who may have committed possible criminal acts. And, he cautioned that the investigation is not complete and cautioned against drawing conclusions until all the facts are in.

"What we're looking at is potential criminal wrongdoing. This has the looks, feel and smells of being criminal. And the IG confirmed tonight that's what they're looking into," House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told CNN after the hearing.

Chaffetz invited the inspector general to testify in order to provide an update on the investigation.

Camus told the committee that less than two weeks ago, officials discovered an additional 424 backup tapes and are trying to determine what emails, if any, are on them.

The tapes are in addition to about 750 backup tapes the inspector general found in July, some of which contained Lerner emails.

The IRS had told Congress that backup tapes no longer existed.

"The IRS has a lot of explaining to do," Chaffetz told CNN. "Because what (the inspector general) told us tonight means what the IRS told us is just factually not true." Hmmm.....Who's going to commit 'Harikiri' to save dear leader? Read the full story here.

EPA agency tells Congress: File not found.

EPA agency tells Congress: File not found. TheHill.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the IRS share a problem: officials say they cannot provide the emails a congressional committee has requested because an employee’s hard drive crashed.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy confirmed to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday that her staff is unable to provide lawmakers all of the documents they have requested on the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, because of a 2010 computer crash.

“We’re having trouble getting the data off of it and we’re trying other sources to actually supplement that,” McCarthy said. “We’re challenged in figuring out where those small failures might have occurred and what caused them occur, but we’ve produced a lot of information.”

The revelation came less than two weeks after IRS officials told Congress that Lois Lerner, the official at the center of the controversy over the targeting of conservative tax-exempt groups, also suffered from a hard drive crash that makes it difficult to comply with records requests.Read the full story here.

Exclusive: In New Video, Ted Cruz Hits Obama, IRS for Lack of Accountability.

Exclusive: In New Video, Ted Cruz Hits Obama, IRS for Lack of Accountability.Heritage.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is hitting back at President Obama’s claim that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS.
In a new video shared exclusively with The Foundry, Cruz contrasts Obama’s own words with last week’s congressional testimony about the IRS targeting scandal.
The video, which runs about a minute, comes as the IRS faces increasing scrutiny for its targeting of conservative and tea party groups. The scandal, which first broke in May 2013, resurfaced during Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Obama on Fox News.

>>> Read More: IRS-Targeted Scandal Victims Will Not Be Silenced

Cruz’s video features both Obama’s comments from last May — “Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it” — with his recent “smidgen” quip to O’Reilly.

Last week, a House committee heard from individuals who were subject to IRS targeting as well as Cleta Mitchell, who represents several of the conservative groups. In her testimony, Mitchell called the government’s criminal investigation “a sham.”

That probe by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice is being led by DOJ attorney Barbara Bosserman, who has come under scrutiny for her political donations to Obama and the Democratic National Committee.
“No one would have trusted John Mitchell to investigate Richard Nixon,” Cruz says in the video.


The post Exclusive: In New Video, Ted Cruz Hits Obama, IRS for Lack of Accountability appeared first on The Foundry: Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation.

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Judicial Watch to OMB ‘Withdraw New Anti-Tea Party IRS Regs’

Judicial Watch to OMB ‘Withdraw New Anti-Tea Party IRS Regs’HT: JudicialWatch.

Judicial Watch Accuses IRS of Flouting Federal Rules: Asks Office of Management and Budget to Direct Treasury Department to Withdraw New IRS Anti-Tea Party Regs

Proposed new IRS definition will be “substantial burden” to more than 100,000 non-profit organizations, could “turn-off”volunteers from civic engagement

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on January 28, 2014, it sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requesting that it direct the Treasury Department to withdraw a new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposal to redefine “political activity” in a way that could place a “substantial … record-keeping and collection of information burden” on more than 100,000 non-profit organizations.

Under a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Guidance for Tax-Exempt Social Welfare Organizations on Candidate-Related Political Activities (NPRM), the Obama IRS seeks, without the approval of Congress, to rewrite the decades-old definition – “participation of intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office” – with a new term – “candidate-related political activity.”

According to Judicial Watch, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) submission filed by the IRS to support its proposal redefinition “does not analyze the substantial burden this new term will place on nearly all of the more than 100,000 501(c)(4) organizations,” and is therefore “fundamentally flawed.”

The letter to OMB was signed for Judicial Watch by attorney Alan P. Dye, a recognized national expert in non-profit law and government regulation, of the law firm Webster, Chamberlain and Bean, LLP.

Specifically, the Judicial Watch letter to OMB cites the following “flaws” in the IRS PRA submission:

First … the Service [IRS] fails to mention, let alone review and evaluate as required under PRA, the burden of the collection of information arising out of its replacement of long-standing language … The new term … includes several activities … that under the long-standing concept would not be treated as political activity … Although the Service is now proposing to regulate these activities (by limiting their amount), it does not analyze the burden arising from its landscape-changing definition.

Second, ‘burden’ is broadly defined in the PRA to include all of the ‘time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, or provide information to or for a Federal agency,’ including any time or other expenditure needed to review instructions, acquire technology, or search data sources … Yet, the Service has completely ignored these components of burden. Third, the new inclusion of volunteer hours imposed an additional layer of recordkeeping and burden upon these non-profit organizations, many of which rely heavily upon local volunteers … Anyone who has worked with volunteers knows that recordkeeping can be notoriously difficult – how many volunteers are going to want to fill out time cards for their service? How many volunteers are going to be turned off from civic engagement due to this paperwork burden?

“In short,” the Judicial Watch letter concludes, “the Service has failed to address the collection of information arising out of the NPRM’s new term … Consequently, the Service has not reviewed and evaluated the substantial burden this new term will place on nearly all of the 100,000 501(c) (4) organizations … [W]e respectfully request that the Director disapprove of the collection of information contained in the NPRM ….” Because Judicial Watch does not engage in political activity, the NPRM does not directly affect the organization.

“The Obama IRS wants to kill the conservative movement with paperwork and regulation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These new IRS rules violate the law and could, through First Amendment-killing paperwork, freeze millions of patriotic volunteers, from both sides of the political divide. President Obama and his administration ought to start obeying the law rather than rewriting it.”

Email Proves IRS’s Lois Lerner & Treasury Dept. Secretly Drafted Rules Targeting Conservatives.

Email Proves IRS’s Lois Lerner and Treasury Dept. Secretly Drafted Rules Targeting Conservatives.HT: InfidelBloggers.

The IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal involved:

• At least 292 conservative groups
• At least 5 pro-Israel groups
• Constitutional groups
• Groups that criticized Obama administration
• At least two pro-life groups
• An 83 year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor
• A 180 year-old Baptist paper
• A Texas voting-rights group
• A Hollywood conservative group was targeted and harassed
• Conservative activists and businesses
• At least one conservative Hispanic group
• IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed

The Obama IRS gave preferential treatment to liberal groups during the same period.

Now their is proof the IRS and Treasury Department secretly drafted rules to target conservatives. This email shows the IRS’s Lois Lerner and Treasury Department conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations targeting conservatives.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) revealed this email yesterday during House Committee on Ways and Means committee hearing with the IRS commissioner John Koskinen.

The Daily Caller reported:

The Obama administration’s Treasury Department and former IRS official Lois Lerner conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations to restrict the activity of conservative groups in a way that would not be disclosed publicly, according to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

The Treasury Department and Lerner started devising the new rules “off-plan,” meaning that their plans would not be published on the public schedule. They planned the new rules in 2012, while the IRS targeting of conservative groups was in full swing, and not after the scandal broke in order to clarify regulations as the administration has suggested.

The rules would place much more stringent controls on what would be considered political activity by the IRS, effectively limiting the standard practices of a wide array of non-profit groups.

“Don’t know who in your organizations is keeping tabs on c4s, but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off -plan) in 2013, I’ve got my radar up and this seemed interesting…,” Treasury official Ruth Madrigal wrote in a June 14, 2012 email to Lerner and others obtained by Ways and Means and provided to The Daily Caller.

Ways and Means chairman Rep. Dave Camp blasted the off-the-record plan during a hearing Wednesday with IRS commissioner John Koskinen, and called for the administration’s newly proposed 501(c)(4) rules to be halted until criminal investigations into the IRS targeting scandal are complete.

"Taxes Ahead" : US roads to be funded by tracked cars?

Big Brother tax: US roads to be funded by tracked cars? (RT).

Maintaining roads in America currently relies on a gas tax, which is paid by motorists as they fill their tanks at pumps. However the cash flow is steadily drying up as cars become more fuel efficient and with authorities reluctant to raise tax rates. The advancement of hybrid and electric cars is also causing this means of taxation to be perceived as unjust.

Taxing per mile is one possible solution, however, the federal government is reluctant to proceed with it. A $90-million pilot project involving some 10,000 cars was approved by the Senate two years ago, but was axed by the House.

But some states are more enthusiastic. For instance California is planning to tax every motorist in the state by mileage by 2025, reported on Saturday Los Angeles Times.

“This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do," told the newspaper Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments. "There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it."

Oregon so far is the most eager. It launched a pilot vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax project as early as 2007 and currently has 5,000 cars taxed by their mileage in a follow-up experiment. A similar if smaller-scale test was conducted in Nevada, and New York City is considering one.

Privacy concerns remain a big hurdle. A black box device tracking mileage is usually not just a simple odometer, but a GPS-enable device, which tracks the location of a car in real time. This allows the use of different tax rates for different kinds of roads, and also for the splitting of taxes fairly for drivers who cross state borders. They can also be used for extensive surveillance, privacy advocates warn.
"It would be fairly easy to turn these devices into full-fledged tracking devices,” warned Nevada’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union as the trial was underway in the state.

“There is no need to build an enormous, unwieldy technological infrastructure that will inevitably be expanded to keep records of individuals' everyday comings and goings"

Some states want do address those fears by offering less-invasive devices, which don’t use positioning to track mileage, or offering to pay a state-average tax. Others believe they can appease the fears by offering extra value to driver, allowing the black boxes to provide "pay-as-you-drive" insurance, pay parking meter fees, and warn of traffic jams.

There are alternatives to per-mile taxing, which would not discriminate in favor of hybrids. For example money for road maintenance could come from taxing tires. 

A conservative approach would be to simply raise the gas tax and replenish depleted road funds.

"There is no need for radical surgery when all you need to do is take an aspirin," said Randy Rentschler from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the San Francisco Bay. "If we do this, hundreds of millions of drivers will be concerned about their privacy and a host of other things."

Obama 'Admin' now starting to Target 'Canada’s snowbirds' with Taxes.

Obama 'Admin' now starting to Target 'Canada’s snowbirds' with Taxes. HT: Yahoo.

With the weather getting colder, now’s the time for Canadian snowbirds to start preparing to head south of the border for the winter. They need to bring with them a keen awareness of all the potential tax hits they might face.

For starters, proposed legislation in the U.S. could have serious tax consequences for Canadian visitors. Under the current rules, those who spend more than 182 days out of 365 days in the calendar year, or more than 120 days per year on average over a three-year period, may be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes.

The new JOLT Act, (Jobs Originated through Launching Travel), would allow Canadian retirees to spend up to 240 days each year in the U.S. without a visa. But snowbirds who spend that long in the U.S. may be required to pay U.S. income and estate taxes.

To avoid U.S. taxation, IRS form 8840 (Closer Connection Exemption Statement for Aliens) needs to be filed annually with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Not filing it could result in a US$10,000 fine.

There are several other possible tax implications. Those with a bank account in the U.S. need to know that interest earned on deposits could be subject to taxation. They should complete IRS form W8-BEN (Certificate of Foreign Status) with the U.S. financial institution to avoid possibly having 30 per cent of any interest earned withheld and sent to the IRS.

Tax considerations come into play if you own property in the States, too. If you sell, a withholding tax of 10 per cent of the gross sales price is normally payable under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act.

A government regulation stipulates that, if you own an American property when you die and your worldwide assets are worth more than US$2million, that property is subject to a 45-per cent estate tax.

“It is entirely possible they [the U.S. government] will also charge beneficiaries of the property a gifting fee,” Laing says. “So owing a U.S. property technically can expose your entire worldwide estate to the U.S. government. That’s shocking to most people.”

What it all comes down to is knowing the facts to avoid getting fleeced.

“A lot of Canadians who are savvy get tax advice from a U.S. lawyer and a U.S. financial planner, people who are experts in cross-border taxes,” Gray says. “If you don’t structure things properly, you could end up having to pay tax in both countries. There are U.S. and Canadian federal taxes and state taxes. Everything is in the fine print.”Hmmmm........"CHANGE".Read the full story here.

Video - Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Refuses to Say How Many Signed Up for Obamacare.

IRS: Bureaucratic Blunder or Political Profiling.

HT: BlacklistedRadio.
Source: TopAccountingDegrees.org

Video - DeMint on Fox News: “Obamacare Puts the IRS on Steroids”

Video - DeMint on Fox News: “Obamacare Puts the IRS on Steroids”HT: Heritage.

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint appeared on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” tonight to warn about the new powers granted to the IRS as a result of Obamacare. “Obamacare puts the IRS on steroids,” DeMint said. “It opens the door for the IRS to come into all of our lives.” DeMint noted that more than 2,000 new IRS employees are charged with implementing President Obama’s health care law. They will be closely examining the incomes of Americans as well as business operations.

The many federal bureaucrats working on Obamacare implementation within the IRS stand at the center of an intricate web of government and regulation that will ensnare all Americans in its grasp.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year released a report with a chart showing all the bureaucratic offices and divisions within the IRS charged with carrying out Obamacare. Nowhere in the chart do the words doctor or patient appear—as clear a sign as any that Obamacare is not about health care; it’s about government power. 
And heading up this entire effort has been Sarah Hall Ingram, the same official previously in charge of the IRS unit that subjected conservative groups to additional scrutiny for their political beliefs.
The GAO made clear the extent of the IRS’s involvement with Obamacare:

The Internal Revenue Services’ implementation of [Obamacare] is a massive undertaking that involves 47 separate statutory provisions and extensive coordination across not only IRS, but multiple agencies and external partners. For example, IRS must coordinate with other federal agencies and states in providing assistance to qualifying individuals for health insurance premiums.

Read ad see the full story here.

The IRS Has Already Abused Its Powers under ObamaCare.

The IRS Has Already Abused Its Powers under ObamaCare.HT: Cato@Liberty.By Michael F. Cannon.

Over at Bloomberg, National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru writes about the Obama administration’s disregard for the rule of law, including the IRS’s $800 billion power grab:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the sweeping health-care law that Obama signed in 2010, asks state governments to set up health exchanges, and authorizes the federal government to provide tax credits to people who use those exchanges to get insurance. But most states have refused to establish the online marketplaces, and both the tax credits and many of the law’s penalties can’t go into effect until the states act.

Obama’s IRS has decided it’s going to apply the tax credits and penalties in states that refuse, even without statutory authorization. During the recent scandal over the IRS’s harassment of conservative groups, many Republicans have warned that the IRS can’t be trusted with the new powers that the health law will give the agency. They are wrong about the verb tense: It has already abused those powers.

For more, read my article (with Jonathan Adler), “Taxation Without Representation: The Illegal IRS Rule to Expand Tax Credits Under the PPACA.”

"TAXMAGEDDDON" - The IRS, Obamacare, and You: The Taxes.

"TAXMAGEDDDON" - The IRS, Obamacare, and You: The Taxes.HT: Heritage.

With the IRS under fire for its improper targeting of tea party groups, many Americans have also raised concerns about the agency’s activities relating to Obamacare. This week, we’ll be taking a look at just some of the many ways in which the IRS will be intimately involved with implementing the massive law.

It starts with taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare raises over $1 trillion in revenue in its first 10 years—and more after that. You name it, Obamacare taxes it. As Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint recently stated:

Obamacare taxes most people with health insurance, and most people without health insurance. Likewise, the law taxes many employers who provide health insurance, and most employers who don’t provide health insurance.

Obamacare contains no fewer than 18 tax increases. What’s more, 12 of these taxes will be borne by the middle class, directly breaking President Obama’s 2008 “firm pledge” to those making under $250,000 per year that he would not “raise any of your taxes.” For instance, many seniors will end up paying the 2.3 percent tax on medical devices as the price of wheelchairs, defibrillators, and other needed medical equipment will rise.


Here’s a list of all the Obamacare taxes to be administered by the IRS.Hmmmm......Enslavement Of the American people, CHANGED in to Serfdom.Read the full story here.

Claim: chief investigator behind the Obama Administration's ever widening IRS scandal once dated Michelle Obama

Claim: chief investigator behind the Obama Administration's ever widening IRS scandal once dated Michelle Obama.HT: Examiner.

The man who is making his face well known to Americans as the chief investigator behind the Obama Administration's ever widening IRS scandal very well may have once been the beau years ago to a young law student by the name of Michelle Robinson, better known nowadays as Michelle Obama, as reported by Shane Goldmacher of the National Journal on May 22, 2013. 

J. Russell George is the man assigned as the Inspector General to the Department of the Treasury, and within his purview falls the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Much of that has been to the chagrin of more than a few within the IRS. George is viewed by many as the man who at least has been the catalyst for blowing the lid off the admitted IRS targeting of conservative groups with delays and harassment in their collective quests to gain charity (tax-exempt) status. 

Far from being a liberal Democrat, it turns out that the registered Republican has a bit of a history with the current First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS). While enrolled at the Harvard Law School during the 1980s, George eventually graduated alongside the current FLOTUS, and possibly more than just as friends and colleagues. 

The Inspector General has already admitted that besides the both of them being members of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) at Harvard University, not that there should be anything exceptional or noteworthy of that.

 But the man who got his start in the world of politics working for the former Republican Senator from Kansas Bob Dole, did state: Michelle was a lovely person, and down to earth. The BLSA went out for pizza; we would go out together. Then after pausing for a moment, George interjected "Don't get me in trouble."

"I think he actually dated Michelle at one point," said the Republican former Congressman from Virginia Tom Davis who worked with George when he was assigned as the staff director for one of the many House oversight subcommittees in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Davis went on to describe George's temperament as "perfect" for the current crisis enveloping the Obama Administration's IRS. As Davis said: You couldn’t ask for a more fair umpire in this. He’s not a fiery Republican type, but obviously he’s not beholden to the administration.Hmmmmm.........Who would have guessed Karma is a B Women.Read the full story here.

Video - Darrell Issa to haul Lerner back before Comittee.

Video - Darrell Issa to haul Lerner back before Comittee.HT: InfidelBloggers.
"Mr. Issa, Mr. Cummings said we should run this like a courtroom and I agree with him. She just testified. She just waved her Fifth Amendment rights. You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross examination. That’s not the way it works. She waved her right to Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an opening statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions. (Applause)”

New IRS Scandal: Islamic Extremism and Sex Slaves.

Malik Obama

New IRS Scandal: Islamic Extremism and Sex Slaves.HT: W. Shoebat foundation. By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack

When Malik Obama, President Obama’s half-brother, and Sarah Obama, the president’s step-grandmother raised money in the United States, they claimed it was for charity work in Kogelo, Kenya. It was later discovered that not only did the IRS illegally grant one of them (Malik) tax-deductible status retroactively, but in so doing, it supported an operation rife with polygamy and terror recruitment.

Read the full 22-page, explosive report here:
New IRS Scandal: Islamic Extremism and Sex Slaves

The Barack H. Obama Foundation (BHOF) and Mama Sarah Obama Foundation (MSOF), are two entities claiming to be non-profit charities yet solicit funds from the United States. The money they claim is to build homes for widows, orphans and HIV/AIDS victims that are nowhere to be found. The only evidence where monies were spent involves a compound, which housed Malik’s 12 wives with a restaurant including a mosque with a madrassa.

While building mosques is legally considered charity, evidence shows that the entire funding came directly from entities and individuals from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. There is nothing of charitable nature to show for all the funds Malik raises from the United States. To date, there is no evidence for any accomplishments towards building homes for orphans, widows and AIDS victims in Kogelo or anywhere else in Kenya.

The land, from the visible signs on the property, identifies the donor as “Alislah Society, Bahrain” and “Munadhamat Al-Dawa Alislamiya” (Islamic Da’wa Organization) Mission of Kenya (here). The photos were captured from de-linked web-pages that hadn't been deleted. The mosque building, it turns out, was fully donated by two individuals - “Dr. Muhammad Al-Maneea” from “Saudi Arabia” and “Ali M. Zaghmout” from Qatar (see here, here, and here.).Read the full story here.

"We Didn't Target the Juice" - IRS reinstates Zionist Organization of America's tax exempt status.

"We Didn't Target the Juice" - IRS reinstates Zionist Organization of America's tax exempt status.HT: IsraelMatzav.The IRS has apparently decided to relieve some of the pressure it is facing by reinstating the tax-exempt status of the Zionist Organization of America. Here's a press release from the ZOA.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is pleased to report that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has reinstated its recognition of ZOA’s status as a tax exempt, tax-deductible 501(c)(3) organization. 
In a letter dated May 15, 2013 to the ZOA, the IRS wrote,

“We are pleased to inform you that upon review of your application for tax exempt status we have determined that you are exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to you are deductible under section 170 of the Code. You are also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers of gifts under section 2055, 2104, or 2502 of the Code.” ZOA wishes to emphasize that all donations to ZOA have remained tax-deductible throughout this period since they were legally directed to the “ZOA Donors Fund” managed by the Foundation For Jewish Community (fjc.org), a third party 501(c)(3) donor-advised fund. Direct gifts to ZOA will now again be tax-deductible.

“The work of the ZOA has never been altered or diminished one iota during this period. Our campus work; our Title VI efforts; our Capitol Hill work; our writings, lectures, TV and radio appearances have continued as always. Our devoted ZOA Board and virtually all of our major donors and all of our employees remained committed to and supportive of ZOA,” Klein explained.

We are also pleased to announce that at its November 23, 2013 Brandeis Dinner, Gov. Mike Huckabee, former presidential candidate and Host of the Huckabee Show on Fox TV, will be the speaker and will be receiving the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Award for Pro-Israel Activism. We would also add that ZOA is honored to have James Tisch, prominent and distinguished Jewish communal and business leader, as Co-Chair of our upcoming ZOA Dinner. Mr. Tisch has served as Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and as Chairman of the New York Jewish Federation – UJC. He serves as CEO of Loews Corp.

Morton Klein, President, Dr. Michael Goldblatt, Chairman, and David Drimer, Executive Director, said, “We are gratified that the IRS has reinstated our long held tax exempt status. We also want to thank our friends and especially a great group of devoted ZOA employees who helped to expedite the resolution of this matter. A special thanks must be given to Mr. Tyler B.Korn, our brilliant and tireless tax attorney who gave freely of his time, energy, and wisdom to help resolve this situation.

We want to emphasize that ZOA’s work never stopped and never changed during this period. We also want to thank all of our friends and donors for their continuing support. The ZOA looks forward to continuing our critical work promoting strong US/Israel relations; advocating for Israel’s security; protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitism on America’s campuses; and educating the public, media, and Congress on the ongoing Arab war against Israel.

You think the discovery that the IRS has been openly discriminating against conservative groups had nothing to do with ZOA's tax-exempt status being reinstated? If you really think that, you're a fool. Hmmmm......I totally agree with Carl on the latter.Read the full story here.

Timothy Geithner Is Key To IRS Scandal.

Timothy Geithner Is Key To IRS Scandal.HT: TestosteronPit.By Chris Street.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller was forced by to resign, predominantly due to the July 7, 2011 memorandum that I published last weekend in my report, IRS HAD ENEMIES LIST IN 2010 & 2012. The document, written on U.S. Treasury Department stationary, demanded that senior IRS management terminate attempts to have donations to selected tax-exempt groups be fully taxed as gifts.
The IRS admitted the groups examined were conservative, such as Tea Parties. The Miller memo appeared to confirm that he knowingly lied to Congress while under oath at least twice last year about predatory audits of conservative organizations. But Mr. Miller has told the press he is only resigning when his “acting assignment ends in early June.”
I was suspicious Mr. Miller’s resignation was an effort to prevent him from being required to testify again under oath on Friday to three Congressional Committees. But if Mr. Miller is staying until June, he must testify on Friday.
With the President throwing the IRS Commissioner “under the bus,” Mr. Miller may be ready to throw former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and President Obama under the bus.

Steven T. Miller is a career civil servant at the IRS. He holds a Juris Doctorate law degree from George Washington University and a Master of Laws in taxation from Georgetown University. He has held several senior positions at the IRS and worked for a number of years as an attorney in the IRS Chief Counsel’s office. He also served as a Congressional staff member for the Joint Committee on Taxation. Holding prestigious law degrees and having given harsh warnings to senior IRS staff in 2011 to ban predatory examinations, it is doubtful Mr. Miller would have authorized continued examinations unless ordered to by his direct boss, former IRA Commissioner Douglas H Shulman.
Douglas H. Shulman was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush  and confirmed by the Senate as IRS Commissioner on Friday March 14, 2008 at the youthful age of 41. Mr. Shulman formerly served as the Vice Chairman of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), at an even more youthful age, where he made a name for himself working closely with New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner, pioneering over-the-counter trading of derivatives by banks. As IRS Commissioner, he reported directly to Timothy Geithner as U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Over the next four days after his confirmation, the legendary Bear Stearns Brokerage firm collapsed, heralding the beginning the worst recession since the Great Depression. The U.S. Federal Reserve was required to take responsibility for $29 billion in toxic sub-prime assets from Bear Stearns' portfolio. As the FINRA whiz-kid he was the regulatory architect that championed banks and brokerage firms’ taking on sub-prime asset leverage. Douglas Shulman again showed incredible timing for avoiding horrific personal blame for scandal by resigning on November 9, 2012, a day after the reelection of President Barack Obama.
By the time Barack Obama came into office in January of 2009, real estate was collapsing, the stock market was down by 40% and unemployment was about to vault to over 10%. President Obama summed up his opinions of leveraged banks on CBS's “60 Minutes” stated: “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.” Mr. Obama went on to say: “They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in—in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we've got 10% unemployment.”
It was always baffling to me that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman had managed to convince the President to not demand his resignation as punishment for his dubious leadership at FINRA that contributed to the financial crisis. As IRS Commissioner, Mr. Shulman must have received a copy of Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Steven T. Miller's memo of July 7, 2011 that screamed the audits and examinations had: “significant legal, administrative and policy implications with respect to which we have little enforcement history.” It is documented President Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to investigate and intimidate his political enemies, so IRS Commissioner Shulman must have known that Mr. Miller was concerned the retaliation against conservative groups exceeded FDR’s using the IRS against political enemies.
The IRS continues to mislead the public, as Fox News reported that at least 471 tax-exempt organizations, not the 300 admitted to by the IRS, were examined with “extra scrutiny.” 
Then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner must have received a copy of the 2011 Miller memo, because it was written on Department of Treasury stationary and Shulman and Miller reported to him.

 Therefore, to find out if the IRS has been running a massive enemies list for the White House, Congress must demand that Timothy Geithner testify under oath.

Harry Truman said that he took personal responsibility for the actions of his Administration’s by saying: “Buck stops here.” Barack Obama said at his Benghazi press conference “there is no there, there.” The question the American people want to know about any illegal use of the IRS for political purposes, “Is there any here, here?” By Chriss Street.
During their second term, Presidents not only get tangled up in scandals but also become obsessed with “legacy.” This includes their performance as measured by the stock market. Many people can relate to it. Retirement depends on it. Outside of a few shorts, everyone wants it to go up. But President Obama must be biting his fingernails down to the quick.Read the full story here.