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| Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) |
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| Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) |
#ImTiredOfThis
One scandal after another is erupting during the Second Term of the Obama Presidency.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has rankled some of his fellow Republicans along with Democrats for refusing to back down on finding out what the IRS did to conservative groups, as well as what the White House did not do for the four diplomats in Benghazi, despite their repeated pleas for increased security.
In the wake of a Democratic state senator from San Francisco indicted for bribery, influence-peddling, and also gun-running with Asian triad gang (and Islamic militants), the prior investigations into Operation Fast and Furious deserved more attention, as they expose (along with suspended California State Senator Leland Yee) the dangerous and unseemly double-standard of Democratic politicians, who want to control the guns of law-abiding citizens, yet have no problem supplying assault weapons through the Department of Justice to Mexican drug cartels: Operation Fast and Furious.
President Obama has targeted gun ownership in general throughout the United States, as though the guns themselves are the core reason for violence in this country. Why not outlaw SUVs or buses, then? Or more specifically, why not advance a blanket hand-gun ban?
The White House and the Democratic Party protecting this President are not interested in limiting violence as much as they want to disarm and render defenseless American citizens against an aggressive federal government.
Besides the other scandals, including allegations that the DOJ targeted members of the press, Issa is still investigating the IRS targeting conservative political groups, but ranking member Elijah Cummings has called these investigations an empty charade, that whatever misconduct may have occurred actually did not (even as True the Vote filed a ethics complaint against Cummings following on Oversight hearing).
In an early March hearing, Lois Lerner of the IRS plead the Fifth in order to avoid answering questions about what she knew regarding the IRS abuses against conservative groups.
After attempting to adjourn the meeting, Cummings demanded an opportunity to ask a procedural question, then launched into pontification against the whole investigation.
First of all, Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa offered ranking member Elijah Cummings the opportunity to ask a procedural question. When the mike was turned back on, Cummings condemned the IRS hearings instead of asking a questions.
Then he launched into this tired tirade:
"If you will sit down and allow me to ask a question," Cummings insisted. "I am a member of a Congress of the United States of America."
"I am tired of this," he continued. "You cannot just have a one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with that, and it is absolutely un-American."
Instead of shouting at Darrell Issa and the Republican majority investigating the rampant abuses, he should listen to the American People, who are tired of the litany of lies, fraud, and deceit flooding out of the White House.
I am tired of Rep. Cummings defending this corrupt President and his corrupted, polluted, and incompetent administration.
Let us hope that voters will get tired of the tired parade of scandals, failures, corruption, lies, intimidation, elitism, waste, etc.
I wonder if Rep. Cummings' seat could be in danger this year, too? Maryland residents should start shouting #ImTiredOfThis at their own representative, who has spent most of his time defending an indefensible President, who has been stalling and stonewalling ongoing investigations against one of the most lawless and reprehensible, unresponsive, and irresponsible administrations in modern US History.
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| "I am tired of this!" Cummings shouts. (Source: rawstory.com) Americans are tired of Cummings, Obama, IRS abuses, Benghazi cover-ups, Obamacare failures, failed foreign policy ventures. . . #ImTiredOfThis |
#ArtsPullingShitOutOfHisAssAgain #GetOffMyLawn
ReplyDeleteThere are no IRS or Benghazi scandals--they have been debunked. The real scandal is the Republican Party's attempts to erect more barriers to voting and that party's scapegoating of the poor. Shameful.
ReplyDelete#IfYouAreTiredTakeANap
ReplyDelete#EveryoneIsTiredOfDarrell"CarThief/Arsonist"Issa
ReplyDeleteIt’s not exactly a secret that congressional Democrats have been frustrated with House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and his often-ridiculous handling of various investigations. The frustrations recently boiled over during a hearing into the discredited IRS “scandal,” when Issa refused to let Democrats speak – and then cut the mic when Ranking Member Elijah Commings (D-Md.) tried to address the committee he helps lead.
What’s less appreciated is the fact that Republicans aren’t exactly enamored with Issa, either.
…10 months out from the first IRS scandal headline, some Republicans are unhappy with their party’s investigation – and they point a finger at the man who helped sustain the national uproar: Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
In background interviews with more than a half-dozen House Republicans on the Oversight and Ways and Means committees, the two panels probing the matter in that chamber, members expressed frustration that the investigation has become a spectacle that’s dragged on and distracted from serious charges.
It’s funny, in a way. Democrats have been disgusted with Issa overseeing witch hunts. But away from the cameras, Republicans have been nearly as disgusted with Issa for being incompetent while overseeing witch hunts.
GOP officials on the Hill aren’t disappointed that he wastes time on manufactured nonsense; they just wish he were better at it.
“There’s a far better way to take this on. … There’s broad frustration with how this has played out, with the road he’s taken,” one Oversight Republican, who asked for anonymity to speak frankly, said of the investigation.
The list of complaints includes: Issa waited nearly a year to bring a key IRS witness back to his panel; he let an offer to hear that witness speak slip and may even be causing sympathy for ex-agency official Lois Lerner.
In fairness to Issa, some of his Republican critics may not realize that the IRS controversy is a mirage. They seem to think Issa has failed to oversee an effective investigation into meaningful Obama administration wrongdoing, which is partly true, but it overlooks a nagging detail: there was no meaningful Obama administration wrongdoing to investigate.
Even the most rabid, partisan scandal-mongers can’t get blood from a stone.
That said, note that it’s not just the IRS story. Issa has invested an enormous amount of committee time, energy, and resources into all kinds of “scandals,” all of which he assured the political world would be a huge deal, rocking the very foundations of Washington.
And in each instance, the California Republican over-promised and under-delivered, producing bupkis.
Leave it to Darrell Issa to infuriate Democrats with his pointless obsession, while infuriating Republicans for being bad at it.
Darrell Issa is great! If anyone is "carjacking", it would be the Obama Administration, with its runaway, trying to getaway spending spree, fraught with fraud, deceit, and outright criminality.
ReplyDeleteLeland Yee = Grand Theft Auto "The City"
Barack Obama = Grand Theft Auto DC
Darrell Steinberg's office was raided by the FBI today!
Darrell Steinberg: Grand Theft Auto "Sac City"
Speaker Gordon Fox of Rhode Island: Grand Theft Auto Prov
David "Grand Theft Auto" Cicilline (D-Providence) may be nex.t
Obama has nothing to do with state issues, son. And Issa's witch hunts have netted fuck-all. Sorry to burst your right-wing bubble.
ReplyDeleteAll Koched out...
ReplyDeleteHere’s a stimulating debate topic: Is the welfare of the Bear Republic more threatened by a few legislators who receive illegal bribes or by an entire breed of politicians who take legal campaign donations from unnamed billionaires with an ideological agenda?
That is a particularly pertinent question right now, given that two California state senators have recently been caught up in FBI stings. In February, Sen. Ronald Calderon was hit with indictments on 24 felony counts, including accepting bribes totaling $100,000. Then, just days ago, Sen. Leland Yee was charged with conspiring to illegally deal in firearms, wire fraud and public corruption.
Yee’s case is especially galling. In public, he was a vocal advocate of gun control legislation. In private, he is alleged to have offered to obtain automatic weapons and rocket launchers worth $2 million for a man Yee believed was a mobster (he was an undercover FBI agent, of course). If it’s true, Yee was selling his services at a bargain rate – just $70,000. With those ill-gotten gains, he hoped to pay off a campaign debt left over from his unsuccessful run for San Francisco mayor and to fund a prospective candidacy for secretary of state.
Obviously, politicians who take bribes reside far down the scale of moral rectitude from George Washington. These days, though, such old-style political crooks are an aberration. Much more common is the elected official who funds his campaigns the legal way: by taking gobs of money from people with hidden names and self-interested intentions.
Year after year, hundreds of billions of anonymous dollars flood into campaigns all across the country -- presidential races, congressional contests, campaigns of would-be governors and state legislators and even state and local ballot measures. On contribution reports, the cash is invariably listed as a donation from a group with a benign, appealing name -- Americans for Responsible Leadership, Americans for Job Security, the Center to Protect Patient Rights, Moms for Apple Pie and the Flag.
That last name I made up. The other three are real organizations that poured money into California to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown’s measure to raise taxes and to support an initiative that would have made it tougher for labor unions to spend money on politics. In both cases, the big money lost, but voters still do not know for sure where the money came from. The best guess is that the three front organizations were funded by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists who have spread their fortune far and wide to back right-wing candidates and defeat unions, environmentalists, liberals and anyone else who might get in the way of their business interests.
The Kochs are now well known, but there are many more rich donors like them who have managed to stay in the shadows. Last month, the California Legislature was close to passing a bill that would have turned on a spotlight by requiring disclosure of all donor names. It failed by one vote in the state Senate, where it was supported by every Democrat and opposed by every Republican.
That political divide is hardly surprising, given that Republicans have benefited most from the dark money. Apparently, they would rather voters not know that those nice-sounding, “pro-liberty” nonprofits are really a front for absurdly rich businessmen who want to kill healthcare expansion, environmental protection, fair-wage campaigns and workers’ rights.
A San Francisco hoodlum nicknamed “Shrimp Boy” is accused of leading Sen. Yee astray, but the corruption wrought by Shrimp Boy is nothing compared with the damage being done to the American political system by the unseen leviathans of great wealth swimming in the dark depths in every Capitol from Sacramento to Washington.
Please explain why you called South Bay Jane:
Delete"Well SB Jane, you're one of those dense nimrods who wants to turn Hermosa Beach into a beachside oil field, so your opinion of anything is of very little value."
What is it with this war on women from the Left?
As recently as two weeks ago, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) seemed to be annoying just about everyone with his increasingly pointless investigation into the IRS “scandal.” Democrats were publicly frustrated with Issa’s partisan antics and belligerent witch hunt, while Republicans were quietly complaining about Issa’s incompetence.
ReplyDeleteIf the California Republican thought he’d get things back on track with a new report, he’s mistaken.
The IRS singled out conservative Tea Party groups for scrutiny, according to a new report released Monday by Rep. Darrell Issa and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.
The report argues Democrats are pushing a “myth” when they say the IRS closely examined groups of all political stripes.
The Republican report is available in its entirety here. Note that it says it’s “flat out wrong” to claim progressive groups received similar treatment from the IRS. “[T]here is simply no evidence,” the document states, “that any liberal or progressive group received enhanced scrutiny because its application reflected the organization’s political views.”
Soon after, I heard from Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), whom Issa refused to let speak at a recent hearing on the matter, who said in a statement, “Chairman Issa has in his possession – right now – IRS documents that show definitively that both progressive and conservative groups were highlighted for scrutiny. Unfortunately, the Chairman insists on cherry-picking evidence and simply disregarding documents that directly contradict his partisan narrative, instead promoting misleading claims that hurt his own credibility and that of the Committee.”
This seems like a knowable thing, doesn’t it? There’s nothing subjective about the underlying question: Republicans on the committee believe there is no evidence progressive and conservative groups were subjected to the same scrutiny, while Democrats on the committee believe there’s all kinds of evidence progressive and conservative groups were subjected to the same scrutiny. So who’s right?
I’ll give you a hint: it’s not Issa.
Cummings’ office noted in its response the key details that didn’t make their way into Issa’s report:
* A 2010 PowerPoint presentation in Chairman Issa’s possession used images of a donkey and an elephant to instruct IRS screeners to look for the term “progressive” alongside “tea party” when reviewing tax-exempt applications.
* Screening workshop notes from July 28, 2010, which are also in Chairman Issa’s possession, show that groups with “Emerge” and “Progressive” in their titles were flagged for further review along with “9/12 Project” and “Rally Patriots.” Tea-Party and Progressive groups were all sent to the same secondary screening group – number 7822 – for additional review.
Let’s also not forget the New York Times report from last summer highlighting the fact that the IRS denied tax exemptions to a variety of loca, liberal organizations – Emerge Nevada, Emerge Maine, and Emerge Massachusetts – “because, the agency wrote in denial letters, they were set up specifically to cultivate Democratic candidates.”
If the IRS was involved in a conspiracy to target groups on the right for unfair treatment, the agency was really, really bad at it. So bad, in fact, they kept smacking down groups on the left.
Issa and his allies can continue to pretend there’s a hidden scandal that only they can see, but there’s no reason for anyone else to take this seriously. Indeed, it’s tempting to say that if Issa’s report is the best congressional Republicans can do, the controversy is “over,” but in reality, this story has been over for quite some time.
Here's that bogus GOP report: http://oversight.house.gov/release/new-oversight-report-debunks-myth-liberal-groups-targeted-irs/
ReplyDeleteLooks like Artie's newest idol is a fraud as well as a former car thief. You sure know how to pick 'em, Art!
From the report which you cited:
DeleteOnly seven applications in the IRS backlog contained the word “progressive,” all of which were then approved by the IRS, while Tea Party groups received unprecedented review and experienced years-long delays. While some liberal-oriented groups were singled out for scrutiny, evidence shows it was due to non-political reasons. (pp. 32-35)
If you have the IRS powerpoints, please provide the link for them, too.
DeleteAt any rate, the fact that the IRS was targeting groups in such a fashion is disturbing in itself. The information cut and pasted actually confirms the IRS abuse allegations.
Thanks again, Sara.
Sara: still waiting for your link with the Powerpoints.
ReplyDeleteA comment on this post from Canada Free Press:
ReplyDeletehttp://canadafreepress.com/index.php/comments/62220
Elijah Cummings, you need to sit down and shut the hell up, if you can't help or do some good for the people you are useless and if you think standing up for Obama, the IRS and lois loser is a good thing and the right thing to do, I hope and pray you never, ever get put in a position of power again....unless it's cleaning commodes after michelle and Obama.
Posted by Totsy on 04/05 at 03:38 PM | #
Thanks again, Totsy!