IRS’s Lerner Bombshell, Treasury Department Secretly Drafted New Rules To Restrict Activity of Conservative Groups… Yet Pres Obama Says No Smidgen of Corruption

Remember Lois Lerner?

Marion Algier - AskMarion:

The Daily Caller: 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The Treasury Department and Lerner started devising the new rules “off-plan,” meaning that their plans would not be published on the public schedule.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 place 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.

“If Treasury and the IRS fabricated the rationale for a rule change it would tend to raise questions about the integrity of the rule-making process,” Camp said.

“I want to be perfectly clear – this committee will fight any and all efforts to restrict the rights of groups to organize, speak out and educate the public, just as unions are allowed to do so.  We will get to the bottom of this, and I expect the IRS to produce – quickly – the outstanding documents the committee has requested,” Camp said.

“I believe the IRS has a long way to go in restoring its credibility.  But, you can take a first step by complying with this committee’s request and stopping all action against 501(c)(4) groups until the appropriate investigations are completed.”

The new rules define more previously acceptable activities by nonprofit groups as prohibited “candidate-related political activity.” Communications and activities including voter registration drives and publishing voter guides, among others, are now classified as political activity. Grants and donations that 501(c)(4)’s give to other nonprofits are now subject to new record-keeping and increased scrutiny to prevent the money’s use for broadly-defined political activity.

The rules were “drafted in a manner, in my view, to shut down tea party groups” Rep. Camp said earlier this week.

New IRS commissioner Koskinen said that the rules should “put to rest all of the issues surrounding applications for tax-exempt status.”

But Madrigal’s email to Lerner proves that the regulations were being developed long before the IRS needed to publicly put anything “to rest.”

At least 292 conservative groups were subjected to unfair targeting between 2010 and 2012, against six liberal groups that were allegedly given similar treatment.

“They are both over-broad and under-inclusive,” said Foley & Lardner LLP partner Cleta Mitchell on the new rules.

“They’ve taken everything that 501(c)(4) organizations do in the normal course of business and proposed to convert that all to candidate-related activity, even if a candidate is never mentioned.”

Mitchell said that the rules are being “rushed through” for political purposes.

“The objective is to get the rules in place before the 2014 election,” Mitchell said.

Hmmmm… Remember the O’Reilly-Obama pre-Super Bowl interview just last weekend where the President said there was not a smidgen of corruption involved in the IRS situation where conservative groups were targeted?

Video: Bill O’Reilly’s Super Bowl interview with President Obama

Transcript of IRS Portion of the Interview:

O’REILLY:  I’ve got to get to the IRS…
OBAMA:  Yes.
O’REILLY:  — because I don’t know what happened there and I’m hoping maybe you can tell us.  Douglas Shulman, former IRS chief, he was cleared into the White House 157 times, more than any of your cabinet members, more than any other IRS guy in the history, by far.
OK, why was Douglas Shulman here 157 times?
Why?
OBAMA:  Mr. Shulman, as the head of the IRS, is constantly coming in, because at the time, we were trying to set up the, uh, HealthCare.gov and the IRS…
O’REILLY:  What did he have to do with that?
OBAMA:  — and the IRS is involved in making sure that that works as part of the overall health care team.
O’REILLY:  So it was all health care?
OBAMA:  Number two, we’ve also got the IRS involved when it comes to some of the financial reforms to make sure that we don’t have taxpayer funded bailouts in the future.  So you had all these different agendas in which the head of the IRS is naturally involved.
O’REILLY:  Did you speak to him a lot…
OBAMA:  — (INAUDIBLE).
O’REILLY:  — yourself?
OBAMA:  I do not recall meeting with him in any of these meetings that are pretty routine meetings that we had.
O’REILLY:  OK, so you don’t — you don’t recall seeing Shulman, because what some people are saying is that the IRS was used…
OBAMA:  Yes.
O’REILLY:  — at a — at a local level in Cincinnati, and maybe other places to go after…
OBAMA:  Absolutely wrong.
O’REILLY:  — to go after.
OBAMA:  Absolutely wrong.
O’REILLY:  But how do you know that, because we — we still don’t know what happened there?
OBAMA:  Bill, we do — that’s not what happened.  They — folks have, again, had multiple hearings on this.  I mean these kinds of things keep on surfacing, in part because you and your TV station will promote them.
O’REILLY:  But don’t…
OBAMA:  But when (INAUDIBLE)…
O’REILLY:  — think there are unanswered questions?
OBAMA:  Bill, when you actually look at this stuff, there have been multiple hearings on it.  What happened here was it that you’ve got a…
O’REILLY:  But there’s no definition on it.
OBAMA:  — you’ve got a 501(c)(4) law that people think is focusing.  No — that the folks did not know how to implement…
O’REILLY:  OK…
OBAMA:  — because it basically says…
O’REILLY:  — so you’re saying there was no…
OBAMA:  — if you are involved…
O’REILLY:  — no corruption there at all, none?
OBAMA:  That’s not what I’m saying.
O’REILLY:  (INAUDIBLE).
OBAMA:  That’s actually…
O’REILLY:  No, no, but I want to know what…
OBAMA:  — (INAUDIBLE)…
O’REILLY:  — you’re saying.  You’re the leader of the country.
OBAMA:  Absolutely.
O’REILLY:  You’re saying no corruption?
OBAMA:  No.
O’REILLY:  None?
No?
OBAMA:  There were some — there were some bone-headed decisions…
O’REILLY:  Bone-headed decisions…
OBAMA:  — out of — out of a local office…
O’REILLY:  But no mass corruption?
OBAMA:  Not even mass corruption, not even a smidgeon of corruption, I would say.

If there isn’t a smidgen of corruption, why was Obama’s new #IRS Chief apologizing… and perhaps already lying?

Then on Wednesday, 02.05.14, the new chief of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen (74), a lawyer with little tax experience but with a reputation as a troubleshooter, apologized and promised that one of his priorities is to restore public trust in the IRS on the one hand but played down the IRS scandal as a minor issue with a handful of conservative political groups as if the matter was minor and settled (which it isn’t) on the other hand… just as new of the Lerner off-plan has emerged.

Video: IRS Commissioner Apologizes For Tea Party Targeting - Jenny Beth Martin - On The Recorded

It has also come to light that virtually the first thing Koskinen did after taking office as IRS Commissioner was to give out $62 million in bonuses to boost moral among IRS workers… Really?  How about the moral of average Americans and those who have been targeted by the IRS with audits and delays of approval for their 501(c)(4)? Sounds a lot like same old same old to me?!?

Video: But as Carney Said Previously… An IRS Apology Is Not Concrete Evidence Of IRS Scandal

Bombshell Revelation: ‘Smoking Gun’ E-Mail Uncovered at IRS Congressional Hearing (Video)

Is it me… or does something just not ring true here? 

Technorati Tags: IRS,Conservatives,Lies,Obamaland,Corruption,Audits,Scandals,Treasury,501(c)(4),Tea Party,Stealing Elections,O 'Reilly,Koskinen,Lois Lerner,Watch the Other Hand,Targeting Conservatives,Off-Plan

NROL – Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton – The NoisyRoom – Cross-Posted at AskMarion

Seriously? Having created an uber tense surveillance climate, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office decided this was the perfect time to unveil their new logo of the squid who spied on me. It’s a monster octopus with tentacles that encircle the globe. I share Doug Ross’ sentiments… I’m all for a strong U.S. intelligence capability, as long as it is not used against Americans. But after the whole NSA kerfluffle (which by the way, is ridiculous since everyone is spying on everyone else and then screaming over the US doing it), this is a giant ‘F’-you moment to the world. Boy, talk about poking the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon – you might as well flash neon saying: “Please attack me.” You know, like the sign on Biden’s back that he sports during his foreign policy comedy tour.

Sometimes, The Register approaches Godhood in their prose:

The NRO are totally embracing their menacing Big Brother persona and putting it out there for world+dog to see, having launched a bunch of satellites and a mysterious payload on a spacecraft yesterday – complete with the logo of a creepy octopus sucking the life out of our world.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) tweeted pictures of an Atlas 5 rocket bearing the NROL-39 getting ready for launch yesterday, which it said was carrying a “classified NRO payload” along with some cubesats.

The NRO is the agency in charge of designing, building, launching and maintaining America’s spy satellites. The DNI said that its latest rocket would carry a dozen mini satellites co-funded by NASA as well as its unknown primary payload.

The DNI did not say just why the NRO thought that a good logo for its spy-craft would be a hugely evil-looking octopus with its tentacles wrapped around the Earth and the inscription “Nothing is beyond our reach”.

Thursday’s launch was the second time an Atlas 5 rocket has lifted off from the West Coast this year. Hmmm… Wonder what is in that payload? Nothing good, I would imagine. Looks like the surveillance state is not lacking for funding and is reaching out to touch everyone. Look out boys, your evil intentions are showing. You are taking the ‘Intelligence’ out of ‘Intelligence Agency.’

From Fox News:

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched a new spy satellite Thursday evening on mission NROL-39 — and the new logo and tagline are quite an eye opener.

The new logo features a giant, world-dominating octopus, its sucker-covered tentacles encircling the planet while it looks on with determination, a steely glint in its enormous eye. The logo carries a five-word tagline: “Nothing is beyond our reach.”

Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst with the ACLU, raised a quizzical eyebrow at the new slogan.

“Advice to @ODNIgov: You may want to downplay the massive dragnet spying thing right now. This logo isn’t helping,” he wrote.

An agency spokeswoman told Forbes that there’s a very good reason for the symbol: The octopus is intelligent, and therefore a good emblem for an intelligence agency.

“NROL-39 is represented by the octopus, a versatile, adaptable, and highly intelligent creature. Emblematically, enemies of the United States can be reached no matter where they choose to hide,” said Karen Furgerson, a spokeswoman for the NRO. “‘Nothing is beyond our reach’ defines this mission and the value it brings to our nation and the warfighters it supports, who serve valiantly all over the globe, protecting our nation.”

The NROL-39 mission was classified, as are nearly all missions and satellites launched by the secretive NRO. It was carried aloft by a United Launch Alliance rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 11:13 p.m. PST, according to NASAspaceflight.com. Because the launch trajectory matched that used by other launches, it was likely carrying a third satellite for the agency’s radar reconnaissance fleet, the site said.

Along with its secretive payload, the rocket also carried the Government Experimental Multi-Satellite (GEMSat) payload, which contained 12 “nanosatellites” that will perform a variety of science missions.

The NRO mission is to design, build, launch, and maintain America’s intelligence satellites.

Twice in one week, I’ve had to agree with the commies at the ACLU. This is getting surreal. Depicting a weakened America as a sea monster that has the planet in her 8-armed embrace is laughable. They’ve turned us into a cartoon character with just about as much menace. Seriously, who isn’t afraid of the Russian bear waiting to tear you apart? Or the Chinese dragon that could burn you to ashes while eviscerating you? We get an octopus? It’s like getting Obama instead of Reagan. It’s a joke. Next, really cool makeup for the military and snappy uniforms – oh, wait…

Deaf, insensitive and invasive… yep, nothing is beyond Obama’s reach.

Yes We 'Scan' - Obama Defends NSA Spying Program! - (But) I'm No Dick Cheney!

Video:  Yes We 'Scan' - Obama Defends NSA Spying Program! - (But) I'm No Dick Cheney!

Technorati Tags: NSA,manipulation of the public,lies,Dick Cheney,NSA spying,Big Brother tactics,1984,scandals,cover-ups,Constitution,surveillance,flip-flop,freedom

NSA Whistleblower Snowden in Exile as the Obama Scandals List Grows

By Marion Algier - AskMarion

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker and historian who is most famous for his work Democracy in America (paperback), said, “People get the government they deserve.” and there is a similar and well-documented quotation by Joseph de Maistre: "Every country has the government it deserves.” 

They are both quotes usually used to explain why our governments (worldwide) are generally pretty awful. The inference is that if people were more careful who they voted for, if they took the time to inform themselves and if more people took the trouble to vote (and get involved in the system) in the first place, we would not have such mediocre or corrupt people in government, and indeed politicians would have to clean up their act and work a lot harder than they do or they would be replaced. 

When I was a young student of history, government and politics, I used to think those comments were pretty cynical, but as I have watched and chronicled America’s decline since the Reagan era I have sadly found them to be more true than I ever wanted to believe or admit.

The Great American Experiment, as America is often called, was supposed to prove that the common man could rule himself and America’s Founding Fathers gave us every tool we needed to survive as long as we stayed engaged.  But even with those tools the average American is lost, uninformed and disinterested, even now as they watch the one-time greatest country in the world crashing down around them!

The American people as a whole have given the politicians in Washington D.C., and even locally, carte blanche with little oversight or interest for decades.  A trend that really began as the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’ returned home from war and the inattention and apathy has grown with each generation thereafter, except by those focused on destroying America.   We have allowed ourselves and our children to methodically be dumbed-down, indoctrinated, and manipulated to the point that Pravda, the former propaganda newspaper for the USSR dubbed us Sheeple. We elected and re-elected a president that we still don’t really know and who has ‘always’ surrounded himself with radicals that didn’t like the American system, American ideals or the values of the average American.  And we now find ourselves with a president, his administration and a government in general embroiled in scandal, cover-ups, and over-reach.  Yet half the people still don’t know about or understand the scandals, that the 2012 election probably was stolen and when asked they just say, “Our president, ‘Obama’, is cool.” The other half are losing or have already lost faith in the government, as well as in their low-informed counterparts.

How many scandals are there now?  Benghazi-gate, IRS-gate, NSA-gate, Press-gate… Sebelius-gate (or ObamaCare-gate), EPA-gate, Fast and Furious, voter/election fraud and the list goes on… now State Dept-gate and maybe Islamist-gate.  They are spying on us and collecting our data without cause or warrants; using czars and Executive Orders to circumvent the Constitution; they arrogantly promote and defend those involved in the corruption and they investigated and suppressed the activities of anyone or group that opposed them to steal an election.  And now courageous whistleblowers and witnesses, who are finally stepping up but are afraid enough that they won’t get a fair trial (or worse), are fleeing the country.  Where is the outrage?

FoxNews:  NSA whistle-blower who sought to 'inform the public' in surveillance risks decades in jail. 

The source of the bombshell leaks about the U.S. government gathering information on billions of phone calls and Internet activities risks decades in jail for the disclosures if the U.S. can extradite him from Hong Kong, where he says he has taken refuge after saying his sole motive was to “inform the public.”

“We have the elements of a Police State here”- Mark Levin

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, fully approves of Edward Snowden's leak about a top-secret National Security Agency surveillance program.

"I'm very impressed by what I've heard in the last couple of hours, including Snowden's own video here. I think he's done an enormous service, incalculable service," Ellsberg said Sunday night on CNN.

As for the surveillance program, Ellsberg said, "I have no doubt that this violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and probably other parts of the Bill of Rights and should have been exposed."

"Can it really be a crime to expose crime?" Ellsberg asked.

 Photo: AP Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in Hong Kong. The Guardian identified Snowden as a source for its reports on intelligence

HONG KONG (AP) — The American intelligence contractor who disclosed the U.S. government surveillance programs fled to Hong Kong because he believed he wouldn't get a fair trial in his home country. 

Snowden says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA. He allowed both the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity on Sunday (06.09.13) as the source of a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs.  He told the papers if the DOJ indicts him, which seems almost inevitable, that he doesn't really trust the judicial system in the United States to give him a fair trial".  Most would agree that he is right.

One can only ask… wow, has America really fallen that far?  It wasn’t so long ago that those would have headlines expected out of the USSR, not the USA.

Video: Neil Cavuto Erupts Over Democratic Operative's Defense of Government NSA Scandal

Infowars.com:  Fox News host Neil Cavuto and Democratic strategist Julian Epstein erupted at each other on Saturday morning, when Cavuto demanded Epstein see the NSA subpoena as part of a larger pattern of oppressive behavior on the part of the Obama administration. “You see one incident after another that comes up,” Cavuto said. “It all comes back to the same basic issue: privacy invaded or potentially invaded. Institutions of all sorts doing the same thing. There is a pattern.”

Video: Judge Jeanine Slams IRS, NSA and Obama for Expanding Surveillance Program - Opening Statement

Video:  “We have the elements of a Police State here”- A fired up Mark Levin talks to Neil Cavuto

Where are men (and women… the Margaret Thatchers of our day) like Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, presidents/public servants who knew the buck stopped with them, who would have made the tough decisions and taken responsibility? In Obamaland it is everyone’s fault but his.  And when they (present day leaders) do surface… why don’t we recognize them?  What has happened to Americans who expected their elected leaders to represent their interests and values and who would have called for the resignations or impeachments of those in power today?

Yet when we look for responsibility and blame we must also add ourselves plus everyone in Congress, government workers and the mainstream media to the list.  How many people voted without knowing who or what they were voting for?  How many parents and grandparents even have knowledge of the anti-American rhetoric being taught in our schools… about the Common C.O.R.E. educational program? How many informed public servants and media have remained silent?  How many have misled or lied under oath?  How many are uninformed themselves?  Did Congress tell us about the PRISM Project… the data centers (Utah) being built and is Congress asking the right questions now?

We, and globally, have already been so programmed that too many Americans actually believe that spying on and droning American citizens is okay. After all most people voluntarily post all their information on social media for the powers that be, and everyone else, to access.   We are being led like sheep(le) to the slaughter.  See: Timeline of revelations about surveillance that sweeps up Americans' phone calls, data  Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said, “He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither”, yet in an America who no longer knew (knows) her (or world) history, Americans could not wait for “W” and Congress to ram through the Patriot Act after 9/11, which 12-years later has only become ever more intrusive.  People… if the government is watching and monitoring you, it is never good!!  We are living in George Orwell’s 1984… Hear Beck’s emotional 1984 monologue HERE.

America… it is the responsibility of each of us to be informed, to vote for integrity and demand it.  If the America our Founding Fathers left us is to survive, it is up to all of us to take a stand and get involved… today!  Or there won’t be an American tomorrow that you will be comfortable leaving to your children!!  Remember the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, “People get the government they deserve.”  If you don’t inform yourself and get involved, what will you tell you children and grandchildren you were doing when America and freedom was being stolen?

Technorati Tags: Cavuto,scandals,cover-ups,Snowden,whistleblowers,Obamaland,Fox,Fox News,Obama,IRS-gate,IRS,NSA,NSA-gate,paternalism,surveillance,sheeple,1984,warnings,connecting the dots,wake-up,lies,Levin,Ellsberg,Tocqueville,Constitution,privacy,Fourth Amendment,patterns,connect the dots

IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Oversight Committee. The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, May, 10, 2013. Carney responded on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, calling on top-to-bottom review of the Obama administration after the IRS admitted that it had targeted conservative groups during the 2012 election. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

By: STEPHEN OHLEMACHER (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

The agency — led at the time by a Bush administration appointee — blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But that wasn't good enough for Republicans in Congress, who are conducting several investigations and asked for more.

"I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

White House spokesman Jay Carney declared it was indeed inappropriate for the IRS to target tea party groups. But he brushed aside questions about whether the White House itself would investigate.

Instead, Carney said the administration expects a thorough investigation by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration. The inspector general has been looking into the issue since last summer, and his report is expected to come out next week, the IG's office said Friday.

Carney said he did not know when the White House first learned that tea party groups were being targeted.

Lerner acknowledged it was wrong for the agency to target groups based on political affiliation.

"That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.

About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.

The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department that enforces the nation's tax laws. Revelations that the agency was targeting political groups because they were affiliated with a movement that is critical of President Barack Obama could become a new headache for the White House.

"The admission by the Obama administration that the Internal Revenue Service targeted political opponents echoes some of the most shameful abuses of government power in 20th century American history," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Many conservative groups complained during the campaign that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on politics.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

The IRS said senior leaders were not aware that specific groups were being targeted at the time of the hearing.

"While we acknowledged centralization of these applications last year, the IRS did not acknowledge the use of names as part of the process earlier because the details were not initially known to senior leadership and (the inspector general) has been reviewing the situation," the IRS said in a statement. "Their work is now far enough along that it was appropriate to address the issue when it came up during (Friday's) tax conference."

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, requested a trove of documents from the IRS on Friday, including all communications containing the words "tea party" and "patriot."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Friday he will hold a hearing on the matter has not yet set a date.

"The IRS absolutely must be non-partisan in its enforcement of our tax laws," Camp said. "We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have also promised investigations.

Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley said the department will support the inspector general's investigation.

"The Treasury Department expects all individuals and organizations to be treated fairly by the IRS. Anything less is inappropriate and unacceptable."

There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections — conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group, Crossroads GPS, and the liberal Moveon.org.

These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

Lerner said the number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words, "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner told The AP. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

The IRS statement said that once applications were chosen for review, they all "received the same, even-handed treatment."

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale," the IRS said in a statement. "We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system."

"I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, who until recently was president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, an alliance of tea party groups in the state.

Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as discriminatory treatment. The group first applied for nonprofit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said — one month after Election Day.

"It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. "President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grass-roots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again."

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report. – h/t to MJ

Technorati Tags: IRS,watch the other hand,Big Brother,Big Brother tactics,White House,Jay Carney,AP,harassment,Election 2012,Obamaland,tea party,patriot,revenue workers,IRS workers,grassroots

The Internet is a Surveillance State

Brandontward - h/t to Joe Miller

I'm going to start with three data points.

One: Some of the Chinese military hackers who were implicated in a broad set of attacks against the U.S. government and corporations were identified because they accessed Facebook from the same network infrastructure they used to carry out their attacks.

Two: Hector Monsegur, one of the leaders of the LulzSac hacker movement, was identified and arrested last year by the FBI. Although he practiced good computer security and used an anonymous relay service to protect his identity, he slipped up.

And three: Paula Broadwell,who had an affair with CIA director David Petraeus, similarly took extensive precautions to hide her identity. She never logged in to her anonymous e-mail service from her home network. Instead, she used hotel and other public networks when she e-mailed him. The FBI correlated hotel registration data from several different hotels -- and hers was the common name.

The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.

Increasingly, what we do on the Internet is being combined with other data about us. Unmasking Broadwell's identity involved correlating her Internet activity with her hotel stays. Everything we do now involves computers, and computers produce data as a natural by-product. Everything is now being saved and correlated, and many big-data companies make money by building up intimate profiles of our lives from a variety of sources.

Facebook, for example, correlates your online behavior with your purchasing habits offline. And there's more. There's location data from your cell phone, there's a record of your movements from closed-circuit TVs.

This is ubiquitous surveillance: All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it's efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.

Sure, we can take measures to prevent this. We can limit what we search on Google from our iPhones, and instead use computer web browsers that allow us to delete cookies. We can use an alias on Facebook. We can turn our cell phones off and spend cash. But increasingly, none of it matters.

There are simply too many ways to be tracked. The Internet, e-mail, cell phones, web browsers, social networking sites, search engines: these have become necessities, and it's fanciful to expect people to simply refuse to use them just because they don't like the spying, especially since the full extent of such spying is deliberately hidden from us and there are few alternatives being marketed by companies that don't spy.

This isn't something the free market can fix. We consumers have no choice in the matter. All the major companies that provide us with Internet services are interested in tracking us. Visit a website and it will almost certainly know who you are; there are lots of ways to be tracked without cookies.

Cellphone companies routinely undo the web's privacy protection. One experiment at Carnegie Mellon took real-time videos of students on campus and was able to identify one-third of them by comparing their photos with publicly available tagged Facebook photos.

Maintaining privacy on the Internet is nearly impossible. If you forget even once to enable your protections, or click on the wrong link, or type the wrong thing, and you've permanently attached your name to whatever anonymous service you're using. Monsegur slipped up once, and the FBI got him. If the director of the CIA can't maintain his privacy on the Internet, we've got no hope.

In today's world, governments and corporations are working together to keep things that way.

Governments are happy to use the data corporations collect -- occasionally demanding that they collect more and save it longer -- to spy on us. And corporations are happy to buy data from governments. Together the powerful spy on the powerless, and they're not going to give up their positions of power, despite what the people want.

Fixing this requires strong government will, but they're just as punch-drunk on data as the corporations. Slap-on-the-wrist fines notwithstanding, no one is agitating for better privacy laws.

So, we're done. Welcome to a world where Google knows exactly what sort of porn you all like, and more about your interests than your spouse does. Welcome to a world where your cell phone company knows exactly where you are all the time. Welcome to the end of private conversations, because increasingly your conversations are conducted by e-mail, text, or social networking sites.

And welcome to a world where all of this, and everything else that you do or is done on a computer, is saved, correlated, studied, passed around from company to company without your knowledge or consent; and where the government accesses it at will without a warrant.

Welcome to an Internet without privacy, and we've ended up here with hardly a fight. - CNN

Technorati Tags: Internet,Surveillance,loss of common sense,Big Brother,Facebook,Big Brother is watching you,Google,social media,social networking,cookies

Today… A Car That Takes Your Pulse, Tomorrow A Card or Implant That Controls Your Life

WSJ – Cross-Posted at AskMarion and at True Health Is True Wealth: What the car of the near future will sense about your biology. Auto makers are researching technology that could feed your heart rate, blood pressure and other biometric responses into the car's computers, the better to determine when you're drowsy or overwhelmed with distracting media. MIT researcher Bryan Reimer and WSJ's Joe White has details on Lunch Break. See Video

A Car That Takes Your Pulse

Designing Vehicles To Monitor Brain Waves, Sleepiness

Could a car that knows when you are stressed or ill save you from having an accident? Auto makers are stepping up efforts to find out.

A number of big car manufacturers are accelerating research into equipping vehicles with so-called biometric sensors that would keep tabs on a driver's vital health signs, including pulse, breathing and "skin conductance," aka sweaty palms. When that information is fed into the computers that manage a car's safety systems, it could enable a vehicle to better react to whatever challenges the road and traffic dish out.

The move comes amid major advances in mobile medical-monitoring technology, as well as growing concerns about meeting the needs of an aging and increasingly distracted population of motorists.

It also reflects another step in the industry's broader move toward self-driving cars, a brave new world in which computers could all but eliminate the potential for driver error—whether it's due to a distracting phone call or a sudden drop in blood sugar.

Already, some Lexus models use in-cabin cameras and some Mercedes-Benz vehicles have steering sensors to detect drowsy-driving behavior. The cars sound a warning beep or flash a coffee-cup icon to suggest that it's time for a break. Luxury brands are promoting these accident-avoidance technologies as examples of what sets their expensive vehicles apart from cheaper, mainstream models. The Mercedes system, called Attention Assist, comes as standard equipment in a wide range of its vehicles, from the smaller C-class sedans to the more opulent, and high-tech, S-class models.

View Interactive

Separately, car makers and federal safety regulators are working on in-vehicle systems that could reliably detect when someone is too drunk to drive.

The new body monitors could, if a driving hazard appeared imminent, trigger the car's safety systems to tap the brakes, turn off a radio, block a cellphone from ringing or take other actions. Some of these advances may be in cars in three to five years. Others depend upon whether researchers can crack the challenge of designing health-related sensors that can work flawlessly in a vehicle for up to a decade.

Sports car maker Ferrari SpA, for one, has filed a patent application that indicates the company is evaluating technology that would embed wireless electrodes in a car seat's headrest to monitor drivers' brain waves for stress as they pilot machines capable of roaring up to 200 miles per hour. Depending on what the sensors detect, the car might try to mitigate the driver's risk by cutting power to the motor or automatically stabilizing the vehicle. As Ferrari researchers put it in the patent filing: "drivers tend to miscalculate—in particular, overestimate—their driving skill and, more important, their psychophysical condition."

At Ford Motor Co., F +1.26%researchers are looking at connecting information from medical monitors, like seat-belt-based respiration sensors and steering-wheel heart-rate trackers, to its cars' in-dash multimedia systems.

Ford's prototype system aims to lessen distraction by taking readouts from biometric sensors and combining the data with information from the car, including speed, steering-wheel angle, and data from radar sensors or cameras used in blind-spot obstacle detection or cruise control. All the data are run through software that can gauge the driver's overall stress level. If it is high, the system could automatically engage a "Do Not Disturb" function for the driver's phone.

Jeff Greenberg, a senior technical leader involved with the Ford research, says the broad goal is to minimize driver distraction and stress. This may involve keeping people engaged and alert on a boring drive to work or helping them stay focused in more difficult driving moments. If a truck looms out of the blind spot during a high-speed freeway merge, for example, a driver would be better off if his phone's ringer was disabled at that moment, he says.

Mr. Greenberg says phone-disabling technology could come to showrooms "relatively quickly." Adding the biometric sensors, he says, "is further out." Ford classifies those technologies as research projects that typically are at least three to five years from being offered to consumers.

One reason: The technology is evolving faster than issues such as medical privacy and regulatory oversight can be resolved. Ford, like other auto makers, is loath to add the Food and Drug Administration to an already heavy regulatory load.

Car makers hope that vehicles with medical monitors will appeal to an aging population that wants to keep driving.

"If we want to keep people in their vehicles, it's key we integrate systems to support them," says Bryan Reimer, a researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, which focuses on innovations for an aging population. AgeLab has worked with Toyota Motor Corp., 7203.TO -1.56%Ford and other companies to test how biometric sensors could be used both to guide the design of vehicles to make them easier to operate and as onboard systems to help people drive more safely.

Getty Images/Onoky

A number of big car manufacturers are accelerating research into equipping vehicles with so-called biometric sensors that would keep tabs on a driver's vital health signs.

Dick Myrick, a 63-year-old retired electrical engineer from Arlington, Mass., participated in AgeLab experiments in biometrically monitored driving. His says he would be interested in a car that kept tabs on his condition as part of its safety technology, but only if he was in control of the system. "I need to know that the function is on, and have it not on when I want," he says.

Others see the new technology as yet another thing to keep track of behind the wheel. It's "a further distraction" for drivers, says Gabrielle Lucci, 60, a Farmington Hills, Mich., retiree.

Devices that collect data about an individual's physical condition are getting cheaper and smaller. Many are designed to connect to smartphones using the same Bluetooth technology that connects smartphones to cars. This provides a gateway for wirelessly connecting devices like glucose or heart monitors into a car's multimedia displays.

"The same sensor you are wearing for your weekend warrior stuff…is the sensor you could slap on your mother" to monitor her heart, says Leslie Saxon, a cardiologist who leads the University of Southern California's Center for Body Computing. Dr. Saxon's project recently formed a research alliance with German luxury car maker BMW BMW.XE +0.72% AG.

Daniel Grein, a BMW designer, says the USC research could help determine how to connect a Bluetooth-equipped blood-sugar monitor to future BMW models. In Munich, he says, BMW engineers are also investigating how to design a car that could automatically stop if the driver suffered a heart attack.

Dr. Saxon says he sees a time when biometric monitors in a car could feed data, not just to onboard safety systems, but also to doctors and patients looking to better manage health care. "My car calls me when it needs something," Dr. Saxon says, referring to vehicle-service alerts generated by the car. "I want patients' cars to call them when they need blood-pressure medicine."

Sound interesting? Might increase safety? But as Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said, “He who trades security (or safety) for freedom" usually gets (nor deserves) either!!” Wake-up America, Europe, Christians, Patriots, lovers of freedom… this is Big Brother 1984 style all the way! Today it is a smart car… tomorrow it will be a smart card. Be sure to watch the video below and then you be the judge!

Video: Smart card (made 2005)

Related:

Now Big Brother is REALLY watching you

Smart Dust Computers… Vaccination Nanotechnology… NWO Here We Come

RFID Chip for all Americans in 2013 as Part of ObamaCare… See Biden Telling Fed Judge He Will Have to Rule on Implanted Microchips

Christian Family Refuses Mandatory RFID Chip at Texas School

MARK OF THE BEAST IS COMING SOON ! – WIFE STANDS UP FOR JESUS AND AGINST THE RFID IMPLANT AT HOSPITAL — GOD BLESS HER FOR HER STRENGTH OF CONVICTION

Buying and Selling in an RFID Chip for the First Time – VeriChip Changes Its Name

FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America

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"THE DRONES ARE COMING!" Congressman Ted Poe

Video:  "THE DRONES ARE COMING!" Congressman Ted Poe

Technorati Tags: Big Brother,watch the other hand,Congress,Congressman Ted Poe,drones,big brother is watching you,wake-up America,stand-up America

Here’s How You Can Browse the Web Without Being Tracked

Think Big Brother Isn’t watching?? Obama Truth Team’ Orders GoDaddy To Shut Down Website

A political website that contained stinging criticism of the Obama administration and its handling of the Fast and Furious scandal was ordered to be shut down by the Obama campaign’s ‘Truth Team’, according to private investigator Douglas Hagmann, who was told by ISP GoDaddy his site contained information that was “maliciously harmful to individuals in the government.”

Hagmann, CEO of Hagmann Investigative Services, Inc., a private investigative agency serving a roster of Fortune 500 clients, was given 48 hours by GoDaddy to find a new home for his website before it was deleted.

Hagmann was told the reason for the shutdown was because the website featured “morally objectionable” material… Hmmm guess that means too much inconvenient truth for Holder and Obama? After GoDaddy refused to identify the complainant, only saying that it was not “any official government agency,” further investigation by Hagmann revealed that the order came from a group tied to Obama campaign headquarters.

More…

Here’s How You Can Browse the Web Without Being Tracked

The Blaze:

Most everyone already knows when you search for things on the Web, advertisers are picking up on that and quickly turning data around into marketing to attract you. As soon you search “sterling silver necklace” for mom’s birthday, lo and behold, the next website you go to — completely unrelated to the necklace — has ads from Overstock.com featuring none other than potential necklaces you may be interested in.

This may or may not bother you, but as CNET points out, there are times when you may not want more, shall we say, sensitive searches resulting in ads. The tech blog was recently asked ”How does one browse sensitive subjects without being tracked via cookies?”

It is possible. CNET describes this as “private mode,” which is available on most Web browsers:

• In Firefox it’s called “Private Browsing.”
• There’s an Incognito mode extension for Chrome. This article tells you how to switch any tab to Incognito with one click and here’s information for using Incognito for specific sites.
• Internet Explorer has an InPrivate browsing feature, as well as offers a way for people to selectively block sites from tracking.
• Apple has had private browsing since OS X Lion.

But even this won’t completely stop ads. According to CNET, there are further “do not track” measures that can be used, including Abine’s Do Not Track browser add-on and AVG’s Do Not Track, which lets you customize what you’re blocking.

Hot Spot Shield hides IP addresses, which can be used to associate data with other information a particular website may already know about you, even if cookies have been disabled. IP addresses are often what Internet service providers are asked for by law enforcement for investigations.

For those who are what CNET calls “hard core,” there is Tor Project, which offers completely anonymous browsing over encrypted channels. This, CNET acknowledges, could be a little “overkill” for the average user but you won’t see any ads corresponding with your recent searches here.

Update: A Blaze reader called up another search engine that doesn’t record IP addresses: StartPage. There are many options out there and we can’t name them all, but this is a good start.

StartPage Search Engine Offers Anonymous Web Browsing

January 28, 2010 By Geoff Duncan

StartPage is search engine that doesn't record your IP address, your searches, or anything about you. And now you can surf to linked pages anonymously.

StartPage isn’t exactly a new contender in the Internet search field—it launched all the way back in early 2005—but it is unique among Internet search engines in that it does not record information about its users. Back in 2006 the company began deleting all personal search details from its own log files, and in January 2009 the company stopped recording the IP addresses of its users. Where search engines like Bing are patting themselves on their backs for deleting users’ information after six months, StartPage hasn’t been recording that information at all.

Now, StartPage has added a new feature to its search service: the ability to search anonymously to found sites using its Ixquick proxy server, so users can connect to Web sites without passing any identifiable information along to them, including their IP address and information stored in cookies. Users can connect to a site directly, or click a “proxy” link below search results to connect anonymously.

“People are more concerned about online data retention policies than ever before,” said StartPage CEO Robert Beens. “We wanted to offer them a useful tool and this proxy is a logical extension of our services. A search engine is a starting point for people to visit other pages. Now our users can take the privacy they get with Startpage to the next step, and go privately to the sites they have found as well. This proxy completes the total search privacy picture.”

Well, it does and it doesn’t: while StartPage’s proxy service does prevent remote sites from setting browser cookies and recording a user’s IP address (instead, sites see the IP address of StartPage’s proxy service) plug-ins and other technologies can still get to users through the Ixquick proxy. For instance, Adobe’s Flash offers Local Shared Objects that can be used in manners similar to browser cookies; in fact, some online metrics firms, advertisers, and content companies use them as way to profile users and even as backups for browser cookies in the event a user is savvy enough to delete them to protect their privacy. Nonetheless, StartPage’s proxy service does offer users protections that simply aren’t available with any other search service: combined with appropriate client-side technologies (like advertising and flash blockers), users can take significant steps towards maintaining their online privacy.

Users may also find that sites visited via the Ixquick proxy don’t render the same as they do via a direct connection. There are many possible reasons for discrepancies, most of which have to do with how the site has been developed. The Ixquick proxy strips Javascript code from visited sites; it also won’t load frames hosted on another domain or enable users to fill out text-based forms. Users may also notice sites loading more slowly, since StartPage has to mediate all the requests.

StartPage says it has been profitable for the last five years, and earns its money through online advertising, just like any other search engine. However, the advertising is presented on the basis of Web site content compared to searches, not on the basis of users’ activity, search history, or compiled online profiles.

(Related: FTC privacy report calls for ‘do not track’ and data broker disclosure)

Technorati Tags: Big Brother,Communication,Knowledge Is Power,Solutions,Stand Up,Wake Up,Watch the Other Hand|Tagged Big Brother,FTC,Internet,Internet Policing,privacy,private browsing,StartPage

Red Alert: Draconian CISPA Bill Picking Up Sponsors Ahead of Vote Next Week

Kurt Nimmo  -  Infowars.com  -  April 19, 2012

Video:  Red Alert – Draconian CISPA Bill Picking Up Sponsors Ahead of Vote Next Week

CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, is picking up sponsors and it looks like the legislation will make it to the House floor for a vote next week. CISPA emerged from the House Intelligence Committee with an overwhelming vote of 17-1.

When Pelosi says “special interests,” she means the interests of those opposed to establishment Democrats. Clear Channel is a corporation. So is Fox News. There are thousands of websites, newspapers, think tanks and political action committees that Pelosi and the Democrats consider corporations.

In Citizens v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that the free speech of corporations is protected by the First Amendment. Corporations that produce political books, documentaries, and other materials have the same freedom of speech rights as individuals.

See Video:  Nancy Pelosi Wants to Amend the First Amendment

Pelosi and the Democrats want a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling. It is part of a “three-pronged strategy that also includes promoting the DISCLOSE Act, which would increase disclosure requirements for organizations running political ads,” writes Terence P. Jeffrey of CNSNews.

In order to sell the scheme, Pelosi and the Democrats have tied it to campaign finance reform.

“We have a clear agenda in this regard: Disclose, reform the system reducing the roll of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money flowing to campaigns,” Pelosi said on Thursday.

In ruling in favor if a First Amendment right for corporations, the “Supreme Court had unleashed a predator that was oozing slime into the political system, and that, indeed, is not an exaggeration,” said Pelosi. “Our Founders had an idea. It was called democracy. It said elections are determined by the people, the voice and the vote of the people, not by the bankrolls of the privileged few. This Supreme Court decision flies in the face of our Founders’ vision and we want to reverse it.”

Pelosi was joined by the usual suspects, including People for the American Way and Common Cause.

Both are globalist assets: People for the American Way is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers (Republican Progressives and Globalists) and Common Cause is a Soros operation.

Video ALERT:  CISPA Another Fascist Takeover of the Internet

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Not up on CISPA???

CISPA: Son Of SOPA Threatens Internet Freedom

Originally Posted April 5, 2012 - By Michael Patrickson – Addicting Info

Congress is trying to censor the Internet, again. Only months after SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was defeated by an online popular uprising, a new bill is quietly working its way through Congress; a bill that threatens the future of the Internet, a bill that threatens everyone’s digital rights.

CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523), is a draconian measure that would allow the feds and other corporate interests to monitor and even censor online activity without due process or even probable cause.

If passed, the legislation would give companies and the government new powers to monitor and censor communications, all in the name of “cybersecurity.” In particular, the legislation could be used to silence whistleblower websites like WikiLeaks.

CISPA, H.R. 3523, is meant “to provide for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cybersecurity entities, and for other purposes.”

According to a press release issued last week, the bill already has over a 100 congressional co-sponsors. CISPA is currently enjoying wide bi-partisan support, as did SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, the Protect IP Act, which came before.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online advocacy group, reports:

“(CISPA) would let companies spy on users and share private information with the federal government and other companies with near-total immunity from civil and criminal liability. It effectively creates a ‘cybersecurity’ exemption to all existing laws.”

Indeed, critics complain the legislation is so broad and vague that almost anything might be monitored and censored in the name of “cybersecurity.” Under CISPA, Internet service providers and other companies could be forced to share user data with government agencies and others with apparently no restriction on what can be collected and how it can be used, provided the action is motivated by “cybersecurity.”

Such entities as Google, Facebook, Twitter and others would be allowed to intercept your emails and text messages, send copies to one another and to the government, and modify those communications or prevent them from reaching their destination, all in the nebulous name of “cybersecurity.”

Here’s the video:

Congress wants to use the threat of “cybersecurity” to undermine our digital rights. Tell your lawmakers that we won’t stand for dangerous, unsupervised information sharing in this bill or any bill like it. Take action. Follow the link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and let your Representatives know: Don’t Let Congress Use “Cybersecurity” Fears to Erode Digital Rights.

Please call, fax and email you congressperson today and tell them no on CISPA and then help flood Congress with faxes and calls.