Where Are My Keys?

Think some gums will begin to flap at the IRS?

I do. 

True the Vote is not only suing the IRS, but also going after the individual employees that messed with their applications:

True the Vote is not only suing the IRS, but also taking action against the IRS employees who participated in the harassment of the voter education and election monitoring organization. Those employees could personally be held liable to pay damages that would be established in litigation.

True the Votes’ lead counsel, Cleta Mitchell, explained in an email to The Daily Caller that she does not know whether the employees, if found to be liable in the lawsuit True the Vote filed against the IRS and its employees Tuesday, would pay out of pocket or take other avenues such as accessing union funds or homeowners insurance. Either way, she noted, the group will pursue its action.

...

Mitchell explained that through this lawsuit they hope to get real answers.

“We hope to get through discovery the answers to the questions of what they were doing, why they were doing it, who was doing it, and by naming these individual agents assigned to True the Vote’s case or application, we’ll find out who told them what it was that they were supposed to be doing,” she added.

“Once the IRS denies an application then you have the remedy to take that denial to federal court and have it reviewed by the court and either affirmed or overturned. But just holding all these 501(c)(4) organizations’ applications in limbo, it denied the groups the opportunity to go to court and have the court sort it out. So all the 501(c)(4) organizations, and there were hundreds of them, are still sitting out there. Those applications have not been granted for most of the organizations who applied since this unlawful process was put in place by the IRS, so this is not in the past tense,” she said.

Anyone whose name True the Vote knew, who had potentially touched the group’s application is named in the suit, Mitchell said.  She added that as they learn of more individuals who were involved, True the Vote and its lawyers will add those people to the suit as well.

Engelbrecht has explained that since filing the group’s application, her family and family business have been audited by the IRS twice, subject to two unscheduled audits by ATF, one by OSHA, and the Texas-branch of the EPA.

I like the move. 

Watch how quickly the rats leave the ship, and sell out their supervisors with plea deals.  The "I only did what I did because I was ordered to do so" defense may work for the employee(s) in the trenches, but likely won't fly with Management.

Shit just got real.  Look for this tactic to get repeated by others groups that were illegally targeted.

Eugene Robinson(!) recognizes what Obama has done..

And yet many Lefties still think it is no big deal.

The Obama administration has no business rummaging through journalists’ phone records, perusing their e-mails and tracking their movements in an attempt to keep them from gathering news. This heavy-handed business isn’t chilling, it’s just plain cold.

It also may well be unconstitutional. In my reading, the First Amendment prohibition against “abridging the freedom . . . of the press” should rule out secretly obtaining two months’ worth of the personal and professional phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, including calls to and from the main AP phone number at the House press gallery in the Capitol. Yet this is what the Justice Department did.

...

In both instances, prosecutors were trying to build criminal cases under the 1917 Espionage Act against federal employees suspected of leaking classified information. Before President Obama took office, the Espionage Act had been used to prosecute leakers a grand total of three times, including the 1971 case of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Obama’s Justice Department has used the act six times. And counting.

Robinson (to his credit) even acknowledges that Eviiiiil George Bush did nothing even remotely close to this, even though he would have had plenty of opportunities:

If this had been the view of prior administrations, surely Bob Woodward would be a lifer in some federal prison. The cell next door might be occupied by my Post colleague Dana Priest, who disclosed the CIA’s network of secret prisons. Or by the New York Times’ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, who revealed the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping program.

A federal “shield” law protecting reportersfrom having to divulge their sources means nothing if it includes an exception for cases involving national security, as Obama favors. The president needs to understand that behavior commonly known as “whistleblowing” and “journalism” must not be construed as espionage.

I'm sure Robinson will cool down, and eventually get back on the Obama Administration bandwagon, but it is encouraging to see that some on the Left can see overreach from their own side from time to time.

More shady dealings by the IRS?

It's starting to look like the IRS has some significant systemic failings:

The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.

According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data.  

 

"This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service agents," the complaint reads. "No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no subpoena authorized the seizure of these records; none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS search. IT personnel at the scene, a HIPPA facility warning on the building and the IT portion of the searched premises, and the company executives each warned the IRS agents of these privileged records," it continued.

 

According to the case, the IRS agents had a search warrant for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the John Doe company, however, "it did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter," the complaint read. 

 

The class action lawsuit against the IRS seeks $25,000 in compensatory damages "per violation per individual" in addition to punitive damages for constitutional violations.  Thus, compensatory damages could start at a minimum of $250 billion.

(emphasis mine)

People need to go to jail.

When is an unborn child a life?

In Ohio, you have to ask the mother:

My goodness me, we’re confused on the issue of life. Ariel Castro, it seems, could be executed for his crimes. Not for rape or kidnapping — the nonsense of Coker v. Georgia took care of that — but for “aggravated murder.” Per USA Today, the prosecution’s report,

alleges that Castro impregnated Knight five times, forced her to starve for weeks at a time and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried. Castro, the report said, also forced Knight to deliver Berry’s baby in a plastic kiddie pool and threatened to murder Knight if the newborn died.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Ohio law treats unborn children as potential murderees:

Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2903.01 et seq defines aggravated murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, felonious assault, aggravated assault, assault and negligent assault. The law applies to a person, which includes an “unborn member of the species Homo sapiens, who is or was carried in the womb of another.

Castro could thus be executed for the “murder” of these unborn children. 

Yet abortion is legal in Ohio, as everywhere else in the United States. This means that if you kill an unborn child in Ohio with the mother’s permission, it’s okay; if you do it without her permission, it’s murder. The unborn child, therefore, is only a life if the mother says it is a life.

Interesting "logic" in Ohio.

Screwed up priorities..

So your teenage daughter isn't smart enough to make her own choices when it comes to what size soda she drinks, but she is smart enough to make decisions on terminating a pregnancy.

Got it.

As an aside, will the Pharmacist or cashier ask for ID from the purchaser?

Probably not, because we know that asking for ID is tantamount to racism, as minorities don't have ID (which I have been told over and over and over by Democrats). 

What if the girl in question is 14 years, and 50 weeks old?  If the Pharmacist allows her to buy the pill, he is presumably breaking the law (as is she).  If he doesn't, he's now punished the girl (in the words of the President) with a baby that could have been prevented, had it not been for her age.

Where exactly does a 15-year old get an ID, anyway?  Too young to drive a car, and since school ID's don't typically say the child'sage/birthdate, how will the Pharmacist know how old she is?

What happens if a 17-year old buys the pills, and then gives them to a 13-year old?  If that happened with cigarettes or beer, there are legal ramifications.  Will there be similar laws for this?  If not, why not?

Lots of questions, and those are just the first ones that rolled off the top of my brain.  I'm sure there are additional ones that will come with more thought.

Disgusting abuse of power..

 

Why was he arrested?  Mr. Grisham will soon be winning a large sum of money from the State of Texas.

Great tools available to the authorities in Boston..

Time, good old fashioned police work, and a hand from technology will likely shed light on who the bomber(s) are, and how the devices were planted:

 

But now the hunt is on for the perpetrators. "More importantly, the cameras show what happened before the explosion," says Tom Thurman, former chief of the FBI Bomb Data Center. "They'll find out how long the available video has been running and use it to go back in time." That way police can see who planted the devices—and how he or they triggered it.

While New York City and London have the best-known networks, Boston is also saturated with cameras. A couple years ago the ACLU of Massachusetts filed a public records request for information about the City of Boston's surveillance camera network, and the details they were given describe a fairly sweeping network.

Nine cities—Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Quincy, Somerville and Winthrop—are all interconnected, and the system is designed to instantly share surveillance images between the municipalities.

If the bomber(s) took public transportation, there's a good chance those steps can be retraced through video footage. As of 2012 there were nearly 500 cameras in the subway alone, and more on busses. If they drove, cameras on bridges and tolls could help retrace a perp's steps leading up to the bomb's placement.

The cameras are pretty slick and the information on them is available immediately—they transmit data wirelessly via an Internet connection. "Stored video can be easily shared with other [Police Departments] over standard web browsers using a system protected by a basic username and password," the ACLU says.

Nice work, Colorado Democrats..

Way to write a bill so poorly, that you turn gun range employees into criminals:

A few years ago, I noticed a husband trying to teach his wife to shoot a handgun. This was not a good situation. To the relief of both of them, I interceded. The husband was glad that I took over and he quickly faded to the background. I instructed his wife one step at a time how to hold the gun, aim, and shoot. By the way, women are a delight to teach because first they listen and then they often outshoot me. She was ecstatic when she placed all her shots in the bullseye. I could see her confidence swell. I felt terrific because I had taught another person how to be a safe and accurate shooter.

Under HB13-1224, my assistance as a range officer will make me a criminal.

HB13-1224 requires that the owner of an ammunition magazine be in “continual possession” of a magazine that can hold over 15 rounds of ammunition, or be “readily converted” to hold over 15 rounds. This law will apply to almost all magazines, including the magazine used by the husband and wife. In fact, under this proposed law, all three of us would have been criminals because the original owner of the magazine was no longer in “continuous possession” of the magazine and two other individuals had it in their possession during training. Three of us would have committed Class 2 Misdemeanors, even though they were training with the magazine designed for the gun.

Now you may be thinking, “But what are the chances of law enforcement seeing that happen?” Well, first, I don’t want to break the law. And law enforcement officers are also members of shooting ranges. There could have been an off duty police officer who could have seen me assisting the woman. By witnessing the exchange of the magazine, he would have witnessed criminal activity. We all could have been ticketed or arrested.

Interesting, isn't it?

In one State a measure is passed that restricts something guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is hailed as progressive, modern, and absolutely required for the safety of children.

In another State a law is passed that restricts something guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is hailed as backwards, stupid, unenforceable, and even though it affect children's live, doesn't mention them.

In the second linked piece, make sure to read the comments, and exchange the word "gun/magazine" for the word "abortion".  I think you will find both sides of both issues make the other sides arguments for them.

Not to worry, no gun grabs going on here..

Here's the reality in Colorado:

Brophy says if Democrats succeed in passing a bill limiting large capacity magazines in Colorado, they’ll outlaw the most popular selling firearm for hunting.

“Hundreds of thousands of pheasant hunters are probably going to be carrying around a gun they won’t be able to replace after July 1 this year,” he said.

Brophy points to a section of the bill that defines a high-capacity magazine as one capable of accepting or — that can be readily converted — to accept more than 15 rounds or eight shotgun shells.

“This is where shotgun shells go inside this tube here,” Brophy showed Boyd, “You can screw this part off the top and screw on an extender to this tube to allow it to hold more than eight rounds. It is readily convertible, which by definition in the bill, makes the whole thing a high-capacity magazine.”

Under the 1994 federal ban manufacturers redesigned the gun so the barrel couldn’t be extended. Brophy says it’s unlikely they’d do the same just for Colorado.

“I don’t know if anybody is going to make guns specifically for the five million people living in Colorado,” he said. “We just might not be able to legally purchase a pump shotgun or a semi-automatic shotgun.”

Or sell, transfer or even lend one.

“The law is specific as of July 1. You can keep it, but only if you maintain continuous possession of it,” Brophy said. “If it breaks, you can’t give to a gunsmith even to fix it. You can’t hand it to your son to use. It’s all now outlawed because of this 1224, the bill that Gov. Hickenlooper says he’s going to sign … this is most extreme thing anybody’s ever done related to firearms.”

Boyd asked Senate Democrats about Brophy’s concerns. They sent her a statement saying an amendment dealing with thats issue is currently being drafted and will be presented in a committee hearing Monday. What that amendment looks like and whether it passes remains to be seen.

Reminds me of Obamacare, and the gun bill passed in New York.  These Democrats are in such a rush to get anything passed, they don't take the time to consider there should be some exceptions.

Slow down, and do your job correctly.