All this time I thought Lois Lerner had incriminating information. Now I believe she has presidency-ending information. #DeleteGate
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) June 14, 2014
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”
What’s the big deal? It’s just a few minutes of tape.
You don’t say! A veteran IT professional tells TheBlaze that the IRS’ claim that the agency lost two years’ worth of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails is “simply not feasible.”
Timing Is Everything
It’s a real headscratcher: Tanks, of Unknown Origin, Roll Into Ukraine
Let Me Fix That Headline For You
Cursed Are The Cheesemakers
For they shall inherit Obama’s Food Safety Modernization Act;
A sense of disbelief and distress is quickly rippling through the U.S. artisan cheese community, as the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced it will not permit American cheesemakers to age cheese on wooden boards.
[…]
“The very pillar that we built our niche business on is the ability to age our cheese on wood planks, an art that has been practiced in Europe for thousands of years,” Roelli says. Not allowing American cheesemakers to use this practice puts them “at a global disadvantage because the flavor produced by aging on wood can not be duplicated. This is a major game changer for the dairy industry in Wisconsin, and many other states.”
As if this weren’t all bad enough, the FDA has also “clarified” – I’m really beginning to dislike that word – that in accordance with FSMA, a cheesemaker importing cheese to the United States is subject to the same rules and inspection procedures as American cheesemakers.
I don’t know why they’re surprised – it’s completely consistent with this administration.
The Letter “D” Went Missing From All Their Keyboards
The Congressional Budget Office says it is no longer possible to assess the overall fiscal impact of Obamacare.
When The Narrative Fails
…bring on the Alinsky: White House smears vets, claims ‘swift boating’ of Bergdahl
More from Ralph Peters – Why Team Obama Was Blindsided by the Bergdahl Backlash
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Don’t attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice;
Today the Environmental Protection Agency released a long-anticipated rule proposal that seeks by 2030 to reduce America’s carbon dioxide emissions 30% from 2005 levels. (The full proposal can be found here.)
The primary mechanism for the reduction will be tough emissions limits on coal-fired power plants. The effect of the rule will most likely be the dramatic expansion of natural gas as a fuel for power generation. When burned, gas emits just half the carbon of coal.
States will have until June 30, 2016 (with the potential for some extensions) to come up with a plan on how to implement the rule and reduce their average emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity. If they refuse to play ball — as Texas Gov. Rick Perry has threatened — the EPA says it will impose its own plan.
[…]
More bad news? Costs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce figures the plan could scotch $50 billion a year in GDP and prevent the creation of more than 220,000 jobs per year. The hit to household disposable income would be more than $550 billion a year.
The Green Police
While 30 men in SWAT attire dispatched from Homeland Security and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cart away about half a million dollars of wood and guitars, seven armed agents interrogate an employee without benefit of a lawyer. The next day Juszkiewicz receives a letter warning that he cannot touch any guitar left in the plant, under threat of being charged with a separate federal offense for each “violation,” punishable by a jail term.
[…]
Gibson’s very success made it a fat target for federal prosecutors, whom Juszkiewicz alleges were operating at the behest of lumber unions and environmental pressure groups seeking to kill the market for lumber imports. “This case was not about conservation,” he says. “It was basically protectionism.”
Two months before the raid, lobbyists slipped some arcane supply-chain reporting provisions into an extension of the Lacey Act of 1900 that changed the technical definition of “fingerboard blanks,” which are legal to import.
With no clear legal standards, a sealed warrant the company has not been allowed to see too this day, no formal charges filed, and the threat of a prison term hanging over any executive who does not take “due care” to abide by this absurdly vague law, Gibson settled. “You’re fighting a very well organized political machine in the unions,” Juszkiewicz concluded. “And the conservation guys have sort of gone along.” Hey, what’s not to like about $50,000?
Forward.
Under The Ambulance
Eric K. Shinseki has resigned as secretary of veterans affairs, taking responsibility for imposing Canadian style health care on American veterans.
“I think he’s deeply disappointed in the fact that bad news did not get to him,” Obama said. “His priority now is to make sure that happens, and he felt like the new leadership would serve our veterans better, and I agreed with him.”
Earlier Friday, Shinseki gave no indication that he intended to resign, despite growing calls for him to step down because of the scandal.
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Tens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents or relatives are flooding across the southern U.S. border illegally, forcing the Obama administration and Congress to grapple with both a humanitarian crisis and a budget dilemma.
An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Washington is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing and transportation once they are taken into custody.
The flow is expected to grow.
All is proceeding according to plan.
(via)
A More Perfect Requisition Order
Via email;
In my capacity as Director of a Manufacturing firm I received the following from one of our US customers.
I’ve removed any info that could indicate my, or their, company.
The depths that the Obama administration has gone to for diversity, is Orwellian.
The interference into private businesses personal lives is unbelievable.
It’s clearly stated that failure to give them this highly personal info would cost us any
further business.
We did not comply.
Is There Nothing The Obamas Can’t Do?
A series of emails disclosed this week indicate that officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) don’t particularly like conservative reporters and in at least one case told a scientist to lie in order to avoid answering questions.
The Daily Caller discovered this after being subject to one of the federal agency’s “freeze-outs.” The right-wing website was skeptical of a CDC study that purported to show obesity rates in 2- to 5-year-olds dropping by 43 percent, and of subsequent claims that First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign played a role in the decline.
If obesity has dropped, it’s due to food inflation.
Forward!
Because a cow can deliver a nasty kick. (h/t Occam)
Forward!
Next month, if all goes according to plan, the Environmental Protection Agency will launch the most serious assault on American business since the 1970’s. New regulatiosn governing the release of Carbon Dioxide will hit every corner of the economy, causing your electric bill to skyrocket (as promised by candidate Obama) and adding billions in costs to manufacturers and other businesses that generate CO2.
Gaslighting
You’re not crazy.
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”
Rogue employee: New documents obtained and released through a Judicial Watch lawsuit show the targeting of tea party and conservative groups came directly out of Washington D.C… (link fixed!)
h/t Melinda Romanoff
Forward!
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe or folding, magazine – 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.
Probably nothing.
h/t peterj
How’s That Hopey Changey Thing Working Out For Ya?
Rationing: Not a bug, but a feature!
“We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,” said Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, an insurer in Golden Valley, Minn., that is owned by two health systems and a physician group. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”
Related: Obamacare contractor pays workers to sit at computer & press refresh
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”
The acting deputy U.S. attorney general in charge of overseeing “public integrity” prosecutions testified Friday that he doesn’t know who’s in charge of the criminal investigation of Lois Lerner, the former IRS official at the center of the tea-party targeting scandal.
David O’Neil, whose job atop the DOJ’s criminal division puts him in charge of public corruption prosecutions, told Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan that he also doesn’t know how many prosecutors are assigned to the case, or how many attorneys from his division are working on it.