An Internal Revenue Service manager and self-described conservative Republican said the close scrutiny of tea party groups' tax forms originated in his Cincinnati IRS office and not in Washington, according to a full transcript of his interview by congressional investigators released Tuesday.
John Shafer, who oversaw a small group of IRS workers who screen applications for tax-exempt status, told the investigators that the initial tea party application was spotted by one of his workers in February 2010.
Shafer said he decided to send it to higher-ranking supervisors because it was unclear whether the group would qualify for the tax exemption and because of the media attention the conservative groups were garnering at the time.
Managers in the IRS' Exempt Organizations office in Washington ended up expressing interest in the case, he said. Shafer said it was normal to pay careful attention to such cases to make sure similar applications are treated the same way.

Asked in the June 6 interview whether he believed the White House was behind the decision to target conservative groups, Shafer said: "I have no reason to believe that."
Shafer, a 21-year IRS veteran who told his questioners that he is a conservative Republican, said that after the IRS Exempt Organizations office in Washington expressed interest in the first tea party case, he decided to ask his screeners look for similar applications.
"Consistency, you know, is paramount in what we're doing, so that is a big factor in a decision to do this," he told the investigators. "Equally so was that this was identified by" the Exempt Organizations office "as something they felt was appropriately in their domain," he said.
That office was headed until recently by Lois Lerner, who revealed the targeting in a public apology last month that ignited the uproar over the IRS. She has been replaced and put on administrative leave.
Shafer said he told his screeners to look for similar cases but not to collect them simply because they had "tea party" in their name. One of those screeners, Gary Muthert, told congressional investigators in a separate interview that his supervisor told him to look for applicants with "tea party" in their name because Washington wanted them.

Roger Dorn wrote:http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/306415-us-to-open-peace-talks-with-taliban

Obama Administration to begin peace talks with Taliban. I support this, anything to end our presence in Afghanistan

Overall, Montgomery County was ranked 35th healthiest county for children in the country, and was the only county in Pennsylvania in the rankings.

The survey took into account many child-friendly data including fewer infant deaths, fewer low-birth-weight babies, fewer deaths from injuries, fewer teen births, and fewer children in poverty. Montgomery County ranked well above the median in virtually every category.

Bucky wrote:bin-go

Bucky wrote:

Overall, Montgomery County was ranked 35th healthiest county for children in the country, and was the only county in Pennsylvania in the rankings.

The survey took into account many child-friendly data including fewer infant deaths, fewer low-birth-weight babies, fewer deaths from injuries, fewer teen births, and fewer children in poverty. Montgomery County ranked well above the median in virtually every category.

one of these things is not like the other

not sure if this is a morality power play in there or there's a legit reason

please advise

pacino wrote:51st richest county in the country has good medical services. NEWSFLASH

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly launched a stinging rebuke to the federal government’s secret phone and Internet monitoring campaign — and suggested leaker Edward Snowden was right about privacy “abuse.”

“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret,” Kelly said today, breaking ranks with US law-enforcement officials

“I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and it goes to the government,” Kelly said. “I think the public can understand that. I see no reason why that program was placed in the secret category.”

“Secondly, I think if you listen to Snowden, he indicates that there’s some sort of malfeasance, people . . . sitting around and watching the data. So I think the question is: What sort of oversight is there inside the [National Security Agency] NSA to prevent that abuse, if it’s taking place?”

The NYPD secretly spied on Muslim organizations, infiltrated Muslim student group and videotaped mosque-goers in New Jersey for years, it was revealed in 2012. The NYPD said its actions were lawful and necessary to keep the city safe.

Roger Dorn wrote:http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/306415-us-to-open-peace-talks-with-taliban

Obama Administration to begin peace talks with Taliban. I support this, anything to end our presence in Afghanistan

The Afghan government stalled the peace process with the U.S. on Wednesday, citing what it says is an American contradiction between what it says and what it does.

A statement from the Afghan National Security Council appeared on the website of President Hamid Karzai confirming the government of Afghanistan would suspend the ongoing talks in Kabul over the Bilateral Security Agreement. This agreement will define the post-2014 coalition presence in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdraws all combat troops.
The news comes less than a day after the U.S. confirmed it would begin peace talks with the Taliban later this week in Doha, Qatar.

"In view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the Peace Process, the Afghan government suspended the negotiations," according to the statement. It did not provide details for this decision.

A senior White House official said Tuesday that the Taliban had confirmed it will participate in the peace process and denounced the use of Afghanistan as a base for international terrorist operations. The level of trust between Afghans and Taliban fighters is "extremely low, as one would expect," the official said

jerseyhoya wrote:

For the love of god

pacino wrote:

Roger Dorn wrote:http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/306415-us-to-open-peace-talks-with-taliban

Obama Administration to begin peace talks with Taliban. I support this, anything to end our presence in Afghanistan

less than a day later:

The Afghan government stalled the peace process with the U.S. on Wednesday, citing what it says is an American contradiction between what it says and what it does.

A statement from the Afghan National Security Council appeared on the website of President Hamid Karzai confirming the government of Afghanistan would suspend the ongoing talks in Kabul over the Bilateral Security Agreement. This agreement will define the post-2014 coalition presence in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdraws all combat troops.
The news comes less than a day after the U.S. confirmed it would begin peace talks with the Taliban later this week in Doha, Qatar.

"In view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the Peace Process, the Afghan government suspended the negotiations," according to the statement. It did not provide details for this decision.

A senior White House official said Tuesday that the Taliban had confirmed it will participate in the peace process and denounced the use of Afghanistan as a base for international terrorist operations. The level of trust between Afghans and Taliban fighters is "extremely low, as one would expect," the official said

President Barack Obama's approval rating dropped eight percentage points over the past month, to 45%, the president's lowest rating in more than a year and a half, according to a new national poll.

The drop in Obama's support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Obama's approval rating on terrorism, although still above 50%, has taken a 13-point hit since mid-May. By contrast, his approval rating on domestic issues such as the economy, immigration and the deficit only dropped by two to four points, within the poll's sampling error.

Forty-three percent of the public says that the Obama administration has gone too far in restricting civil liberties to fight terrorism, with 38% saying the administration has been about right and 17% saying it has not gone far enough.

"That's roughly the same reaction that the public had to the Bush administration in 2006 when the details of a similar program to gather phone records were made public," says Holland.

Fifty-one percent say the current NSA program to gather phone records is the right thing to do. By comparison, 54% felt that way about the Bush-era program back in 2006. Two thirds say they feel that the current NSA program on Internet usage is right.

More than six in 10 say the government has collected their phone or Internet data. What is the government doing with all of this information?

Just 8% of all Americans think the government has collected their personal data and is using it to investigate them. Just over half say they think the government has collected their data and stored it somewhere without analyzing it, and one third say they believe that government has not collected and stored any of their personal phone or Internet records.

Americans’ confidence in Congress as an institution is down to 10%, ranking the legislative body last on a list of 16 societal institutions for the fourth straight year. This is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record

"Conservatives, at 21 percent, are slightly more likely to approve of Congress than liberals and moderates, among whom approval of Congress is just 13 to 14 percent," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "If you dislike an activist government, as many conservatives do, you're probably more willing to accept the go-slow approach that this Congress has been following. But that doesn't make the current Congress popular among conservatives -- eight in ten conservatives also disapprove of what's been happening on Capitol Hill this year."

pacino wrote:bye bye base:

A new poll from Pew Research suggests that President Obama has largely weathered the scandals and controversies of recent weeks without taking a hit to his approval rating — despite a recently released CNN poll suggesting just the opposite.