[DAILYCALLER] Embattled IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram made 155 visits to the White House to meet with a top Obama White House official with whom she exchanged confidential taxpayer information over email.
Of Ingram's 165 White House meetings with White House staff, a staggering 155 of them were hosted by deputy assistant to the president for health policy Jeanne Lambrew, according to a June Watchdog.Org analysis of White House visitor records.
Ingram exchanged confidential taxpayer information with Lambrew and White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (RELATED: White House, IRS exchanged confidential taxpayer info)
The White House recently took down visitor logs recording details of these meetings, citing the government shutdown.
Ingram headed the scandal-plagued IRS office that oversaw tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012, when she left to take over the IRS office in charge of Obamacare implementation.
Former IRS Exempt Organizations division director Lois Lerner, who apologized for improperly scrutinizing tax-exempt applications of conservative groups between 2010 and 2012, also received an email alongside Ingram, Lambrew and Montz that contained confidential information.
In 2012, Ingram attempted to counsel the White House on a lawsuit from religious organizations opposing Obamacare's contraception mandate.
The emails provided to Oversight Sherlocks by the IRS had numerous redactions with the signifier "6103."
Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code forbids a federal employee from "disclos[ing] any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee."
The "6103″ signifiers were repeatedly added to the emails in instances in which the officials were referring to the names of groups or organizations, according to a reading of the redacted emails.
Federal employees who illegally disclose confidential taxpayer information could face five years in prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Wasn't an accident now was it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/12/2013 0:32 Comments ||
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On Saturday, the barricades at Utahs Natural Bridges National Monument disappeared, allowing visitors to return to the tourist draw despite the government shutdown. They also came down at Colorados Rocky Mountain National Park, Arizonas Grand Canyon and New Yorks Statue of Liberty. The One taketh away, and The One giveth back.
What began as a sort of modern Sagebrush Rebellion with Utah county commissioners threatening to bring in a posse and dismantle federal barricades themselves has become an intense negotiation between Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and governors across the country eager to reopen public lands that generate valuable tourism revenue. See? That's why you don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
National Park Service director Jarvis signed an agreement in which Utah provides nearly $1.7 million for 10 days of operation at eight federal properties: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks, along with Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Cedar Breaks and Natural Bridges national monuments.
Colorado signed a similar pact, offering to pay the federal government $362,700 to reopen Rocky Mountain National Park for 10 days. Arizona will pay $651,000 to operate the Grand Canyon for seven days, while New York agreed to pay $369,300 to reopen the Statue of Liberty for six days. South Dakota will reopen Mount Rushmore on Monday, paying $152,000 to operate it for 10 days. Heaven knows the Feds couldn't find that kind of money when they were about to default on their credit card!
While the Park Service had originally resisted the idea of accepting donations from outside groups or individual states to reopen sites, the Interior Department reversed course as the shutdown dragged on and the Trunks began to waver and state and local leaders warned that their economies were in peril. Five Utah counties declared a state of emergency after the parks closures.
During the last series of federal shutdowns in 1995 and 1996, only one national park Grand Canyon was allowed to reopen after then-Gov. Fife Symington (R) mobilized the state National Guard and threatened to physically take over parts of the South Rim. Bruce Babbitt, then the Interior secretary, negotiated an agreement under which Arizona raised state and private funds to operate the park for a month. Babbitt was himself from Arizona. One brother was governor and the other one was a Coconino County Commissioner. I had a brief conversation with the other one circa 1985.
Rob Arnberger, who served as Grand Canyons superintendent between 1994 and 2000, said he received a call from Jarvis at the beginning of the week trying to recollect what happened in the mid-1990s so Interior could include the same legal requirements. Arnberger noted that federal officials insisted on being shielded from any legal liability during the shutdown and insisted an entire park rather than portions of it be reopened. Sounds like "My way or the highway" to me!
Arnberger, who hails from a three-generation Park Service family, said he was disappointed that some of the politicians pushing hardest for the parks seem to value only the tourist dollars they draw. What about Petrified Forest National Park? What about Saguaro National Park? he asked. I find it distressful the discussion of parks focuses only on their economic value. I suppose he thinks we should've opened up some inaccessible park because it had more intrinsic (i.e., liberal) value. How else does one measure value, except with a dollar, you dolt? Dollars is also roughly equivalent to the number of visitors, birdbrain.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2013 13:54 ||
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there needs to be a purge of the NPS heads and management that took so much glee and effort to make OUR parks off-limits. The proles have rights too, and you just squandered a LOT of good will and respect for your brownshirt antics.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2013 14:52 Comments ||
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The federal health-care exchange that opened a dozen days ago is marred by snags beyond the widely publicized computer gridlock that has thwarted Americans trying to buy a health plan. Insurers sometimes cant tell who their new customers are because of a separate set of computer defects. I know you computer dweebs at the 'Burg are shocked. I'll try to break the news gently.
The problems stem from a feature of the online marketplaces computer system that is designed to send each insurer a daily report listing people who have just enrolled. According to several insurance industry officials, the reports are sometimes confusing and duplicative. In some cases, they show correctly or not that the same person enrolled and canceled several times on a single day. Prolly thought they were voting.
The flawed enrollment reports illustrate that the site is bedeviled by problems that go beyond what the Obama administration has acknowledged in explaining the creaky performance of the exchange so far. At the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, officials have portrayed the exchange as a victim of its own popularity, although no one can count the people who couldn't get in, nor how many times each tried, and there is no way to separate them or even know if Karl Rove hit it with a denial of service attack with a larger-than-expected crush of Americans rushing to a Web site that wasnt tested built to accommodate so many people at once. Bad specs, designed to fail, no one understood clogging the I/O, or they really expected just a few folks to sing up for the free stuff?
Evidence is emerging from the insurance industry and elsewhere, however, that the exchange also has flaws that show up further along in the process as consumers try to check whether they qualify for federal subsidies and as insurers try to find out who has enrolled.
"Its a glitch that . . . needs to be fixed, said a spokesman for the plan, who, like most insurers interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing the Obama administration and getting punished by the IRS and National Park Service goons. Compounding the confusion, these electronic enrollment files are missing a critical element that they were built to include: a time stamp that would let a health plan track whether a consumers last step on the site was to actually sign up. Whoa! THAT'S dumb!
Starting Thursday, a new tool points consumers more directly to a list of the health plans in their community and sample prices. Before, this information was on the site only in an Excel spreadsheet that was hard to find and to understand. Like an 'overview'? Brilliant!
Obama administration officials insisted that this was not a major change to the Web site, because consumers still need to create an account to find out about subsidies and the specific costs of various health plans for people their age. 279,487,328 minor tweaks, but no "major" changes, thank gawd!
One insurance industry official familiar with the daily reports said that they rely on relatively old technology. Rather than transmitting a file whenever a consumer enrolls, the reports are sent to each insurance carrier in a daily batch at 6 p.m. How mainframe!
Also, the reports contain a stack for each consumer, so that if a person picks a health plan, then retypes his or her phone number, two reports are generated. Withouta time stamp. So maybe the unenrolled first, then enrolled?
The confusion begins with the screen that lets them create a user name. It asks users to Choose a user name that is 6-74 characters long and must contain a lowercase or capital letter, a number, or one of these symbols _.@/-. It has been unclear to some whether they need a letter plus a number or symbol, or whether letters or numbers or symbols are sufficient.
Some consumers are discovering they cannot erase profiles they created by mistake, while others are encountering error messages telling them that profiles they created do not exist. Still others find that when they click on a button to move to another screen, they cannot tell whether the system is stuck or simply slow, because the site does not show them an hourglass or any other sign that a step is underway. GOTTA be designed to fail!
James Turner, a software engineer from Derry, N.H., said he has spent seven hours since Oct. 2 trying to enroll but keeps encountering issues that make have made it impossible for him to complete the application. Turner, 51, one of a number of software engineers who have written online critiques of the system, said the most infuriating one involves his wife. According to the system, he said, I have four spouses. He said it has been impossible to delete the phantom family members from his profile. But he's only a software engineer, not a never-been-employed typical enrollee.
Some Americans, however, are managing to enroll. Norbert Crabtree, 46, an accounting consultant in South Carolina, logged on to healthcare.gov at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and finished enrolling about 90 minutes later. The main hitch, he said, was that they were asking me security questions about a street I lived on 20 years ago. I got that wrong and got kicked out once. That's interesting. Just exactly what else do you need to tell them to enroll?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2013 08:05 ||
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I blame Champ financial backers 'Bill and Melinda' for not stepping in and solving this months ago.
#7
CrazyFool - Does the IRS keep this information from old tax records - and why?
Computer records on wage & income reported by third parties (1099's, etc.) are kept for 6-7 years, account transcripts (tax filing / info thereto) for 10, sometimes 11.
I don't know the official reason off the top of my head, but on more than a few occasions, this record retention's been of immense help when I'm trying to fix someone's tax problems. That's because the client won't have all the original documents, and a filed tax return has to match up with their records or you get a CP2000 Notice (automated bill).
[WTNH] In the midst of major changes in health care, UnitedHealthCare has sent thousands of pink slips to Connecticut doctors.
Termination letters went to physicians caring for Medicare patients. Those letters were sent out to doctors caring for 'Medicare Advantage' patients. It's a plan, marketed to Seniors to provide additional services through UnitedHealthCare.
A mix of primary care and specialty doctors are affected by it. And it comes at a questionable time.
Open enrollment for Medicare starts next Tuesday, and it's still not clear at this time as to which doctors are still in the United network.
The Connecticut State Medical Society is fighting back. The biggest concern is patient access to healthcare.
"What the government is looking for is to manage better care by adding a patient centered medical home so that you have a doctor who is totally invested with taking care of every aspect of the patient and coordinating it. This is clearly not a patient centered decision," said Dr. Michael Saffir, President of CT State Medical Society.
Dr. Saffir says the State Medical Society is in contact with UnitedHealthcare. They are also asking doctors to call United to find out why they were terminated without cause as notified in the letter.
He recommends that Seniors affected by this should call the office of the HealthCare Advocate of Connecticut.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Just like AlanC called it yesterday - cripple the insurance & healthcare delivery markets enough so single payer can be rammed through...
#2
This is right in line with the fascist principles of government control of economic activity.
The government doesn't need to own it all as in socialism or communism it just needs to control it all through regulations and laws, handouts and extortion payments.
Read your Mussolini folks cause that's where all this is headed.
#3
what else will we be compelled to buy in the future?
everyone needs reliable transportation and "affordable" housing as well as "nutritious" food. I'd say those are all plum for the picking. waiting for the war on alcohol, like the one on cigs. we will be made to purchase other goods and services.
first auto insurance, home owners insurance, now health insurance, how many other insurance products can be force fed?
Perhaps disappointment at losing out to Hagel? Other issues?
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is losing his No. 2 at the Pentagon as Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter handed in his resignation today.
Carter, 59, has been a highly knowledgeable and powerful force inside the Defense Department, serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics from April 2009 until October 2011, when he assumed the DSD role.
Carter had been among the top picks to replace former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta upon his retirement. After President Obama opted for Hagel instead, Obama personally asked Carter to stay on as Hagels No. 2.
Earlier today, I met with Ash Carter and reluctantly accepted his decision to step down as Deputy Secretary of Defense on Dec. 4, after more than four and a half years of continuous service to the Department of Defense, Hagel said in a statement moments ago
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2013 16:20 ||
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Gotta kinda think the Nuke policy is being revisited.
[Washington Post] Fed up that the federal shutdown was keeping them off their practice fields, a group of young lacrosse players in Northern Virginia challenged the government in court. And at least for now, they won.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the National Park Service to immediately reopen Langley Fork Park in McLean -- which was closed Oct. 1 -- and allow the boys and girls of the McLean Youth Lacrosse organization back onto the fields.
The judge's order was not final. Attorneys are scheduled to return to federal court in Alexandria on Oct. 18 -- provided the courthouse is still open and judges are still hearing civil cases -- to hash out a more permanent resolution. But until then, Langley Fork Park will be open for the hundreds of kids in the youth lacrosse group, which sued the Park Service, and for anyone else who might want to use it.
"It's a major relief," said David "Bucky" Morris, McLean Youth Lacrosse's executive director. "I'm not sure how long it goes for, but, hopefully, it's long enough that it goes through the government shutdown."
A spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Park Authority, which manages the park, said officials removed the temporary barriers at the park Thursday morning after receiving the Park Service's permission.
"I can tell you this much: We're glad it's open for business. That's the good news," said Judy Pedersen, a spokeswoman for the Park Authority. She declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2013 00:00 ||
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Always respect a 13 year old boy with a crudgel.
#4
I lived in Dutchess County, NY during the Tawana Brawley hoax. Steven Pagones was an Assistant District Attorney. Somehow Tawana and her family decided that he was one of the "ringleaders" in the "attack". It didn't matter that Pagones said he was innocent. It didn't matter that Pagones could provide credit card receipts that showed he was out of town during the incident. Sharpton said he was guilty, and so in the eyes of the black community, he was guilty.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/12/2013 12:41 Comments ||
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[WEEKLYSTANDARD] Last night, the organization formerly known as President B.O.'s reelection campaign, Organizing for Action, held an Obamacare event in Greenville, South Carolina. The event was called "Obamacare and You!"
"Let's discuss what this Affordable Care Act means for you and your community. This session will help you understand the benefits and will equip you to spread the word about the benefits of Obamacare in your community. Come out and get the facts!!," the event advertisement said.
But it wasn't widely attended. Only two people, in addition to the two organizers, showed up.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2013 00:00 ||
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I noticed that both are Black.
Obamanauts?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/12/2013 0:44 Comments ||
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#6
"OFA is registered as a 501(c)(4) organization, which may advocate for legislation but is prohibited from specifically supporting political candidates."
OFA is the successor of "Obama for America/Organizing for America"
(wikipedia)
The IRS Scandal revolves around the IRS stalling and/or denying Tea Party groups' applications for 501(c)(4) status.
Obamacare promotion is more equal than opposition to Obamacare.
#1
For you who may have forgotten the poem and a picture of the ruin;Ozymandias head and shoulder.
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
Posted by: Au Auric ||
10/12/2013 1:44 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
On Saturday, the barricades at Utahs Natural Bridges National Monument disappeared, allowing visitors to return to the tourist draw despite the government shutdown. They also came down at Colorados Rocky Mountain National Park, Arizonas Grand Canyon and New Yorks Statue of Liberty.
The federal health-care exchange that opened a dozen days ago is marred by snags beyond the widely publicized computer gridlock that has thwarted Americans trying to buy a health plan. Insurers sometimes cant tell who their new customers are because of a separate set of computer defects.
One insurance industry official familiar with the daily reports said that they rely on relatively old technology. Rather than transmitting a file whenever a consumer enrolls, the reports are sent to each insurance carrier in a daily batch at 6 p.m.
James Turner, a software engineer from Derry, N.H., said he has spent seven hours since Oct. 2 trying to enroll but keeps encountering issues that make have made it impossible for him to complete the application. Turner, 51, one of a number of software engineers who have written online critiques of the system, said the most infuriating one involves his wife. According to the system, he said, I have four spouses. He said it has been impossible to delete the phantom family members from his profile.
