‘Daily Caller’ story on IRS director’s many White House visits a bust

RAW STORY

The Daily Caller story that kicked off the latest round of finger-pointing and blame in the IRS “scandal” currently gripping the right blogosphere and Fox News was actually based on erroneous information. According to the Atlantic, the editorial staff at the Caller overestimated the number of visits by now-former IRS director Douglas Shulman by 146, claiming that Shulman visited the Obama White House 157 times rather than the 11 visits he is confirmed to have actually made.
The Daily Caller eagerly reported on Wednesday that Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee, visited President Barack Obama’s White House “at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president’s Cabinet.”

The Tucker Carlson-run conservative website failed to make the distinction between the actual White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is covered by the Secret Service’s visitors’ log. Shulman was required to meet with administration officials about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” in the Eisenhower Building. The Secret Service log also covers the New Executive Building, which is located up 17th Street and off the White House grounds.
According to the Atlantic:

Shulman was cleared primarily to meet with administration staffers involved in implementation of the health-care reform bill. He was cleared 40 times to meet with Obama’s director of the Office of Health Reform, and a further 80 times for the biweekly health reform deputies meetings and others set up by aides involved with the health-care law implementation efforts. That’s 76 percent of his planned White House visits just there, before you even add in all the meetings with Office of Management and Budget personnel also involved in health reform.

Furthermore, there’s no proof that Shulman did or did not attend the meetings, since there are no arrival or departure times listed. He may have been scheduled to pass through the Secret Service checkpoints, but this has little bearing on whether he did. Shulman’s time of arrival is only confirmed for 11 specific events between 2009 and 2012. 

“That does not mean that he did not go to other meetings,” wrote the Atlantic‘s Garance Franke-Ruta, “only that the White House records do not show he went to the 157 meetings he was granted Secret Service clearance to attend.”

At least one Shulman visit to the White House grounds had nothing to do with IRS business or the ACA. Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly asked Shulman in a Congressional hearing last week what would occasion a visit to the White House for him.
“Um, the Easter Egg Roll with my kids,” Shulman replied.

Franke-Ruta wrote that Secret Service logs are a wildly imprecise means of determining the comings and goings of visitors to the White House. The procedure is not the only means of getting clearance to enter the White House security perimeter. In large social gatherings like the aforementioned Easter Egg Roll, people enter the White House gates in pre-cleared carloads.

The Center for Public Integrity reported in April, 2011 that “(t)he logs include names of people cleared by the Secret Service for White House entry who never showed up. The Center analysis found more than 200,000 visits with no time of arrival, an indication the person didn’t enter the White House though there is no way to know for certain.”
Even the Caller admitted at the end of its article that “it is probable that the vast majority of visits by major Cabinet members do not end up in the public record.”

Leader of Armed March On Washington Calls For ‘Revolutionary Army’ To Topple Government

THINK PROGRESS


Thousands of people signed up to attend an armed march on Washington over the course of the last month. But now, the leader of the march is setting his sights much higher than a single demonstration — he wants his armed followers to help overthrow the American government.
About a month ago, a gun activist named Adam Kokesh called for thousands of people to join him in an armed march on Washington, D.C. to “put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny.” As of this writing, nearly 5,200 people have RSVPed for Kokesh’s armed march.

Late last week, however, Kokesh decided to abandon this march in favor of a much larger effort to bring down the entire federal government. In a statement written from a jail cell in Philadelphia (Kokesh faced charges for allegedly resisting arrest during a pro-marijuana rally. He now says he’s been released), the gun activist called for his supporters to form a secessionist “army”:

A new American revolution is long overdue. This revolution has been brewing in the hearts and minds of the people for many years, but this Independence Day, it shall take a new form as the American Revolutionary Army will march on each state capital to demand that the governors of these 50 states immediately initiate the process of an orderly dissolution of the federal government through secession and reclamation of federally held property. Should one whole year from this July 4th pass while the crimes of this government are allowed to continue, we may have passed the point at which non-violent revolution becomes impossible.

The time to sit idly by has passed. To remain neutral is to be complicit, just doing your job is not an excuse, and the line in the sand has been drawn between the people, and the criminals in Washington, D.C. While some timid souls will say that it is too early, that we can solve this problem through democratic means provided by government, that current levels of taxation are reasonable for the services provided, and that the crimes of this government are merely a tolerable nuisance, it may already be too late.

To be sure, it is likely that only a small minority of Americans will rally to a cry to march upon their state capitols and demand that the United States cease to exist. But Kokesh’s call is troubling for the simple reason that he was capable of convincing over 5,000 people to sign up for an armed march on Washington, D.C. It does not take much imagination to figure out what could go wrong if just a few dozen armed and angry secessionists show up at state capitols throughout the country.

GOP Strategists Relieved By Michele Bachmann’s Exit

TPM

Michele Bachmann was as much a tea party hero as she was a constant pain in the neck for Republican operatives concerned with the party’s national image. That stark contrast was well on display Tuesday as the GOP reacted to the Minnesota Republican congresswoman’s decision not to seek reelection in 2014: sorrow and disappointment from the right-wing faithful, relief and gratitude from operatives who want what’s best for the party.

And as deeply as liberals detested Bachmann and everything she stood for, she was a dream come true for Democrats who profit politically from highlighting GOP radicalism.
“Bachmann fit the political tea party moment perfectly,” veteran Republican strategist John Feehery told TPM. “But that moment passed.”

A former House Republican aide said Bachmann’s retirement will make it easier for the GOP to continue winning in her conservative-leaning district.
“Crazy members of Congress come, crazy members of Congress go — in both parties,” the aide said. “The biggest impact will be felt by reporters, who loved to quote her and get her saying outlandish things. The fact is that there’s no reason Democrats should have ever made this seat competitive, and without Bachmann there now, it won’t be.”

But to the tea party faithful, Bachmann is a once-in-a-generation star who refuses to shy away from a fight or let political correctness get in the way of truth-telling.
“As a presidential candidate, Bachmann raised the Tea Party profile to new heights, and her contributions to the movement will be long standing,” said Sal Russo, a top activist with Tea Party Express. “It is with great disappointment we learn she will not seek reelection to Congress in 2014. However, we know that her fight for liberty and free markets will not stop at the end of her term. We look forward to working with her as she continues her journey as an influential conservative leader.”
It’s that sort of conservative enthusiasm that motivated House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to publicly thank Bachmann and praise her “courageous voice for freedom.”

Bachmann’s announcement that she will retire comes amid a tough reelection battle and an FBI and congressional investigation into potential campaign finance violations during her presidential run. She insists neither of those two factors affected her decision.

Andy Parrish, her former chief of staff, said Tuesday on MSNBC the congresswoman is being accused of wrongdoing because she’s a conservative star.
“Look, she’s a lightning rod, a conservative lightning rod, a conservative hero. We don’t have many conservatives,” he said. “I think that when you can kind of poke the cage a bit, I think people do that. Here’s a great opportunity, I think, for sort of some individuals to try to make a name for themselves, get a bit of press and try to poke at her.”

The high-water mark of Bachmann’s career was winning the 2011 Ames straw poll in Iowa. But her presidential ambitions — and congressional career — all went downhill from there.
As far as Democrats are concerned, they admit Bachmann has been a boon to their fundraising but insist she revolutionized the GOP in a fundamental, enduring way.

“Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party brand of extremism and obstruction have infected the entire Republican Congress, and her influence shows no signs of waning,” said Emily Bittner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose press release used variations of the word “extreme” six times.
“Bachman’s retirement is bad for journalists and Democrats but good for the country,” said Guy Cecil, who runs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm. “I think I will side with the country.”

In Shocking Announcement Michele Bachmann(R-MARS) Says She Is Not Running For Reelection In 2014 (VIDEO)

Rory Gallagher : Secret Agent

Joe Bonamassa - Blues Deluxe (2007)

Hume erupts after Juan Williams says call for leak probes ‘came from Republicans’

RAW STORY

Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume clashed with fellow Fox News contributor Juan Williams on Sunday after Williams pointed out that the investigations of reporters had started under George W. Bush’s administration and then continued under President Barack Obama.
During a panel discussion about the Department of Justice’s investigation into leaks of classified information published Fox News reporter James Rosen, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Williams if he could defend the president’s decision to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to review his own department. 

“Republicans have been hammering Eric Holder… to go after the leaks, that they have wanted him to pursue leaks that had to do with how bin Laden was killed to secret prisons to the attack on the cyber network in Iran,” Williams explained. “That came from Republicans. And it has been something that the Bush administration started and it has been continued with a vengeance — to everyone’s surprise — by this administration.”

“Eric Holder did not conduct the probe that led people to somehow come to the madhouse conclusion that James Rosen is somehow a co-conspirator, is somehow to be suspected,” he continued. “He signed the affidavit as attorney general of the United States, he did not conduct the probe.”
“The problem is that it went to Holder and he okayed it!” Hume exclaimed. “Are you saying he’s not ultimately responsible as the head man of the Justice Department?”
“That’s why he’s being asked to look at it,” Williams insisted. “He’s the exact right person as the attorney general of the United States to see what prosecutors did.”
“Wasn’t he supposed to see all that before he signed off on the affidavit?” Hume shouted.
“You can’t see everything,” Williams replied. 

“What you do know is, when that affidavit came to him, rife with assertions that this reporter doing his job was acting in a criminal way, he okayed it!” Hume shot back.
“In this case, the Rosen case, he had nothing to do with it,” Williams argued. “All he was doing was signing an affidavit sent to him by his underlings.”

New Hampshire Lawmaker Wants Joe Arpaio's Birther Posse to Investigate Boston Bombing

By Matthew Hendley 

In case you're wondering what kind of people think that the government orchestrated the Boston bombing, it appears that they're the same people who believe that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has discovered fraud in President Obama's birth certificate.

One such person is New Hampshire Republican State Representative Stella Tremblay, who claims that Arpaio's "Cold Case Posse" is one of only two "unbiased" groups that she'd want handling the inquiry into a coverup of the Boston bombing.

See also:
-Boston Marathon Explosions: Fox News Goes Straight to Clueless Joe Arpaio
-Joe Arpaio's Lead "Birther" Swears Evidence Coming Soon
The Huffington Post caught a radio interview Tremblay did on a Boston sports show, as Tremblay suggested that a guy who had his legs blown off in the bombing was faking it.

"All I'm asking is for a full investgiation, not the FBI, but some unbiased . . . there's two unbiased groups -- like the Cold Case Posse or someone else," Tremblay said.

There's only one Cold Case Posse, and that's Arpaio's, which pretty clearly fabricated "evidence" in what we're sure was a totally "unbiased" process.

The "evidence" that wasn't fabricated was stuff that was already floating around the Internet beforehand, and had already been thoroughly debunked by the time Arpaio declared Obama's birth certificate was phony.

All it takes is some signatures from a Tea Party group to get a full "investigation" going, so we'll have to wait and see if Arpaio wants to blow more taxpayer money on another conspiracy theory.