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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Judicial Watch Obtains IRS Documents Revealing McCain's Subcommittee Staff Director Urged IRS to Engage in "Financially Ruinous" Targeting

2018-06-22

[Washington D.C.] ‐ Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to "audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous." Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel. The explosive exchange was contained in notes taken by IRS employees at an April 30, 2013, meeting between Kerner, Lerner, and other high-ranking IRS officials. Just ten days following the meeting, former IRS director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner admitted that the IRS had a policy of improperly and deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status from conservative non-profit groups. Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a "marathon" meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the "worst decisions I have ever seen." In the full notes of an April 30 meeting, McCain’s high-ranking staffer Kerner recommends harassing non-profit groups until they are unable to continue operating. Kerner tells Lerner, Steve Miller, then chief of staff to IRS commissioner, Nikole Flax, and other IRS officials, "Maybe the solution is to audit so many that it is financially ruinous." In response, Lerner responded that "it is her job to oversee it all:"

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Home Front: WoT

U.S. Congress Moves Toward OK for Financing War on IS Jihadists

2014-12-04

[AnNahar] U.S. congressional negotiators late Tuesday approved an emergency funding package to pay for military operations against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group in Iraq and Syria, and a vote is expected in the coming days. A plan to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels, proposed by President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... , is also expected to be extended. Lawmakers in September had approved it to last only until December 11. The armed services committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate late Tuesday released the final text of the defense authorization act for the 2015 budget year, which runs from October 2014 to September 2015, after months of negotiations. The House should adopt the bill by the end of the week, said Democratic Senator Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... and his Republican counterpart James Inhofe. It then goes to the Senate. The text includes $3.4 billion for the deployment of U.S. forces as part of operation "Inherent Resolve" and $1.6 billion for a program to equip and train Iraqi Kurd forces for two years. The plan to finance moderate Syrian rebels is to come from existing Pentagon money. In another area, the law extends restrictions on the closing of the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ban on transferring detainees from the prison to the United States, in force since 2011, was renewed despite opposition from Obama. Congress bars the Pentagon from transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States. Republicans fear they might be freed by a judge and thus constitute a threat to national security. Thirteen prisoners have been sent to other countries this year, and 142 men remain in the prison. Overall the defense authorization bill calls for $584 billion in military spending for fiscal 2015, including $63.7 billion for overseas operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Defense spending accounts for just over half of all the U.S. government's budget for so-called discretionary spending, which excludes social welfare.

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Government

Budget deal saves A-10s at Selfridge AFB

2014-12-04

Washington — A deal struck by Congress late Tuesday will save more than 20 A-10 planes at Selfridge Air National Guard base — despite a Pentagon plan to retire the planes. Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township is home to 21 A-10 aircraft, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Under the deal announced Wednesday, the Pentagon couldn’t get rid of the planes but could reduce flying time. In February, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced plans to retire the entire A-10 fleet of aircraft, including all of the planes at the base in Harrison Township. “The bill would allow a reduction in active duty A-10 flying hours under limited circumstances. In particular, if the secretary of Defense, after receiving an independent review by the Director of the office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, determines that it would be necessary to avoid unacceptable reductions in readiness or unacceptable delays in the F-35 activation program, he may authorize the Air Force to reduce flying hours for active-duty A-10s by placing up to 36 aircraft on “backup flying status” for the duration of the year,” Levin said.

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Home Front: Politix

Ashton Carter Likely Next U.S. Defense Secretary

2014-12-03

[AnNahar] The former number-two ranking official at the Pentagon, Ashton Carter, will likely be named as the next U.S. defense secretary, American media reported Tuesday. President Barack Obama teachable moment... was poised to nominate Carter to replace outgoing Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel, "barring any last minute complications," CNN reported. CNN cited several unnamed administration officials and The Washington Post also reported Obama would nominate Carter. Pentagon officials acknowledged to Agence La Belle France-Presse that Carter was on a shortlist of candidates for the post but could not confirm if a final decision had been taken. Hagel, the outgoing Pentagon chief, announced his resignation last week, with officials privately saying he was forced out after losing the confidence of the White House. Carter, 60, has gained a reputation as an expert on hi-tech weapons and military budgets, portraying himself as a reformer intent on making the vast Pentagon bureaucracy more efficient. While Carter is fluent with weapons programs and technological trends, he has less experience overseeing war strategy and has never served in uniform -- unlike his predecessor, Hagel, who was maimed in the Vietnam War. An academic by training who holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Oxford, There are those who will therefore assume he is smarter than President Obama, but we know that isn't possible, by definition. Carter worked in the Pentagon during Bill Clinton ...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of is... 's presidency overseeing nuclear arms policies and helped with efforts to remove nuclear weapons from Ukraine and other former Soviet territories. A former professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Carter served as the Pentagon's top weapons buyer from 2009 to 2011 and then as deputy defense secretary until 2013. When Carter stepped down last year, officials denied reports that he had clashed with Hagel. Although he has served under two Democratic presidents, Carter is not a heavily partisan figure and the U.S. Senate would likely endorse his nomination, analysts say. Carter would be a "great" choice, said Democrat Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... , chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "He is very highly qualified," he said. He added it was possible politicians could expedite a nomination for the Pentagon job in the next few weeks before a newly-elected Republican majority takes over the Senate in the new year.

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Fifth Column

Code Pink Repeatedly Disrupts ISIS Senate Hearing, Drives Carl Levin Crazy

2014-09-18

[NATIONALREVIEW] Protesters from anti-war group Code Pink ... a U.S. anti-war group. The group describes itself as a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. It was founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and of the other usual antiwar suspects. Its website lists hysterical allegations of US war crimes, and states that thousands of civilians were killed in Fallujah in 2004. Maybe it was millions. Benjamin was a 2000 candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket. She lost... stood up during Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday to loudly express opposition to the ongoing aerial campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, repeatedly interrupting senators and panelists and driving Democratic chairman Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... up the wall. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey had just walked into the hearing room when protesters clad in pink and holding anti-war slogans crowded just behind the panel. "No more war!" they chanted, their voices mingling chaotically. Levin allowed the protesters about a minute to vent before the gavel came down. "The committee will come to order, and we're asking all in the audience now to either take their seats and be quiet, or please leave," the Michigan senator said. After another exchange, one woman was undeterred, alternating between "no military solution to this" and "no more war!" "You're acting very warlike yourself," Levin said angrily, asking the protester to leave. She was escorted out by Capitol police. Twenty minutes later and another interruption prompted a frustrated Levin to rap his gavel. "Thank you, would you please leave!" he shouted. "Would you please leave the room now! Look, we're asking you nicely would you please leave the room!" "We would ask all of you to avoid these kind of outbursts," he said following another woman's departure. "They're not doing anybody any good, including hearing what this testimony is. And they're not doing you, and whatever your cause is, any good either." But still more outbursts followed, with one woman telling Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... , "Senator McCain, you have no authority to speak out on this issue!" "Will you please be quiet!?" an exasperated Levin said, repeatedly slamming his gavel down. "Please remove the lady from the room." "I always appreciate special attention from this group, Mr. Chairman," McCain quipped. "I don't think she voted for you, John," another senator laughed.

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-Lurid Crime Tales-

CIA Director John Brennan Refuses To Tell Congress Who Authorized Senate Spying

2014-09-16

[Daily Caller] The CIA's ongoing defiance of congressional authority continued during a closed-door meeting last week after Director John Brennan refused to tell lawmakers who authorized the illegal surveillance of Senate Intelligence Committee computers, which were used to compile a report on the agency�'s interrogation practices. "I'm concerned there's disrespect towards the Congress," Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and Michigan Democrat Carl Levin said in a McClatchy report. "I think it's arrogant, I think it's unacceptable." Hours before a closed meeting with Brennan and Director of National Security James Clapper on Tuesday, the committee received written notification that Brennan was refusing to answer questions posed to him by California Democrat and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein. Well, we certainly know who he works for. Perhaps we should start there.

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Afghanistan

Afghan election candidate set to reject result

2014-07-07

[Al Ahram] Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... was set to reject preliminary election results released Monday, heightening a political crisis over fraud that threatens to trigger instability as US-led troops pull out. Abdullah, previously seen as the election front-runner, alleges that he was the victim of "industrial-scale" ballot-box stuffing on June 14 and has vowed not to recognise the vote count. His poll rival Ashraf Ghani, who was reported to be at least one million votes ahead, says the result is fair and must not be further delayed. The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... and Afghanistan's international backers had lobbied hard to try to ensure a smooth election process, but the contested outcome will realise their worst fears and raises the risk of civil unrest. Influential US Senator Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... , on a visit to Kabul, told news hounds on Sunday that the preliminary result would likely be followed by an audit of suspicious votes in an attempt to assuage Abdullah's fears of fraud. "I expect that (there) is going to be an agreement on a comprehensive audit," Levin, chairman of the Senate committee on armed services, said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Obama dithers at top speed 'urgently' mulls attacks on Syria, Iraq

2014-06-14

[Iran Press TV] The US government is 'urgently' considering air assaults on Iraq and Syria in an attempt to flush out the al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... bully boyz operating in the two countries, a US official says. The unnamed official, quoted by the Guardian, said on Friday that the White House was "urgently and expediently" considering military action to halt the rapid advance of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL). The revelation comes one day after US President Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... said there are "some short-term, immediate things that need to be done militarily," signaling a new openness to returning the US to war in Iraq. According to unnamed officials, the B.O. regime is examining an air assault using air force or navy warplanes and drone strikes, but manned aircraft are said to the preferred option, owing to their superiority against moving and maneuverable targets. Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results... a Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , told the Guardian that the ISIL "is now across the border," adding, "It is possible to take out the head, you've got to take out the heart.... Everything is being looked at." US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said in London that the B.O. regime would make a decision quickly about action on the ISIL terrorists, adding, "I am confident the US will move rapidly and effectively to join with our allies in dealing with this challenge." Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... , the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after emerging from a briefing with defence officials on Thursday that a direct US military involvement in Iraq may revive the bloody conflict which erupted following the 2003 capture of the Iraqi capital Storied Baghdad. "While all options should be considered, the problem in Iraq has not been so much a lack of direct US military involvement, but a lack of reconciliation on the part of Iraqi leaders," he said.

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-Land of the Free

Carl Levin Pressured IRS To Target Groups

2014-05-15

[DAILYCALLER] The IRS' Washington, D.C. headquarters targeted conservative groups in part due to pressure from Democratic Sen. Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... , according to emails obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch and reviewed by The Daily Caller. Levin, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' permanent subcommittee on investigations, wrote a March 30, 2012 letter to then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman discussing the "urgency" of the issue of possible political activity by nonprofit applicants. Levin asked if the IRS was sending out additional information requests to applicant groups and citing an IRS rejection letter to a conservative group as an example of how the IRS should be conducting its business. A top IRS official replied that the agency could send out "individualized questions and requests." "Some entities claiming tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations under 26 U.S.C.&501(c)(4) appear to be engaged in political activities more appropriate for political organizations claiming tax-exempt status under 26 U.S.C.&527," Sen. Levin wrote. "Because of the urgency of the issues involved in this matter, please provide the following information by April 20, 2012." Levin asked "if it is not provided on a routine basis, approximately what percentage of such applicants receive an IRS questionnaire seeking information about any political activities, and how the IRS determines whether and when to send that questionnaire; and approximately how many days after an application is filed that questionnaire is typically sent."

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Afghanistan

Karzai Will Not Sign Security Agreement

2014-02-12

[An Nahar] The U.S. intelligence chief said Tuesday he does not expect Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... to sign a security agreement with the United States that would allow American troops to stay after 2014. Washington has repeatedly appealed to Karzai to sign the bilateral security agreement (BSA) negotiated last year but James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said he had given up hope that the Afghan president would endorse the deal. "Well, obviously, it takes two to sign this," Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "And it's my own view, not necessarily company policy, ...I don't believe President Karzai is going to sign it," he said. His comments were the most explicit yet by a senior U.S. official acknowledging the bleak prospects of Karzai backing the agreement. Senator Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... , chairman of the committee, asked Clapper if it would be better for the U.S. government to wait for the next Afghan president to sign the deal after the country's April elections. Clapper said that would be a policy decision and not up to him but he said such a move could "have a salutary effect." The United States favors leaving about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan after this year to help train Afghan forces and counter al-Qaeda turbans and its allies. The delay in signing the security agreement, which would set up a legal framework for foreign troops to stay post-2014, has created uncertainty and undermined confidence among Afghans, Clapper said. "The effect already of the delay has been negative in terms of the impact on the economy, not to mention I think the psychological impact," he said.

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Afghanistan

Obama Urged to Sign BSA With Karzai Successor

2013-12-07

[Tolo News] With the future of the Kabul-Washington security pact still uncertain, U.S. officials have looked to break, or circumvent, the logjam negotiations now face. In a recent letter to President Barak Obama, Senator Carl Levin ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Michigan. He has been in the Senate since 1979. Prior to that he was president of the Detroit city council and Mayor Coleman Young's right-hand man. He is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services... , Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, suggested giving up on President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... and waiting to sign the pact with the next Afghanistan's Caped President, set to be elected in April.

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Home Front: Politix

Senate approves nuclear option

2013-11-21

The Senate has voted to change its rules so that a simple majority is required to confirm judicial nominations and executive branch picks -- the so-called "nuclear option." The final vote was 52-48. The previous threshold was 60 votes to bring such nominations to a final up-or-down vote. "The threshold for cloture on nominations not including the Supreme Court, is now a majority," Sen Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate president pro tempore, declared after the vote. Three Democrats voted with Republicans against the change: Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). Levin is a longtime senator; Manchin and Pryor come from red states. To about 1840 or so the House also had a version of the filibuster. It wasn’t quite the same as the Senate but by rule and decorum, one needed a super-majority to move bills through. From then up to the 1890s there was a variant of this called the “disappearing quorum”: the House needed a super-majority to make a quorum, so the minority party if disciplined enough would refuse to answer whenever a quorum just happened to be called, causing everything to stop. Then House Speaker Reed (a Pub) said, “The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch”, and set about to eliminate this, and he did. The Democrats howled but the Pubs prevailed, and so now we have a modern House in which 218 yea votes makes things happen. I shall suggest that it is time for the Senate filibuster to disappear completely. Yes, I believe that major changes in our government should be done on a bipartisan basis: Social Security. Medicare. Civil Rights Bill. Decision to go to war in Iraq. And so on. Our country’s parties should agree on the big things. But if the Democrats are going to behave like monkeys at a zoo then Speaker Reed is right: one party governs, the other opposes. And the party that is in power has the RESPONSIBILITY to govern wisely or else end up out of power. The lack of a filibuster will hurt the next fourteen months. But the public (I predict) will see how the Democrats govern, and in a year the public shall vote. Eliminating the filibuster removes the one big excuse Harry Reid has had in his time as majority leader, that he couldn’t get anything done because those eeeeeevil Rethuglicans wouldn’t let him. Okay Harry, let’s see your real agenda. I think the American people will figure out what you’re up to and will decide to oppose you, particularly if the Pubs are smart enough (and remember, we’re called the Stupid Party for a reason) to hoist him on his petard next October. Budget? No excuse now, they have to pass a budget. Raving red lunatics for the appeals courts? Make clear that they’re loonies. And so on. How is it the Pubs can win the House and win most state district and senate races (the Pubs do hold a sizable majority in the state legislatures right now), and yet lose Senate races? Because Dingy Harry, Chuckles Schumer, and Dirty Dick Durbin have managed to keep power and avoid responsibility. No longer. Now they’re responsible, 50% + 1. I predict they shall be called on it in November 2014.

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