The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing this morning to examine the allegations of misconduct against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and decide whether he deserves to be impeached.
Lawmakers on the committee summoned Koskinen to answer accusations from the House Oversight panel that he failed to preserve documents Congress requested, and didn’t tell the full truth about Lois Lerner’s erased backup tapes, but the IRS chief will not be appearing at the hearing.
The IRS issued the following statement:
“When the committee announced this hearing, he was returning from China after meeting with tax administrators of 43 nations,” the statement reads. “The committee’s quick timetable left him without the time to fully prepare for Tuesday’s hearing. In addition, he also has been preparing for a previous commitment to appear before a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday.”
Once again, my friend in DC weighs in on the state of the 2016 presidential horse race:
As most polls predicted, and I agreed, that Trump would get the GOP nomination, my further prediction was that he will pick either Cruz or Perry as VP, but that would eventually come around only after a brief pause to lick one’s wounds. At the very least, my guess is that Trump’s VP will be a Texan or somebody from another large electoral state to give him the lock on at least 45 states in the electoral. What that means is: no Gingrich, no Ryan, nor even Kasich, no Walker, or certainly not JEB! would be on the Trump short list. Although I did think for a while that it could be Rubio, now, not so much. Trump pretty much has Florida in the bag. So for what its worth, I still think it will be a Texan.
Have u seen Trump’s SCOTUS nominee list? I’m sure you have. IMO, for no other reason that list alone should make all true conservatives vote for the Trump ticket. Remember, #neverHillary means Never Hillary Matters!
Now for a little fun. Here are my latest predictions:
1. Trump will win at least 45 states in November. Actually thought it would be 47 or 48, but a lot of very big hitters
from as long ago as the Reagan administration’s Art Laffer and Pat Buchanan are now saying at least 45, so I will go with that number also.
2. Hill/Bill will have a medical “problem” soon.
3. Another shocker, re: above number 2, … but so will Bernie. 😉
4. Trump will also win in November with the most votes of any candidate in US history. It will be that historic.
5. Three major world events are happening this summer: first, the GOP convention followed almost immediately by the DNC convention, then a few weeks later the Rio Olympics. The GOP convention will be orchestrated and run by the premiere folks who Trump has used in the past to run major events like beauty pageants, sporting events, etc. only this time, the ratings will be through the roof – for all the good reasons. We are talking about the one major media/celebrity event of the century, and it will be so spectacular and over-the-top that from coast-to-coast and in flyover mid-America, from North to South from East to West and all over the world even, there will be a Trump media-bomb like no other in history. To say that it will be a big production isn’t strong enough… it will be yuuuge. Do not doubt that.
6. The second major event will be the disaster at the DNC convention in Philadelphia immediately after the GOP convention concludes. It will be Occupy Wall Street plus 1968 Chicago, times ten. The Clintonistas will want their revenge by then, and so will the Bernouts. Nobody has a clue who the DNC will actually put forward as the nominee to take on the mega-Trumpasaurus, but he/she will do so very reluctantly… knowing full well that they will fade into history as just another trivia factoid that nobody will remember. Yes, the DNC will come undone and the Democratic Party will implode on its own bloated ideological obesity, just as I predicted in my previous opinion piece.
7. The news legacy media will be reeling from the DNC disaster, and will be desperate to switch focus to anything – literally anything – other than the US presidential race. Ergo, no matter how bad the weather, infectious pandemics, crime, corruption, etc, at the Rio Olympics, it will be THE only story we will be seeing or hearing about for three weeks. Maybe longer if they can get the body count up. And no, that’s not a mis-type. Rio 2016 won’t be about the medal count. It will be about the body count. And I ain’t talking about the lurid media cronies in their exclusive reporting beachside, counting all the scantily clad Girls From Ipanema. No, unfortunately I’m talking about dead bodies.
8. And the worst prediction is the only thing that isn’t part of my political preview, yet remains the one thing that hovers over all humanity like a modern day bubonic plague: nuclear/bio/chemical/jihadic terrorism. It will happen. Soon. I don’t think it will be in the US, but could be. More likely it will be in a foreign port with US and allied-flagged vessels nearby. Rio 2016? No thanks. I ain’t buying that ticket.
A Gawker reporter pawed through some of Hillary’s emails (released via a Gawker Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2012) and discovered some messages between Clinton consigliere Philippe Reines and Ambinder regarding an important policy speech in 2009.
In these emails, we get a glimpse of the sort of “quid pro quo” between powerful Democrats and their toadies in the media, that goes on probably a lot more frequently than we would like to admit.
In exchange for early access to a policy speech that Hillary gave, Ambinder was asked to describe said speech as “muscular” in his write-up and also mention the heavy-hitters sitting in the front row of the audience.
From: [Philippe Reines] Sent: Wednesday, July 15 2009 10:06 AM To: Ambinder, Marc Subject: Re: Do you have a copy of HRC’s speech to share?
3 [conditions] actually
1) You in your own voice describe them as “muscular”
2) You note that a look at the CFR seating plan shows that all the envoys — from Holbrooke to Mitchell to Ross — will be arrayed in front of her, which in your own clever way you can say certainly not a coincidence and meant to convey something
3) You don’t say you were blackmailed!
One minute later, Ambinder responded:
From: Ambinder, Marc Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 10:07 AM To: Philippe Reines Subject: RE: Do you have a copy of HRC’s speech to share?
got it
Ambinder made good on his word. The opening paragraph of the article he wrote later that day, under the headline “Hillary Clinton’s ‘Smart Power’ Breaks Through,” precisely followed Reines’ instructions:
When you think of President Obama’s foreign policy, think of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That’s the message behind a muscular speech that Clinton is set to deliver today to the Council on Foreign Relations. The staging gives a clue to its purpose: seated in front of Clinton, subordinate to Clinton, in the first row, will be three potentially rival power centers: envoys Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell, and National Security Council senior director Dennis Ross.
Thank goodness for the Millennials. They will elect the next president and in doing so, they will in all likelihood save the United States – from itself. Most of them will not even realize the value of what they will be doing. We are in the digital age of instantaneous communications, transactions, feelings, emotions, and… elections.
The twin disasters of Leftist-Progressives and their enabling GOP elitists, who together have run the current ship of state with almost no significant interference from any constitutionally-minded or conservative force of consequence, are soon to get their comeuppance. The logjams of government that those two forces have intentionally dammed up will soon be – no, strike that – ARE being blown apart much like the Robertson’s of Duck Dynasty are dynamiting the hated beaver dams on their duck hunting properties. The refreshing flow of new energy in new voters and others of normally apolitical views, shows how fast this can happen and more importantly, why.
Rebelling against the status quo is a long and proud tradition in American youth. And since both the Democrats and GOP elites have left the grass-root TEA partiers bruised – but not silenced – while blue dog/conservative Democrats have been out-shouted and are equally despised by their Progressive leaders, the masses are murmuring for a leader who sticks it to the status quo. Although the main focus of the political pundits and/or pollsters would be on the Millennials, there are older voters who remember well what happened to Senator Joe Lieberman, and can’t wait to help. Its payback time.
Although the majority of Millennials will elect Donald Trump President of the United States it won’t even be close in the general election. Of course, there will be a minority of Millennials who will also vote for Bernie Sanders, but the outcome will not matter. The DNC itself will make sure Sanders isn’t their nominee. How they do that will be interesting in itself to watch, but as for the GOP primaries, we must first admit that from these same Millennials there will be quite a bit of help getting Trump to the GOP nomination without any significant challenge. Trump is their guy, no doubt about it, and it matters not one bit if the old-school political pundits think he is this or that or conservative or moderate or, whatever… as they say.
So how does Trump win? That’s easy: crossover voters. He will be aided and abetted by more than a few Democrats and Independents, the so-called “swing voters” in select states. There are at least 26 states that have either Open (19 states: anybody can vote for any party) or Semi-Open (7 states: registered GOP or undeclared voters can vote) primaries or caucuses that are guaranteed to allow crossover voters in their respective GOP primary or caucus. Trump will win those primaries in near landslides.
For all the rancor being shouted in the infosphere about the unraveling of the GOP from the outsiders leading into the 2016 race, take heart that it is not only the old guard GOP who are being undone, but the DNC and its enablers who are imploding as well. Ka-boom.
“Reeko,” longtime reader and friend of the ND blog, has graciously offered to write some posts here for the duration of the 2016 campaign.
He’s a fellow conservative who works in a secret capacity for the United States government (hence the pseudonym) and can give an insider’s perspective on some of the issues.
His interests include politics, military, foreign affairs, science, theology, history, anthropology, weapons and martial arts, birds, airplanes, and Texas trivia, among many other things.
“Forsazh” is Russian for “afterburner” – as in jet engines. 😉
Unlike me, Reeko supports Donald Trump (!) and in good time will probably get around to explaining why.
To start off, he wanted to talk about former NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s potential entrance into the race. (7-Eleven hardest hit.)
Alternative title, “Send in the Clown”:
Well, that didn’t take long. Bloomberg. Yes, the old Blooming Idiot himself.
So, I guess that question has been answered. (Who will replace Hillary on the Dem ticket?) Crazily, but answered just the same, much like getting a reading from a windsock in a hurricane.
Somebody on the Left must’ve run the electoral numbers and panicked. Cynicism much perhaps? Or does it not look like they are trotting out M. J. Bloomberg to at least try to keep NY from going all Trump Blue in the general election?
Yes, NY will vote solidly for Trump, making that a Red State for the first time since 1984. Of course Bloomberg is most likely to stay officially an “Independent” just like B. Sanders is an “Independent” yet neither of those capitol “I”s are gonna be able to save the DNC from the coming disaster in November:
NY = 29 electoral votes; FL = 29; TX = 38; The solid South = 111 (minus SC, still 102 because that State is goofy) and, the biggest electoral prize of all, yes, even California is in play for Trump. It will be a landslide no matter which way the math works out. The Left is grabbing at NY with everything they have, or else the Dem Party will be demolished.
The Oligarchical Rulers of our country are absolutely besides themselves with fear. “Obama’s legacy” …this is it: The end of the Democrat Party as we know it. With powerful assists from Soros and both Clintons. At long last!
That question has been answered thanks to the belated State Department document dump that was executed in the middle of the night.
Among this latest tranche of Hillary’s emails, Fox News picked up on a significant exchange that is –let’s just say — highly problematic.
The latest batch of emails released from Hillary Clinton’s personal account from her tenure as secretary of state includes 66 messages deemed classified at some level, the State Department said early Friday. In one email, Clinton even seemed to coach a top adviser on how to send secure information outside secure channels. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly maintained that she did not send or receive classified material on her personal account. The State Department claims none of the emails now marked classified were labled as such at the time they were sent. However, one email thread from June 2011 appears to include Clinton telling her top adviser Jake Sullivan to send secure information through insecure means. In response to Clinton’s request for a set of since-redacted talking points, Sullivan writes, “They say they’ve had issues sending secure fax. They’re working on it.” Clinton responds “If they can’t, turn into nonpaper [with] no identifying heading and send nonsecure.” Ironically, an email thread from four months earlier shows Clinton saying she was “surprised” that a diplomatic officer named John Godfrey used a personal email account to send a memo on Libya policy after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.
Hillary, of course, as Secretary of State, had been explicitly instructed by the State Department on the correct procedures for disseminating secure information.
As Guy Benson notes at Townhall, “State sanctioned at least one top diplomat for disregarding those rules.”
Mrs. Clinton may have been especially “surprised” at Godfrey’s actions because they came after she’d been issued a dire warning that foreign entities were aggressively targeting State Department officials’ personal, unsecure email accounts. But lest you need reminding, Hillary Clinton exclusively used such accounts to conduct all of her official business — via an improper, unsecure, private server — before and after this urgent red flag was brought to her attention.
(2) “Clinton…has repeatedly maintained that she did not send or receive classified material on her personal account.” This assertion has been disproven by the more than 1,000 classified emails discovered on her private server, including 66 additions from this batch alone. Her myriad excuses for this have been debunked piece by piece.
(3) Her final justification — which is legally irrelevant, as Hillary herself has personally attested — is that none of the sensitive material that she wrongfully transmitted through her unsecure server was “marked classified” at the time. Again, this is meaningless, especially when it comes to highly secret material that she was obligated to recognize and protect as soon as it was produced. But the email chain referenced above includes an instruction from Hillary Clinton to a State Department aide (who now works on her campaign) to strip classified information — it remains redacted to this day — of its classified markings [“identifying heading”] and “send nonsecure.”
Only one such email was found, but note her “matter-of-fact” attitude. This has all the appearance of standard operating procedure for her.
Nice Deb 