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White House spokesman Jay Carney said that questions about Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius for Obamacare fundraising are similar to questions about President Obama’s birth certificate: 

Tea Party Patriots, 9/12 groups, liberty groups, and their grass-roots supporters quickly mobilized through social media and gathered today at IRS offices nationwide to protest the chilling political witch hunts conducted by the Obama administration.

They will not be silenced. And they will not stand down.

Here’s a photo collection from across the country:

#IRSProtest attendees in Town & Country MO wearing targets on their backs ==> twitter.com/Hauckers/statu…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

RT @cindylamar IRS protest in Evansville, IN twitter.com/CindyLaMar/sta…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

#IRSProtest sign in Nashville: “I’m from the IRS and I’m here to enforce Obamacare. Isn’t that special?” twitter.com/WSMVCarley/sta…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

#IRSProtest MT @bundgaard2 Protest outside Nashville Fed Ct House vs IRS for targeting Tea Party groups twitter.com/bundgaard2/sta…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

Crowd swells & horns honk at IRS protest at Nashville’s Fed Ct. House. Crowd incl Rep. Joe Carr, Sen Mike Bell @wkrn twitter.com/bundgaard2/sta…

— Chris Bundgaard (@bundgaard2) May 21, 2013

Over 500 here now.more coming #IRSprotest #IRSProtestCincy twitter.com/annbecker1999/…

— Ann Becker (@annbecker1999) May 21, 2013

The corner of 10th & PA Ave is packed with #IRS protestors: twitter.com/matthewhurtt/s…

— Matthew Hurtt (@matthewhurtt) May 21, 2013

Mobile Al IRS rally twitter.com/ZanP/status/33…

— Zan (@ZanP) May 21, 2013

More from Twitchy Team here.

“We didn’t have enough weapons, we didn’t have enough bullets,” Mr. Spiegel once told an interviewer. “It was like fighting a well-equipped army with firecrackers.”….

**Written by Doug Powers

CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson has been doing a lot of digging. It would appear that somebody might be curious about her sources — either that or they were trying to steal her Angry Birds password:

“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public.”
[...]
Attkisson told WPHT that irregular activity on her computer was first identified in Feb. 2011, when she was reporting on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal and on the Obama administration’s green energy spending, which she said “the administration was very sensitive about.” Attkisson has also been a persistent investigator of the events surrounding last year’s attack in Benghazi, and its aftermath.

Though there’s still no final determination on who compromised Attkisson’s computers or in what way, it comes hot on the heels of news that the Justice Department spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen, as well as two of Rosen’s colleagues.

As much as the DOJ has been in the news for seizing electronic records of reporters, I won’t assume they had any direct hand in this. The brother of Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor is the president of CBS News. If the Obama administration wanted something from Attkisson, maybe they could have just asked the network to get it for them.

Just to be safe though, investigative journalists might want to switch to using only pencils, notepads and Selectric typewriters until the dust settles.

Audio of Attkisson discussing this on the Chris Stigall show:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The Senate Subcommittee on Investigations is holding a hearing this morning on Apple’s tax avoidance strategies. Rand Paul set the ringmasters back on their heels with an opening statement that questioned the whole rationale for the hearing. Here is Paul’s opening statement:

For those who lack the patience to watch it (that often describes me when it comes to videos), here is the transcript, supplied by Paul’s office:

I am offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing. I am offended by a $4 trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of America’s greatest success stories.

Tell me one of these politicians up here that doesn’t minimize their taxes. Tell me a chief financial officer that you would hire if he didn’t try to minimize your taxes legally. Tell me what Apple has done that is illegal.

I am offended by a government that uses the IRS to bully groups such as the Tea Party but I am also offended by a government that convenes a hearing to bully one of American’s success stories.

I am offended by the spectacle of dragging in here executives from an American company that is not doing anything illegal. If anyone should be on trial here, it should be Congress.

I frankly think the Committee should apologize to Apple. I frankly think Congress should be on trial here for creating a bizarre and byzantine tax code that runs into the tens of thousands of pages, for creating a tax code that simply doesn’t compete with the rest of the world.

This committee will admit: Apple has not broken any laws. Yet, they are forced into a show trial at the whims of politicians, when in fact; Congress should be on trial for chasing the profits of great American companies overseas. You haul before this committee one of America’s greatest success stories and you want applause?

I say, instead of Apple executives, you should have brought in a giant mirror, so we could look at the reflection of Congress because this problem is solely and completely created by the awful tax code.

If you want to assign blame, the Committee needs to look in the mirror and see who created this mess, see who created the tax code that drives American companies overseas.

Our corporate tax is more than double Canada’s. I never thought I would be complimenting Canada’s tax code – our tax code is double Canada’s. Our corporate tax is over ten points higher than Europe. Instead of saying theirs is too low, why don’t we set about to work that ours is too high.

Apple has 600,000 jobs they’ve created, American jobs and we want to drag them before this committee to chastise them. I find it abominable. Just in my state, we have $700 million in sales from Dow Corning. They make Gorilla Glass.

They were virtually out of business. In the 1990s, Apple struggled – if I had to guess, unfortunately, I didn’t guess enough to invest in Apple, but the thing is that in the ‘90s, people were worried they might go out of business. You know they had one computer that wasn’t doing well and then all of a sudden the innovation that came about. And we want to bring them forward and chastise them for their success.

A couple years, we did repatriation of foreign capital. If we want the capital to come home, don’t double tax it. We tax it 35 percent. Let’s tax it at 5 percent.

I have a bill that would repatriate profits from foreign companies at 5 percent and put it into infrastructure. Our country is woefully short of money for infrastructure. But you’re not going to get it at 35 percent— you are getting zero. Let’s make it 5 percent and create and infrastructure fund.

There are probably 70 votes for that in Congress but nobody will bring it up. Why? They say, “Oh, it’s the sweetener for overall tax reform, which is illusive and a hill too tall to climb that it never seems to get here.”

Why not tomorrow pass it? Why do you think people are frustrated with Congress? Because we don’t do the right thing. Everybody admits, even those that want to drag Apple before this committee, they admit that the tax code is our problem.

But if we had repatriation at 5 percent, then they would bring money home. Why don’t we just pass it? Instead it has to be revenue neutral, scored by the CBO – just pass it if it’s the right thing to do.

I would say what we really need to do is to apologize to Apple, compliment them for the job creation they are doing, and get about doing our job.

Look in the mirror and let’s make the tax code better, fairer, and more competitive world-wide. Money goes where it is welcome and currently our tax code makes money not welcome in our country.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Later on, when it came to his turn, Sen. Paul delivered an oration that I thought was even better; I will put it up later, if possible. The leaders of the lynch party, Carl Levin and John McCain, felt obliged to say that they are not vilifying Apple but are merely trying to shed light on the workings of the tax code. McCain delivered a rather sickening paean to Levin, and Claire McCaskill thanked him effusively for his bipartisanship.

I was never much of a fan of Ron Paul, to put it mildly, and I initially viewed his son with some skepticism. But it won’t take many performances like today’s to make me one of Rand Paul’s biggest fans.

Tim Cook is testifying now. He points out that Apple is the largest corporate taxpayer in the U.S., having paid $6 billion in income taxes last year. He concludes his opening statement with a rather impassioned plea for tax reform.

UPDATE: Ron Johnson and Kelly Ayotte are also doing an excellent job. Basically the hearing is turning into a teaching opportunity for Apple’s executives–now what Carl Levin had in mind.

Here is Senator Paul questioning a tax professor; this is what I referred to earlier:

UPDATE: Carl Levin tried to salvage the situation by going on an endless, repetitive soliloquy in which he misstated the facts relating to Apple’s overseas operations and didn’t give the Apple executives an opportunity to correct him. He then declared the panel at an end. That is the advantage, I guess, of being the committee chairman.

[W]e consider first two of this Court’s key decisions: Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U. S. 347 (1964), and Rogers v. Tennessee, 532 U. S. 451 (2001)…

This case is a far cry from Bouie, where, unlike Rogers, the Court held that the retroactive application of a judicial decision violated due process….

within cry of: within calling distance. a far cry  : a long way, a very long distance.

1632   W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. (1682) ix. 396   Villages and Houses..each one was within cry of another.
1819   Scott Legend of Montrose iv, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. IV. 72   One of the Campbells replied, ‘It is a far cry to Lochow’; a proverbial expression of the tribe, meaning that their ancient hereditary domains lay beyond the reach of an invading enemy.
1850   Tait’s Edinb. Mag. Feb. 75/1   In those days, it was a ‘far cry’ from Orkney to Holyrood; nevertheless the ‘cry’ at length penetrated the royal ear.
1885   Athenæum 18 Apr. 498/3   It is a far cry from the ascidian to bookbinding and blue china, yet it is a cry that can be achieved by Mr. Lang.

**Written by Doug Powers

Total Coincidence of the Week™ by way of Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator:

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.

The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

More here.

Daniel Greenfield:

Moving something like this through the unions would allow for the kind of vertical avoidance of legitimate authority that Obama Inc. has thrived on. Federal officials can be subpoenaed and with enough pressure, usually spill the beans. However union leaders are part of a different political infrastructure and usually have to be dragged into court in order to talk. They are less invested in government than in their own union.

And the paper trail is much less.

So, did that meeting trigger the singling out of conservative non-profit applicants? As Ace pointed out, according to the report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, the wheels for additional conservative scrutiny seem to have been put into motion in February of that year — maybe even before that. Perhaps it was just a progress report on the targeting, free from any formal chain of command concerns. Or maybe the only business discussed was Kelley instructing Obama how he could write off his golf clubs as dependents (after all, times are tough at 1600 Penn).

White House staff would probably insist there’s no way Obama could have talked to Kelley about targeting conservative applicants because the White House staff hadn’t told him about it yet… or something.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Testifying today on Capitol Hill, Douglas Shulman, the former IRS commissioner, says he “can’t say” how the targeting of conservatives by the agency he once led happened: 

A senator asks, “If you could just very quickly, in a nutshell, bottom-line: How did this happen?”

“Mr. Chairman,” Shulman says, “I can’t say that I know that answer.”

“But you were commissioner,” says the senator.

“I’m six months out of,” Shulman started. 

Today, the Government Accountability Office issued a report of preliminary finding on the progress the Department of Homeland Security has made in its efforts to reduce the backlog of immigrant visas. Although almost 863,000 records were “closed” in the last two years, the backlog of potential overstays remains at more than one million [emphasis added]:

At the moment I am listening to the ostentatiously liberal Judge Mark Bennett of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa summarize the Supreme Court’s employment law decisions of the past year. Judge Bennett wants us to know that he has got his mind right (i.e., left), and how. I understood that from his disparagement of the conservative Supreme Court justices as “the usual suspects.” That was enough for me, but then he added facetious praise of Chief Justice Roberts for the “craftspersonship” of his opinions, a purported word I am grateful never to have heard before this morning.

Continuing legal education is a multifaceted thing. I’m wondering if I can claim elimination-of-bias credit (I need three hours to satisfy the requirement imposed by the Minnesota Supreme Court) for meditating on Judge Bennett’s mind-numbing vocabulary.

[T]he reporters involved have indicated they were told by their sources that these were summaries, taken from notes of e-mails that could not be kept. The fact that slightly different versions of the e-mails were reported by different journalists suggests there were different note-takers as well.

Indeed, Republicans would have been foolish to seriously doctor e-mails that the White House at any moment could have released (and eventually did). Clearly, of course, Republicans would put their own spin on what the e-mails meant, as they did in the House report. Given that the e-mails were almost certain to leak once they were sent to Capitol Hill, it’s a wonder the White House did not proactively release them earlier.

The burden of proof lies with the accuser. Despite Pfeiffer’s claim of political skullduggery, we see little evidence that much was at play here besides imprecise wordsmithing or editing errors by journalists.