PrairiePundit

Stealth drone boat ready to take on pirates and other miscreants

2013-05-17T20:21:00.001-05:00

It is believed to be the first stealth drone capable of operating in the water.

This 35 foot long boat is designed to invisibly glide across the ocean acting as a spy and spotting pirates.

The daunting vessel belongs to the world’s first fleet of remote-controlled ‘robo-boats’ designed to take on dangerous covert missions without endangering the lives of crew.

This 35 foot long boat is designed to invisibly glide across the ocean acting as a spy and spotting pirates

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There is much more.

They have a range of 600 nautical miles and can stay on patrol for up to 10 days. I suspect they could be effective in swarm attacks on pirate motherships.

Because there is nowhere to hide?

2013-05-17T19:49:00.000-05:00

BBC:

Why is violent crime so rare in Iceland

Where are you going to go to get away?

Gratitude watch?

2013-05-17T19:37:00.001-05:00

Fox News:

Pakistani doctor who helped get Bin Laden was denied asylum in U.S., report reveals

It does look like he will be recommended for a new trial in Pakistan. He should be released and brought to the US for a heros welcome.

Houston is leading US growth

2013-05-17T19:32:00.002-05:00

Mathew Kaminski:

Houston
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Houston's recent track record is startling. For the calendar year ending in February, it saw the fastest pace of job growth (4.5%) among the country's 20 largest metropolitan areas. (With a population of 2.1 million, it's the fourth-largest U.S. city.) In 2011, the last year such data are available, Houston had the fastest-growing large metropolitan economy, at 3.7%.

Add to that a cost of living that is 7.8% below the U.S. average—New York is 53.4% above the average—and you can see the attraction for waves of new arrivals. Housing costs run a third less than the average in the 29 largest metro areas. Adjusting for these lower costs, Houston has the highest per-capita income of any city in the nation.

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Like Texas as a whole, Houston sells itself as "business friendly," and Ms. Parker ticks off the attractions—ease of permitting, unobtrusive regulations and low taxes. She also supports Houston's limited restrictions on land use, which some here call its real secret sauce. Without zoning, Houston can adjust to shifting market demands—whether for townhouse complexes or retail outfits—faster than most any other city. It looks unwieldy to anyone of the urban-planning persuasion, but it also keeps prices down.
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The city has surpassed New York as the country's most racially and ethnically diverse, according to a study last year by Rice University. One in five residents was born outside the U.S. The city attracted the second-highest number of new, foreign-born residents in the first decade of this century, after the more populous New York. A Manhattan Institute report last year named Houston and Dallas the country's least segregated cities.

Hispanics are hardly the only newcomers. The Korean, South Asian and Chinese communities are a backbone of the small-business community. European expatriates work in energy and at the Texas Medical Center—which, this being Texas, touts itself as the world's largest.
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I have always like the vibrancy of Houston. I found it energizing just walking around the downtown area. Most of the new growth has been outside the downtown area as mega companies build large campus locations for their headquarters.

I have seen how the lack of zoning can quickly see a neighborhood transformed while creating value for those who move on. It is a dynamic you would never see in the stagnate California real estate market where there is little room left for the middle class or New York City where rent controls have stifled the real estate market. I would pick Houston over either location.

Terror and the IRS

2013-05-17T19:03:00.001-05:00

Mike Kelly explains how outrageous the IRS questions were.

I find it pretty easy to conclude that this was an intrusive question from IRS

2013-05-17T18:37:00.003-05:00

I don't think he handled the question very well. Perhaps he was praying that all these questions would go away.

Treasury silent about IRS abuse during 2012 election

2013-05-17T18:24:00.002-05:00

NY Times:

Treasury Knew of I.R.S. Inquiry in 2012, Official Says

The Treasury Department’s inspector general testified that he had informed senior officials of an audit of the agency’s treatment of applications for exemptions.

So they knew about the IRS voter suppression effort during a hotly contested election and kept quiet about it until afterwards. That is another reason why Obama's reelection is tainted.

Texas company gets right to export LNG to Japan, elsewhere

2013-05-17T18:15:00.001-05:00

Fuel Fix:

The Energy Department on Friday gave Freeport LNG conditional approval to broadly export domestically harvested natural gas, marking only the second time a U.S. company has won that authority and suggesting the Obama administration may grant similar licenses later this year.

The export license allows the Texas-based project to sell liquefied natural gas to Japan and other countries that do not have free-trade agreements with the United States. The company still must win approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to convert its existing Quintana Island, Texas import terminal into a facility capable of liquefying natural gas and shipping it overseas. And the Energy Department reserved the right to review Freeport’s application again before issuing a final export license.

The move is the first of its kind since the Energy Department granted a similar export license to Cheniere Energy in April 2012, giving that Houston-based company the right to export as much as 2.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day for the next two decades. The Energy Department had put other export applications on hold while it considered the economic effects of more broadly selling domestic natural gas overseas.
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This move should help our trading balance and help natural gas produces deal with excess capacity. It is unlikely to affect domestic users who benefiting from the abundant supply in the US.

What was the assumption about Benghazi from the beginning?

2013-05-17T17:07:00.001-05:00

In watching this, I go back to Greg Hicks testimony that he always assumed it was a terrorist attack and so did most other people involved in the fight. The belief that it was a mob of movie critics appears to have come out of the bowels of Washington and was seized upon as an excuse for inaction.

Sharyl Attkisson has more.

Obama administration officials who were in key positions on Sept. 11, 2012, acknowledge that a range of mistakes were made the night of the attacks on the U.S. missions in Benghazi, and in messaging to Congress and the public in the aftermath.

The officials spoke to CBS News in a series of interviews and communications under the condition of anonymity so that they could be more frank in their assessments. They do not all agree on the list of mistakes and it's important to note that they universally claim that any errors or missteps did not cost lives and reflect "incompetence rather than malice or cover up." Nonetheless, in the eight months since the attacks, this is the most sweeping and detailed discussion by key players of what might have been done differently.

"We're portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots," said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. "It's actually closer to us being idiots."

The Obama administration's chief critics on Benghazi, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., remain skeptical. They see a pattern, even a conspiracy, to deflect attention from the idea that four Americans had been killed by al Qaeda-linked attackers, on the president's watch. "There is no conclusion a reasonable person could reach other than that for a couple of weeks after the attack, [the Obama administration was] trying to push a narrative that was politically beneficial to the president's re-election," Graham told CBS News.

The list of mea culpas by Obama administration officials involved in the Benghazi response and aftermath include: standing down the counterterrorism Foreign Emergency Support Team, failing to convene the Counterterrorism Security Group, failing to release the disputed Benghazi "talking points" when Congress asked for them, and using the word "spontaneous" while avoiding the word "terrorism."

The Foreign Emergency Support Team known as "FEST" is described as "the US Government's only interagency, on-call, short-notice team poised to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide." It even boasts hostage-negotiating expertise. With U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens reported missing shortly after the Benghazi attacks began, Washington officials were operating under a possible hostage scenario at the outset. Yet deployment of the counterterrorism experts on the FEST was ruled out from the start. That decision became a source of great internal dissent and the cause of puzzlement to some outsiders.

Thursday, an administration official who was part of the Benghazi response told CBS News: "I wish we'd sent it."

Benghazi timeline: How the attack unfolded

The official said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deputy, Patrick Kennedy, quickly dispensed with the idea. A senior State Department official Thursday told CBS News, "Under Secretary Kennedy is not in the decision chain on FEST deployment" but would not directly confirm whether Kennedy or somebody else dismissed the FEST.

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There is much more.

The idiot confession is almost refreshing, but it has the problem of being exculpatory as to the political dynamic that was put in play by the attempt to cover up the events. That is why it is unlikely to be enough at this point. It also does not help their credibility when Democrats keep describing what happened as a non event. That kind of talk shows a callousness that is also bad politics.

How Obama cheated in 2012

2013-05-17T16:30:00.003-05:00

James Taranto:

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No one can deny that Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire were highly skilled athletes. But their accomplishments are forever tainted by their use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The use of the Internal Revenue Service's coercive power to suppress dissent against Obama is the political equivalent of steroids. The history books should record Obama's re-election with an asterisk to indicate that it was achieved with the help of illicit means.

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Ne notes the difference between sports reporters and political reporters is that in sports cheating is frowned but in politics it is treated like part of the game. The fact is Obama knew he could not win without suppressing the Republican vote and he had significant help from the IRS in doing so. That some people are OK with this tells you something about their lack of character.

Obama deserves blame for IRS mess

2013-05-17T11:54:00.001-05:00

Jonah Goldberg:

Of course the president deserves some of the blame.

Yes, it's extremely unlikely he ordered the IRS to discriminate against tea party, pro-life or Jewish groups opposed to his agenda (though why anyone should take his word for it is beyond me). And his outrage now -- however convenient -- is appreciated. But when people he views as his "enemies" complained about a politicized IRS, what did he do? Nothing.

Imagine for a moment if black civil rights organizations, gay groups or teachers unions loudly complained to members of Congress and the press that the IRS was discriminating against them. How long would it take for the White House to investigate? Answer honestly: Minutes? Hours? OK, maybe days if there was an attack on one of our embassies that the administration was busy ignoring.

Obviously, it would take longer for Obama to actually get to the bottom of the accusations and, if true, punish those responsible. But you can be sure that the moment he heard credible allegations of political persecution of liberal groups -- outfits with "progressive" or "civil rights" in their names -- he would have moved heaven and earth to make things right.

But when such allegations came from the right, the response from the president -- and from a press corps that until recently acted like a king's guard -- ranged from smirks and eye-rolling to flat-out lies or virtual applause.

For 27 months, groups with such terms as "tea party" or "patriot" in their names were singled out for deeply intrusive and expensive scrutiny, while groups flying the "progressive" banner sailed through. Drew Ryun gave up trying to get IRS approval for a free market organization after 17 months of bureaucratic stonewalling. But when he applied for approval of an organization called "Greenhouse Solutions" he got the go-ahead in three weeks.

When top Democratic senators pressured the IRS to single out conservative groups not just for special scrutiny but for "caps" on how much money they could spend, President Obama didn't tell Chuck Schumer, Carl Levin or Max Baucus to cool it.

But Obama's culpability in all of this isn't restricted merely to his sins of omission. Throughout his presidency, Obama has set a very clear tone.
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Obama's tone was one of belligerence toward those who opposed his agenda and he appeared willing to use the full force of the federal government to intimidate them. It was Chicago Way thug politics.

The current investigation of the IRS should also include an investigation of the IRS employee union management and whether there was an anti conservative agenda being pushed by them as well as IRS management.

Who was responsible for targeting the conservative groups

2013-05-17T10:34:00.000-05:00

Congressman Brady from Texas asks a pertinent question and does not get an answer. What is also not answer is why the FBI was also targeting this woman after she filed for a tax exempt organization status for her Tea Party organization. How does that happen?

Bryan Preston reports that Miller's response to another question creates a new definition of competence.

Miller first says the IRS was only guilty of horrible customer service which is funny enough as an explanation for abusing conservative taxpayers.

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Again under questioning, Miller admitted that this “horrible customer service” did not stop him from promoting Sarah Hall Ingram from the tax-exempt office that abused these groups, to head the implementation of ObamaCare.

If the office Ingram headed provided such “horrible customer service,” then why did Miller promote her?

“Because she is an exemplary civil servant,” Miller replied, evidently creating a new definition of the word “exemplary.”
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The mess at the IRS maybe bigger than anyone imagined.

The two plus day gap on Benghazi emails

2013-05-17T10:24:00.001-05:00

Daily Caller:

The Benghazi-related emails released by the White House late May 15 exclude the critical emails between administration officials that were sent during the crucial first two days after the deadly jihadi attack that killed four Americans last September.

The 100 pages of partially redacted emails also conclude with a dismissive message from CIA chief David Petraeus.

“Frankly, I’d just as soon not use this,” Petraeus said about the heavily edited, four-sentence “talking points” that the White House used to downplay Al Qaeda’s role in the Sep. 11 attack on the poorly protected diplomatic compound.

“This release is long overdue [but] there are relevant documents the Administration has still refused to produce,” said a May 15 statement from Brendan Buck, press secretary to House Majority Leader John Boehner.

“We hope, however, that this limited release of documents is a sign of more cooperation to come,” he added.

The two-day gap — the first released email was sent 67 hours after the attack began — plus the Petraeus comment, undermines the White House’s explanation for the rewrite.

Officials, including spokesman Jay Carney, say CIA officials — not White House and State Department officials — rewrote a quick-reaction CIA report that had attributed the attack to an al-Qaeda affiliate.

“Even the smallest amount of scrutiny [shows the emails don’t] support their explanation,” said a May 15 tweet from Buck.

“The White House’s explanation appears NOWHERE in the actual [email] documents. Nowhere. Not even a hint of it,” Buck added.

After the attack, White House officials used the edited talking points to bolster repeated claims that the organized attack was an unpredictable, spontaneous violent riot by Libyans who were angry about a California-made YouTube video.

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There is more.

This event is going to continue to be the subject of an investigation in both Congress and now the media is finally curious about the misfeasance of the Obama administration in its response to the building threat and reaction to the event.

What?--There was not Solyndra audit?

2013-05-17T10:11:00.001-05:00

Paul Bedard:

It was meant to be funny, but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's humorous opening line at a meeting of conservatives Wednesday night packed a punch in highlighting the reality that in the escalating IRS scandal, no Obama pet project or supporting group was audited by the tax agency--only critics.

In comments to the "Prosperity Caucus," a group of economists and policy analysts who push a pro-growth agenda, Cruz said: "I regret to pass off some information that as a result of each of you being here, tomorrow morning you will be audited by the IRS."

He added: "If only you had named this the 'Solyndra Caucus,' then it would be fine. But you had the temerity actually to support prosperity. The only thing worse would be if it were the 'Prosperity and Constitution Caucus,' in which case we would be getting audited today."

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Humor that gets closest to the truth can be the funniest. It breaks through all of the excuses we are hearing and will hear about the IRS abuses, when you realize that left wing boondoggles were exempt.

What makes Texas work

2013-05-17T09:45:00.003-05:00

Gov. Perry explains why Texas has become so successful.

Illegal border crossings are higher than administration admits

2013-05-17T09:36:00.001-05:00

Byron York:

Security along the U.S. border with Mexico is perhaps the key factor in the debate over comprehensive immigration reform. Those who believe the border is mostly secure already are more inclined to support the plan of the bipartisan Gang of Eight in the Senate -- legalization first, followed by enhanced security. Those who believe the border is still far from secure are more likely to oppose the Gang of Eight's approach, insisting that heightened security measures be in place before the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are legalized.

Now, a new report from the Council on Foreign Relations could have a significant effect on the conversation -- and cast real doubt on whether the government's border security statistics are reliable. If the report is correct, more illegal immigrants are making it past U.S. authorities than officials say. And just as important, the report suggests it is nearly impossible to have an informed debate about border security because the government does not reveal the most basic information about illegal border crossings.

"The Department of Homeland Security releases only a single output number: the total arrests, or apprehensions, made by Border Patrol agents of unauthorized crossers in the vicinity of the border," the authors write. "Such basic questions as the apprehension rate for unauthorized crossers or the estimated number of successful illegal entries cannot be answered simply by counting arrest totals."

No, they can't. To find some of the answers that Homeland Security won't provide, the authors looked to other data -- interviews with people who have tried to cross the border illegally; analysis of people who have been caught attempting to cross multiple times; and what is called "known flow," that is, the actual observations by the Border Patrol of people trying to cross into the United States.

Putting together all the evidence, what they found is that U.S. authorities are catching somewhere between 40 percent and 55 percent of the people who try to cross the border illegally. That's more than in the past, when the Border Patrol had less manpower, but it's still just somewhere around half, or even less.

And nobody is quite sure if that is accurate; 40 to 55 percent of what? Knowing that answer requires knowing the total number of people who have tried to enter the U.S. illegally in any given year, including the ones who successfully evaded Border Patrol. The DHS estimate of that group, the so-called "gotaways," is almost surely too low, and new information from drone-based surveillance suggests more illegal immigrants may be getting through than previously thought.

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The drones appear to be best at gaging the "getaways." What is clear is that the current administration is trying to hide the inflow to push their political agenda. I think they also see these people as future Democrat voters.

IRS went after Congressman who stood up for Waco Tea Party

2013-05-17T09:17:00.001-05:00

Betsy Woodruff:

Representative Bill Flores, a Texas Republican, tells National Review Online that he thinks the Internal Revenue Service may be targeting him.

And he says his work as a whistleblower may be why.

Last year, Flores was contacted by the Waco Tea Party, which is located in his district, about trouble with their application for 501(c)(4) status. Flores took up their cause, and became one of the first members of Congress to question the IRS’s conduct.

A few months later, Flores received a notification from the IRS requesting additional documents regarding his tax returns.

“Was it just an independent review of my return or was it because I was asking them questions about their activities for tax-exempt organizations?” Flores asks. “I don’t know, but once the trust is broken, you know, you lose confidence.”

Flores says his accountant sent in the requested information within the time frame allotted by the IRS, but he hasn’t heard from them since, even though the agency is required by law to respond to his submission.

“Americans have lost confidence in the federal government because of activities like this,” Flores tells me. “They still haven’t cleared my name.”

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It is easy to draw the inference that this is more Chicago Way thug politics by the Obama administration when you look at their attacks on political opponents from Romney donor vander Sloot to True the Vote leader Engelbart both of whom were subjected to audits and inspections from various federal agencies. It appears the common factor in both cases was their opposition to the Obama agenda.

Navy's 2nd generation Aegis missile defense system knocks out incoming target

2013-05-17T09:05:00.001-05:00

Military Times:

The Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors completed a successful test of a missile defense system by destroying a target launched Wednesday night over the Pacific Ocean.

A separating short-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.

The USS Lake Erie detected and tracked the missile with onboard radar. The ship, equipped with an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense weapon system, launched a block missile that released a kinetic warhead, which destroyed the target, the Department of Defense said.

“The kinetic warhead acquired the target re-entry vehicle, diverted into its path, and, using only the force of a direct impact, engaged and destroyed the target,” the department said in a news release.

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I suspect this is the system that we will have to use to defend many of our Pacific bases from attacks from North Korea if they decide to live up to their bluster. This is a second generation system that can knock out long range missiles. It should also be noted that it is the kind of system that many of the current leaders of teh Democrat party opposed.

Obama is being evasive about the knowledge of his administration on IRS abuse

2013-05-16T20:48:00.000-05:00

Obama answers a question that was not asked and avoids answering the one that was asked. That evasion suggest he thinks telling the whole truth will not be helpful to him at least politically and possibly legally.

The Obama bystander leadership style

2013-05-16T18:56:00.001-05:00

Fox News:

'Gross Mismanagement': Report Says DOJ Lost Track of Possible Terrorists

That puts them in the same category with Fast and Furious weapons. There is not much this DOJ can't lose. Taking responsibility for the losses is something they don't do.

Feds release their fracking rules

2013-05-16T18:38:00.001-05:00

Fuel Fix:

The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a new plan to tighten standards for drilling on public landsand force companies to reveal the chemicals they use in the process, after making significant concessions to the oil industry.

Although it is poised to be the first major federal rule governing the hydraulic fracturing process that is unlocking vast domestic oil and gas reserves, the measure would apply only on the small sliver of U.S. land under the Interior Department’s control.

Rewritten in response to a flood of criticism from both environmentalists and the oil industry, the new proposal left both groups unsatisfied. Conservationists said it doesn’t go far enough to protect drinking water near drilling sites, and industry officials said the mandates could hike costs and cause delays in drilling.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell cast the proposed rule as a pragmatic approach to protecting environment and public health while allowing oil and gas development on federal lands.

“We are proposing some common-sense updates that increase safety while also providing flexibility and facilitating coordination with states and tribes,” Jewell said. “As we continue to offer millions of acres of America’s public lands for oil and gas development, it is important that the public has full confidence that the right safety and environmental protections are in place.”

To a striking degree, Interior Department officials emphasized their desire for a final set of mandates that protects public health and the environment while providing flexibility and avoiding duplicate regulation. Jewell acknowledged that the measure was sure to be criticized on all sides.

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They should have just left it up to the states. Texas has been regulating fracking for decades and has never had any major concerns arise. Pennsylvania is regulating hundreds of wells right now. What the feds have done is give the anti energy left a toe hold for their real ambition which is to stop all drilling on federal controlled sites. It does appear that Jewell is trying to move beyond the Salazar passive aggressive approach to thwarting energy development.

Woman in charge of tax exempt section of IRS during harassment of Tea Party now in charge of IRS Obamacare administration?

2013-05-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

ABC News:

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

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What is also interesting is the guy who replaced her was fired today in what appears to be another attempt to make it look like Obama is doing something about the The Tea Party fiasco. This is one of those stories that legs like LeBron James.

Joseph Grant was named tax exempt office on May 8. He has announced that he will retire on June 3 after less than a month on the new job. He was a deputy under Ingram.

This looks like more than a few rogue IRS agents

2013-05-16T17:41:00.001-05:00

Breitbart:

At least two Texas Tea Party groups have reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned them on their relationship to the election integrity organization True the Vote and its parent group, the King Street Patriots Tea Party.

True the Vote was created by the Houston-based King Street Patriots Tea Party group, and both groups were founded and led by Catherine Engelbrecht.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Robert Gonzalez of the Houston, TX area Clear Lake Tea Party revealed that he and his wife Lisa received the same type of probing and scrutinizing questions as other Tea Party and conservative groups, but theirs came with a specific question about one of Engelbrecht’s groups.

“The IRS wanted to know what our relationship was to ‘King City Patriots,’ but it was clear they meant Catherine Engelbrecht’s ‘King Street Patriots,’” said Gonzalez. “My wife Lisa founded this Tea Party, and of course we knew Catherine; everyone does. But to be specifically questioned by the federal government about her? If we had not previously known her, we would have thought she was of questionable character or something by them asking that,” he added.
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Engelbrecht’s experiences with the federal government are seemingly unique among Tea Party groups in that she owns several businesses, thus providing more windows for various federal agencies to scrutinize her--and they did just that.

Shortly after filing for True the Vote’s 501(c3) status with the IRS and beginning her efforts to ensure voter accountability, a myriad of federal agencies entered her life. Not only did they IRS began sending a series of probing and exhaustive questionnaires, but they began to audit both Engelbrecht personally and her businesses.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began to call her with questions, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) began to do surprise audits of one of her businesses, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began to audit one of her businesses, and a Texas state environmental agency began an audit as well.

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This looks like a full court press by the Obama administration that goes well beyond a few rogue IRS agents in Cincinnati. The Obama administration appears to have been freaked out by the prospect of a voter integrity effort. Such an effort would make it more difficult for Democrats to steal elections.

What seems clear is that the administrations story about the IRS is very incomplete at this time. Engelbrecht should be an early witness in any Congressional investigation of this matter.

Kimberley Strassel describes how Obama worked to make sure people who opposed him were subjected to IRS and other regulatory scrutiny similar to that Engelbrecht has had to endure. She describes the multiple audits and investigations of a man who donated to a group supporting Mitt Romney. The details appear very similar.

Obama's culture of intimidation

2013-05-16T10:31:00.000-05:00

It is not just the IRS where the culture of intimidation is encouraged. It is good to see Marco Rubio back on offense again.

Groups driven to give up by IRS abuse

2013-05-16T08:54:00.000-05:00

Washington Post:

The Common Sense Campaign, a self-described constitutionalist group based in Montgomery, Ala., aspired to be a smaller version of the National Rifle Association — powerful and influential, without having to pay federal income taxes.

“We wanted to have a voice too,” said the group’s chairman, Pete Riehm. “The biggest difference between us and them is money.”

But Common Sense never reached the nonprofit stage. The organization gave up seeking tax-exempt status after two years of Internal Revenue Service demands for everything from the group’s blog posts to the names of “anyone who gave you so much as a dollar,” according to its officials.

“We were spending thousands of dollars between the filing fees and attorney fees,” Riehm said. “We realized that just paying the taxes would cost a whole lot less.”

Common Sense was one of scores of groups that faced months and even years of delays in seeking tax exemptions after the IRS started targeting groups with names containing “tea party,” “patriot” and other terms associated with conservatives. The practice, which appears to have lasted for about 18 months until early 2012, has set off a political firestorm in Washington and a criminal investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department.

Not only did IRS employees improperly target groups based on politics, but they also improperly demanded a host of details about the groups’ activities, according to a report on the abuses by a Treasury Department inspector general.

Some groups, including several interviewed by The Washington Post, were asked to provide names of donors or membership lists, which experts say the IRS cannot legally do. The agency also demanded names of board members, copies of meeting minutes and résumés, details of community organizing efforts and numerous other details, according to questionnaires obtained by The Post.

“It was pretty much a proctology exam through your earlobe,” said Karen L. Kenney, the coordinator for the San Fernando Valley Patriots, a tea party group in Southern California that was sent an IRS questionnaire with more than 100 questions on it.

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There is much more.

Where was the media when this was going on. There were ample complaints about the abuse in Congress too, but the IRAS leadership denied the allegations right up until the IG finally gave them no excuses. Whether coordinated or not, these efforts appear to be part of a voter suppression effort by Democrats to shut down conservative groups angered by their big government agenda.