Investigation IDs IRS Leaker - But the law he broke actually prevents NOM, the victim, from learning more.

A House committee investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of right-leaning groups has identified the IRS agent who leaked the confidential donor list of the National Organization for Marriage, a conservative organization that opposes gay marriage. NOM’s donor list, contained in a Form 990 Schedule B, which it is required by law to file with the IRS, was obtained in March 2012 by its chief political opponent, the Human Rights Campaign, and subsequently became the subject of several national news stories that centered on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s donation to the group.

Though the House Ways and Means Committee, which began investigating the scandal in the wake of revelations that the IRS had inappropriately singled out conservative groups, has identified the individual who divulged the information as an employee in the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division, it can’t divulge his name to the public or to NOM. It can’t even confirm when the leak took place, whether the perpetrator was disciplined, or even whether he is still employed by the IRS or the U.S. government. That’s because of a peculiarity of the Internal Revenue Code’s section 6103, which is intended to protect the confidentiality of taxpayer information. The law makes it a felony to disclose tax returns or related information to the public, but in an odd twist, the results of investigations conducted by congressional committees or by inspectors general are considered the confidential tax information of the alleged perpetrator.

Via: NRO
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YOUR STORIES: Insurance Plans Cancelled Due to Obamacare

Estimates this week suggest that 11 million people could lose their current insurance plans because of Obamacare’s mandatory requirements. We knew that included many Heritage readers, so earlier this week we asked: Has your health insurance plan been canceled?

Here are some of your stories:

  

John B:

IL family of 4. Both parents & a 23 yr. old canceled. We’re scrambling to replace coverage by Jan. 1st at a 80% increase in premiums. Washington, you’re killing us out here.

Via: The Foundry

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Jobless claims drop as California's glitch dissipates

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined largely as expected last week as the impact of a California computer glitch worked its way out of the report.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined by 10,000 

to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were not revised. Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-timeapplications to fall to 339,000 last week.

A Labor Department analyst said California, which had been dealing with a backlog, reported no carryover in claims last week from previous weeks.

Technical problems as California converted to a new computer system have distorted the claims data since September, which had made it hard to get a clear read of labor market conditions.

A 16-day partial shutdown of the federal government had also pushed up claims in recent weeks as furloughed workers applied for benefits, but this appeared to be diminishing.

Via: CBNC

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House leaves for two weeks, GOP promises Obamacare scrutiny on return

House Republicans on Thursday began a nearly two-week recess as they sought to solidify their political standing at home and clear the way for intense public scrutiny of Obamacare’s troubled rollout.

Still smarting from a politically damaging government shutdown that hogged the spotlight and obscured problems with the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans have deliberately shifted strategies. Rather than instigate high-stakes, politically risky confrontations with President Obama, they have embraced a more traditional, low-key approach that focuses on achieving incremental conservative reforms. This legislative strategy has a second, equally important purpose: It’s unlikely to distract from the GOP's aggressive investigation into Obamacare’s error-plagued implementation.

“People are focused on how bad Obamacare is. There’s no sense in putting up hyperpartisan bills that take attention away from that,” a senior Republican House aide told the Washington Examiner.

Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., described the reoriented House GOP game plan this way: “In many respects, what I would characterize this period as is ... getting back to governing.”

Since the 16-day government shutdown ended on Oct. 17, House Republicans have passed a collection of largely noncontroversial bills like the Retail Investor Protection Act and the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013, among others. None were crafted with an eye toward grabbing headlines and none are the sort that fuel a political movement. But for Republicans, that’s by design.

During the shutdown, public polls showed that voters soured on the Republican Party in part because they viewed the GOP as putting ideology ahead of governing. Because they run the House, Republicans have a responsibility for some of the mundane aspects of running the government, and they have attempted late this month to satisfy that charge while using it as a vehicle to enact conservative reforms that might attract bipartisan support.

Via: Washington Examiner

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[VIDEO] MEGYN KELLY WAS ALMOST AT A LOSS FOR WORDS AFTER THIS EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING OBAMACARE INTERVIEW WITH DEM REP.

Megyn Kelly battled Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) over President Barack Obama’s promise that all Americans would be able keep their health care plans under Obamacare, a claim that has proven to be false. While some Democratic lawmakers have admitted the president should have been more clear about the regulations, Obama and other administration officials are blaming insurance companies for causing what is predicted to be as many as 10 million Americans to lose their individual plans.

Rep. Pallone made the latter argument, telling Kelly that insurance companies got “caught” selling “lousy” plans that offered little coverage at a high cost. Under Obamacare, the companies will now offer what he says are better plans at an “affordable price.”

“But that’s only partially true,” Kelly argued. “Some of the insurance companies said, ‘alright I’m going to cancel the policies,’ because that happens in the insurance market. But many, many other policies…are being canceled because the regulations imposed on them by Obamacare left them with no choice.”

“That is absolutely not true,” Pallone shot back.

(Fox News)

Kelly reminded the congressman that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius herself admitted any insurance plan that went up by as much as $5 would not be eligible to be “grandfathered” in due to Obamacare regulations. She played the soundbite just to emphasize her point.

Via: The Blaze

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[VIDEO] Riot Control: DHS Spends $500,000 on Fully Automatic Pepper Spray Launchers

The Department of Homeland Security is increasing its preparations for domestic unrest by spending half a million dollars on fully automatic pepper spray launchers and projectiles that are designed to be used during riot control situations.

In an announcement of a no bid contract posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the federal agency signals its intention to purchase nearly 240,000 pepper spray projectiles, 100 pepper spray launchers, as well as 36 “riot expansion kits”.

The PepperBall TAC-700 pepper spray launcher “features full auto, semi-auto, or 3 round burst providing up to 700 rounds per minute,”according to the company which will provide the DHS with the weapons. It is also “accurate to 60 feet with area saturation up to 150 feet.” The weapon is routinely used in riot control situations around the world.

According to a video demonstration, the TAC-700 has a “strong psychological influence” on the people it is being used against because it is so loud and sounds like an automatic machine gun.

Although the weapons are being purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the document makes it clear that they will be used to train Federal Protective Service (FPS) agents.

The total cost of the contract amounts to $498,970 dollars and mandates that delivery of the weapons will be made within 60 days of the award.

Via: Info Wars

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Sharyl Attkisson: Insurance 'Death Spiral' Could Cause ObamaCare's 'Collapse'

Besides facing a "credibility death spiral" on the issue of ObamaCare, as political director John Dickerson recently put it, Sharyl Attkisson pointed out on Tuesday's CBS Evening News that the very structure of the so-called reform could encounter a separate "death spiral" due to the "enrollment fiasco" surrounding HealthCare.gov.

Attkisson cited unnamed health care analysts, who predicted a doomsday scenario for President's Obama's supposed signature achievement: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

SHARYL ATTKISSON: The 23 small co-ops across the country that are part of Affordable Care are intended to provide competition. As they adjust to stay afloat, some analysts worry that ObamaCare, as designed, might not. Their biggest fear is that with the website problems, more of the enrollees will be the sickest and most motivated. If that happens,insurers would have no choice but to raise premiums, and that could cause more healthy customers to flee. In the insurance industry, it's known as the 'death spiral', and experts say if that were to come to pass, the ObamaCare business model would collapse.

The CBS correspondent spotlighted one of these health insurance co-ops – Evergreen Health of Maryland – and noted how the CEO had to "blow up his business plan" because of HealthCare.gov's numerous failures. Evergreen Health had originally focused on signing up individuals, but is now pursuing small businesses "the old-fashioned way, with phone calls and TV ads."

Later in the segment, Attkisson revealed a sobering piece of information: the co-op's CEO stated that "he only knows for sure of a dozen people signing up for Evergreen so far". The journalist then added, "for context...the Affordable Care law is counting on signing up seven million people over the next six months. That averages to about 39,000 people a day.

Via: Newsbusters

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Hayden: Obama 'Rebalance' of US Intel Could Harm National Security

The National Security Agency (NSA) is being relentlessly pilloried by resentful detractors abroad — and strident critics on the left and right at home — which could force the Obama administration to weaken the intelligence community's ability to protect critical U.S. interests, former CIA head Michael Hayden wrote Thursday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
 

Hayden, who was CIA director from 2006 to 2009, cautioned that the White House "needs to be careful not to overachieve."

It is not the place of an American president to invite other countries to tell him "what aspects of our espionage make them uncomfortable," Hayden wrote.

In the 1990s, criticism of the CIA's human-intelligence operations led to reforms that held back the agency's ability to collect information from "bad" people.

"If we tell signals-intelligence collectors in the NSA that they cannot listen to any 'good' people' similar damage is in store," Hayden warned. The agency only recovered from the order not to talk to "bad people" after 9/11.

Hayden insisted that "a formal framework for national intelligence priorities" is regularly agreed upon at the National Security Council level. So when U.S. policy makers confirm they want to better understand the strategy of a friendly, but headstrong ally, "What is it they think they are asking the intelligence community to do?"

Even if European leaders are pandering — theatrically — to their outraged constituencies, and notwithstanding that some concerns about privacy are legitimate, the end result could be "reduced cooperation with the U.S. on a variety of issues," he cautioned.

America's allies ought to appreciate that, "It is bad politics and bad policy for good friends to put their partners in politically impossible situations, and recent reports of aggressive American espionage have done just that."

Espionage may well not be compatible with a "political culture that every day demands more transparency and more public accountability," Hayden wrote. A balance is needed that preserves the confidence Americans have in what their spy agencies are doing with the ability of the intelligence community to get the job done.

Morale is also a factor. Hayden warned that the men and women of the intelligence community — whose work is being branded "excessive" "unconstrained" and "out of control" — could lose heart.

Via: Newsmax

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