U.S. Government Sells Last of GM Shares-- For a Loss of Billions

"Don't thank me all at once. Just fall to your knees in my presence and renounce all others in the name of the Light-bringer."

Oh goody...

From USA Today:

U.S. taxpayers no longer own any of automaker General Motors. The Treasury sold the last of its remaining 31.1 million GM shares today. It started with 500 million shares in 2010. 

The taxpayer loss on the GM bailout is $10.5 billion. The Treasury department said it recovered $39 billion from selling its GM stake, and had put $49.5 billion of taxpayer money directly into the GM bailout.  

The total bailout rises to $51 billion, including another $1.5 billion that Treasury put into programs to keep GM suppliers afloat and to make sure owners' warranties were honored, plus some into the old GMAC finance company that's now known as Ally — separate from a much larger Ally bailout. 

That $1.5 billion didn't go directly to GM, but was spent largely on its behalf.

Billions lost so that GM can resume posting losses and the car maker unions can continue to run up tabs and meddle in politics. What an accomplishment...

Monday Funnies: Raging Rudolph

It's an old Mad TV skit from way back in the '90s (saying that hurts me a little). It's what happens when Martin Scorsese directs a Rankin and Bass stop motion holiday special. Enjoy.

Obama's Horrible New Normal for American Jobs

A pretty damning graphic... Click Pic to Enlarge

Ignore the graphic, we're in the recovery winter. And it was all George Bush's fault anyway...

From AEI's James Pethokoukis (via Instapundit):

If the US labor market were back at pre-Great Recession levels, this would have been a pretty decent employment report. Net new jobs were up 203,000 last month with gains broadly based, bringing lower unemployment and underemployment rates. November also saw a nice bump in hours worked, which when combined with an increase in average hourly earnings, points to “a robust advance in wage income,” according to RDQ Economics. The firm also adds, “The evidence from the labor market shows that the momentum in the economy was sustained through the period of the government shutdown.” Good stuff all. 

But here’s your trouble: 

1. There are still 1.1 million fewer employed Americans today than right before the recession started, despite a potential labor force that’s 14 million larger. And there are 3.6 million fewer full-time workers than back in 2007. 

2. The employment rate, the share of Americans with a job, is 58.6% — exactly where it was in November 2009. 

3. If the labor force participation rate were where it was a year ago, the jobless rate would be 7.9%, not 7% (and 11.3% if the LFPR were at prerecession levels, though closer to 9% if demographics-adjusted). 

4. More than 4 million Americans remain out of work for 27 weeks or longer. 

5. Overall, according to the Hamilton Project Jobs Gap calculator, it will take another five years to return to 2007 employment levels even at the improved job creation pace of the past four months. 

Things could be worse, of course. If not for the Fed’s bond-buying program, tax hike-driven austerity may well have put the economy back into recession in 2013, sending unemployment back toward 10%. (For more: See the euro zone.) Yet the Long Emergency for workers is still in effect — particularly those who are lightly educated –even as inflation remains moribund. Of course this shouldn’t be surprising given an economy that’s growing around 2% right now.

Do you want to bet that we will still have an "unexpectedly" weak retail holiday season?

Pearl Harbor Anniversary

The ships rust and memories fade, but the legacy continues.

Shanghai Smog at Epic Hazard Levels

Yet so many American "progressives" have such an absolute love affair with China. China get things done, invests in infrastructure, bans plastic bags, and stuff... and makes the air harmful for everyone! How fair.

From the AP (via Drudge):

Shanghai authorities ordered schoolchildren indoors and halted all construction Friday as China's financial hub suffered one of its worst bouts of air pollution, bringing visibility down to a few dozen meters, delaying flights and obscuring the city's spectacular skyline.  

The financial district was shrouded in a yellow haze, and noticeably fewer people walked the city's streets. Vehicle traffic also was thinner, as authorities pulled 30 percent of government vehicles from the roads. They also banned fireworks and public sporting events. 

"I feel like I'm living in clouds of smog," said Zheng Qiaoyun, a local resident who kept her 6-month-old son at home. "I have a headache, I'm coughing, and it's hard to breathe on my way to my office." 

Shanghai's concentration of tiny, harmful PM 2.5 particles reached 602.5 micrograms per cubic meter Friday afternoon, an extremely hazardous level that was the highest since the city began recording such data last December. That compares with the World Health Organization's safety guideline of 25 micrograms.  

The dirty air that has gripped Shanghai and its neighboring provinces for days is attributed to coal burning, car exhaust, factory pollution and weather patterns, and is a stark reminder that pollution is a serious challenge in China. Beijing, the capital, has seen extremely heavy smog several times over the past year. In the far northeastern city of Harbin, some monitoring sites reported PM 2.5 rates up to 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter in October, when the winter heating season kicked off. [emphasis mine]

Far be it from me to question China's actions, but banning fireworks doesn't seem like it's quite the answer...

White Students Take a Stand Against Black Professor's Racial Screeds During Class-- Lawsuits Ensue

"This sort of thing should not be happening in my post-racial America. Whites are just supposed to shut up."

Ah, the post-racial America... This sort of nonsense has to take place. Glenn Reynolds commented that he expects that "this sort of thing will become more common." Agreed. But it has to happen to get this sort of racialist nonsense out of the classrooms and back to junk websites like Stormfront and the Kwanzaa sites-- which openly calls for racial warfare-- where it belongs.

From The Daily Caller article by Robby Soave: (via Instapundit):

The trouble began in English professor Shannon Gibney’s Introduction to Mass Communications class at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Though the class ostensibly has little to do with race, Gibney considers herself an activist on racial issues, and frequently invokes white privilege and oppression during class time, according to her students. (She has previously taught classes on race and gender.) 

Recently, several white students announced that they had had enough with Gibney’s incessant racial screed. They interrupted her during a lecture, and said, “Why do we have to talk about this in every class? Why do we have to talk about this?” according to Gibney’s account of the incident, which was recorded by the City College News.  

Gibney felt put on the spot, but told the students not to take matters personally.
“We are not talking about all white people, or you white people in general,” she told them. “We are talking about whiteness as a system of oppression.” 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this failed to provide comfort to the white students. Next, Gibney invited them to file a racial harassment complaint with the college if they were so offended. 

So they did. 

Last week, the college reprimanded Gibney and accused of her creating a hostile work environment for white students.  

[...]  

The college said that it did not reprimand Gibney in the manner she claimed but declined to comment on the matter in general. 

Gibney called MCTC’s investigations into her behavior “attacks on me by white males.”
“As a vocal black female younger looking… faculty member here, unfortunately this is no the first time,” she said. “I’ve actually had multiple verbal and institutional attacks on me by white males, whether they were students, faculty, administration or staff.” 

Gibney and six other MCTC faculty members have filed a class action lawsuit against MCTC that alleges the college is a discriminatory workplace for people of color. 

She did not respond to a request for comment.

Colleges have become something merely to endure simply to get a diploma... and even the diploma is becoming be more and more useless.

Mid-Week Laughs: YouTube Comments Reconstruction Video #2

I posted the first one on Monday. I thought this one was pretty funny too, so here you go. And this one is also NSFW due to language.

Enjoy:

Chris Matthews to Interview Obama Thursday

"I have the found the chosen who shall properly supplicate me! All the time with a thrill up his leg..."

I guess Obama needs some reassuring from his one of his most fawning supporters at the most pro-Obama propaganda station...

From Ben Shapiro at Breitbart:

On Thursday, MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who infamously claimed that President Obama gave him a “thrill” up his leg, will be interviewing Obama at American University in Washington, D.C. Obama will also answer questions from the student audience, as well as some questions submitted online. Obama recently held an off-the-record meeting with several MSNBC hosts at the White House in the aftermath of his failing Obamacare rollout.

MSNBC’s website touted: “Obama’s interview with Matthews comes following the rocky rollout of HealthCare.gov, an interim nuclear deal with Iran, renewed calls for immigration reform, and with new budget negotiations on the horizon.” But what will Matthews ask Obama about? “Matthews will discuss a number of topics with Obama, including voter suppression, healthcare, political gridlock in D.C., growing dissatisfaction with the government and more.”

Boy, I can't wait to miss that boot-licking interview.

OFA Organizing Newtown Anniversary Events to Push Gun Control

The Light-bringer's replica will bring safety to us all.

I guess the idea to never let a crisis go to waste includes never stop standing on the backs of dead children to promote an unpopular political agenda.

From Twitchy.com:

Never mind how the families of Newtown, Conn., would prefer to observe the one-year anniversary of the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary massacre. Organizing for Action is hijacking Dec. 14 to stage its own “remembrance events” across the nation. 

In an email, OFA promises to give organizers “the resources you need to ensure your event is a powerful reminder of what we lost a year ago, and a reminder that we as a nation need to do more to prevent gun violence and keep our communities safe.” That certainly sounds more like a series of gun control rallies than a solemn remembrance, doesn’t it? If it doesn’t yet, check out the official event description from barackobama.com of the “day of action”:

It has been one year since the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut, where 26 Americans lost their lives to gun violence. Despite overwhelming public support for expanding background checks for gun sales, Congress has failed to act. Join local supporters as we remember Newtown and ask Congress: What will it take to make our communities safer?

Somebody described the OFA as being "Tragedy pimps."  That sounds about right.

The EPA is Engaging in Backdoor Gun Control According to Allen West

"I shall make all of you pay for ignoring the Light-bringer's will! You will not ignore my political agendas... or else I will execute them by executive fiat!"

There's very little Obama will not try to get his way. Blatant lies, political intimidation, sluffing off blame and responsibility, using the executive branch's alphabet soup of regulatory commissions to bully and intimidate his political opponents, is all in a day's work for this embarrassment of a president.

Gun control unpopular? Fine, create it by executive fiat. He's just that kinda guy.

From AllenWest.com via Breitbart:

I am one who steers very clear of tinfoil hat conspiracy theories. I often believe progressives plant stories in order to distract and disrupt, enabling them to pursue their true goals and objectives. That’s why I stress the importance of staying focused on the modern liberal socialist policies of the Obama administration, not the sideshow antics.  

However, as a former combat commander, I have been trained to look for trends. And I believe we’ve found a very disturbing one. it seems that back door gun control is in full effect in the United States. Why? Thanks to Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we can no longer smelt lead from ore in the United States. 

The first contact the EPA made with The Doe Run Lead Smelter in Herculaneum, Missouri (population 2,800) was in 2008 but it was in 2010 that the EPA finally forced Doe Run to plan a shut down. This plant has been in operation since 1892 but will finally close its doors this month. It was the last lead smelting plant in the US. 

The closedown is due to new extremely tight air quality restrictions placed on this specific plant. President Obama and his EPA raised the regulations by 10 fold and it would have cost the plant $100 million to comply.  

In response to the Doe Run lead smelter shutdown, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the Doe Run Company “made a business decision” to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required by the Clean Air Act.  

Of course this is why we need serious regulatory reform that precludes executive agency fiat, especially regulation implementation that exceeds a certain adverse financial impact to a private sector business.  

[...]   

What this all means is that after December 2013, any ammunition that will be available to US citizens will have to be imported, which will surely increase the price and possibly come under government control. It seems this is fully in concert with the US Military and Homeland Defense recent purchase of large quantities of ammunition.  

[...]  

So America, back door gun control is moving forward and while we are all distracted with Obamacare and Iran nuclear negotiations, our Second Amendment rights are undergoing an assault by clandestine infiltration. Remember we reported on this website the gun registration actions being undertaken in Washington DC. Barack Obama and his progressive socialist acolytes are quite savvy at political chess. He is seeking to outflank, envelope, and destroy the Second Amendment. Now it’s our move in 2014.

There really is no end to Obama's desire to control the American people. He will not leave you alone, no matter how hard you try to ignore him. His policies, such as ObamaCare, are designed to effect every American citizen against their will. We have to stand firm against him. There's no other way.

Monday Morning Laughs: YouTube Comments Reconstruction

I saw this on Ace of Spades and had to watch it twice because my laughter drowned out parts. Thought I'd share. Oh, the video is NSFW by the way for language.

Enjoy:

MSNBC and CNN Both Lose Almost Half their Viewers

And it couldn't happen to nicer people.

Via John Nolte at Breitbart:

Over tofu turkey, the powers behind the extreme-left cable news network MSNBC must have expressed many thanks yesterday for CNN, because it is only by comparison to CNN that MSNBC's November ratings are not embarrassing. Compared to November of last year, MSNBC's viewership has nearly been cut in half and the "Lean Forward" network continues to get crushed by Fox News. 

MSNBC:  

Primetime (Mon-Sun): 645,000 Total Viewers / 190,000 A25-54

Total Day (Mon-Sun): 401,000 Total Viewers / 124,000 A25-54 

Fox News: 

Primetime (Mon-Sun): 2,011,000 total viewers / 348,000 A25-54

Total Day Mon-Sun): 1,201,000 total viewers / 248,000 A25-54 

In total viewers, Fox News beats MSNBC by nearly 3-to-1. In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo, the ratio is closer to 2-to-1.  

Compared to November of last year (a presidential election year), MSNBC is down 45% in total day viewers and 50% during primetime. Fox is down only 21% and 18%, respectively

Huh. I guess Martin Bashir's weirdo rant didn't help their ratings. How odd.

Meanwhile CNN isn't doing so great...

The left-leaning CNN had a terrible November. Compared to November of 2012, the cable news network lost 59% of its total day audience and 62% of its primetime audience in the all-important 25-54 demo. Granted, last November was the month of the presidential election and a drop-off in viewership is to be expected, but by comparison Fox News is down only 21% and 18% respectively.  

CNN has also lost its short-lived dominance over its left-wing competition at MSNBC in every conceivable measurement.  

CNN: 

Primetime (Mon-Sun): 481,000 Total Viewers / 153,000 A25-54

Total Day (Mon-Sun): 335,000 Total Viewers / 100,000 A25-54 

MSNBC: 

Primetime (Mon-Sun): 645,000 Total Viewers / 190,000 A25-54

Total Day (Mon-Sun): 401,000 Total Viewers / 124,000 A25-54 

For the 143rd consecutive month Fox News blew both CNN and MSNBC away. Last month, in fact, Fox News beat both of its left-wing counterparts combined in both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age group: 

Primetime (Mon-Sun): 2,011,000 total viewers / 348,000 A25-54

Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1,201,000 total viewers / 248,000 A25-54   

I remember when CNN was my go to station for news. It that way for years and years for me, and now it's just trash on that station.

I guess that's just the way it goes. After all, there was a time I when I actually subscribed to TIME.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

 

Consumer Confidence in U.S. "Unexpectedly" Falls to 7 Month Low

"With my magic halo, I command that you will still be surprised at my continuing economic failures!"

I'm not just tired of the press continuing to use the word "unexpected" when delving out their economic bad news every month, I'm getting pissed off about that word. After five plus years of Obama's amateur, ideological, and catastrophic handling of the economy, we're still supposed to be surprised by economic bad news. Really? I'm not surprised. And this isn't unexpected news.

From Bloomberg (via JWF):

Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined in November to a seven-month low as Americans grew more pessimistic about the labor-market outlook.  

The Conference Board’s index fell to 70.4 from a revised 72.4 a month earlier that was stronger than initially estimated, the New York-based private research group said today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 78 economists called for a November reading of 72.6. 

The drop in sentiment helps explain why some retailers such as Best Buy Co. see a need to match competitors’ discounts this holiday-shopping season. More employment opportunities and wage gains would help lay the groundwork for a pickup in household purchases that make up about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.  

“The economy just has not performed very well this year and has been disappointing relative to what most people were hoping for and expecting through the course of the year,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “It’s one thing when you have one or two years into the recovery and things aren’t progressing in the job market, but here we are four-plus years in.”

There has been no recovery! I'm sick of that b.s. too. Obama just pumped tons of money into the economy to keep things slightly buoyant in the very short-term. This is not a recovery.

The proportion of Americans who said jobs would become more plentiful in the next six months declined to 12.7 percent, the lowest since November 2011, from 16 percent.  

The share of respondents who said they expected a pickup in their incomes declined to an eight-month low of 14.9 percent in November from 15.7 percent a month earlier.

Hey, do you want to bet that these same people will be surprised when there's an "unexpectedly" weak holiday season for retailers this year?

Obamanomics... Retrying the failed economics of socialism with a willing media and the built-in shield of the race card. Yay!

CNN Poll: Majority Believe Obama is Untrustworthy and Not Someone to Admire

I guess b.s. images like this just aren't selling the image like it used to. He shall use the hoe and some book (definitely NOT Das Kapital) to lead us all to golden fields...

I guess I was ahead of the curve when I felt this way about Obama back in 2008.

From the Commentary piece by Peter Wehner:

The news for President Obama continues to get worse. 

According to a new CNN/ORC International survey, only four out of 10 Americans believe Mr. Obama can manage the federal government effectively. Fifty-three percent don’t view him as a strong and decisive leader. And 56 percent say he does not agree with them on important issues and he does not inspire confidence. 

But the numbers on the president’s personal characteristics should alarm the White House most of all. More than half (53 percent) believe he’s not honest and trustworthy, while 56 percent say he’s not a person they admire. 

Each of these figures are all-time records for Mr. Obama in CNN polling.

I guess Obama now has a whole bunch of more enemies to punish. Hmm... Is that what ObamaCare is about?

I wonder what these numbers would be like if the mainstream media didn't support Obama 110% and actively cover for the outrageous ObamaCare and the host of scandals (Benghazi, IRS, Fast & Furious, NSA spying, etc.) and failures (stimulus, record unemployment, record numbers of impoverished, record numbers of homeless, etc) under his watch.

My bet is his numbers would be just a tad lower. Again, I'm going out on a limb here.

City Orders Bar to Take Down "Thank a veteran for your freedom!” Sign

Good God...

And, of course, the city is in California.

From CBSLA.com (via Drudge):

Veterans are rallying around a local bar whose owners say they have been ordered to removed a sign that salutes their service. 

“Thank a veteran for your freedom!” says a large sign perched above Johnny’s Booze and Pool. Vets love it and make up a significant part of the establishment’s clientele. 

“I love this place. The sign gives me the pride back that I lost … I struggled a lot when I first came back,” an Army vet told CBS2′s Stacey Butler.  

But someone complained to the city about the sign, and now the bar’s owners say they’ve been ordered to take it down. 

“We received a letter in the mail from the city stating that we have to remove it within two days or they were going to fine us, like, $940,” says co-owner John Marovic. 

Co-owner Johnny Kresimir says he has until Tuesday to remove the sign or pay the fine. He plans to fight it, and has issued a plea on Facebook for support.  

[...]  

The issue has some of the sign’s supporters scratching their heads. 

Said one veteran: “I can understand city ordinances, but it’s been up there for 10 years. I don’t understand why it’s a problem now.”

It could be worse. The bar might put up a cross. Or even a nativity scene during the Christmas season. Steps have to be taken to control such aberrant displays.

It's good to see that the freedom of speech is alive and well in Huntington Beach.

ObamaCare Running Smooth: Colorado ObamaCare Sign-ups is Half of State's Worst Case Scenario

"You know, if it wasn't for the GOP, the Tea Party, and other racists, ObamCare--- I mean, the Affodable Care Act-- would be a rousing success. It's their fault that all the American people are not bending to the Light-Bringer's  will."

What?! You mean those "Brosurance" and "Party Girls" ads didn't work?!

From The Denver Post article by Michael Booth (via JWF):

Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act through Colorado's health insurance exchange is barely half the state's worst-case projection, prompting demands from exchange board members for better stewardship of public money. 

The shortfall could compromise the exchange's "ability to deliver on promises made to Colorado citizens" and threatens the funding stream for the exchange itself, according to board e-mails obtained by The Denver Post in an open records request. 

The exchange, meant for individuals and small groups buying insurance, had projected a lowest-level mid-November enrollment of 11,108, in a presentation to a board finance committee. The exchange announced Nov. 18 that it had signed up 6,001 Coloradans so far.  

The midlevel scenario for November was 20,186 members, and the highest projection 30,944 members. [Heh. Right...] 

As federal startup grants taper off under Obamacare funding, the exchange is meant to pay for itself with per-member charges on the private insurance companies offering policies. It needs 136,300 enrollees in 2014 to raise $6.5 million of its $51.4 million expenses.  

[...]  

The exchange has not hit either internal projections or those made earlier by consultants supportive of the Affordable Care Act, said board member Dr. Mike Fallon, a conservative voice on the board who calls the act overly complex and expensive. 

"None of this surprises me," Fallon said of the shortfall. "I don't know what we as a board could have done. Health insurance is a difficult product to sell." [emphasis mine]

So the Colorado exchange won't be able to pay for itself so it will have either collapse, raise taxes to pay for it thus subsidizing people's medical insurance even further, or be bailed out by federal funding. And they haven't even started yet. I mean it usually takes a little time before a federal program starts running this far in the red. I guess Colorado is too racist... or something.

Quite a success story, this ObamaCare. Quite a success...

Cleveland: At Least We're Not Detroit

I saw these video on You Tube (h/t Ace of Spades) and thought I'd post it. I've been to Cleveland a number of times and, well, it's not the funnest city that I've ever been to.

Anyway, enjoy:

And number two:

Not Much Changed in IRS Following Election Year Scandal

"Look, let's forget about the IRS scandal... That's old news. Let's just watch as the IRS objectively enforces ObamaCare. No pressure on conservatives and their evil corporations will be applied. Trust me."

The IRS was effective in helping to sway the election, allowing this super successful roll out of ObamaCare. Would the Democrats really want to change anything that targets conservatives and helps the Dems retain control of the federal government?

From the USA Today article by Deirdre Shesgreen and James Pilcher (via Instapundit):

More than six months after a top Internal Revenue Service official acknowledged the agency inappropriately scrutinized the applications for tax exemption by tea party and other conservative groups, the scandal has faded from the headlines and moved to Congress' back burner. 

But it's unclear how much has changed inside the IRS to fix the underlying problems that led to the targeting. 

Some argue the agency has taken significant steps to revamp a flawed review process that left certain groups waiting years for approval and subjected others to intrusive, burdensome questioning. 

"A great deal has changed at the IRS to prevent this from happening again," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, one of three congressional panels to investigate the matter. Cummings cited leadership changes, better training for managers and screeners, and a streamlined application processes, among other things.

It's somewhat amusing that Democratic Rep. Cummings has pretty much admitted that the IRS was indeed pretty much toting Obama's water during an election year. But don't worry, it won't happen again... until it does and then they'll "fix" things again.

Here's a rundown of what's changed — and what hasn't: 

• The IRS' top ranks have been purged 

The Obama administration has installed new leadership in key posts at the agency. Lois Lerner — who as the director of the IRS' exempt organizations division became the public face of the scandal — has resigned. And the IRS' commissioner, Steven Miller, is long gone. 

"The IRS has removed five of its most senior managers," said Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, another panel investigating the matter. 

But not everyone thinks the leadership turnover at the IRS has translated into a better review process. 

Marcus Owens, a Washington-based tax attorney and former director of the IRS' exempt organizations division, said he fears the IRS unit has been weakened by the departures of senior staff. Seasoned lawyers such as Holly Paz, who served as a senior technical manager, helped create the legal standards that front-line agents followed, he said. But Paz left and was replaced by a non-lawyer, Owens said. 

With her and others out, "That's a lot of new faces in new roles, with a lot of backlog facing them from the get-go," Owens said. "I worry that delays (in reviewing applications) are only going to get worse at this point." 

• A ban on BOLOs 

One of first steps by the new IRS commissioner, acting chief Danny Werfel, was to ban the use of watch lists — also known as BOLOs, for "Be On the Look Out" lists. Such lists were used by workers in the Cincinnati field office to flag certain applications for extra scrutiny. 

An inquiry by the Treasury's internal watchdog concluded Cincinnati-based IRS employees used "inappropriate" criteria — by targeting applications from groups with words such as "tea party," "patriot" and "9/12" in their names — to send applications into a lengthy review process. Werfel said officials later discovered the use of other BOLOs, some with terms describing liberal groups. 

The IRS chief subsequently barred the use of all such watch lists. Now, screeners in Cincinnati are instructed to make assessments based on a group's activities and purpose, "not names or labels," Werfel said at a September hearing before the Ways and Means Committee. 

• New review process with more neutral instructions for front-line workers 

Werfel said in September that he's moved "aggressively" to improve screening methods and bolster training for IRS employees charged with reviewing applications for tax-exempt status. It's an often difficult task, requiring screeners to figure out how much political activity these non-profit groups are engaged in — and whether it is extensive enough to preclude them from receiving tax-exempt status. Werfel said the IRS has issued new instructions to screeners on the best ways to determine the extent of an organization's political campaign intervention. 

But the IRS has not detailed what specific guideposts have taken the place of the BOLOs. And there's some indication that the new guidance isn't all that clear.
One IRS worker told congressional investigators that he was giving all applications from political advocacy groups a secondary screening, no matter what. Without the BOLOs, "we really don't have any direction," this Cincinnati agent, whose name was not released, told the panel's staff. 

• Murky decades-old rule still in place 

The law governing certain tax-exempt groups — those organized under the 501(c)(4) section of the IRS code — states that they should be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare." But in 1959, the IRS issued a rule saying such organizations could participate in other activities as long as it was not their "primary" activity. 

The switch from requiring such groups to operate "exclusively" for social welfare to making that their "primary" purpose opened the door for such groups to become involved in politics. And the IRS has never given its screeners a clear definition of "primary."
"There's no bright-line test," Paz told congressional investigators — a complaint echoed by others. 

Critics say that until the rule is changed or clarified, the underlying problem will remain, with IRS workers struggling to measure a group's political activity without a good sense of how much is too much. 

"The problems here ... are not going to be solved by training workers in Cincinnati, even though that's fine," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a campaign finance reform advocacy group. "The solution to this problem is a clear, bright-line test that properly implements a statute that says c4s should engage only in social welfare (activities)."

Another scandal under-addressed and then swept into the "I-sure-hope-they-forget-about-this" bin.

And the Obama machine rolls on...

Number of People on Disability Jumps Up 20% During Obama Presidency

"If folks are making such a big deal out of this, then they must hate disabled people and graft. Oh, I mean, just hate disabled people. And the critics are all racists besides. Isn't that right, Oprah?"

 Obamanomics in action.

From CNS News (via Drudge):

In the fourteen fiscal years that preceded President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, the tax receipts coming into the federal government’s Disability Insurance Trust Fund exceeded the benefits paid out, and the trust fund ran a surplus. 

In each of the five fiscal years Obama has served as president, the trust fund has run a deficit as the number of people receiving disability benefits has surged. The Disability Insurance Trust Fund has never before run five straight years of deficits. 

In fiscal 2013, which ended on Sept. 30, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund ran a record deficit of $31.494 billion, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration. That followed deficits of $8.462 billion in fiscal 2009, $20,831 billion in fiscal 2010, $25.264 billion in fiscal 2011, and $29.701 billion in fiscal 2012. 

From fiscal 1995 through fiscal 2008, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund ran surpluses, as receipts from the disability insurance taxes paid by people who were working exceeded the value of the benefits paid to those claiming disability.  

[...]  

When President Obama took office in January 2009--which was the fourth month of fiscal 2009--there were 7,442,377 workers on disability, according to the Social Security Administration. As of October 2013, there was a record 8,936,932. That means the number of people on disability has increased by 1,494,555 while Obama has been in office--a jump of 20 percent.  

In addition to the 8,936,932 workers collecting disability in October, there were also 157,676 spouses of disabled workers who collected additional benefits, and 1,871,127 children of disabled workers who collected benefits.  

All told, 10,965,735 people collected federal disability benefits in October.  

At the end of fiscal 2008, there was a net balance of $216.239 billion in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund—meaning the Treasury owed $216.239 billion in IOUs to the trust fund for surplus disability insurance tax receipts it had taken in previous years and used for other government expenses.  

At the end of fiscal 2013, the net balance in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund had dropped to $100.486—a decline of $115.753 billion.  

That $115.753 billion, the cumulative five year deficit of the disability insurance program, equals the amount of money the Treasury had to borrow from other sources to pay disability benefits during that time.  

From the last day of January 2009 through the last day of September 2013, the total debt of the federal government climbed from $10,632,005,246,736.97 to $16,738,183,526,697.32—an increase of $6,106,178,279,960.35.  [emphasis mine]

This is what you get when you elect an amateur, who believes that he's smarter than he actually is, to a high office.

Hey, but at least race relations are better... Uh, right?