Posted by Tina
Wow! Can you imagine? The country recently shamed by nations across the world for spying and collecting private data has lost the official email records of an additional six IRS officials. How can that be in this day of computers and backup? The truth is…it can’t.
But as long as the administration is going to continue to play games might we suggest they look over at the NSA…or they could try the map room where Hillary eventually discovered her Whitewater papers.
Speaking of Hillary, I guess the launch of her new book is a bit of a bomb with first day sales barely reaching 60K copies. These would be the feminists that want to take a hammer to that last glass ceiling and don’t care what they have to swallow to put Hillary in that Oval Office seat. Hillary got a yummy $15 million up front for this book and yet still thought it wise to wax all Oprah in an interview with Diane Sawyer telling about how poor and in debt she and Bill were when they left the White House.
More hot news on Benghazi: We have miraculously captured an apparently lower level fighter who is on his way to America to pay the price for Hillary’s failures before, during and after the Benghazi terror attack. His interrogation and show trial (it’s hoped?) will make up for mistakes and clear the deck in time for Hillary’s presidential launch. The O man says the world should know, “No matter how long it takes we will catch and punish those responsible.” No word on whether the guy has been advised of his Miranda rights.
(Sorry about the conglomerate…been having trouble with my internet connection this AM and rushed to sneak this in before I’m dumped again!)
Meanwhile, the Middle East explodes and our economic problems at home continue. Our fearless leader will spend the day glad handing and having cocktails with one of New York’s rich and famous icons of fashion and culture, Ms Anna Wintour.
“How can that be in this day of computers and backup? The truth is…it can’t.”
Oh, yes it can! If you think your government agencies (NSA excluded) are computerized to the degree they should be … you think again … and remember that you won’t pay for any such thing.
Dealing with out GA’s is just the MOST fun. They can’t find anything, or find anything out in less than a week … because one department may operate a database, and another department may operate a database, but if you was thinking the two of them communicate … you was wrong.
Oh, no it can’t.
Our laws require our government agencies to triple back up all files and print out important ones.
This administration has told so many lies it’s chasing its tail trying to keep up.
First they said Lerner’s computer went down. When that was debunked as not viable for why her emails went missing they said the server went down. And when that again was debunked they said the emails for the six top managers went missing too.
There couldn’t be better proof of a gross cover up and complete incompetent management by this administration.
Remember it wasn’t the deeds that did Clinton and Nixon in, it was the cover up and the lying.
Lerner even admitted her wrong doings when she planted that question with her coworker in the very beginning.
They’re just desperately trying now to save Obama and his administration’s butts.
Pathetic!!
Libby: ” They can’t find anything, or find anything out in less than a week … because one department may operate a database, and another department may operate a database…”
Best reason yet to gut the big government model. Waste, incompetence, and failure…and you’re the nut that yammers on and on about how we should all be thrilled fund this bureaucratic joke!
Nicely said Peggy!
Don’t be dim. You can’t half-fund an operation and then complain about the end product. It’s not rational.
You can fully fund an operation, or you can live without the product … quietly.
But, please … don’t do a Juanita … and demand the city clerk produce a $15,000 mailing … that you refuse to pay for.
Bill Whittle: Why Benghazi Matters
http://www.truthrevolt.org/videos/bill-whittle-why-benghazi-matters
Libby don’t be stupid. Our government has plenty of money and borrows much more. It is currently paying $2.563 Trillion in interest, and rising, a year. The government is clearly a terrible manager of our money. The government has zero incentive to manage our money wisely because they can raise taxes and print money and because the money they spend doesn’t come directly out of their pockets. Indeed the bigger government gets the more the individuals in government benefit! Each and every bureaucracy thrives by wasting money in order to get a higher budget next year.
Efficiency is not a word anyone could use to describe how government operates and those who stand in the way of pulling back the power and scope of the federal government, whether Democrat, Republican, or Independent is enabling the inefficiency and waste.
Stupid is a city clerk conveniently losing half of the flyers in order to demand $20,000 more in the budget next year and that is the open ended, big government model you support.
(Please be advised I AM NOT suggesting our city clerk has ever done such a thing. I use Libby’s example only to point out the idiocy of Libby’s remark)
I’d rather be a Juanita than an Obama any day of the week!
Computers have been around since the early eighties. They have been in use generally at least since the early nineties.
“Computers have been around since the early eighties. They have been in use generally at least since the early nineties.”
Oh, fer heaven’s sake! What has this got to do with what I proposed? Is this supposed to be some kind of rebuttal?
Computers exist, therefore our government has lots and uses them effectively? Does the one point actually follow the other … logically … at all?
Your whole post is the same. The word “trillions” seems to send you into a tizzy. Again, what’s that got to do with the fact that many of our government agencies do not have the wherewithal to build and maintain efficient computer networks?
Nothing. It’s just a little bit of a rant … that’s all … which, it would seem, just reinforces my assertion:
You can fully fund an operation, or you can live without the product … quietly.
So … be quite.
Libby: “Again, what’s that got to do with the fact that many of our government agencies do not have the wherewithal to build and maintain efficient computer networks?”
Again…this is the same government you believe we should all be happy to send piles of our hard earned cash?
This is the same government that has thousands to spend on trips to Las Vegas for administrators or sound proof offices with 51″ flat screens for each employee but can’t find a dime for new computers?
Also, come to think of it, this is the same government that once managed to put man in space but now can’t hire a few really top drawer IT guys?
Maybe you should be quiet, Libby.
EMAIL RECORDS LOST!!!
LOIS “5TH AMENDMENT” LEARNER’S HARD DRIVE DESTROYED!!!
My, how convenient. What a stroke of luck for the IRS.
Nevertheless the usual gang of excruciatingly mindless Obama sycophants insist “There is nothing to see here! Move along!” (The same political result these muttering blockheads seek over Benghazi. It was two years ago!)
Nothing to see here! Move along! Oh brother. That is EXACTLY what Lois “The 5th” Learner wishes Congress to believe.
As Forest Gump’s mother once advised her son, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
“Also, come to think of it, this is the same government that once managed to put man in space but now can’t hire a few really top drawer IT guys?”
Dang it, Tina, you are irrrritating. Our government did was you [imagine adjective here] conservatives wanted! They contracted for the work with the freakin’ private sector, the CGI Group, famed in song and story … and it’s the CGI Group that did not do it’s job competently!
They took our money and ran.
The question is…who is “they”
NewsMax:
Gee Libs…NO BID contracts to friends and donors…that’s who took the money and ran. Take it up with the O man.
conservative Republicans like me DO NOT favor deal making with any company!
WE FAVOR a smaller federal government and if that smaller government must contract out work we FAVOR the open bid process where every qualified company that wants the work gets a shot.
Besides it is your party that hung this albatross around the necks of the American people so don’t rail at me!
Pie I still think the NSA should be able to help us with Lerner’s conveniently missing emails…and if not, the map room might still be a good place to look 😉
(They exist)
Re: “So … be quite. (sic)”
Tina, I think Blame The Victim Libbyah wants you to shut your big yap about the “lost” emails …
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Paraphrasing Blame The Victim Libbyah, “Oh Tina please, oh please please please, pretty please, shut up.”
As usual, Tina, your partisanship prevents you from comprehending the Big Picture.
If we had a government agency over-seeing hardware and software applications government-wide, something that should have been created 30 years ago, we would have been all ready to develop Healthcare.gov.
Alas, thanks to the blinkered ideology prevailing in our government for quite some time now … we is way behind the curve, efficiency-wise.
And someday you are going to realize that cronyism arises from human nature, not from any particular political ideology … that will be progress … but I’m not holding my breath.
“someday you are going to realize that cronyism arises from human nature”
Wrong! I have often pointed to human nature and pointed to the fact that we have to have high standards and hold people accountable. I champion the idea of people taking responsibility.
You throw up your hands and then demand people pay more in taxes for this lousy product. You accept the poor performance and award the people in charge with big pensions, great medical, lots of perks, and an always bigger budget (of other people’s money) to spend.
That is insane!
I have suggested that a smaller federal government with less power and greater power at the personal, local, and state levels would help to ameliorate not only this problem but many other problems.
I have also suggested that the American people, through the education system MUST become more aware and responsible or fall victim to the corruption, ineptness and abuses of failed government.
The big picture is that this level of incompetence, or purposeful misuse of funds (priority fail) in service to the people is inexcusable.
Another big government oversight agency is the last thing we need. Who would oversee the agency…and who would oversee them…and on and on.
And by the way, the IRS is overseen by the Treasury Department:
All that oversight and nobody thought an agency as big and fearsome to taxpayers shouldn’t have up to date computer systems?
Give me a break!
(One of the problems with the banking mess is that regulators weren’t doing their jobs!) More bureaucracy will cost money and do absolutely NOTHING!
More government is never the solution to anything.
People are suddenly much more careful when they are in control of how their own money is spent. Power should reside in the people first.
“And someday you are going to realize that cronyism arises from human nature, not from any particular political ideology”
Libby don’t be ridiculous! I have been saying this all along. Cronyism can be gotten away with because we have given too much power to the leaders we choose. But we give them more power every time we accept another federal program or agency.
Republicans are not inherently better people. the very idea is absurd.
The reason I choose the Republican Party over democrats is because they stand on the principles, that if supported by the people, could lead to smaller federal government and more power given back to the people at the local/state levels.
I won’t hold my breath either. In terms of citizens since it is human nature to take the easy, often corrupt, path then it is folly to lower the standards of performance we expect of each other. Anything else amounts to slowly digging your own grave.
Re Tina: “That is insane!”
BINGO!
Re: “If we had a government agency over-seeing hardware and software applications government-wide, something that should have been created 30 years ago, we would have been all ready to develop Healthcare.gov.”
If ignorance is bliss, stupidity must be pure heaven. That has to be the most moronic statement of the month, if not year.
If we had an IRS dept. that spent its money on updating computers and hiring competent IT staff instead of spending $4 million on a studio to produce “Star Trek” videos they’d still come up with another lie to cover up the fact they destroyed the incrementing evidence.
Taxpayer money finances IRS “Star Trek” parody:
“CBS News filed a Freedom of Information request asking for the video after the IRS earlier refused to turn over a copy to the congressional committee that oversees tax issues: House Ways and Means. According to committee Chairman Charles Boustany, Jr. (R-LA), the video was produced in the IRS’s own television studio in New Carrollton, MD. The studio may have cost taxpayers more than $4 million dollars last year alone.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/taxpayer-money-finances-irs-star-trek-parody/
Or how about the $50 million it spent on conferences in an 18 month period per an inspector general’s report.
Now IRS faces probe into $50MILLION spent on conferences after Tea Party targeting scandal:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335077/Under-IRS-faces-probe-50MILLION-spent-employee-conferences-following-claims-tea-party-targeting.html#ixzz35Ex3hxbE
I think a bill needs to be passed that says taxpayers are held to the same time standards as the IRS. If the IRS can destroy records after six months then individuals and business should not be required to keep them for seven years.
The Federal Records Act states those emails and all other information was required to be kept by law.
IRS Was Required By Law to Print Out Lois Lerner’s Emails:
“The Internal Revenue Service is required by federal law to keep records of all agency emails and to print out hard copies of the emails to make sure they get saved in the event of a computer glitch.
The IRS’s own definition of the Federal Records Act makes clear that emails must be saved and documented, according to an instructional page for employees on the IRS website.
“The Federal Records Act applies to email records just as it does to records you create using other media,” according to the IRS. “Emails are records when they are: Created or received in the transaction of agency business; Appropriate for preservation as evidence of the government’s function and activities; or Valuable because of the information they contain.”
“If you create or receive email messages during the course of your daily work, you are responsible for ensuring that you manage them properly,” according to the IRS. “The Treasury Department’s current email policy requires emails and attachments that meet the definition of a federal record be added to the organization’s files by printing them (including the essential transmission data) and filing them with related paper records. If transmission and receipt data are not printed by the email system, annotate the paper copy.”
“Please note that maintaining a copy of an email or its attachments within the IRS email MS Outlook application does not meet the requirements of maintaining an official record,” the IRS stated. “Therefore, print and file email and its attachments if they are either permanent records or if they relate to a specific case.”
Losing all evidence of agency emails, therefore, is a violation of federal law.
Even without the required printed-out copies, it appears that the IRS has Lerner’s emails saved.
“They’re all stored somewhere,” Koskinen told lawmakers at a March hearing, referring to Lerner’s emails.
“They get taken off and stored in servers,” he added.”
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/17/irs-was-required-by-law-to-print-out-lois-lerners-emails/#ixzz35F1Ey4hJ
“Move along, nothing to see here.” Yeah, right.
Peggy: “If the IRS can destroy records after six months then individuals and business should not be required to keep them for seven years.”
Here, here! Also, if the IRS is going to lavishly spend $50 Million on a “conference”…maybe we business owners shouldn’t be taxed until we meet a $50 M threshold and individuals shouldn’t have to pay tax until they reach that threshold.
How many departments are run just like this?
I wonder how quickly we could eliminate the debt if we just got rid of all the perks, cut the employee managers and bosses in half and made the ones that are left actually do some work?
Oh and Tina, don’t forget all about all of the millions that go to managers like at the VA who have failed to do their jobs.
We could eliminate the debt AND reduce our taxes. Now that’s something to work for. Hum, sounds like the Tea Party’s goal.
Nearly 80% of senior executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs earned performance bonuses despite treatment delays at VA hospitals:
“More than 350 VA executives were paid a total of $2.7 million in bonuses last year, said Gina Farrisee, an assistant VA secretary.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/execs-dept-
veterans-affairs-earned-bonuses-va-hospital-treatment-delays-article-1.1838447#ixzz35JNfHdE8
$2.7 MILLION JUST LAST YEAR!!
I wonder what the total is for all bonuses given to federal workers.
Answered my own question, and it’s a shocker.
Who got $332 million in federal bonuses?:
“Government payroll data reveal increase for patent officers, FEMA
Federal workers who deal with natural disasters saw the biggest boost in bonuses last year — and that was before superstorm Sandy.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency dished out $10.9 million in bonuses and other awards in fiscal year 2012, up from $1.3 million the year before — an eightfold increase. The federal fiscal year ended Sept. 30, a month before Sandy hit.
All told, FEMA employees were among 360,000 federal workers paid their share of $332 million in bonuses. Bonuses ranged from a high of $66,000 to small perks, like days off, for almost every type of job, from back-office accounting to helping the ill on American Indian reservations, an Asbury Park Press review of federal payroll data found.
In fiscal year 2011, the government gave out $439 million in bonuses.
And what type of employees received the most in payouts last year? Was it homeland security agents ferreting out threats? Rescue personnel saving people from floodwaters? Nurses and doctors caring for wounded soldiers?
Nope.
The single biggest pot of bonus dollars went to patent office examiners — the people who determine if a new gizmo or company logo will be protected from copycats. The Patent and Trademark Office handed out $34.8 million in awards last year, up $9.4 million from 2011. About $25.5 million of that money went to 8,294 patent examiners, each of whom received an average bonus of $3,077. Patent examiners were paid an average salary of $102,000 last year.”
continued..
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/06/332-million-federal-bonuses/2396111/
Peggy just found another wasted $5 million or so:
Washington Times:
Government is sucking the life out of the economy and that in turn results in a shrinking middle class.
“Broadcasting Board of Governors?” Are these the same guys who gave us the left-leaning, liberal biased, progressive/socialist promoting media? Are they the ones who coordinate what’s approved for broadcasting and what’s to receive NO airtime at all?
I’ll bet I can figure out where all of that money went. The Mafia calls in “hush money,” and I’ll bet it went into the pockets of some very rich people and made them a whole lot richer.
“I have often pointed to human nature and pointed to the fact that we have to have high standards and hold people accountable.”
So what? You’ve said that about Bush I … you’ve said that about Bush II.
Geez … you said that about Nixon.
Are you EVER going to get wise?