Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.

◼ Embattled IRS official Lois Lerner’s husband’s law firm has strong Obama connections - Patrick Howley/Daily Caller

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who apologized for targeting conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny is married to an attorney whose firm hosted a voter registration organizing event for the Obama presidential campaign, praised President Obama’s policy work, and had one of its partners appointed by Obama to a key ambassadorship.

IRS Exempt Organizations Division director Lois G. Lerner, who has been described as “apolitical” in mainstream press coverage of the IRS scandal, is married to tax attorney Michael R. Miles, a partner at the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. The firm is based in Atlanta but has a number of offices including in Washington, D.C., where Miles works.

The 400-attorney firm hosted an organizing meeting at its Atlanta office for people interested in helping with voter registration for the Obama re-election campaign.

This is not the first of Lerner’s connections to the president to surface....

◼ Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. - Charles C. Johnson/Daily Caller

According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval.

Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.

OOOOOOOOOPS!

◼ Tax-exempt Obama Foundation doesn’t exist at listed addresses - Charles C. Johnson/Daily Caller

The “charity” run by President Barack Obama’s half-brother that was fast-tracked for IRS tax-exempt status is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website.

The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based.

The Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama.

...“They probably just rent a mailbox here or receive mail here,” said a UPS employee when asked if the store was the address for the Barack H. Obama Foundation. She did not know if Malik Obama, who his website says divides his time between Kenya and Virginia, had been in to the store.

A visit to the UPS store revealed that there is a mailbox numbered 401....

The address listed in the group’s IRS filings — 4201 Wilson Blvd. Ste 110-152, Arlington, Va. 22030 — is even more suspicious, as it is a marketing center for A Better Today Recovery Services — a drug-and-alcohol treatment organization.

A receptionist who answered the phone at A Better Today said neither she nor anybody in the office had heard of the Barack H. Obama Foundation. She said A Better Today had been located at the Arlington address for “a couple years.” The IRS filings that list the Arlington address as the foundation’s headquarters were dated May 2011.

“I don’t know if it’s listed wrong or what’s going on, but we have never heard of that,” the receptionist said, adding that A Better Today had never received calls or correspondence related to the Barack H. Foundation.

Which phase of the Matrix are we in?

When a thing is not 'TRUE,' despite the documents and evidence, until one group says it is true.

IRS harassment did not happen, don't you know, until the Democrats admitted it.

Benghazi was just a 'concoction,' despite real world happenings, because one side said it was real. Until the other side acknowledged it, it didn't exist.

And on and on. Issue after issue.

As You Can Perhaps Imagine, This Has Been a Rough Week for Charles Johnson

◼ The World’s Least Credible Blogger™ has been tying himself into laughable knots of hilarious self-contradiction lately, attempting to defend President Wiretap Benghazi Failure against . . . Well, facts. - The Other McCain

...Once you read that, you realize this isn’t a “claim” made by conservatives, or something “alleged” to have happened: It’s a straight-up fact, and one that doesn’t fit within CJ’s worldview.
And man, it’s just been a cruel, cruel week for CJ’s worldview.
Scroll down Diary of Daedalus and enjoy the ridiculous failures. That is to say, if you still remember who Charles Johnson is. Or rather, was.

◼ Avoid the Swamp: Charles Johnson’s New Definition Of Bogus Is Bogus; Update: RS McCain links to this post and Charles whines about it! - Diary Of Daedalus

◼ IRS Inspector General’s Report Released: ‘Inappropriate Criteria’ Used Against Conservative Groups; Nearly 300 Were Targeted - Viral Read

(And that 300 was an early number, it's a lot more than that, now.)

Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press

◼ link - Nicholas Weaver/Wired

Leaking by Email
...The CIA supposedly already provided a guide to secure email, which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) translated back to English — convenient, given the situation we now find ourselves in.

Get a dedicated computer or tablet: the cheapest Windows laptop will do. And pay cash, as our normal laptops have a host of automatic synchronization and similar services. Our personal web browsers also contain all sorts of location-identifying cookies. Even if you’re logged in to but don’t actually visit Facebook’s home page, a subpoena to Facebook can still reveal where you connect and what pages you visit — every “Like” button reports to Facebook that you are visiting that particular page, at a particular time, from a particular IP address.

Leave your cellphone, your normal computer, and your metro card (like SmarTrip) at home: anything that speaks over a wireless link must stay behind. Then go to a coffee shop that has open Wi-Fi, and once there open a new Gmail account that you will only use to contact the press and only from the dedicated computer. When registering, use no personal information that can identify you or your new account: no phone numbers, no names.

Don’t forget: if you get anything at the cafe, or take public transit, pay cash. Be prepared to walk a bit, too; you can’t stay close to home for this.

Of course, the job still isn’t finished. When you are done you must clear the browser’s cookies and turn off the Wi-Fi before turning off the computer and removing the battery. The dedicated computer should never be used on the network except when checking your press-contact account and only from open Wi-Fi connections away from home and work.

Leaking Over the Phone

Again, start by leaving all electronic devices at home. Go to a small liquor store in a low-income neighborhood, and buy a pre-paid cellphone (TracPhone or similar) with cash. Make sure it has enough airtime to not expire for a few months — T-mobile prepaid is particularly good since the pay-as-you-go plan doesn’t expire for a full year if you buy $100 of airtime.

By the way, I would personally look for a store with security cameras that look old — a continuous tape or similar setup — since once the FBI has the number, the next step is to contact the store that sold the phone. Alternatively, you can get someone else to walk into the store and buy it for you.

You now own your very own “burner” phone — remember The Wire? – and this phone must remain off with the battery removed at all times. Because every active cellphone is effectively a continuous GPS, monitoring your location and feeding the information to the phone company which retains this information for weeks, months, even years. Just a warrant-step away.

Now, to use the phone … Once again, go to a different location without carrying your normal devices, turn on the phone, check your voicemail, make your call, turn it off again, and pull out the battery. Your phone calls are now (hopefully) anonymous so that when the FBI leak-hunt starts, there is no trail for them to follow.

Of course, the burner laptop or phone could still identify you if it’s ever found, as they both contain network identifiers built into the hardware. So if you ever need to abandon your device, first wipe the device back to its factory fresh configuration using any “secure erase” options available, then take a hammer and break the device. Put it in some other piece of trash (like an empty McDonald’s sack), go for another stroll, and drop in a public trashcan.

Such extreme measures are a modern necessity.....

Well, NO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O KIDDING!!

◼ Forget Cell Phones — Kids In The Car Are Even More Distracting - CBS Chicago

Better ban kids.

Greg Gutfeld wins quote of the day: ‘The media is Obama’s scandal condom’

Greg Gutfeld: "The media is Obama's scandal condom" #truth #TheFive

— Trent Walters (@LeatherBelt5) May 8, 2013

◼ Perfect. As Twitchy noted, CNN and MSNBC hosts sure did a fine job today of talking over the Benghazi hearing testimony. - Twitchy

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The recent decision to make the 'Morning After Pill' available over the counter is undoubtedly a good thing for people who need it - making it a 5 minute transaction, rather than delaying access, waiting for a Dr, Appointment. In theory, this would boost its effectiveness.

But, it's not as simple as that.

Removing the Doctor from the equation also means removing the advice that comes with the appointment.

So, now, anyone can get it, as many as they want any time they want - why get the real pill? And if one might work, why not take two, just to be sure? Or three? Who's to stop you? Or advise you what effect that might have?

And no method works 100% of the time - what happens if it doesn't work? The pregnancy begins in spite of taking the pill. In a 9-month gestation, every day is important, as development takes place. What is the effect of dosing the developing cells with massive doses of a powerful agent such as this? Will it affect motor skills? Brain development down the line? What are the risks in this regard?

Even grown women benefit from the counsel of a physician - and knowing this makes it even more troublesome that it is now available to 15 year olds with little or no education or life experience, and without a doctor's admonitions.

Forget the fact that responsible parents would rather you not give powerful medication to their children without their consent - granted, there are irresponsible and brutally unkind parents out there, too - who is going to assume the risks and responsibilities as the lawsuits begin to mount. Health risk, death, unwanted pregnancies, birth defects, who knows?

Obama claims the decision to let kids buy this stuff unchecked is based on 'sound science.' Really?

And, you're teaching this 'sound science' in school, right?

---

In a related note - the media blackout of the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell is so complete that Snopes had to issue a notice that it is indeed a true story, not a phony email scam.

A legal, permitted abortion clinic with blood on the floor, babies being killed after surviving an abortion, women dying, unlicensed workers administering medications, a Doctor who kept severed babies' feet in jars...

And it's not an aberration, undercover footage shows multiple clinics advising potential patients that, should their 'fetus' survive an abortion attempt, it would be dealt with, not saved.

The latest revelation, Kermit Gosnell's 'Mother's Day Massacre:' The event was given the name because Gosnell and his partner, Harvey Karman, bused 15 poor women from Chicago to Gosnell’s Philadelphia clinic to do the abortions on Mother’s Day in 1972.

Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger told WND in an interview that Gosnell and his partner not only did the abortions before Roe v. Wade, they were using an experimental method.

“It was called the super coil, a plastic ball with razor blades on it. They would insert the coil into the woman’s uterus to induce an abortion,” Sullenger said. “I don’t think any of the women knew they were guinea pigs, that they were being used as an experiment.”

The blades were gel-coated and laid down. The device was designed so that when the woman’s body temperature melted the gel, the blades sprang up to cut the baby, thus inducing the abortion.

There's more: The super-coil that Gosnell used had been developed by Harvey Karman, a Los Angeles psychologist who killed a woman in April 1955 after attempting to perform an abortion with a speculum and a nutcracker. After that incident he was charged with performing an illegal abortion, and spent some time in jail.

Karman (born Harvey Walters) tested the device on "hundreds" of women in Bangladesh, at the government's invitation. “Those women suffered a high rate of complications,” the grand jury report states. “Nonetheless, Karman brought his 'super coil' to Philadelphia, where he found an ally in Gosnell.”

Although Karman never earned a doctorate or M.D., after he was released from jail he began saying he had earned a doctorate from a non-existent European university and calling himself “doctor.” Like Gosnell, he was considered a pioneer of abortion rights.

And: Newsbusters noted that the local tax-funded National Public Radio station WHYY described Gosnell as “a physician who had worked in our community for 30 years, cared for women in all of that time.”

No matter where you stand on abortion, these things must give you pause. Do you want your 15 year old to have unfettered access to powerful medications without your consent? Do you think sex-education ought to include factual information about the conditions in these clinics, the real risks, and the history of things like the "Mother's Day Massacre?"

I mean, if we get all incensed about Flouride in drinking water, and 32-oz sodas, might this be of some concern? Have you even heard about it? And, if not, why not?