Obama's IRS destroys another hard drive in violation of court order

[Blackrook]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

 

[Skylar]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

 

[Blackrook]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

So you're going to just pretend none of this is happening?

An interesting strategy, I hope it works out for you.

For those of us who live in the real world, what do you have to say?

 

[jwoodie]

I am surprised that all of Hillary's emails weren't destroyed. Blanket pardons will be given to these criminals after the election, and most "liberals" will cheer them on.

P.S. I have noticed that adding to my IGNORE list greatly improves the level of discourse.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Why is that federal judge not having Koskinen and friends perp-walked to the pokey?

We know why.

 

[Skylar]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

So you're going to just pretend none of this is happening?

An interesting strategy, I hope it works out for you.

For those of us who live in the real world, what do you have to say?

And what is 'this'? Obama using the IRS to attack tea party groups? Nonsense. The IRS politically targeting conservatives? Nonsense. Random accusations about Lois Lerner that never panned out?

Conservatives have set their rhetoric on 'shit your pants' for about 3 years on this issue. And each time, jack shit. You'll understand why I don't empty my bowels over the 20th round of hysterics on the same issue.

You've simply cried wolf too many times.

 

[Skylar]

I am surprised that all of Hillary's emails weren't destroyed. Blanket pardons will be given to these criminals after the election, and most "liberals" will cheer them on.

P.S. I have noticed that adding to my IGNORE list greatly improves the level of discourse.

Some folks don't do well being exposed to views that aren't their own. For those, the ignore button is probably best.

 

[westwall]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

It's amazingly difficult to destroy a hard drive. The fact that they have done it on more than one highly critical hard drives should give anyone with a brain pause. Please note the emphasis on "brain".

 

[Shrimpbox]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

Please do.

 

[Skylar]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

Please do.

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

Please do.

Lets start with the conservative accusation that Obama ordered that the tea party groups be targeted by the IRS.

That turned out to be complete horseshit.

Was that part of the 'The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service"? Or just another one of those fantastically inaccurate, stupidly baseless 'fire and forget' accusations that your ilk would prefer we not think about?

 

[Skylar]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

It's amazingly difficult to destroy a hard drive. The fact that they have done it on more than one highly critical hard drives should give anyone with a brain pause. Please note the emphasis on "brain".

Its amazingly difficult to erase a harddrive? Really?

Because erasing a hard drive is what the IRS is being accused of.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

"Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong."

This is a lie.

Liberals don't 'tell' anyone any such thing.

 

[Shrimpbox]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

Please do.

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

Please do.

Lets start with the conservative accusation that Obama ordered that the tea party groups be targeted by the IRS.

That turned out to be complete horseshit.

Was that part of the 'The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service"? Or just another one of those fantastically inaccurate, stupidly baseless 'fire and forget' accusations that your ilk would prefer we not think about?

That has not been disproved. But obamas claims that it was just a rogue operation in Cincinnati has been disproved

 

[Blackrook]

Liberals are fucking amazing in the way they will lie even when all the evidence proves they are lying.

I don't know how liberals can even look themselves in the mirror.

If anyone in the private sector did something like this, they would be putting them in federal prison.

But the IRS can't be touched because Obama's Justice Department is refusing to prosecute.

This kind of thing happens routinely in backwards third-world countries, but thanks to the Democrats, our government is just as corrupt.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

So you're going to just pretend none of this is happening?

An interesting strategy, I hope it works out for you.

For those of us who live in the real world, what do you have to say?

Obviously you didn't bother to wade through the rightwing BS to locate the actual court document concerning the issue:

IRS Hard Drive Court Docs

The issue concerns government policy to erase the hard drives of employees no longer in government service – a wise and appropriate policy designed to prevent unauthorized access, in no way seeking to 'destroy' evidence or 'hinder' investigation.

And as usual rightwing media contrived and propagated the lie that the recycling of hard drives, done in good faith, was some sort of 'intentional' or 'illegal' effort to 'obstruct justice,' in defiance of a court order, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

In the future don't take at face value the spin, fabrication, and lies of rightwing media – make the effort to instead research the issue to find the truth – in this case the truth is that the IRS did not 'intentionally' erase hard drives in a nefarious, illegal effort to 'obstruct justice.'

 

[Skylar]

Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRACIES: INCOMPETENT, CORRUPT, OR BOTH?

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.
Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track.

IRS officials are being lambasted today for erasing yet another computer hard-drive, this time one that a federal judge had previously ordered to be preserved. House Oversight and Government Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen erasing hard-drives has been a continuing problem….
“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” said Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, in a letter to Koskinen made public late Thursday. The hard-drive is involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Microsoft. A federal judge hearing the FOIA lawsuit told IRS to preserve the hard-drive. Then it was erased.​

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.
And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability.
Many similar instances could be cited, but for now, let’s just remember the Colorado river that the Environmental Protection Agency turned orange with toxic chemicals. This kind of thing happens a lot with federal agencies.
Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.
This is a new development in our democracy. Until now, we have never experienced an extra-legal administration like that of Barack Obama. Will the rule of law survive the 2016 presidential election? I don’t know. That wheel is still spinning.
****
Liberals like to tell us that there is no difference between right and wrong.
And now we see what happens when a federal agency is full of people who don't know the difference between right and wrong.
Any liberal who defends this illegal conduct will be self revealing themselves to being a sympathizer to criminal behavior at the highest layers of government.

And by 'unbelievable', you mean backing none of the batshit nonsense conservatives have made up about it?

Shall we list the rhetorical corpses in the grave yard of failed conservative claims about the IRS?

So you're going to just pretend none of this is happening?

An interesting strategy, I hope it works out for you.

For those of us who live in the real world, what do you have to say?

Obviously you didn't bother to wade through the rightwing BS to locate the actual court document concerning the issue:

IRS Hard Drive Court Docs

The issue concerns government policy to erase the hard drives of employees no longer in government service – a wise and appropriate policy designed to prevent unauthorized access, in no way seeking to 'destroy' evidence or 'hinder' investigation.

And as usual rightwing media contrived and propagated the lie that the recycling of hard drives, done in good faith, was some sort of 'intentional' or 'illegal' effort to 'obstruct justice,' in defiance of a court order, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

In the future don't take at face value the spin, fabrication, and lies of rightwing media – make the effort to instead research the issue to find the truth – in this case the truth is that the IRS did not 'intentionally' erase hard drives in a nefarious, illegal effort to 'obstruct justice.'

Ahh.....and Blackrook shit her panties and everything. Say it ain't so, Clay!

 

[Blackrook]

The IRS demands that those of us among the peasantry maintain business records for seven years. Why do they not follow the rule it imposes on everyone else?

How Long Should You Keep Business Records? | Nolo.com

 

[Skylar]

The IRS demands that those of us among the peasantry maintain business records for seven years. Why do they not follow the rule it imposes on everyone else?

How Long Should You Keep Business Records? | Nolo.com

The IRS requires that you maintain the harddrives of folks who no longer work for you?

Really?

 

[Blackrook]

The IRS demands that those of us among the peasantry maintain business records for seven years. Why do they not follow the rule it imposes on everyone else?

How Long Should You Keep Business Records? | Nolo.com

The IRS requires that you maintain the harddrives of folks who no longer work for you?

Really?

Yes, Skylar, I'm surprised you don't know that. A private entity that destroyed records after an employee leaves would get in a lot of trouble if the IRS audited them.

 

[Skylar]

The IRS demands that those of us among the peasantry maintain business records for seven years. Why do they not follow the rule it imposes on everyone else?

How Long Should You Keep Business Records? | Nolo.com

The IRS requires that you maintain the harddrives of folks who no longer work for you?

Really?

Yes, Skylar, I'm surprised you don't know that. A private entity that destroyed records after an employee leaves would get in a lot of trouble if the IRS audited them.

Can you show me the IRS requirement that you keep hard drives from employees that don't work for you anymore for 7 years.

The specific statute, please. Not your gibberish paraphrases.