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To: Bill who wrote (792119)6/27/2014 11:50:09 AM
From: joseffy3 Recommendations

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steve harris
THE WATSONYOUTH

  Respond to of 1578937
 
The sleeper case that could bust open the IRS scandals
..........................................................................
By Thomas Lifson June 27, 2014
americanthinker.com

In the absence of a special prosecutor, the best opportunity for piercing the veil of secrecy and evasion that surrounds the IRS handling of groups perceived as enemies of the Obama administration lies in civil litigation.

The National Organization for Marriage has just obtained a $50,000 settlement from the IRS for its criminal release of confidential donor information to an opposition group.

But so far Eric Holder’s Justice Department is not pursuing inquiries into who feloniously released that information.

The absence of any official judicial inquiry into the inner workings of the IRS processes is why it is so important to note that yesterday saw the beginning of the discovery phase in the lawsuit by Z-Street a pro-Israel organization that was told its application for tax exempt status was being delayed because:

…these cases are being sent to a special unit in the DC office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.

Z-Street’s lawsuit alleges unlawful viewpoint discrimination, a First Amendment claim. The IRS tried several arguments to dismiss Z-Street’s lawsuit, all of which were dismissed by Washington, DC federal district court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee. She noted that Z-Street was not suing to gain tax exempt status, but rather over the viewpoint discrimination evidenced by what it was told by IRS agent Diane Gentry about contradicting administration policies – the process by which the IRS made the determination on tax exempt status. In the words of the Jerusalem Post:

The Z Street case may be what forces the IRS to pull aside its carefully constructed curtain and reveal how it made decisions regarding organizations deemed out of step with the current US administration.

Judge Jackson gave the IRS until June 26 to respond to Z-Street. That deadline has now passed, so the case enters discovery. This means that Z-Street can subpoena IRS officials, place them under oath, and ask them questions about how they acted, and cross examine them closely. They can also subpoena documents and require their production. This is much different than a House committee hearing in which members have only a few minutes to ask questions, and when friendly Democrats have their opportunity to apologize for the impertinence of daring to ask questions of our IRS masters. Depositions taken under oath can last many hours and involve detailed questions.

What makes the Z-Street case unique and potentially extremely damaging is that its lawsuit was filed in August 2010. That filing placed the IRS under legal obligation to preserve records.

The Wall Street Journal’s Review and Outlook column explains:

Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and legal precedent, once the suit was filed the IRS was required to preserve all evidence relevant to the viewpoint-discrimination charge. That means that no matter what dog ate Lois Lerner's hard drive or what the IRS habit was of recycling the tapes used to back up its email records of taxpayer information, it had a legal duty not to destroy the evidence in ongoing litigation.

In private white-collar cases, companies facing a lawsuit routinely operate under what is known as a "litigation hold," instructing employees to affirmatively retain all documents related to the potential litigation. A failure to do that and any resulting document loss amounts to what is called "willful spoliation," or deliberate destruction of evidence if any of the destroyed documents were potentially relevant to the litigation.

At the IRS, that requirement applied to all correspondence regarding Z Street, as well as to information related to the vetting of conservative groups whose applications for tax-exempt status were delayed during an election season. Instead, and incredibly, the IRS cancelled its contract with email-archiving firm Sonasoft shortly after Ms. Lerner's computer "crash" in June 2011.

In the federal District of Columbia circuit where Z Street's case is now pending, the operating legal obligation is that "negligent or reckless spoliation of evidence is an independent and actionable tort." In a 2011 case a D.C. district court also noted that "Once a party reasonably anticipates litigation, it must suspend its routine document retention/destruction policy and put in place a 'litigation hold' to ensure the preservation of relevant documents."

The government's duty is equally pressing. "When the United States comes into court as a party in a civil suit, it is subject to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as any other litigant," the Court of Federal Claims ruled in 2007. The responsibility to preserve evidence should have been a topic of conversation between the IRS chief counsel's office and the Justice Department lawyers assigned to handle the Z Street case.

The potential destruction of evidence, by becoming a separate tort, opens the door for judicial inquiry into the IRS destruction of evidence. Armed with subpoenas and able to examine and cross examine people under oath, Z-Street has the potential to bust open what really went on at the IRS.

Strangely enough no major media outlet covered the opening of the discovery phase of this case. Only Gretchen Carlson of Fox News had the wit to notice, and interviewed Lori Lowenthal Marcus, head of Z-Street (and an AT contributor):






To: Bill who wrote (792119)6/27/2014 12:09:03 PM
From: joseffy  Respond to of 1578937
 
‘Spoken Like A True White Guy:’ Whoopi Tries To Shut Down Guest Challenging Political Correctness

The Daily Caller
Brendan Bordelon
06/26/2014

Excerpt:


“The View” host Whoopi Goldberg told guest co-host Will Cain that his opposition to politically-correct language was “spoken like a true white guy,” suggesting that Cain is too white and privileged to have an opinion on how we react to negative words.

Cain, an analyst for Glenn Beck’s conservative publication The Blaze, was responding to a rant by British comedian Russell Brand against Fox News. Brand equates Fox to Islamic terrorist group ISIS, actually suggesting that the network’s rhetoric makes it more dangerous than the ultra-violent Sunni organization.

“I think it’s part of the whole trend we have,” Cain said. “We elevate words to the most harmful thing in society. ‘How dare you say something that could offend somebody? How dare you say something that could hurt my feelings?’”

“Let me tell you why, Will,” Whoopi pushed back. “Because we have a history of utilizing words to harm people and hurt people, and people who have been on the other side of it, I think, are at the point where they’re saying, ‘You know what? This is not okay anymore.’”

“And you gotta roll with it,” she declared, “because at some point we all have to grow up.” She specifically singled out sports teams with names like The Fighting Irish and Redskins.

“We’ll all go out of business,” Cain said sarcastically. “We’ll all stop talking. Everybody’s offended all the time, from The Fighting Irish to the Redskins, we’re all offended.”

The liberal audience applauded, forcing Goldberg to raise her voice. “But you know what, that is spoken like a true white guy!” she accused, as the audience gasped. “And I don’t mean it in a bad way.”

<SNIP>


LINK

***************************************

Hmmm. Sounds sorta racist... but it just couldn't be. Let me see.

"Spoken like a true black chick... and I don't mean it in a bad way."



To: Bill who wrote (792119)6/27/2014 10:51:04 PM
From: joseffy  Respond to of 1578937
 
Yale-educated addiction psychiatrist is charged with making and selling ecstasy with her boyfriend in basement lab

  • Authorities discovered chemicals in home used to manufacture MDMA
  • Dr. Priscilla W. Sheldon-Cost, 51, was charged with drug-related offenses
  • She had a long history involving drugs and addiction while working as a physician

  • By James Gordon 27 June 2014




    Police in Maryland have charged three people in connection with manufacturing MDMA, commonly referred to as Molly or the drug ecstasy, including a doctor who has a long-standing history of drug problems.

    Baltimore County cops said a drug investigation led to a search warrant and the arrest of Dr. Priscilla Sheldon-Cost, 51, at a house in Towson.

    Detectives found chemicals that can be used to manufacture MDMA and ecstasy were being created in a lab in the basement.

    Some of the substances that were found had even been labelled with MDMA written on it.





    Arrested: Priscilla W. Sheldon-Cost, 51, is an addiction rehabilitation psychiatrist with a history of treatment for alcohol and drug abuse






    Suspects: Thomas Ronald Joyave, 52, and Vincent Mark Ricker, 24, are both charged with narcotics related offenses

    'They found chemicals that, when mixed, can either be hazardous or used to make narcotics. They also found a lab that was active but not working. It was in production but not working at the time that they served the warrant.

    They also found a large quantity of what’s known as MDMA, also known as Molly - that quantity was sufficient enough to indicate distribution,' Baltimore County police spokesman Cpl. John Wacther said.

    Dr. Priscilla W. Sheldon-Cost, 51, Thomas Ronald Joyave, 52, and Vincent Mark Ricker, 24, were charged with drug-related offenses.

    Sheldon-Cost and Ricker are being held on $30,000 bail while Joyave was allowed go free on $20,000 bail.

    Police Sheldon-Cost told investigators 'nothing was ever sold and that she was interested in psychedelics.'

    She also told police she has a master’s degree in psychology from Johns Hopkins and a PhD in pharmacology from Yale.






    Underground factory: A drug investigation led to a search warrant at a Towson home






    +6

    Pill poppers: Authorities discovered chemicals in home used to manufacture MDMA




    The Baltimore Sun reports that Sheldon-Cost was an addiction rehabilitation psychiatrist with a history of treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.

    Sheldon-Cost previously worked at Baltimore Behavioral Health, a rehabilitation center for addicts in West Baltimore, while undergoing addiction treatment herself, under the supervision of the state Board of Physicians.

    The board suspended her license indefinitely in 2012 after she violated probation by submitting drug-testing samples and psychiatric evaluation reports late and failing to notify the board that her employer suspended her clinical privileges.

    Sheldon-Cost entered a physician rehabilitation program in May 2002. The month before, she had been suspended from a position at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and resigned.

    The Mount Washington hospital for elderly psychiatric and rehabilitative patients had expressed concerns about her 'physical and mental condition,' according to board documents.

    Sheldon-Cost began volunteering, and later working part time, at Baltimore Behavioral Health in 2005 and continued until leaving in April 2007 to care for her ailing mother, according to board documents.

    Two months after she left, she tested positive for Tramadol, a painkiller similar to opiates.




    Hidden from view: Police found what they believe to be an ecstasy manufacturing lab in the basement




    After she tested positive for alcohol in a December 2008 urine test, the board charged her with 'unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine' in 2009.

    Under a public consent order with the board settling those charges in March 2010, she was placed on probation for five years.

    The physicians board suspended Sheldon-Cost's medical license in September 2012 when officials found she violated terms of her probation, including failing to check in to learn when she was ordered to take random drug tests, submitting three drug samples late, submitting psychiatric reports late and failing to notify the board when her employer suspended her clinical privileges.

    Court papers indicate Sheldon-Cost told police Ricker was a longtime friend who had been staying the past week with them and that Ricker assembled the laboratory.

    Joyave, Sheldon-Cost’s boyfriend, denied knowing anything about the lab, telling police he only went to the basement to collect soil samples.

    'Anytime that we can get a lot of narcotics, any kind of narcotics off the street, that's a good thing, and in this case, they did have a lot,' Wacther said.


    Read more:

    Read more: dailymail.co.uk



    To: Bill who wrote (792119)6/28/2014 12:55:08 PM
    From: joseffy  Respond to of 1578937
     
    How to Erase Your Home from Google Maps