Obama EPA’s ‘environmental justice’ slush fund needs to be exposed--so @JudicialWatch files suit.

Obama EPA’s ‘environmental justice’ slush fund needs to be exposed--so @JudicialWatch files suit. https://t.co/CzEhq8G27B

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) March 27, 2017

Eric Holder Is Getting Paid a Boat Load of Money By California Taxpayers to Oppose President Trump

Eric Holder Is Getting Paid a Boat Load of Money By California Taxpayers to Oppose President Trump https://t.co/H2z1EEZBUI

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 7, 2017

"We will render our statements to you monthly. For the initial three-month phase of our engagement, we have agreed to charge the Legislature a fixed fee of $25,000 per month," the agreement between Covington & Burling Law Firm, where Holder now works, and the California Legislature states. "This fee will include a maximum of 40 attorney or advisor hours per month."

Holder was hired by Democrat lawmakers in the state late last year to provide "legal strategies regarding potential actions of the federal government that may be of concern to the State of California." The agreement specifically mentions immigration and healthcare as areas of focus.

“The new records show California state legislators are wasting tax dollars to bankroll another corrupt politician – Eric Holder – under the pretense of attacking the Trump administration,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton released in a statement. “This expensive contract is crony corruption pure and simple. The swamp of public corruption has taken over California.”

The State Department has been unable to adequately defend why the language exists outside the original deal and has been accused by a congressional source familiar with the negotiations of “secretly rewriting to let Iran cheat.”

U.N. watchdog exposes secret concessions in Obama’s Iran deal https://t.co/MaSqCxgMF7

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) December 25, 2016

The State Department has been unable to adequately defend why the language exists outside the original deal and has been accused by a congressional source familiar with the negotiations of “secretly rewriting to let Iran cheat.”

The Legislature should be honest about where taxpayer dollars go instead of using accounting gimmicks.

#CABudget should report state finances without gimmicks https://t.co/8YK569BsBx #transparency

— HJTA.org (@HJTA) June 13, 2016

MRC's Bozell: News Media Have Become 'Radicalized' and 'Marginalized'

◼ Host Neil Cavuto began the segment, part of an hour-long look at the issue of trust in America, by pointing out that "the media itself is one of the least-trusted institutions, second only to Congress," and yet many in the media continue to champion government action as a cure to social ills. - See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2015/05/09/mrcs-bozell-news-media-have-become-radicalized-and-marginalized#sthash.sEEAOnue.dpuf - Newsbusters

Both MRC's Bozell and The Hill's Lauren Ashburn agreed that the media were too infatuated with government to act as an effective watchdog. But when Ashburn disagreed that journalists were ignoring liberal scandals, pointing to recent coverage of the Clinton Foundation scandal, Bozell called that "nonsense."

They have not gotten to the bottom of a single one of the Obama scandals....Look at the IRS, look at Benghazi, look at the VA, look at so many scandals -- they've been dropped. This one, this Clinton one, will be dropped as well....

...Yeah, isn't it incredible that their response to being marginalized is to be even more marginalized. They've become so radicalized. We've seen something in the last two years that I frankly hadn't seen before: This -- since 2008, I should say -- this commitment, this deliberate commitment not to report news if it harms the narrative of the left. This is not one example, this is not two examples, I can give you 20 examples. As a matter of fact, you and I have talked about this many times on your show. They are deliberately not reporting news. - See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2015/05/09/mrcs-bozell-news-media-have-become-radicalized-and-marginalized#sthash.sEEAOnue.dpuf

Here's how inspectors found $43b Washington could save

◼ Taxpayers could save as much as $43 billion if officials running the biggest federal departments would do what their internal watchdogs recommended in 2014. - Washington Examiner

That $43 billion would be about $27 returned for every dollar invested in the work of 14 of the 15 inspectors general overseeing White House cabinet-level departments. Together, the budgets of the 14 IGs amount to more than $1.6 billion, according to their semiannual reports to Congress.

REVEALED: Transportation for Obama to Los Angeles and Paltrow fundraiser cost taxpayers $1,011,051.30...

◼ Judicial Watch Obtains Records Revealing Obama’s $1,176,120.90 in Transportation Expenses to Attend Political Fundraisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco - Judicial Watch

Lavish fundraiser hosted by Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow marked Obama’s 30th fundraising visit to Los Angeles County, CA.

On October 9, Obama attended a fundraiser party hosted by Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow in Los Angeles. He also attended a closed-door “roundtable” fundraiser at the home of restaurateur Michael Chow. A second event shielded from the public was scheduled for October 11 in San Francisco.

The documents came from the Department of the Air Force in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on October 20, 2014. According to the newly released records obtained by Judicial Watch:

Transportation for Obama to Los Angeles, California on October 9, 2014, for the Paltrow fundraiser cost taxpayers $1,011,051.30
Transportation for Obama to San Francisco, California on October 10, 2014, for the secret fundraiser cost taxpayers an additional $165,069.60
Obama’s fundraiser at the home of Paltrow marked his thirtieth Los Angeles fundraiser since he took office, though his July fundraiser at the home of Michael Rapino had been billed as “the last trip to Los Angeles the president will be making this year,” according to KCAL TV. With the threat of a Republican sweep of Senate seats, however, Hollywood again opened its coffers in another attempt to raise money for the Democratic National Committee a month out from mid-term elections. The fundraiser at the home of A-list actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who also held a fundraising event for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, came with a price tag of up to $32,400 per attendee.

Residents of Los Angeles complained heavily of traffic delays and street closures during Obama’s time in Los Angeles. Neighbors of Paltrow were restrained from returning to their homes, even despite having proof of address. On October 10, Obama attended, according to Newsmax, “a $15,000-per person ‘roundtable’ discussion fundraiser for the DNC on Friday morning at the home of restaurateur Michael Chow and his wife Eva, a fashion designer.”

“Taxpayers are being gouged by President Obama for unnecessary travel for political fundraising and vacations,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “There needs to be a reconsideration of the longstanding taxpayer subsidy that forces our nation’s military and Secret Service into the service of political parties and candidates.”

The Obama administration will soon turn over thousands of documents related to improper disclosures of confidential taxpayer information by the IRS to the White House,

◼ IRS watchdog will turn over documents to Cause of Action - Washington Free Beacon

...On Monday the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) informed the watchdog group Cause of Action that it will turn over nearly 2,500 documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the group.

In a statement, Cause of Action said the number of documents “signals that the White House may have made significant efforts to obtain taxpayers’ personal information.”...

New level of Fox News dominance demands analysis, not dismissal

◼ (T)here are three ratings stories the last two weeks that taken together show Fox News rising to a new and remarkable level of dominance - and they have been underreported in the mainstream media. - David Zurawik/Baltimore Sun

First, Fox News beat not just CNN and MSNBC, but also ABC, NBC and CBS on Nov. 4, the night of the mid-term elections. It did so in both total viewers and the key news demographic: viewers 25 to 54 years of age.

Fox more than tripled the audiences of MSNBC and CNN in total viewers, while beating ABC, NBC and CBS by more than 3 million, 2 million and 1 million viewers respectively. (See figures at end of post.)

On a watershed political night, more Americans tuned to Fox for information about the vote than anywhere else.

I have been covering media long enough to remember when CBS, NBC or ABC was the big story on election night in the 1970s and ‘80s.

And, as a critic, as late as 2008, I was thinking no channel mattered more than CNN. This year, for all the reporters it had on the ground election night, CNN barely did better than the we-lost-our-credibility-in-our-slavish-devotion-to-Obama MSNBC. That’s pathetic....

Step One in assessing this sea change is for the media establishment to admit the dominance of Fox News today. Ignoring its success doesn’t make it any less real.

And then, we need to start seriously trying to figure out how and why it has come to pass that Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly matter more to Americans on election night than Brian Williams, Scott Pelley, George Stephanopoulos, Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer – way more than the latter two.

I think one of the reasons for this latest evolution of ratings dominance might be that Fox was a far better watchdog on the Obama White House than any other TV news organization. It took the heat and the blowback from an administration that showed an enmity for the press not seen on Pennsylvania Avenue since the dark days of Richard Nixon, but it stayed the course. And now with viewers seeing the contempt this administration had for them and the truth, they respect what Fox did the last six years.... KEEP READING

Virginia aims to stamp out (308,000) double-dipping voters

◼ Around 308,000 Virginia voters may also be registered elsewhere, an analysis of 22 states’ election records found, according to Watchdog.org. - Washington Examiner

The results, which were originally reported by the Virginia Voters Alliance, found around 308,000 double registrations by matching names, birth dates and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

...How many of the double-registered voters cast multiple ballots in a single election is unknown, though the VVA revealed it has so far found 164 individuals who voted in both Virginia and Maryland in 2012.

Don Palmer, the secretary of Virginia’s State Board of Elections, said efforts are being made to contact Virginia voters who may be double-registered.

Over 40,000 voters are registered in both Virginia and Maryland, group finds

◼ And that’s just the beginning. - FOX

◼ Group finds duplicate voters around Virginia - WatchDog.Org

“We are also determining the best way to identify non-citizens who have registered to vote and may have voted in past elections,” George said.

Working with the Privileges and Elections committees of the state House and Senate, VVA identified 31,000 dead voters via the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File. Subsequent processing by SBE found 40,000 to 60,000 dead voter registrations.

“Dead voter registrations are prime targets for voter fraud which generate few complaints,” George noted.

These States Have More Registered Voters Than Eligible Adults…What One Group Wants to Do About It

◼ Iowa and Colorado, typically battleground states in presidential and congressional campaigns, each have more registered voters than they have adults over the age of 18 living in the state, according to a conservative watchdog group’s analysis. - The Blaze

The same is true of Washington, D.C., which is set to hold a primary in its mayoral election next week.

Judicial Watch is threatening legal action against the two states and the nation’s capital if immediate steps aren’t taken to clear the voter rolls of dead voters, voters who have moved away or voters that that have become ineligible for other reasons.

States and municipalities are required to keep legitimate roils under Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the Motor Voter Law enacted in 1993.

Robert D. Popper, former deputy chief of the voting section within the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said he was part of five lawsuits during the Bush administration over allegations of improper voter list maintenance since he was hired in 2005.

“In the six years of the Obama administration, there’s been not a single lawsuit,” Popper, now a senior attorney for Judicial Watch, told reporters in Washington on Monday.

Section 7 of the NVRA made voter registration available at local departments of motor vehicle locations and other government offices. Section 8 required a system in place to ensure the voting rolls were kept clean to preserve election integrity.

“There has been to my knowledge a demonstrated lack of interest in the Justice Department in pursuing these lawsuits,” Popper said. “In fact, the one claim that had anything to do with this list maintenance coming out of this Justice Department concerned the lawsuit that it commenced and then lost in which it tried to force the state of Florida to stop removing non-citizens who are on the voter rolls in the run up to the 2012 elections. Other than that, the Obama administration has no interest in pursuing Section 8 lawsuits.”

...Earlier this month, Judicial Watch also sent letters to California, New Mexico, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois notifying them of “apparent problems” and asking these states to provide records of steps taken to assure the accuracy of the voter lists.

CONGRESS ON RED ALERT FOR 60 MINUTES EXPOSÉ OF D.C. CORRUPTION

◼ Members of Congress and their staffs are on red alert tonight for a CBS 60 Minutes investigation by veteran CBS reporter Steve Kroft and Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President and Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer exposing how lawmakers convert campaign donations into lavish lifestyle upgrades for themselves and their family members. - Wynton Hall/Breitbart

“I’m under a publisher embargo right now and can’t say much,” Schweizer told Breitbart News. “But suffice it to say, President Obama and some members of Washington’s Permanent Political Class are not going to like what we uncovered and the kinds of personal enrichment and self-dealing exposed in Extortion.”

◼ 60 MINUTES: CONGRESS USING 'SLUSH FUNDS' TO BANKROLL LAVISH LIFESTYLES - Wynton Hall/Breitbart

Sunday's 60 Minutes report is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Schweizer's publisher, next week's Tuesday release of Extortion will include never-before-released documents and revelations on several top Democrats, Republicans, President Barack Obama, and Attorney General Eric Holder.

WATCH TONIGHT.

Peter Schweizer to Appear on CBS's This Morning to Discuss 60 Minutes Exposé: Government Accountability Instit... http://t.co/5Tz2r8X1yV

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 21, 2013

IRS Watchdog: $67 Million Missing from Obamacare Slush Fund...

◼ The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent from a slush fund established for Obamacare implementation, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report released today. - Americans For Tax Reform

The report also found several other abuses of taxpayer funds, including:

Travel abuse: The report states, “Specifically, we identified 38 IRS employees in two judgmentally selected business units whose travel was charged to the HIRIF in FY 2012, but no portion of their salary and related benefits was charged to the HIRIF.” In short, the IRS was not making sure that employee travel reimbursements had anything to do with the purpose of the fund. This is not the first time that IRS employee travel has created a scandal for the agency.

1,272 IRS Obamacare enforcement agents: The report estimates that total slush fund spending cost taxpayers the equivalent of 1,272 new full time IRS agents.