Judge to IRS attorneys: I’m about to charge Koskinen personally with contempt

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has had a bad week. Thanks to his efforts to obstruct a Congressional investigation into the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status, House Republicans have demanded his dismissal by Barack Obama, and have threatened to impeach Koskinen if Obama does nothing. On top of that, a federal judge yesterday got fed up with the IRS’ attempts to obstruct a FOIA demand that he threatened to haul Koskinen into court in order to charge him with contempt. It might be a bad week for the IRS’ attorneys, too:

During the a status hearing today, Sullivan warned that the failure to follow his order was serious and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order were “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd.” He asked the IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” with his court order and “why shouldn’t the Court hold the Commissioner of the IRS in contempt.”

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Judge orders Homeland Security chief, others to court

HOUSTON (AP) -- A federal judge in Texas has threatened to hold Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other top immigration enforcement officials in contempt of court for not fixing problems that led to work permits being mistakenly awarded under President Barack Obama's executive immigration action after the judge had put the plan on hold. --The Justice Department had said about 2,000 individuals had been sent three-year work authorizations after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, temporarily blocked the immigration action on Feb. 16. In a court order Tuesday, Hanen said government officials have yet to fix the problem. The judge also requested Johnson and four other officials attend an Aug. 19 hearing to explain why the issue hasn't been fixed and to "be prepared to show why he or she should not be held in contempt of court."

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The EPA reports more lost emails as the House Oversight chair threatens contempt of Congress

If a certain fecal matter had been the only instance of disrepute revealed from within the ranks of the Environmental Protection Agency today, that would have been more than enough; alas… it wasn’t.

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Sowell: Leaders Of The Left And Their Contempt For 'The People'

By Thomas Sowell
One of the things that attracted me to the political left as a young man was a belief that leftists were for "the people." ✧ Fortunately, I was also very interested in the history of ideas — and years of research in that field repeatedly brought out the inescapable fact that many leading thinkers on the left had only contempt for "the people." ✧ That has been true from the 18th century to the present. Even more surprising, I discovered over the years that leading thinkers on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum had more respect for ordinary people than people on the left who spoke in their name.

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