Allegations are cheap. Facts are more worthwhile.

What Really Happened in the U.S. Attorneys Mess

Nets Ignored Clinton Firing 93 U.S. Attorneys, Fret Over Bush's 8

Sorry, but there is no "there," there. US Attorneys are political appointees that serve at the pleasure of the President. Normally practically all of them, if not all of them, are replaced when a new administration comes in to office, especially from a different party. As I recall the standard is that they offer their resignation, and it is normally accepted. If that is all you have to hang your hat on, that is pretty weak tea indeed. And they weren't spied upon inappropriately, just fired, as was administration's right.

Leaving them in the positions to begin with was probably ill-considered by the Bush administration since they didn't really support the administration. Not really helpful. President Bush may have been thinking that he would be able to work with Democrats at the national level as he was able to in Texas. That didn't appear to work out in a lot of areas.

So you're saying that Bush really only had opposition in the media for the last 2-3 years of his term? I think you have a different recollection than I do, and what the facts might suggest.

Two things. First, I haven't noticed the media bend all that much to that objection.

Second, "right of center" media? It might look that way to you, but that is because you are probably running into a parallax problem which is exacerbated by your left of left of center politics.

Do journalists' political donations (mostly Democratic) = news bias?

Journalists as a group tend toward progressive or liberal, not center, or center right. If they look right of center to you, you might want to think about recalibrating your mental peg of where your politics are on the continuum.

This wasn't a laptop, this was servers. Probably a pretty substantial setup too. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a cluster of big RISC boxes with a substantial SAN. Where you are thinking, "HDD," think disk storage array, a big one.

It is clearly indicated the agents went outside what was in the warrant, were warned about it, and took the data anyway - just to get some financial data on one former employee. I would normally expect you to be outraged about this sort of thing, violated warrant, government overreach and all.

It has been pointed out many times before: If you want something approximating consistent media scrutiny of the executive branch in the last few decades, given the current values of the media, you need to have a Republican president. A large part of the media has been carrying water for the Obama administration from the start. The only thing that might be turning that around in any meaningful way is the AP scandal - What!? They spy on us too?

The IRS is the one that is charged with ensuring that everyone has insurance, not with keeping and maintaining medical records.

Lets use the ever popular car analogy. The Department of Motor Vehicles checks to make sure that you have car insurance. The Department of Motor Vehicles doesn't keep copies of the maintenance records, oil changes, refueling, car washes, and tune-ups. The IRS is like the DMV - they will check to make sure that you have insurance, they shouldn't have your health records. This is over the line.

I would hope your wouldn't actually want that. The most charitable thing you can say at the moment is that they apparently have more power than they can manage is a responsible way, let along legal way.

Substitute storage array and you might be right. From what I've read, it almost certainly wasn't a trivial amount of data as it included treatment plans, history, etc.. Since it was for a former employee, you have to wonder why they couldn't either just ask for a report to be printed, or something else. It is very hard to believe that this isn't a massive over-reach.

They had a search warrant for financial data regarding one former employee, and they took tens of millions of medical records too, which they weren't entitled to.

Warrant said they could take A, they took A and B.....ZZZZZZZZ. Everything from B on was unrelated information to the investigation proper, and not covered by the warrant. They stepped over the line, despite being warned. How is this confusing to you?

Oh, it's more than that. The IRS is the key enforcer for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Your Next IRS Political Audit - The tax agency is getting vast new power in health care
The IRS Is Accessing Your Health Records. You Trust Them?

The US Government needs to get the problems at that agency fixed, now. Between this and the suppression of political groups going on, this is intollerable and undemocratic. What did Franklin say? A Republic, if you can keep it?

The IRS’s Curious Immunity - It’s worse than the PATRIOT Act.

'Bullies' Excerpt: How The Left Crucified George Zimmerman

Race-baiting modded "Insightful" - what a surprise . . . not.

Shielding makes the bomb bigger and heavier. Bigger and heavier bombs are harder to handle and hide. That makes them easier to detect.

From what I hear they don't care to be at Guantanamo.

Thank goodness that only exists in jokes... or does it?

8 Arrested For Smuggling Radioactive Substances
Report Reveals Rampant Smuggling of Radioactive Materials