PlannedParenthood:BDSMadvocatenolongercounselingteens;

Planned Parenthood: BDSM advocate no longer counseling teens; Update: Live Action derides “the token firing” strategy; Update: PP lied about termination?

posted at 11:31 am on June 12, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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It didn’t take long for Live Action to get results from the first video launched in its new Planned Parenthood Exposed project [update: link fixed]. Released yesterday, the undercover video shows a counselor at a PP clinic in Indianapolis extolling the pleasures of sadism, masochism, and bondage to an investigator posing as a 15-year-old in need of basic sex education:

The conversation starts off discussing role-playing games in sexual activity, but the counselor quickly turns to suggesting that the girl try out being a dominatrix or a submissive. When the girl asks what “kink” means, the counselor suggests anal sex and toys, and instructs her to start off with a “taste” and then work up to the “harder things.”

She’s suggesting this to a fifteen-year-old girl. Basic sex education at this stage should consist of, well, the basics, including the need to wait for maturity and full development, and the need to keep from being exploited by teenage boys, especially when it comes to pain and domination. This isn’t feminine empowerment; it’s molding victims who will eventually end up in their clinics. And let’s not forget that taxpayers are handing over nearly a half-billion dollars to PP every year, in part to offer this kind of advice to vulnerable teens.

By the end of the day, Planned Parenthood distanced itself from the advice dispensed at its clinic. They rejected the idea that this is a normal PP counseling session and said that the employee no longer worked for the organization (via LifeNews):

Live Action president Lila Rose said the video — the first of several tapes from other Planned Parenthood centers around the country that her organization plans to release — reveals Planned Parenthood’s support of “dangerous” sexual experimentation that should alarm parents and lawmakers. She also said it should result in Planned Parenthood losing federal funds for sexual education.

“They’re pushing dangerous sexual practices on teens and promoting them to teens,” Rose said. She also said such practices “are going to set teens up for physical, emotional and mental problems.”

Planned Parenthood president and CEO Betty Cockrum doesn’t dispute the authenticity of the tape, but also said it is not indicative of the type of counseling and information clients are provided.

“While the heavy editing of this video makes it impossible to know the full exchange that took place, this video clearly does not reflect our professional standards or training protocols, and this staff member is no longer employed at PPINK,” she said in a written statement.

“This video does not reflect the work our dedicated employees do every day, nor the experience shared by parents and teens who participate in our programs,” Cockrum added.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Tammy Lieber said Cockrum was not available Wednesday night to answer questions. Lieber also would not reveal whether the employee was fired or left voluntarily, or when that occurred, due to privacy policies.

Cockrum is laying a dangerous wager with this statement. Live Action made this tape in March, and afterward launched the new microsite. That signals that this is not an isolated incident, and that we can expect a series of tapes from PP clinics that show a pattern of such “advice” from its counselors. Also, the “heavily edited” rebuttal has been used before with Live Action, and failed; they will eventually post the entire video, and it will almost certainly show as it has in their past efforts that the unedited tape doesn’t mitigate the issue at all.

Update: A couple of notes. First, while my reference to “cosplay” was meant to be tongue in cheek, it’s not really accurate. I’ve edited to be a little more clear. Also, Lila Rose dropped me an e-mail to note that the full video is already available by request for media outlets wishing to confirm the story, and definitely on an age-restricted basis.

Also, Live Action has a statement out in response to Planned Parenthood’s comments:

“You’re seeing step one of the Planned Parenthood damage control handbook: the token firing.  It’s always a little strange, because Planned Parenthood tries to have it both ways: they announce terminating the employee for violating “professional standards” but never specify what those standards are. Meanwhile, their BDSM training video remains online, and they continue to list “resources” that tell kids that torture sex is totally fine. So what exactly did the staffer in our video do to bring the wrath of Planned Parenthood down on her?

“In past releases, step two in the handbook is to ignore the exact same abuses we reveal in subsequent videos from additional Planned Parenthood locations across the country.  We saw this in our sex-trafficking investigation and our sex-selective abortion investigation, and we’ll probably see it here, too.  Planned Parenthood is trying to cast our video as a one-off.

“But throwing one employee under the bus does nothing to solve the abortion giant’s organization-wide problem: their promotion of dangerous sexual activity to teens in their online materials and programs.  Lawmakers need to take action immediately to stop forcing taxpayers to support Planned Parenthood, and parents should call their school principals and superintendents to cut off Planned Parenthood’s access to teens in their communities.”

We’ll see what happens after the next video drops.

Update: Maybe it’s just the world’s shortest termination. Yeah, that’s the ticket:

BREAKING UPDATE IN INDIANA: We've called @PPact, and they told us the staffer is still working there. She's in the office TODAY. #sexed

— Live Action (@LiveActionFilms) June 12, 2014

Live Action will have a YouTube up later about this development.

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PlannedParenthood:BDSMadvocatenolongercounselingteens;

Planned Parenthood: BDSM advocate no longer counseling teens; Update: Live Action derides “the token firing” strategy

posted at 11:31 am on June 12, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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It didn’t take long for Live Action to get results from the first video launched in its new Planned Parenthood Exposed project [update: link fixed]. Released yesterday, the undercover video shows a counselor at a PP clinic in Indianapolis extolling the pleasures of sadism, masochism, and bondage to an investigator posing as a 15-year-old in need of basic sex education:

The conversation starts off discussing role-playing games in sexual activity, but the counselor quickly turns to suggesting that the girl try out being a dominatrix or a submissive. When the girl asks what “kink” means, the counselor suggests anal sex and toys, and instructs her to start off with a “taste” and then work up to the “harder things.”

She’s suggesting this to a fifteen-year-old girl. Basic sex education at this stage should consist of, well, the basics, including the need to wait for maturity and full development, and the need to keep from being exploited by teenage boys, especially when it comes to pain and domination. This isn’t feminine empowerment; it’s molding victims who will eventually end up in their clinics. And let’s not forget that taxpayers are handing over nearly a half-billion dollars to PP every year, in part to offer this kind of advice to vulnerable teens.

By the end of the day, Planned Parenthood distanced itself from the advice dispensed at its clinic. They rejected the idea that this is a normal PP counseling session and said that the employee no longer worked for the organization (via LifeNews):

Live Action president Lila Rose said the video — the first of several tapes from other Planned Parenthood centers around the country that her organization plans to release — reveals Planned Parenthood’s support of “dangerous” sexual experimentation that should alarm parents and lawmakers. She also said it should result in Planned Parenthood losing federal funds for sexual education.

“They’re pushing dangerous sexual practices on teens and promoting them to teens,” Rose said. She also said such practices “are going to set teens up for physical, emotional and mental problems.”

Planned Parenthood president and CEO Betty Cockrum doesn’t dispute the authenticity of the tape, but also said it is not indicative of the type of counseling and information clients are provided.

“While the heavy editing of this video makes it impossible to know the full exchange that took place, this video clearly does not reflect our professional standards or training protocols, and this staff member is no longer employed at PPINK,” she said in a written statement.

“This video does not reflect the work our dedicated employees do every day, nor the experience shared by parents and teens who participate in our programs,” Cockrum added.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Tammy Lieber said Cockrum was not available Wednesday night to answer questions. Lieber also would not reveal whether the employee was fired or left voluntarily, or when that occurred, due to privacy policies.

Cockrum is laying a dangerous wager with this statement. Live Action made this tape in March, and afterward launched the new microsite. That signals that this is not an isolated incident, and that we can expect a series of tapes from PP clinics that show a pattern of such “advice” from its counselors. Also, the “heavily edited” rebuttal has been used before with Live Action, and failed; they will eventually post the entire video, and it will almost certainly show as it has in their past efforts that the unedited tape doesn’t mitigate the issue at all.

Update: A couple of notes. First, while my reference to “cosplay” was meant to be tongue in cheek, it’s not really accurate. I’ve edited to be a little more clear. Also, Lila Rose dropped me an e-mail to note that the full video is already available by request for media outlets wishing to confirm the story, and definitely on an age-restricted basis.

Also, Live Action has a statement out in response to Planned Parenthood’s comments:

“You’re seeing step one of the Planned Parenthood damage control handbook: the token firing.  It’s always a little strange, because Planned Parenthood tries to have it both ways: they announce terminating the employee for violating “professional standards” but never specify what those standards are. Meanwhile, their BDSM training video remains online, and they continue to list “resources” that tell kids that torture sex is totally fine. So what exactly did the staffer in our video do to bring the wrath of Planned Parenthood down on her?

“In past releases, step two in the handbook is to ignore the exact same abuses we reveal in subsequent videos from additional Planned Parenthood locations across the country.  We saw this in our sex-trafficking investigation and our sex-selective abortion investigation, and we’ll probably see it here, too.  Planned Parenthood is trying to cast our video as a one-off.

“But throwing one employee under the bus does nothing to solve the abortion giant’s organization-wide problem: their promotion of dangerous sexual activity to teens in their online materials and programs.  Lawmakers need to take action immediately to stop forcing taxpayers to support Planned Parenthood, and parents should call their school principals and superintendents to cut off Planned Parenthood’s access to teens in their communities.”

We’ll see what happens after the next video drops.

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PlannedParenthood:BDSMadvocatenolongercounselingteens

Planned Parenthood: BDSM advocate no longer counseling teens

posted at 11:31 am on June 12, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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It didn’t take long for Live Action to get results from the first video launched in its new Planned Parenthood Exposed project [update: link fixed]. Released yesterday, the undercover video shows a counselor at a PP clinic in Indianapolis extolling the pleasures of sadism, masochism, and bondage to an investigator posing as a 15-year-old in need of basic sex education:

The conversation starts off discussing “cosplay,” but the counselor quickly turns to suggesting that the girl try out being a dominatrix or a submissive. When the girl asks what “kink” means, the counselor suggests anal sex and toys, and instructs her to start off with a “taste” and then work up to the “harder things.”

She’s suggesting this to a fifteen-year-old girl. Basic sex education at this stage should consist of, well, the basics, including the need to wait for maturity and full development, and the need to keep from being exploited by teenage boys, especially when it comes to pain and domination. This isn’t feminine empowerment; it’s molding victims who will eventually end up in their clinics. And let’s not forget that taxpayers are handing over nearly a half-billion dollars to PP every year, in part to offer this kind of advice to vulnerable teens.

By the end of the day, Planned Parenthood distanced itself from the advice dispensed at its clinic. They rejected the idea that this is a normal PP counseling session and said that the employee no longer worked for the organization (via LifeNews):

Live Action president Lila Rose said the video — the first of several tapes from other Planned Parenthood centers around the country that her organization plans to release — reveals Planned Parenthood’s support of “dangerous” sexual experimentation that should alarm parents and lawmakers. She also said it should result in Planned Parenthood losing federal funds for sexual education.

“They’re pushing dangerous sexual practices on teens and promoting them to teens,” Rose said. She also said such practices “are going to set teens up for physical, emotional and mental problems.”

Planned Parenthood president and CEO Betty Cockrum doesn’t dispute the authenticity of the tape, but also said it is not indicative of the type of counseling and information clients are provided.

“While the heavy editing of this video makes it impossible to know the full exchange that took place, this video clearly does not reflect our professional standards or training protocols, and this staff member is no longer employed at PPINK,” she said in a written statement.

“This video does not reflect the work our dedicated employees do every day, nor the experience shared by parents and teens who participate in our programs,” Cockrum added.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Tammy Lieber said Cockrum was not available Wednesday night to answer questions. Lieber also would not reveal whether the employee was fired or left voluntarily, or when that occurred, due to privacy policies.

Cockrum is laying a dangerous wager with this statement. Live Action made this tape in March, and afterward launched the new microsite. That signals that this is not an isolated incident, and that we can expect a series of tapes from PP clinics that show a pattern of such “advice” from its counselors. Also, the “heavily edited” rebuttal has been used before with Live Action, and failed; they will eventually post the entire video, and it will almost certainly show as it has in their past efforts that the unedited tape doesn’t mitigate the issue at all.

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CNNchief:Youcan’tshameusintocovering

CNN chief: You can’t shame us into covering this Benghazi investigation

posted at 4:01 pm on May 20, 2014 by Allahpundit

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Via Mediaite, the man you’ll find here talking up integrity and hard-news priorities is the same guy who went so insane over the missing Malaysian jet that in early April CNN.com led — led — with the news that the jet had been photographed. Not photographed during its fateful flight in March; not photographed on the runway before the flight. Photographed years ago, at random times by random people, just as random objects are photographed all the time for random reasons. That was the top story on CNN’s website that day.

But don’t bother him about Benghazi.

“Climate change is one of those stories that deserves more attention, that we all talk about,” Zucker said, “but we haven’t figured out how to engage the audience in that story in a meaningful way. When we do do those stories, there does tend to be a tremendous amount of lack of interest on the audience’s part.”

And will it cover the special committee hearings by House Republicans to probe the 2012 Benghazi embassy attack? Zucker told Carter he didn’t know yet.

“We’re not going to be shamed into it by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something,” he said. “If it’s of real news value, we’ll cover it.”

Coincidentally, the president reminded the media last night at a fundraiser that the new Benghazi investigation, which has yet to hold a single hearing, is obviously unserious and clearly designed to make people more cynical about government. He said that at a moment when the lead story in most media outlets is wounded veterans dying because government-run health care at the VA is precisely the sort of corrupt mess with endless wait times that you’d expect government-run health care to be, Obama’s old promises to fix it notwithstanding. That’s what’s waiting for CNN to cover as an alternative to cynicism about government a la Benghazi.

Via the MRC, enjoy as the leaders of tomorrow demonstrate that, believe it or not, the public has not been oversaturated with Benghazi coverage. Too bad they weren’t tested on the Malaysian jet instead of Pharrell Williams; I’d be curious to know how solid their grasp of that topic is by contrast.

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Tags: Benghazi, CNN, gowdy, hearing, investigation, jeff zucker, plane, republican, select committee

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HowtogetapaycheckfromtheEPA

How to get a paycheck from the EPA without really trying: Telework without working, or go to the office and watch porn

posted at 1:21 pm on May 7, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

If you can read this addendum to yesterday’s EPA post without slamming your head onto your desk, I salute you.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that inspectors general are up in arms over the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Homeland Security operating as a “rogue law enforcement agency” and agency employees actively blocking their investigations into employee misconduct. The House Oversight Committee held a hearing on these alleged improprieties this morning, and according to the prepared testimony of Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Allan Williams, last year’s case of former employee John C. Beale defrauding taxpayers of nearly a million dollars while pretending to be a CIA operative was just the beginning of the waste/fraud/abuse.

An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency downloaded more than 7,000 pornographic files onto a government computer and viewed them for two to six hours a day, according to the agency’s independent watchdog.

The worker, who wasn’t identified, was watching pornography when a special agent showed up at his work space, Allan Williams, the EPA’s deputy assistant inspector general for investigations, told lawmakers today.

“True deterrence of employee misconduct at the EPA ultimately rests with agency executives and managers to set a tone that ensures such behavior will not be condoned,” Williams told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. …

The employee caught viewing pornography is still on the payroll, earning about $120,000 a year, and the case has been referred to the Justice Department for prosecution, Williams said.

Not only did that employee earn six figures — he earned, ahem, “performance rewards.” Via the WFB:

Rep. John Mica (R., Fla) questioned Allan Williams, the deputy assistant inspector general for investigations at the House Oversight Committee over the employees’ “work activities.”

“So this guy is making $120,000, spending two to six hours a day looking at porno. Then this information I have is he received performance awards during the time period?” Mica asked Williams.

Williams responded, “Uh, he possibly did. Yes, sir.”

In an entirely separate instance, another manager allowed an employee to collect full pay and benefits without reporting to work. It reportedly started out as a work-from-home accommodation for a medical condition, except that the employee wasn’t actually doing any work either — and yet managed to collect a casual $500,000 or so over several years, as well as cash bonuses based on excellent performance appraisals. Astounding.

As Chairman Issa put it in the hearing this morning, the EPA is “running an organization from which no one can get fired.” Who wants to make bets about this kind of waste, fraud, incompetence, negligence, and lack of oversight being unique to the 16,000 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency?

Tags: big government, bureaucracy, Environmental Protection Agency, fraud, House Oversight Committee, investigation, waste

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Inspectorsgeneral:TheEPAisbeingactivelyuncooperative

Inspectors general: The EPA is being actively uncooperative with and dismissive of our investigations

posted at 6:31 pm on May 6, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

Remember the bizarre case of John C. Beale? Last year, it was finally revealed that the former high-level Environmental Protection Agency employee managed to defraud the federal government of almost a million dollars over the course of twelve years while doing almost no work, and then excusing his many absences by claiming that he was jetting off on secret climate-change-related business in conjunction with the CIA, followed by a fake retirement party. Much to the EPA’s chagrin, federal watchdogs were not filled with confidence in either our sprawling bureaucracy generally or the EPA’s power-grabbing/obfuscating tendencies specifically, and began an investigation into the lack of internal controls that allowed the guy to fly under the radar for so long; then in February, the EPA inspector general wrote a letter to Sen. David Vitter informing him that several EPA employees were actively getting in the way of the IG’s investigations thereof. This afternoon, the Associated Press just dropped another bomb on those inauspicious EPA activities:

A unit run by President Barack Obama’s political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general for years, a top investigator says.

The assistant EPA inspector general for investigations, Patrick Sullivan, was expected to testify Wednesday before a House oversight committee about the activities of the EPA’s little-known Office of Homeland Security. The office is overseen by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s chief of staff, and the inspector general’s office is accusing it of impeding independent investigations into employee misconduct, computer security and external threats, including compelling employees involved in cases to sign non-disclosure agreements.

“Under the heavy cloak of `national security,’ the Office of Homeland Security has repeatedly rebuffed and refused to cooperate with the OIG’s ongoing requests for information or cooperation,” Sullivan wrote in prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press. “This block unquestionably has hamstrung the Office of Inspector General’s ability to carry out its statutory mandate to investigate wrongdoing of EPA employees.” …

EPA’s Office of Homeland Security was set up in 2003 by an administrative order, and has no statutory authority to conduct investigations or enforce the law. But since July 2012, in an agreement with the FBI, it has been the primary contact on all investigations with a connection to national security.

Hmm — this EPA office secretively operates by using the heavy cloak of “national security” as its justification? Is that kind of like how John C. Beale used the cloak of national security as a justification, do you suppose? They already have the oh-so-convenient justifications of the “public health” and “environmental protection” to excuse their every whim; how many more can they possibly need if, as they claim, they really aren’t up to anything untoward?

Funny how the self-proclaimed Most Transparent Administration, Evah seems so averse to scrutiny — particularly the zealously environmentalist agency currently marshaling as much authority to itself as it can muster for the sake of almost singlehandedly executing President Obama’s costly and ideological climate change agenda via top-down regulations executive orders.

Tags: Associated Press, bureaucracy, Environmental Protection Agency, federal government, investigation, Obama administration, regulations, transparancy

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IRSchiefsettoredraftproposedrulefor

IRS chief set to redraft proposed rule for tax-exempt groups after backlash

posted at 10:01 pm on April 14, 2014 by Mary Katharine Ham

First, an entirely and uncharacteristically reasonable reaction from the IRS on its proposed new rules governing 501(c)s, a classification of tax exempt groups that was the area of improper targeting of Tea Party activists. When Democrats realized the best way to deal with personnel abusing tax law was to create more tax law for them to abuse, the IRS went to work on more specific ways to crack down on social welfare groups. Their proposed rule caused backlash from both conservatives and liberal activists:

The Internal Revenue Service is prepared to rewrite a proposed rule regulating the political activities of non-profit groups to address complaints from the right and left that it goes too far, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Monday.

“In all likelihood we will re-propose a redefined rule and ask for more public comment,” Koskinen told USA TODAY’s Capital Download. It’s a process he predicts will take “until the end of the year and beyond” to complete. The proposed regulation of groups known as 501(c)(4)s drew a record 150,000 comments before the deadline in late February.

He said the new rule would take into account backlash from conservative Tea Party groups as well as some liberal advocacy organizations that the agency’s proposal – intended to address concerns that the tax-exempt groups were engaged in partisan warfare – would bar, even voter education and registration programs.

Can it be? An IRS display of good sense? http://t.co/k5cMvoPCNV

— Brit Hume (@brithume) April 14, 2014

Indeed, Brit. Lest we speak too soon, however, let’s read the rest of this interview, in which Koskinen whines about funding of the IRS. Really:

He says his current job is more difficult because the IRS has been unable to get adequate funding, even though money spent on enforcement generates revenue.

“If you gave us the $500 million of our sequester funds (slashed under automatic spending cuts) we would have given you back $2 to $3 billion more, and people shrug and move on,” he said. The agency now employs 10,000 fewer people and receives $900 million less in federal funds than it did four years ago…

“We’re sort of in the middle a political bulls-eye,” he said. “Together with the Affordable Care Act, the issues surrounding the qualifications of 501(c)(4) social-welfare organizations has been a battle in public media for the past year. The combination of the two has made getting more funding difficult.”

As it should since there’s plenty of evidence one of the government’s most powerful agencies abused its power to curtail the political speech of one side. Yes, perhaps the abused taxpayer should be a little wary about giving you more money with which to abuse him:

He warns the IRS could be headed toward disaster when new responsibilities, including the Obamacare mandates, kick in a year from now. “If we keep going at this level, with the increased responsibilities, at some point we risk crippling the agency,” he cautioned, “and that won’t be good for the government and it won’t be good for taxpayers.”

Get ready to weep:

One consequence already is a reduced chance of being audited. “They’re lower than they have been,” he said, then added: “I wouldn’t encourage anybody to depend upon us not auditing them. As I’ve told people, the roulette wheel is spinning.”

At least there’s something to be thankful for this April 15th.

Tags: funding, investigation, IRS, Lois Lerner, tax-exempt groups, Tea Party

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Krauthammer: Let’s face it — politically, the clock has run out on Benghazi

Krauthammer:Let’sfaceit—politically,theclock

Inspectorgeneral:EPAofficialsactivelyobstructedthatcrazy

Inspector general: EPA officials actively obstructed that crazy fraud investigation

posted at 4:41 pm on February 26, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

What’s worse than a high-ranking Environmental Protection Agency official defrauding the agency over the course of twelve years by taking lengthy unexplained absences, doing very little actual work, stealing nearly one million dollars in the form of pay, bonuses, and airfare he didn’t deserve, and getting away with it all by cultivating an enigmatic reputation and telling his superiors (including now-EPA chief Gina McCarthy) that he was performing joint government work for the CIA vaguely related to climate change?

Other EPA officials actively obstructing the investigation into the whole mess, that’s what. The WFB reports on a letter from the EPA inspector general to Sen. David Vitter released on Wednesday, wherein the IG describes how several agency employees tried to get in the way of getting to the bottom of the ordeal:

EPA employees threatened Inspector General investigators, refused to cooperate, and handed out non-disclosure agreements to other employees to keep them from being interviewed, EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. wrote in response to a request for information by Vitter on the case.

“Over the past 12 months, there have been several EPA officials who have taken action to prevent [the Office of Investigations] OI from conducting investigations or have attempted to obstruct investigations through intimidation,” Elkins wrote. …

After closing its criminal investigation, the Inspector General began an audit of the lack of internal controls that allowed Beale to defraud the agency. That audit has implicated a growing number of EPA officials. …

“During the course of an OI administrative investigation, Mr. [Steve Williams in the EPA's Office of Homeland Security] approached an OI special agent in a threatening manner, preventing the special agent from conducting her official duties in an ongoing investigation involving Mr. Williams and other members of OHS,” Elkins wrote. “Additionally, Mr. Williams issued non-disclosure agreements to EPA employees that prevented these employees from cooperating with [the Office of the Inspector General] OIG investigations.”

Gee, whiz. I’m sure these EPA employees were eager to limit the scope of the investigations in order to A) thwart any further personal implications on the part of other EPA employees’ mistakes and oversights in allowing Beale’s charade to go on as long as it did, and B) to prevent any political fallout from the agency’s collective incompetence and bureaucratic lassitude those investigations might reveal — because it’s not like the EPA was at the Supreme Court, oh, yesterday fighting charges of a yet another unprecedented regulatory power grab, or anything. Most Transparent Administration, Evah.

Tags: Environmental Protection Agency, epa, fraud, investigation, Obama administration

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Nobig:HealthCare.Gov’spricetagupby$47million

No big: HealthCare.Gov’s pricetag up by $47 million and counting

posted at 5:11 pm on December 11, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

In rolling out their crowning legislative achievement, the Obama administration’s dazzling showcase of the depths to which big-government ineptitude can sink has had not merely practical implications for ObamaCare’s brave new world, but financial implications for the program’s intended budget — at least 47 million of them to date, actually. CNN reports that the “increase in the total amount obligated” for IT costs has gone up by $47 million since the last Congressional check-in:

An official with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees the site, could not immediately explain the reason for the additional cost. But the official confirmed the amount of money “obligated” by the Obama administration for IT costs has increased in the past month.

Here’s the math:

In October, CMS Spokeswoman Julie Bataille said the total obligated for IT costs associated with the federal marketplace was “in the neighborhood of about $630 million.” Speaking on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the number is now $677 million. …

A CMS official told CNN the cost increase was due to more recent numbers, rather than a drastic increase in IT spending.

…Perhaps, but one might reasonably wonder whether those numbers will be in for future “updates” as we continue to just roll merrily right along through this indefinite episode of incompetence and obfuscation.

President Barack Obama’s health agency said it has spent $319 million building an online health-insurance marketplace through October.

More than three years after the passage of Obama’s signature health-care law in 2010, it’s almost impossible to verify and track that spending through public records.

What the estimates don’t include is the around-the-clock effort to repair the website, which hundreds of thousands of Americans found unusable after its Oct. 1 debut. The race to fix it brought in computer engineers from companies such as Google Inc., Red Hat Inc. and Oracle Corp. and is ongoing today.

But never fear, ya’ll. Because Sebelius believes so very strongly in “accountability, and in the importance of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” she recommended what I’m sure are three highly serious, committed steps to getting to the bottom of why the “launch of HealthCare.gov was flawed and simply unacceptable” in a blog post published by HHS before her Congressional hearing this morning, including a self-policing investigation and creating yet another position for crisis management:

First, I have asked our Inspector General, Dan Levinson, toreview the development of HealthCare.gov. We need a thorough review of the contractor performance and program management structure that resulted in the flawed launch of the website.  I am asking the Inspector General to review the acquisition process, overall program management, and contractor performance and payment issues related to the development and management of the HealthCare.gov website.

We will take action to address the Inspector General’s findings.

Second, I have asked CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to create a new position and appoint a CMS Chief Risk Officer, who will focus on mitigating risk across CMS’s programs.  This will be a full time, permanent position.  The Chief Risk Officer will work across CMS to asses risk management practices associated with major agency initiatives.  This individual will lead efforts to prepare mitigation strategies to minimize those risks, and will develop metrics to measure the effectiveness of those strategies.

The Chief Risk Officer’s first assignment will be to review risk management practices when it comes to IT acquisition and contracting, starting with identifying the risk factors that impeded the successful launch of the HealthCare.gov website.  I will ask this individual to report back to me in 60 days with recommendations for strategies to mitigate risks in future large-scale, CMS contracting and IT acquisition projects.

Third, we will update and expand CMS employee training on best practices for contractor and procurement management, rules and procedures.  We will expand the scope and content of employee training to ensure that all CMS employees are getting the most extensive and up to date guidance — on a regular basis — for managing projects undertaken through contractors, including best practices for internal communications and processes.

We anticipate that successful risk prevention and mitigation strategies, as well as training updates, will be shared across all HHS agencies.

Well, that should certainly do it — the same bureaucracy that couldn’t competently roll out its most important website, is going to investigate why it couldn’t competently roll out its most important website. Perfect.

Tags: Barack Obama, costs, healthcare.gov, investigation, Kathleen Sebelius, ObamaCare

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