Lois Lerner, the IRS Director of Exempt Organizations, signed letters that were sent to targeted groups asking them to turn over an extensive amount of information to the IRS.  Earlier this week Lerner refused to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but not before proclaiming that she had "done nothing wrong" or "broken any laws."

Lerner has been placed on adminstrative leave, reportedly after she refused to resign from the agency.

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There's no way to review this movie without spoiling it, so in short: it's got a few laughs and a couple of good action scenes, but it's a warp-speed train wreck of bad writing, vastly inferior to its goofy but fun 2009 predecessor.  Fans waited a long time for this movie, and deserved better.  Benedict Cumberbatch needs to have a long talk with his agent.

Spoilers will soon follow, so if you want to avoid them, click away now.

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Former adviser to the President Austan Goolsbee was accused of looking into private tax records of White House critics. An IG investigation of the matter was completed two years ago but has never been released. Ten days ago, on Twitter, Goolsbee announced it was all a big mistake.

Austan Goolsbee is an economist who served on President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. He became involved in a potential scandal when his comments on a conference call appeared to demonstrate some inside knowledge of Koch industries tax structure. The Weekly Standard, which broke the story, quotes Goolsbee as saying "in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multibillion dollar businesses..." Portions of the same comments were also reported in a Wall Street Journal story (pdf).

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In response to Why School Bullying Must Be Stopped Immediately:

It's not the answer for every child and certainly not for every situation, but I believe the glaring omission in the ongoing national anti-bullying campaign is self-defense.

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Greta Van Susteren had Karl Rove on her show, Thursday night, to discuss the Holder/AP/Fox News scandal following the revelation that Eric Holder personally approved the search warrant for James Rosen’s private emails under the pretext that he was a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act. 

“First of all you’ve got a long way to go to try to prosecute the press for publication of material. This has not fared well in American history… In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material.This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.“

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In response to Hollywood's Favorite Villain: The Businessman:

I'm having a hard time thinking of a recent big movie that didn't feature an evil businessman as the villain.  Now that Hollywood's other acceptable farm team of evil, the neo-Nazi, is looking a bit long in the tooth, it's pretty much all they've got left.

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Texts and photos from Trayvon Martin's cell phone were released Thursday by defense attorneys for George Zimmerman. Some of the photos appear to have been released online previously while others, including photos of a Smith & Wesson handgun, appear to be new.

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Have you read the horrific story about Gabrielle Molina, the twelve-year-old Queens girl who committed suicide after being consistently bullied by classmates?

The New York Post reports:

The tiny Queens girl who hanged herself Wednesday had been mercilessly taunted by classmates who called her names and mocked her appearance, friends and family said yesterday.

Gabrielle Molina’s body was discovered by her sister Georgia, 15, in their shared bedroom at their Queens Village house at 2:30 p.m.

The 12-year-old girl — who barely stood 5 feet tall — left an anguished suicide note that referenced her tormentors.

“She was bullied,” said IS 109 classmate Samantha Martin, 12. “She said that she wanted to move schools because she felt uncomfortable. People wanted to jump her.”

Gabrielle’s sobbing father, George Molina, said his daughter had been slowly wearing down from abuse that had continued online after the dismissal bell.

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Whether it's Mortimer and Randolph or Gordon Gekko, Hollywood loves to make businessmen villains.  From the Free Enterprise blog:

Hollywood script writers must be going through an unimaginative streak. As The Wall Street Journal reports, this summer will see the release of movies in which the antagonists are…surprise - corrupt, evil, and greedy business executives scarier than Darth Vader, the Joker, or Hannibal Lecter.

Doesn't Hollywood feel some shame for continuing to perpetuate trite mischaracterizations? Apparently not:

Hollywood's latest wave of business bashing is far from over, says Mr. Batmanglij. "A lot of people think 'Oh, making the corporations bad is cliché, we've seen it before,' " he says. "That holds as much water as saying that shooting a scary scene in the dark has been done before. It's scary for a reason."

The East, due out May 31, is about an underground activist collective whose creative attacks allow corporate bosses to “experience the terror of their crimes.” The group creates an oil spill inside the home of an oil-company CEO and makes drug-company executives taste the ruinous side effects of their own medicine. The bad business barometer reaches so high in this film that the "good guys" are people who intentionally inflict harm on others.

I'm waiting for the movie about the oil company executives whose investments in energy technology are responsible for turning small, depressed towns into bustling centers of commerce and new, high-paying jobs due to the miracle of shale oil and gas recovery. Considering that oil and natural gas have created 1 million jobs since 2002, script writers could visit any number of towns across America for inspiration. I'm also waiting for the movie about the pharmaceutical executives who take financial risks in investing millions of dollars to develop antretroiviral blockbuster drugs responsible for saving and improving the lives of millions of HIV-positive Africans. But I'm not holding my breath. The scripts of those movies, if they've ever been written, are at the bottom of a trash can in some movie executive's office.

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