Saturday, May 18, 2013
What I Knew And When I Knew It
There must be a word or phrase or some acronym for the types of email I receive. I get these emails mostly of a political nature that are nothing but a series of links to web sites. Examples of these would be Liberty Crier, Conservative Bytes, Clashdaily, Godfather Politics and Big Health Report.
I should probably note that I don't remember ever subscribing to any of these. But I am the kind of guy who pays for a land line in hopes that telemarketers might call. There is no such thing as spam. It's all good. I rarely unsubscribe to anything. It makes me feel like a big shot to have hundreds of unread emails.
But given the volume of email I receive, it does make it difficult to produce a timeline. Was it 2010 or 2011 or 2012 when I first received links that claimed IRS harassment? Without searching my old email, I cannot give an accurate response.
What I can tell you is that I did click on some of the links and I read credible accounts of IRS harassment that seemed to be politically motivated. For every article I read, at least a half dozen were ignored. Over time, a pattern emerged that would only be acknowledged recently by the respectable media (long after the 2012 elections had been settled.) The IRS, as well as other bureaucracies, was being used to stifle political dissent.
So I have to ask the reader a question. If a reclusive loser who cannot get harassed by Jehovah's Witnesses and who can go for months without receiving one telemarketing call knew of the ongoing harassment of nascent Tea Party organizations, do you think the President of the United States knew? That is a damn good question if I do say so myself.
I should probably note that I don't remember ever subscribing to any of these. But I am the kind of guy who pays for a land line in hopes that telemarketers might call. There is no such thing as spam. It's all good. I rarely unsubscribe to anything. It makes me feel like a big shot to have hundreds of unread emails.
But given the volume of email I receive, it does make it difficult to produce a timeline. Was it 2010 or 2011 or 2012 when I first received links that claimed IRS harassment? Without searching my old email, I cannot give an accurate response.
What I can tell you is that I did click on some of the links and I read credible accounts of IRS harassment that seemed to be politically motivated. For every article I read, at least a half dozen were ignored. Over time, a pattern emerged that would only be acknowledged recently by the respectable media (long after the 2012 elections had been settled.) The IRS, as well as other bureaucracies, was being used to stifle political dissent.
So I have to ask the reader a question. If a reclusive loser who cannot get harassed by Jehovah's Witnesses and who can go for months without receiving one telemarketing call knew of the ongoing harassment of nascent Tea Party organizations, do you think the President of the United States knew? That is a damn good question if I do say so myself.
Lisa Myers: "We have to worry about the culture and the integrity of the IRS"
Lisa Myers of NBC
reports that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election. This implies that the IRS was picking sides in a presidential election which is a scary proposition considering the power it wields over the lives of average Americans. The New York Times reports that Treasury was aware of IRS targeting of the Tea Party in June of 2012.
The IRS commissioner "has known for at least a year that this was going on," said Myers, "and that this had happened. And did he share any of that information with the White House? But even more importantly, Congress is going to ask him, why did you mislead us for an entire year? Members of Congress were saying conservatives are being targeted. What's going on here? The IRS denied it. Then when -- after these officials are briefed by the IG that this is going on, they don't disclose it. In fact, the commissioner sent a letter to Congress in September on this subject and did not reveal this. Imagine if we -- if you can -- what would have happened if this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different."
The IRS commissioner "has known for at least a year that this was going on," said Myers, "and that this had happened. And did he share any of that information with the White House? But even more importantly, Congress is going to ask him, why did you mislead us for an entire year? Members of Congress were saying conservatives are being targeted. What's going on here? The IRS denied it. Then when -- after these officials are briefed by the IG that this is going on, they don't disclose it. In fact, the commissioner sent a letter to Congress in September on this subject and did not reveal this. Imagine if we -- if you can -- what would have happened if this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different."
We're Only Idiots
I don't recall hearing a member of George Bush's administration or any other administration for that matter speaking on background use the "you can't fix stupid" defense but here it is from an unnamed Obama insider via CBS.
Once we get beyond dereliction of duty charge I guess we may have to concede that Obama is merely an idiot.
"We're portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots," said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. "It's actually closer to us being idiots."The not guilty by reason of willful ignorance defense has gained considerable currency in this administration whether it be Eric Holder who doesn't know anything about the AP phone scandal because he recused himself so he wouldn't have to comment or Obama's assertion that he only found out about the IRS scandal on the evening news. Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, acting commissioner Steven Miller sought refuge in incompetence but as Senator Lindsey Graham speaking on Benghazi points out; "Incompetence and malice are not mutually exclusive."
The Foreign Emergency Support Team known as "FEST" is described as "the US Government's only interagency, on-call, short-notice team poised to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide." It even boasts hostage-negotiating expertise. With U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens reported missing shortly after the Benghazi attacks began, Washington officials were operating under a possible hostage scenario at the outset. Yet deployment of the counterterrorism experts on the FEST was ruled out from the start. That decision became a source of great internal dissent and the cause of puzzlement to some outsiders.The decision not to deploy FEST was made by Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy but the team is directed by the White House National Security Council which certainly invites the question, where was Obama? The President was aware that his consulate was under attack yet an undersecretary in the State Department is the man making command decisions?
Once we get beyond dereliction of duty charge I guess we may have to concede that Obama is merely an idiot.
Is This Still The Land Of The Free?
I guess shame isn't what it used to be. Watching the Ways and Means Committee hearings was a bit like hearing too many details of the Kermit Gosnell trial. It saddens, sickens, and offends decent people because the victims are decent people. Decent people who asked no more than to be allowed to voice their opinion on how their government is run are set upon not only by the IRS but an interagency gang of hooligans from the Dept of Labor, from the FBI, the ATF, and the EPA. The only consolation one can draw from this is there will be some great video fodder for campaign ads in the next election. Congressman Kevin Brady details the abuse inflicted upon one of his constituents.
Congressman Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania couldn't understand how two low level employees from Cincinnati could coordinate an agency wide reign of terror. His skepticism earned him applause from the spectators.
And since when is the content of one's prayer the business of the IRS? Is there anything that is not the business of Obama's police state praetorians?
From the other side of the aisle, the affable albeit corrupt Congressman Charlie Rangel calls it abuse.
All this is dismissed by Miller as "horrible customer service".
Congressman Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania couldn't understand how two low level employees from Cincinnati could coordinate an agency wide reign of terror. His skepticism earned him applause from the spectators.
And since when is the content of one's prayer the business of the IRS? Is there anything that is not the business of Obama's police state praetorians?
From the other side of the aisle, the affable albeit corrupt Congressman Charlie Rangel calls it abuse.
All this is dismissed by Miller as "horrible customer service".
Friday, May 17, 2013
Miller, Lerner, & Others Planted The Question Regarding IRS Targeting
Can we say conspiracy? Steve Miller, Lois Lerner and others planted the question that Lerner answered at the American Bar Association tax seminar. No, that doesn't prove a conspiracy in the legal sense of the word. For the present we can as use the term scheme as Congressman Pete Roskam does. This sort of duplicity, if it persists, will eventually drive any defenders the IRS may have into complete silence. This is the way the IRS does business? This is what the public expects from its government ? A dog and pony show where bureaucrats making 6 figure salaries play games on the public's dime? Just because Obama gets away with it does not mean everyone can do it.
Reviewing The Worship of Barack Hussein Obama. Part VII
Doesn't the curtain lowering on "Hope" disprove your point that the cult of Obama is a genuine religion?
No. It probably means that "Hope" was an unbearable performance. Even Obots have taste.
The story of Barack Hussein Obama is part Orwell, part "Twilight Zone," part Jonestown and part "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Obama has made rational appeals to certain special interest groups (the legal profession, unions, teachers, illegal immigrants to name a few) but Obama voters are largely irrational. That is not a patronizing assessment nor is it a snide commentary about people who do not share my political views. It is simply reaffirming the obvious: Barack Obama's ongoing political campaign rarely, if ever, appeals to the voter's rational faculties. For non-members of special interest groups, supporting Barack Obama is a non-rational undertaking.
Obama followers cannot articulate their love anymore than a teenager can explain her first crush. It is visceral, not analytical. It is based not on reason, but sentiment. For many, the ardor blossomed into full blown religious expression. Fools like me underestimated the breadth and depth of Obama worship. It is real. It is too real.
This blog started out chronicling displays of Obama worship. We joked about Obama worship but we didn't literally mean it. Those idiots in 2008, they were just caught up in the moment, right? Wrong! The worship was and is literal. As genuine as Jonestown.
I wrongly thought I could change people's minds by showcasing folly in the extreme. I posted dozens of disturbing videos of silly Obama supporters. Sadly, I barely scratched the surface. There are hundreds of Youtube videos of fools bowing down to a hollow man they do not know and don't care to know. Who needs facts when one is showered with a bounty of such splendid iconography?
Somewhere along the way this blogger felt that he had made his point. Yes, the cult of Obama was as creepy as it gets. The fundamentalists would still bow down to their messiah. Can't save the mindless, no. But most Obama voters would distance themselves from the Kool-Aid cult if only to retain a measure of self-respect. Wrong! 2012.
An aside. The 2008 election made me rethink the merits of organized religion. We are a religious species. If we don't find a sane outlet for our religiosity, we might end up following a sleazy-cheesy community organizer whose real intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Religion by its very nature requires the participant to think in a pararational manner. Fully engage one's knowledge to its limits and then defer to faith. There were guard rails in place. Idolatry was strictly prohibited. The exercise of religion did not license one to practice self-delusion as a preferred lifestyle.
It is imperative that opponents of Barack Obama come to grips with reality. It is time we face the ugly truth. Let us acknowledge the obvious:
1. The worship of Barack Obama is literal.
2. The cult of Barack Obama is colossal. Humanity has never before witnessed a religious cult that has snared so many, so fast. The ramifications have largely been ignored.
3. The worship of Barack Obama is by no means spontaneous. From fainting women to the Obama Halo, from the rewritten spirituals that praise the new messiah to the hypnotic speeches void of content, the deification of Barack Obama is deliberate and it is contrived. Look closely and you will see the marionette's strings and the steely determination written on the faces of skillful puppet masters.
4. Obama fundamentalists, as with other fundamentalists, cannot be swayed with logic. They will not and cannot "come to their senses."
5. Obama worshipers are dangerous people.
6. A personality that embraces his own deification is a dangerous human being! This can never be under emphasized.
Originally embedded September 6, 2009.
THE SCALPERS CAN RETIRE TO ARUBA AFTER THIS SHOW COMES TO TOWN
Originally embedded September 20, 2009.
OBAMATOPIA IS EVEN BETTER THAN WE HAD IMAGINED
http://76a912ngrl7kqwa3ysph6lfzd4.hop.clickbank.net/
http://9cda4dihlh4pxs9ny5qcudzi-u.hop.clickbank.net/
http://76a912ngrl7kqwa3ysph6lfzd4.hop.clickbank.net/
http://9cda4dihlh4pxs9ny5qcudzi-u.hop.clickbank.net/
Originally embedded November 7, 2009.
MORE BRAINWASHED KIDS
A Sign of Hope
"Hope" the German-based musical about, who else, Barack Hussein Obama, lowered its curtain and called it quits after a short run in Frankfurt in 2010. It seems that even the Germans have limits to hero worship. Thankfully, the production did not spread to London and New York and Paris. It died where it was born in a land of smart people vulnerable to political gimmickry.
Maybe, just maybe, the demise of "Hope" portended the beginning of the end of the world's largest cult of personality. Nope! Not yet. 2012. The Kool-Aid still flows. Who needs a crappy musical when you have the IRS in your pocket?
Still, "Hope" will be retained forever in the cannon of the new religion. http://hope-musical.com/english/index_en.htm Maybe, just maybe, a sequel featuring Eric Holder and his henchmen will blossom. Maybe Frankfurt will host the blockbuster, "Yes We Can"
Thursday, May 16, 2013
News Item: 7 People Held on Trespassing Charges At Reservoir That Supplies Greater Boston
This might be a non-event but "State police alerted the Springfield office of the FBI, which is investigating the five men and two women, who are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore."
For whatever reason the names of the accused have not been released.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/05/authorities_quabbin_reservoir_tests_normal_after_trespassing
For whatever reason the names of the accused have not been released.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/05/authorities_quabbin_reservoir_tests_normal_after_trespassing
Fired IRS Employee Only Held Title for Two Weeks
When the IRS scandal first broke I went to the IRS web site to find out the name of the person who oversaw the tax exempt division. I was surprised to see that the position had been filled on May 8 by Joseph H. Grant. Today Mr. Grant has been fired after 8 days on the job. Pardon me if I seem a bit cynical but maybe this poor bastard was set up but on second thought his pension will reflect that promotion. The short time line is; Grant is promoted on May 8, Lois Lerner confesses on May 10 and on May 16 Grant is cut loose.
Mr. Grant's predecessor was Sarah Hall Ingram who late today was named to head the section of the IRS that will oversee the enforcement of Obamacare. Ms. Ingram oversaw the TE/GE from 2009 until 2012 and her work must have been stellar. Ingram received a $7,000 bonus in 2009, then a $34,440 bonus in 2010, $35,400 in 2011 and $26,550 last year, for a total of $103,390. Her annual salary went from $172,500 to $177,000 during the same period.
Yesterday Obama fired Steven Miller whose interim term will be up in a few weeks, but who won't be leaving right away, and who will retire in August. Today Obama fired Grant, who will retire June 3 with his pension secured, who had only held the job for 2 weeks while the person most responsible gets a promotion. If you're keeping score that's 2 artificial scapegoats and in Ingram's case, possibly the biggest PR gaff since "you didn't build that".
Mr. Grant's predecessor was Sarah Hall Ingram who late today was named to head the section of the IRS that will oversee the enforcement of Obamacare. Ms. Ingram oversaw the TE/GE from 2009 until 2012 and her work must have been stellar. Ingram received a $7,000 bonus in 2009, then a $34,440 bonus in 2010, $35,400 in 2011 and $26,550 last year, for a total of $103,390. Her annual salary went from $172,500 to $177,000 during the same period.
Yesterday Obama fired Steven Miller whose interim term will be up in a few weeks, but who won't be leaving right away, and who will retire in August. Today Obama fired Grant, who will retire June 3 with his pension secured, who had only held the job for 2 weeks while the person most responsible gets a promotion. If you're keeping score that's 2 artificial scapegoats and in Ingram's case, possibly the biggest PR gaff since "you didn't build that".
Reviewing The Worship of Barack Hussein Obama. Part VI
The story of Barack Hussein Obama is part Orwell, part "Twilight Zone," part Jonestown and part "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Obama has made rational appeals to certain special interest groups (the legal profession, unions, teachers, illegal immigrants to name a few) but Obama voters are largely irrational. That is not a patronizing assessment nor is it a snide commentary about people who do not share my political views. It is simply reaffirming the obvious: Barack Obama's ongoing political campaign rarely, if ever, appeals to the voter's rational faculties. For non-members of special interest groups, supporting Barack Obama is a non-rational undertaking.
Obama followers cannot articulate their love anymore than a teenager can explain her first crush. It is visceral, not analytical. It is based not on reason, but sentiment. For many, the ardor blossomed into full blown religious expression. Fools like me underestimated the breadth and depth of Obama worship. It is real. It is too real.
This blog started out chronicling displays of Obama worship. We joked about Obama worship but we didn't literally mean it. Those idiots in 2008, they were just caught up in the moment, right? Wrong! The worship was and is literal. As genuine as Jonestown.
I wrongly thought I could change people's minds by showcasing folly in the extreme. I posted dozens of disturbing videos of silly Obama supporters. Sadly, I barely scratched the surface. There are hundreds of Youtube videos of fools bowing down to a hollow man they do not know and don't care to know. Who needs facts when one is showered with a bounty of such splendid iconography?
Somewhere along the way this blogger felt that he had made his point. Yes, the cult of Obama was as creepy as it gets. The fundamentalists would still bow down to their messiah. Can't save the mindless, no. But most Obama voters would distance themselves from the Kool-Aid cult if only to retain a measure of self-respect. Wrong! 2012.
An aside. The 2008 election made me rethink the merits of organized religion. We are a religious species. If we don't find a sane outlet for our religiosity, we might end up following a sleazy-cheesy community organizer whose real intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Religion by its very nature requires the participant to think in a pararational manner. Fully engage one's knowledge to its limits and then defer to faith. There were guard rails in place. Idolatry was strictly prohibited. The exercise of religion did not license one to practice self-delusion as a preferred lifestyle.
It is imperative that opponents of Barack Obama come to grips with reality. It is time we face the ugly truth. Let us acknowledge the obvious:
1. The worship of Barack Obama is literal.
2. The cult of Barack Obama is colossal. Humanity has never before witnessed a religious cult that has snared so many, so fast. The ramifications have largely been ignored.
3. The worship of Barack Obama is by no means spontaneous. From fainting women to the Obama Halo, from the rewritten spirituals that praise the new messiah to the hypnotic speeches void of content, the deification of Barack Obama is deliberate and it is contrived. Look closely and you will see the marionette's strings and the steely determination written on the faces of skillful puppet masters.
4. Obama fundamentalists, as with other fundamentalists, cannot be swayed with logic. They will not and cannot "come to their senses."
5. Obama worshipers are dangerous people.
6. A personality that embraces his own deification is a dangerous human being! This can never be under emphasized.
Originally embedded August 23, 2009
Zogby established beyond all doubt that Obama got elected by harnessing the dimwit vote. Not all Obama supporters are stupid but most stupid people are Obama supporters. But Julio here is so rapturously stupid one has to wonder if he is on the level. Can Obama supporters really be this ridiculous?
Then again, we don't know how we will act when we meet our personal savior.
"OH GRACIOUS GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH"
Originally embedded August 24, 2009
One of the biggest challenges of editing this website is deciding whether to place items in the "Sunday Worship" file or the "Media Monday" file. They don't make it easy on me.
OBAMA THE TRANSCENDENTAL
Originally embedded August 30, 2009
DIG THOSE PLAYTEX GLOVES
IRS Supervisor Who Presided Over Tea Party Suppression Now In Charge Obamacare
I guess this is calculated to increase trust in Obamacare. From ABC News.
The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
Harassing Letters to Tea Party Groups Came From Washington DC-Not Cincinnati
It's funny how those two "rogue" IRS employees in
Cincinnati where able to put Washington DC letterheads on their correspondence. From the Daily Mail:
The American Center for Law and Justice furnished this letter originating in Washington, DC. Is the author of this letter ( Hilary Goehausen ) a rogue?
Letters from the IRS to tea party-related organizations in Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, New Mexico show that IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C., and two satellite offices in California, were directly involved with sending harassing letters to conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status.
The IRS has acknowledged only the involvement of its Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati, Ohio, which typically makes most decisions about granting or denying tax-exempt status to non-profit organizations.
And Wednesday afternoon, CNN cited a congressional source in reporting that the acting IRS Commissioner – whom President Obama fired later in the day – had identified two 'rogue' employees, both in Cincinnati, whom he thought were responsible for targeting right-wing organizations with tactics that were not applied to left-wing or non-political groups
The American Center for Law and Justice furnished this letter originating in Washington, DC. Is the author of this letter ( Hilary Goehausen ) a rogue?
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Left Note in Boat
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has sealed his fate in his own hand writing. While hiding in the boat, thinking he would probably die,
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev began to write on the inside of the vote. Forget his Miranda rights. He essentially wrote a confession.
DOJ Lost 2 Terrorists In Its Witness Protection Program
It's probably nothing to worry about. I'm sure when Obama drops by the White House to pick up his mail and clean clothes before heading out to his next fund raiser someone will tell him that the US Marshal Service has lost 2 terrorist in its witness protection program. Not to worry, we think they have left the country. Make no mistake about it, they will be brought to justice as soon as Obama finds out about it. A DOJ inspector general's report is just out which you can read here.
Also the USMS changed the names of witnesses when they entered the program but didn't bother to tell DHS so the terrorist could board commercial airline as the new names did not appear on the no fly list.
Update: Jake Tapper at CNN adds to the story.
In July 2012, the USMS stated this it was unable to locate two former WITSEC participants identified as known or suspected terrorists, and that through its investigative efforts it has concluded that one individual was and the other individual was believed to be residing outside of the United States.I guess that means they escaped.
Also the USMS changed the names of witnesses when they entered the program but didn't bother to tell DHS so the terrorist could board commercial airline as the new names did not appear on the no fly list.
Update: Jake Tapper at CNN adds to the story.
Reviewing The Worship of Barack Hussein Obama. Part V
The story of Barack Hussein Obama is part Orwell, part "Twilight Zone," part Jonestown and part "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Obama has made rational appeals to certain special interest groups (the legal profession, unions, teachers, illegal immigrants to name a few) but Obama voters are largely irrational. That is not a patronizing assessment nor is it a snide commentary about people who do not share my political views. It is simply reaffirming the obvious: Barack Obama's ongoing political campaign rarely, if ever, appeals to the voter's rational faculties. For non-members of special interest groups, supporting Barack Obama is a non-rational undertaking.
Obama followers cannot articulate their love anymore than a teenager can explain her first crush. It is visceral, not analytical. It is based not on reason, but sentiment. For many, the ardor blossomed into full blown religious expression. Fools like me underestimated the breadth and depth of Obama worship. It is real. It is too real.
This blog started out chronicling displays of Obama worship. We joked about Obama worship but we didn't literally mean it. Those idiots in 2008, they were just caught up in the moment, right? Wrong! The worship was and is literal. As genuine as Jonestown.
I wrongly thought I could change people's minds by showcasing folly in the extreme. I posted dozens of disturbing videos of silly Obama supporters. Sadly, I barely scratched the surface. There are hundreds of Youtube videos of fools bowing down to a hollow man they do not know and don't care to know. Who needs facts when one is showered with a bounty of such splendid iconography?
Somewhere along the way this blogger felt that he had made his point. Yes, the cult of Obama was as creepy as it gets. The fundamentalists would still bow down to their messiah. Can't save the mindless, no. But most Obama voters would distance themselves from the Kool-Aid cult if only to retain a measure of self-respect. Wrong! 2012.
An aside. The 2008 election made me rethink the merits of organized religion. We are a religious species. If we don't find a sane outlet for our religiosity, we might end up following a sleazy-cheesy community organizer whose real intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Religion by its very nature requires the participant to think in a pararational manner. Fully engage one's knowledge to its limits and then defer to faith. There were guard rails in place. Idolatry was strictly prohibited. The exercise of religion did not license one to practice self-delusion as a preferred lifestyle.
It is imperative that opponents of Barack Obama come to grips with reality. It is time we face the ugly truth. Let us acknowledge the obvious:
1. The worship of Barack Obama is literal.
2. The cult of Barack Obama is colossal. Humanity has never before witnessed a religious cult that has snared so many, so fast. The ramifications have largely been ignored.
3. The worship of Barack Obama is by no means spontaneous. From fainting women to the Obama Halo, from the rewritten spirituals that praise the new messiah to the hypnotic speeches void of content, the deification of Barack Obama is deliberate and it is contrived. Look closely and you will see the marionette's strings and the steely determination written on the faces of skillful puppet masters.
4. Obama fundamentalists, as with other fundamentalists, cannot be swayed with logic. They will not and cannot "come to their senses."
5. Obama worshipers are dangerous people.
6. A personality that embraces his own deification is a dangerous human being! This can never be under emphasized.
Originally embedded August 2, 2009
Yes, it does sadden me that someone who is so musically gifted is also a pathetic, moronic, goose-stepping follower.
AND KOOL-AID RAINED DOWN FROM THE HEAVENS
Originally embedded August 9, 2009
Who is the mystery artist? Chris Matthews? Brian Williams? Joe Klein?
HIS WORDS ARE US AND WE ARE HIS WORDS
Drafted for posting in 2009, for whatever reason I did not embed this. A new release! Woo Hoo!
AMERICA MORPHS INTO JONESTOWN
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Did DOJ Wiretap Congress?
Congress is pretty persnickety about protecting its turf. A instance of a federal agent coming to Capitol Hill to arrest a Congressman would evoke bipartisan outrage as Congress takes the separation of powers doctrine very seriously when it applies to them. Imagine the outrage we'll soon hear when it learns that the DOJ has tapped a phone in the congressional cloakroom. Congressman Devin Nunes of California appeared as a guest on the Hugh Hewitt radio show and dropped this bomb. The Congressman refers to it as wiretapping. Even the AP offices did not have their phones tapped rather the FBI seized the phone records. Still not every Congressman is willing to let the DOJ know who he calls on the off chance he would use a public phone.
DN: No, I absolutely do not, especially after this wiretapping incident, essentially, of the House of Representative. I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.
HH: Wait a minute, this is news to me.
DN: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.
HH: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
DN: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…
HH: Wow.
DN: …members of Congress talk to the press all the time.
HH: I did not know that, and that is a stunner.
DN: Now that is a separation of powers issue here, Hugh.
HH: Sure.
DN: And it’s a freedom of press issue. And now you’ve got the IRS going after people. So these things are starting to cascade one upon the other, and you have the White House pretending like they’re in the clouds like it’s not their issue somehow.
DN: No, I absolutely do not, especially after this wiretapping incident, essentially, of the House of Representative. I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.
HH: Wait a minute, this is news to me.
DN: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.
HH: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
DN: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…
HH: Wow.
DN: …members of Congress talk to the press all the time.
HH: I did not know that, and that is a stunner.
DN: Now that is a separation of powers issue here, Hugh.
HH: Sure.
DN: And it’s a freedom of press issue. And now you’ve got the IRS going after people. So these things are starting to cascade one upon the other, and you have the White House pretending like they’re in the clouds like it’s not their issue somehow.
Four IRS Agents Say They Were Ordered To Harass Tea Party Groups
Evidently the blowback from the IRS scandal is so hot that the White House will employ any distraction to buy time. Prior to Obama's appearance on television to announce he had fired IRS acting commissioner Steve Miller whose interim term expires next month, the White House released about 100 emails relative to the Benghazi scandal. The emails pretty much certify that Jay Carney is a liar. Expect Carney to exit soon now that he has zero credibility with the White House corps. That should eat up another news cycle.
Fox 19 in Cincinnati reports that four agents at the Cincinnati IRS office admit harassing Tea Party groups but say rather than going rogue they were following orders.
Fox 19 in Cincinnati reports that four agents at the Cincinnati IRS office admit harassing Tea Party groups but say rather than going rogue they were following orders.
IRS Busted For Stealing 10,000,000 Medical Records
Maybe the IRS agent were just trying to get a jump on Obamacare when they seized the health records of 10,000,000 Californians including those of every state court judge. Worse yet they exhibited rude and arrogant behavior while carting off the confidential medical records without a warrant.
More.
To top it off, the IRS agents were rude, childish and arrogant, the complaint states:The agents were processing a seizure of documents of an employee of the unnamed plaintiff and had no authority to seize company property nor the personal records of the 10,000,000 third party victims.
"Adding insult to injury, after unlawfully seizing the records and searching their intimate parts, defendants decided to use John Doe Company's media system to watch basketball, ordering pizza and Coca-Cola, to take in part of the NCAA tournament, illustrating their complete disregard of the court's order and the Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights.
"Despite knowing that these medical records were not within the scope of the warrant, defendants threatened to 'rip' the servers containing the medical data out of the building if IT personnel would not voluntarily hand them over. Moreover, even though defendants knew that the records they were seizing were not included within the scope of the search warrant, the defendants nonetheless searched and seized the records without making any attempt to segregate the files from those that could possibly be related to the search warrant. In fact, no effort was made at all to even try maintaining the illusion of legitimacy and legality.And the records were very confidential.
"These medical records contained intimate and private information of more than 10,000,000 Americans, information that by its nature includes information about treatment for any kind of medical concern, including psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual or drug treatment, and a wide range of medical matters covering the most intimate and private of concerns," the complaint states.The class action seeks $25,000 in compensatory damages "per violation per individual" and punitive damages for constitutional violations which if we do the math means the IRS could be on the hook for $250 billion. Try to get that from Congress.
More.
Lois Lerner to be Honored for "Good Government Ethics"
In days past it was generally assumed that a "role model" was figure that parents encouraged their children to emulate. It frequently was a public figure of national repute, who at least publicly, displayed an excess of moral and civic virtue. Of course public virtue is a moving target and choosing a role model who could go the distance was trickier than handicapping Preakness entrants. Pity the parent who told his son "you should try to be more like Bruce Jenner".
One has to question why one would want to pick role models from the bottom of the heap.
Update: Lois Lerner cancels speech.“Ms. Lerner cited her wish to have the ceremony focus on a celebration of the achievements of the graduates,” wrote Barbara A. Moffat, vice president for public affairs at the university.
One has to question why one would want to pick role models from the bottom of the heap.
“It is also intended to bring to the students of the College successful role models in a variety of fields to hear firsthand their important lessons in leadership,” according to a university press release.The "it" refers to the Presidential Medallion which Lois Lerner will be receiving from Western New England University School of Law. She will also give the commencement address. In its announcement of Lerner’s award, the university praised her for enhancing transparency and promoting good government ethics at the IRS. Good government ethics! John Dean call your office. The enforcer of Senator Schumer's political vendetta against the Tea Party and practitioner of deliberate and malicious political suppression displayed "good government ethics". Thanks to people like Lerner government ethics has become an oxymoron. What is next? She'll win a Nobel for her math skills?
Update: Lois Lerner cancels speech.“Ms. Lerner cited her wish to have the ceremony focus on a celebration of the achievements of the graduates,” wrote Barbara A. Moffat, vice president for public affairs at the university.
Reviewing The Worship of Barack Hussein Obama. Part IV
Despite the theater of the absurd onslaught of scandal revelation, do not think that all or even most Obots will see the light about their exulted leader. I checked Rasmussen minutes ago and Obama's approval ratings are about where they have always been. Religious zealots are resistant to facts and the world wide cult of Obama is unlike anything the world has ever seen.
The story of Barack Hussein Obama is part Orwell, part "Twilight Zone," part Jonestown and part "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Obama has made rational appeals to certain special interest groups (the legal profession, unions, teachers, illegal immigrants to name a few) but Obama voters are largely irrational. That is not a patronizing assessment nor is it a snide commentary about people who do not share my political views. It is simply reaffirming the obvious: Barack Obama's ongoing political campaign rarely, if ever, appeals to the voter's rational faculties. For non-members of special interest groups, supporting Barack Obama is a non-rational undertaking.
Obama followers cannot articulate their love anymore than a teenager can explain her first crush. It is visceral, not analytical. It is based not on reason, but sentiment. For many, the ardor blossomed into full blown religious expression. Fools like me underestimated the breadth and depth of Obama worship. It is real. It is too real.
This blog started out chronicling displays of Obama worship. We joked about Obama worship but we didn't literally mean it. Those idiots in 2008, they were just caught up in the moment, right? Wrong! The worship was and is literal. As genuine as Jonestown.
I wrongly thought I could change people's minds by showcasing folly in the extreme. I posted dozens of disturbing videos of silly Obama supporters. Sadly, I barely scratched the surface. There are hundreds of Youtube videos of fools bowing down to a hollow man they do not know and don't care to know. Who needs facts when one is showered with a bounty of such splendid iconography?
Somewhere along the way this blogger felt that he had made his point. Yes, the cult of Obama was as creepy as it gets. The fundamentalists would still bow down to their messiah. Can't save the mindless, no. But most Obama voters would distance themselves from the Kool-Aid cult if only to retain a measure of self-respect. Wrong! 2012.
An aside. The 2008 election made me rethink the merits of organized religion. We are a religious species. If we don't find a sane outlet for our religiosity, we might end up following a sleazy-cheesy community organizer whose real intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Religion by its very nature requires the participant to think in a pararational manner. Fully engage one's knowledge to its limits and then defer to faith. There were guard rails in place. Idolatry was strictly prohibited. The exercise of religion did not license one to practice self-delusion as a preferred lifestyle.
It is imperative that opponents of Barack Obama come to grips with reality. It is time we face the ugly truth. Let us acknowledge the obvious:
1. The worship of Barack Obama is literal.
2. The cult of Barack Obama is colossal. Humanity has never before witnessed a religious cult that has snared so many, so fast. The ramifications have largely been ignored.
3. The worship of Barack Obama is by no means spontaneous. From fainting women to the Obama Halo, from the rewritten spirituals that praise the new messiah to the hypnotic speeches void of content, the deification of Barack Obama is deliberate and it is contrived. Look closely and you will see the marionette's strings and the steely determination written on the faces of skillful puppet masters.
4. Obama fundamentalists, as with other fundamentalists, cannot be swayed with logic. They will not and cannot "come to their senses."
5. Obama worshipers are dangerous people.
6. A personality that embraces his own deification is a dangerous human being! This can never be under emphasized.
Originally embedded July 19, 2009.
Once again, I do like the music. Are all musicians idiots savant?
AND WE THOUGHT THE ORIGINAL COULD NOT BE TOPPED
Originally embedded July 26, 2009.
OBAMA UBER ALLES
Originally embedded July 26, 2009.
VIVA OBAMA
We Can Thank Senate Democrats For Corrupting The IRS
Undoubtedly heads will roll at the IRS but the real culprits will go unscathed and for the most part unnamed. The culprits to which I refer are Charles E. Schumer, Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Al Franken. Lest you question that assertion I refer you to Senator Schumer's own Senate web site where you read the letter which states in part:
In another article the Times noted;
The senators also said that 501(c)4 groups should have to disclose upfront—on all written and online solicitations that get sent to potential donors—how much of their activities are political. The senators said this would make it clear to potential donors how much of a tax deduction, if any, they could claim on their tax returns. Currently, no such information is required to be disclosed and tax experts have expressed concern that many corporations contributing funds to these political groups may be counting those donations as a business expenses eligible for a full tax deduction.A New York Times article from October, 2010 reports that Senator Max Trainwreck Baucus "asked the I.R.S. last week to conduct a broad review into “major” tax-exempt organizations to determine if any were misusing their tax-exempt status. Tax-exempt groups are banned from engaging in politics as their “primary” activity."
In another article the Times noted;
The Internal Revenue Service is caught in an election-year struggle between Democratic lawmakers pressing for a crackdown on nonprofit political groups and conservative organizations accusing the tax agency of conducting a politically charged witch hunt.Unfortunately the crackdown went on well beyond election year. Following the dictates of Senator Schumer et al the IRS did not issue an exemption to any of the targeted groups for 27 months. In the next few weeks the media, which seems to be having a come to Jesus moment over the IRS's blatant thuggery, must decide if they will sustain their outrage or revert to the servile posture they have proudly exhibited for the last 5 years. The Republicans and the Tea Party must not settled for anything less than an in dependant special prosecutor.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Don't Exhale Just Yet
In ordinary times, we could predict how scandal would affect elections for years to come. Richard Nixon was so repulsive that he turned red states blue and ushered in a class of "Watergate Babies" who would haunt Washington for decades to come. From Wikipedia.
- First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974:
- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)
- First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974:
- Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
- Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana)
- Rep. George Miller (D-California)
- Rep. Richard Nolan (D-Minnesota)
- Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California)
That is how it used to work. Corruption disgusted the citizenry. Nixon and Agnew and Mitchell destroyed a lot of GOP careers. But that was long ago and far away.
The Democrats are ruled by an elite who sing from a different hymnal. They knew Barack Obama was a weak candidate in 2012. But if they could suppress the tea party vote, commit voter fraud in swing states, push the Benghazi investigation past November and get 90% of the media to assassinate Romney's character, they might just get their nag across the finish line ahead of the hobbled foe. A laundry list of activity, but that is what happened.
The DNC might have figured that eventually Benghazi, IRS abuse, APgate, etc., would surface. By that time, they would have scored victories in immigration, gun control and the sequester. When Obama failed to deliver on these things, his value had to be reconsidered. It was a matter of when, not if, the administration's dirty laundry was hung on the flag pole. Maybe it would be better to show all their cards now, three years before the next presidential election. Purge and move on to the next super star.
The power elite would love to control Congress but they have proven that they can rule and dominate without that quaint institution. They might not carry 2014 but they can hold the White House in 2016 if they play their cards right. There is something fishy about the sudden boatload of scandal and the press's instant withholding of affection. Maybe the centipede's other shoes will drop and the bad apples will be blamed and then it will be 2016. And then a new Jay Carney will remind us that the scandals of the past took place a long time ago.
Don't exhale just yet.
Pass The Salt
Things haven't been going Mayor Mike Bloomberg's way as of late. First employees of his company were busted for spying on Goldman Sachs. Then some smart asses at a place called House of Cupcakes baked up a huge 36,000 calorie cup cake.
“Its got over 12 pounds of sugar, five pounds of butter, four pounds of flour, six cups of cocoa powder, 24 eggs, two cups of milk,” said owner and cupcake creator Ron Bzdewk swelling with pride.
The nation's tiniest mayor was not amused. “This is one of the dumbest things people have done, but if they can get some publicity, this is not a joke. People are dying.”
Hiz Honor doesn't have much of a sense humor. The New York Supreme Court tossed out his ban on 64oz soda s calling it " arbitrary and capricious". Maybe one of the justices should have told him to grow up. The piece de resistance was served up today by the Institute of Medicine which did a study for the Center for Disease Control It announced that it could find no benefits in sharply reducing salt in ones diet. Studies such as that rely controlled groups and while insightful don't measure up to applied innate wisdom and superstition as used by Bloomberg.
“Its got over 12 pounds of sugar, five pounds of butter, four pounds of flour, six cups of cocoa powder, 24 eggs, two cups of milk,” said owner and cupcake creator Ron Bzdewk swelling with pride.
The nation's tiniest mayor was not amused. “This is one of the dumbest things people have done, but if they can get some publicity, this is not a joke. People are dying.”
Hiz Honor doesn't have much of a sense humor. The New York Supreme Court tossed out his ban on 64oz soda s calling it " arbitrary and capricious". Maybe one of the justices should have told him to grow up. The piece de resistance was served up today by the Institute of Medicine which did a study for the Center for Disease Control It announced that it could find no benefits in sharply reducing salt in ones diet. Studies such as that rely controlled groups and while insightful don't measure up to applied innate wisdom and superstition as used by Bloomberg.
Does The DNC Run The IRS?
As the IRS scandal unfolds its beginning to look as if the IRS is an appendage of the DNC. Going back to 2010 Austan Goolsbee, then chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors must have had access to Koch Industries' tax filing when he made this statement.
The Koch brothers fund a huge super PAC, Americans for Prosperity. AFP reports they were not hassled by the IRS but smaller Tea Party groups received questionnaires from the IRS asking if they were associated with AFP.
In a post written by John Podhoretz himself at Commentary magazine we read;
So 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. So that creates a narrower base because we’ve literally got something like 50 percent of the business income in the U.S. is going to businesses that don’t pay any corporate income tax. They point out [in the report] you could review the boundary between corporate and non-corporate taxation as a way to broaden the base.There was a dust up about it at the time as Koch Industries is privately held and does not publish its tax information. According to the Washington Post the Inspector General of the IRS was to question Goolsbee but nothing ever came of it.
The Koch brothers fund a huge super PAC, Americans for Prosperity. AFP reports they were not hassled by the IRS but smaller Tea Party groups received questionnaires from the IRS asking if they were associated with AFP.
In a post written by John Podhoretz himself at Commentary magazine we read;
As it happens, I know something about the chilling effect of an IRS investigation into a non-profit’s 501 (c)-3 status because in 2009, COMMENTARY (a non-profit) received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service threatening the revocation of the institution’s standing as a non-profit due to a claim that on our website we had crossed the line in the 2008 election from analysis to explicit advocacy of the candidacy of John McCain for president. (Non-profits are not permitted to endorse candidates.) The charge was false—all we had done was reprint a speech delivered at a COMMENTARY event by then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman in which he had endorsed McCain.Then there was Z Street that was denied tax exempt status because of its pro-Israel posture.
FINALLY! Two and a half years after filing a Complaint in federal court seeking relief from the Internal Revenue Service for viewpoint discrimination against our strongly pro-Israel organization, Z STREET has a hearing date in the District of Columbia federal district court on JULY 2, AT 2:30 P.M. Z STREET v. IRS (Douglas H. Shulman, IRS Commissioner)Another example of what the IRS regards as "viewpoint discrimination" would be Cherish Life Ministries that only wants to advocate a pro-life point of view. From Life News;
“The representative was telling me I had to provide information on all aspects of abortion, I couldn’t just educate the church from the pro-life perspective,” he said. “Every time I pressed her on this issue and asked her to clarify her position, she would state that it wasn’t what she was saying, and then, she would repeat it almost the same way.”Again from Life News
“She told me … they were going to deny my application,”,,. “She did get nervous though in the end when I pressed her that I wanted specific information about why I had to educate from a pro-abortion perspective not just pro-life. I explained to her that the Pro-Life Action League even has pro-life in their title and they certainly don’t teach pro-abortion topics and they are still 501(c)(3). I also told her that Planned Parenthood does not teach about pro-life issues yet they are also still a 501(c)(3).”
The Internal Revenue Service is targeting a pro-life Iowa group that acts in part as a watchdog over the Planned Parenthood abortion business. It is refusing to grant nonprofit tax status to the Coalition for Life of Iowa unless it agreed to limit its "picketing" and "protesting" of Planned Parenthood.Should we be surprised? Not Really Obama has politicized the FBI and practically every major department of the government. As Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity puts it, “The connection between Obama’s rhetoric and IRS action seems more than coincidental,”
Andrea Mitchell Calls IRS Scandal "one of the most outrageous excesses" She Has Seen
Yeah, it not Paul on the road to Damascus but when Andrea Mitchell says, "This is one of the most outrageous excesses I've seen in all my years in journalism..." it's close.
What Would Nixon Do?
I have never seen an administration go downhill this fast. It almost like watching the Nixon administration in fast forward. I have made the point that aside from the Watergate cover up Nixon was also accused of corrupting the IRS and having knowledge of the break in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's shrink. The purpose of that break in was pretty close to the apparent reason of the seizure of AP's phone records, namely to stop leaks. Stopping leaks seems to be an obsession of this administration and I have to confess some sympathy for them on that score however prying into the lives of probably 100 reporters is obsessive behavior in anyone's book.
One could argue that Nixon's fall was helped along by a partisan Attorney General, John Mitchell. Is Attorney General Eric Holder partisan? Perish the though.
The IRS scandal is worse than we thought. Or worse than we were lead to believe. No it was not confined to a few low level grunts in the Cincy office The Washington Post reports:
IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.
IRS employees in Cincinnati told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications, according to interviews with the activists.
The AP, remember them? now reports that the trail leads all the way to acting Commissioner Steve Miller who has twice wrote letters to Congressmen telling them that their apprehensions were unfounded.
On Monday, the IRS said Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny. Congress, though, was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted, even after Miller had been briefed on the matter.
At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny - despite being asked about it.
It is beginning to look as is the last election was stolen. The administration buried the facts on Benghazi while the IRS hindered the opposition. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
One could argue that Nixon's fall was helped along by a partisan Attorney General, John Mitchell. Is Attorney General Eric Holder partisan? Perish the though.
The IRS scandal is worse than we thought. Or worse than we were lead to believe. No it was not confined to a few low level grunts in the Cincy office The Washington Post reports:
IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.
IRS employees in Cincinnati told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications, according to interviews with the activists.
The AP, remember them? now reports that the trail leads all the way to acting Commissioner Steve Miller who has twice wrote letters to Congressmen telling them that their apprehensions were unfounded.
On Monday, the IRS said Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny. Congress, though, was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted, even after Miller had been briefed on the matter.
At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny - despite being asked about it.
It is beginning to look as is the last election was stolen. The administration buried the facts on Benghazi while the IRS hindered the opposition. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Monday, May 13, 2013
The Boston Herald Calls It Obamagate
Okay it's the Boston Herald; not the New York Times.
"President Obama’s second-term campaign slogan was “Forward,” but instead we’ve got cover-ups, congressional investigations and the government persecution of political opponents and reporters.
That sounds like “backward” to me. All the way to, say, 1972.
Who would have guessed that just a few months into his second term, President Obama would be compared to Tricky Dick. And by a liberal Massachusetts Democrat — U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano."
"President Obama’s second-term campaign slogan was “Forward,” but instead we’ve got cover-ups, congressional investigations and the government persecution of political opponents and reporters.
That sounds like “backward” to me. All the way to, say, 1972.
Who would have guessed that just a few months into his second term, President Obama would be compared to Tricky Dick. And by a liberal Massachusetts Democrat — U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano."
IRS Shared Confidential Information With Pro Publica
Pro Publica is a George Soros funded organization They describe themselves as a not for profit newsroom. According to this post the IRS sends them information on not for profit organizations that have tax exempt status. One assumes there are some details of not for profit activities that are available to the general public and by simply completing the proper forms Pro Publica receives that information from the IRS. Groups who have applied for not for profit status but whose application is pending enjoy IRS confidentially apparently in theory but not necessarily in practice.
To their credit, Pro Publica is extremely candid when they reveal:
On Nov. 15, 2012, ProPublica requested the applications of 67 nonprofits, all of which had spent money on the 2012 elections. (Because no social welfare groups with Tea Party in their names spent money on the election, ProPublica did not at that point request their applications. We had requested the Tea Party applications earlier, after the groups first complained about being singled out by the IRS. In response, the IRS said it could find no record of the tax-exempt status of those groups — typically how it responds to requests for unapproved applications.)
Just 13 days after ProPublica sent in its request, the IRS responded with the documents on 31 social welfare groups.
Okay so far so good. Then:
Applications were sent to ProPublica from five other social welfare groups that had told the IRS that they wouldn’t spend money to sway elections. The other groups ended up spending more than $5 million related to the election, mainly to support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Much of that money was spent by the Arizona group Americans for Responsible Leadership. The remaining four groups that told the IRS they wouldn’t engage in political spending were Freedom Path, Rightchange.com II, America Is Not Stupid and A Better America Now.
The IRS also sent ProPublica the applications of three small conservative groups that told the agency that they would spend some money on politics: Citizen Awareness Project, the YG Network and SecureAmericaNow.org. (No unapproved applications from liberal groups were sent to ProPublica.)
The IRS cover letter sent with the documents was from the Cincinnati office, and signed by Cindy Thomas, listed as the manager for Exempt Organizations Determinations, whom a biography for a Cincinnati Bar Association meeting in January says has worked for the IRS for 35 years. (Thomas often signed the cover letters of responses to ProPublica requests.) The cover letter listed an IRS employee named Sophia Brown as the person to contact for more information about the records. We tried to contact both Thomas and Brown today but were unable to reach them.
After receiving the unapproved applications, ProPublica tried to determine why they had been sent. In emails, IRS spokespeople said ProPublica shouldn’t have received them.
“It has come to our attention that you are in receipt of application materials of organizations that have not been recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt,” wrote one spokeswoman, Michelle Eldridge. She cited a law saying that publishing unauthorized returns or return information was a felony punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
In response, ProPublica’s then-general manager and now president, Richard Tofel, said, "ProPublica believes that the information we are publishing is not barred by the statute cited by the IRS, and it is clear to us that there is a strong First Amendment interest in its publication.”
ProPublica also redacted parts of the application to omit financial information.
There it is from Pro Publica's web site. Yes, the IRS did breach its trust and furnish confidential information to a third party. Ms. Cindy Thomas had better lawyer up. If criminal charges are not brought against her it's almost a sure bet a civil action will be.
To their credit, Pro Publica is extremely candid when they reveal:
On Nov. 15, 2012, ProPublica requested the applications of 67 nonprofits, all of which had spent money on the 2012 elections. (Because no social welfare groups with Tea Party in their names spent money on the election, ProPublica did not at that point request their applications. We had requested the Tea Party applications earlier, after the groups first complained about being singled out by the IRS. In response, the IRS said it could find no record of the tax-exempt status of those groups — typically how it responds to requests for unapproved applications.)
Just 13 days after ProPublica sent in its request, the IRS responded with the documents on 31 social welfare groups.
Okay so far so good. Then:
Applications were sent to ProPublica from five other social welfare groups that had told the IRS that they wouldn’t spend money to sway elections. The other groups ended up spending more than $5 million related to the election, mainly to support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Much of that money was spent by the Arizona group Americans for Responsible Leadership. The remaining four groups that told the IRS they wouldn’t engage in political spending were Freedom Path, Rightchange.com II, America Is Not Stupid and A Better America Now.
The IRS also sent ProPublica the applications of three small conservative groups that told the agency that they would spend some money on politics: Citizen Awareness Project, the YG Network and SecureAmericaNow.org. (No unapproved applications from liberal groups were sent to ProPublica.)
The IRS cover letter sent with the documents was from the Cincinnati office, and signed by Cindy Thomas, listed as the manager for Exempt Organizations Determinations, whom a biography for a Cincinnati Bar Association meeting in January says has worked for the IRS for 35 years. (Thomas often signed the cover letters of responses to ProPublica requests.) The cover letter listed an IRS employee named Sophia Brown as the person to contact for more information about the records. We tried to contact both Thomas and Brown today but were unable to reach them.
After receiving the unapproved applications, ProPublica tried to determine why they had been sent. In emails, IRS spokespeople said ProPublica shouldn’t have received them.
“It has come to our attention that you are in receipt of application materials of organizations that have not been recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt,” wrote one spokeswoman, Michelle Eldridge. She cited a law saying that publishing unauthorized returns or return information was a felony punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
In response, ProPublica’s then-general manager and now president, Richard Tofel, said, "ProPublica believes that the information we are publishing is not barred by the statute cited by the IRS, and it is clear to us that there is a strong First Amendment interest in its publication.”
ProPublica also redacted parts of the application to omit financial information.
There it is from Pro Publica's web site. Yes, the IRS did breach its trust and furnish confidential information to a third party. Ms. Cindy Thomas had better lawyer up. If criminal charges are not brought against her it's almost a sure bet a civil action will be.
National Press Clubs Demands a Public Explanation
As most reader already know the wire tapping of some 20 AP phones by the Obama DOJ has do with who was leaking information to the press especially the Associated Press. If Obama was that enthusiastic about finding out who in the IRS leaked American Crossroads' tax documents that were subsequently published one might take him seriously. Instead Obama did what of late he always does. He lied. He only heard about like the rest of it on Friday afternoon notwithstanding the fact that everyone else in the White House was informed about it in the week of April 22. Then he began "if it's true.." Well of course it true. Pay attention. Were you president of the slow class? Lois Lerner who oversaw that particular IRS division said it was so and no one has challenged her so could we assume it is true?
Returning to the AP wire tapping scandal the president of the National Press Club Angela Greiling Keane is calling for a public explanation. This means you, Mr.President.
In the wake of reports today that the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records of several of AP’s reporters and four of its offices, the National Press Club requests that the Obama administration publicly explain the reasons behind the action.
The Justice Department disclosed to AP in a May 10 letter that the government had obtained last year two months of personal and professional phone records for individual AP reporters and from AP offices in the House press gallery and from AP bureaus in DC, New York and Hartford, Conn. The letter did not provide a reason why, AP said, but the targets of the government seizures and the timing suggested that it might be related to a probe of who leaked information to AP for a story the news organization broke last year about a bombing plot that had been organized by an Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the incident “a massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering and said the records could reveal how AP reporters and editors gather news and what they’re working on.
“This appears to be a gross violation of press freedom,” said National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane, a Bloomberg News reporter. “If there’s a good explanation for this, the public has a right to hear it promptly.”
The National Press Club is the world’s leading professional organization for journalists and is an ardent advocate of press freedom and open government.
Friday morning the administration had one scandal. Now by Monday afternoon it has three. It may be too early to call doomed but it had better change trajectory soon!
Returning to the AP wire tapping scandal the president of the National Press Club Angela Greiling Keane is calling for a public explanation. This means you, Mr.President.
In the wake of reports today that the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records of several of AP’s reporters and four of its offices, the National Press Club requests that the Obama administration publicly explain the reasons behind the action.
The Justice Department disclosed to AP in a May 10 letter that the government had obtained last year two months of personal and professional phone records for individual AP reporters and from AP offices in the House press gallery and from AP bureaus in DC, New York and Hartford, Conn. The letter did not provide a reason why, AP said, but the targets of the government seizures and the timing suggested that it might be related to a probe of who leaked information to AP for a story the news organization broke last year about a bombing plot that had been organized by an Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the incident “a massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering and said the records could reveal how AP reporters and editors gather news and what they’re working on.
“This appears to be a gross violation of press freedom,” said National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane, a Bloomberg News reporter. “If there’s a good explanation for this, the public has a right to hear it promptly.”
The National Press Club is the world’s leading professional organization for journalists and is an ardent advocate of press freedom and open government.
Friday morning the administration had one scandal. Now by Monday afternoon it has three. It may be too early to call doomed but it had better change trajectory soon!
DOJ Seizes Associated Press' Phone Records; No Time For Freedom Of The Press
And you don't bring me flowers anymore. To put it mildly the press and the Obama administration are going through a nasty separation. The Obama Justice Dept has leveled its sights on it old friends at Associated Press.
The government did not say why it need the records and the scope of the seizure as the AP says was massive and unprecedented, just the sort of violation of liberty we were told we could expect from a Romney administration. Evidently the DOJ violated its own guidelines for obtaining records from a news outlet which state;
A subpoena can only be considered after "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department has taken to get information in the case.
A subpoena to the media must be "as narrowly drawn as possible" and "should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period," according to the rules.
The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that "might impair the news gathering function" because the government recognizes that "freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news."
I suspect the AP will soon find more sympathy for the Tea Party.
| WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news. The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters. |
The government did not say why it need the records and the scope of the seizure as the AP says was massive and unprecedented, just the sort of violation of liberty we were told we could expect from a Romney administration. Evidently the DOJ violated its own guidelines for obtaining records from a news outlet which state;
A subpoena can only be considered after "all reasonable attempts" have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department has taken to get information in the case.
A subpoena to the media must be "as narrowly drawn as possible" and "should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period," according to the rules.
The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that "might impair the news gathering function" because the government recognizes that "freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news."
I suspect the AP will soon find more sympathy for the Tea Party.
The IRS Reflects Obama's Values
The reason the IRS scandal has big, strong, long legs aside from the inconvenient fact that it cannot be denied is that it is in keeping with this administration's blatant disregard for the constitution, statuary law and common decency. The shoe fits. When the president wanted to take down Gaddafi, the constitution be damned. He had the authority and a docile Senate to run cover for him so his critics can go straight to hell because he is commander-in-chief. Suck it up and get over it. The same is true of his interpretation of prosecutorial discretion when he announced, and the critics be damned, he would not enforce immigration law. He allowed his surrogates to defame Mitt Romney by suggesting that somehow he had caused the death of an unfortunate woman whose husband used her death as his claim to the infamy in a manner similar to weasely tort lawyers who troll for cancer victims on cable television 24/7.
That sad fact is that the despicable behavior of the IRS is exactly what the public has come to expect from this narcissistic man child. In the end Barack Obama has crippled the IRS far beyond anything Grover Norquist would have done on his meanest day. Under the best of circumstances no politician is going to spend more than two minutes praising the IRS but now even the perfunctory bs about the hard working men and women who work tirelessly bla, bla, might be going to far as election day nears. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and the entire Tea Party caucus could never begin to fire up the Republican base the way Lois Lerner has. Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson confined their respective IRS vendettas to a few selected well healed targets. The Obama IRS took on a huge segment of the voting population and when the next poll reveals a horrendous enthusiasm gap among partisan voters the Obama IRS can take a bow.
Every facet of the Obama administration reeks of partisanship from food stamps to Obamaphones; from contraceptive mandates to SEAL team 6. Nothing is ever done because it is the proper thing to do. It is done because it is the political thing to do. The Tea Party has been demonized by the Dept of Homeland Security, by the once Speaker of the House, and by the Obama sycophants in the media. There were violated by the IRS because the IRS thought they deserved to be violated.
Turning to the IRS, supposedly the revelation of criminality was made to sooth the sting of an upcoming inspector general report. Here one has to wonder what sort of IG cannot not keep his report confidential until its release. AP has a partial copy as does the Washington Post as does FoxNews as does everyone else on the web save Post Obotomy Syndrome. What is up? Do grand jury indictments find their way into print? What sort of agency should be trusted with any personal information when its own inspector general can't keep a confidence? Snooping around the IRS's web site reveals that it was in the process of making changes in its top personal. Just two days before Lois Lerner dropped her bomb the agency filled two vacancies. This may well be coincidental but when the division responsible for the malfeasance replace people prior to announcing wrong doing it invites suspicion. ( I suppose we could call Lois and ask her being that the web site gives us her phone number which is more forthcoming than say, the EPA which deal in aliases such Richard Windsor who gets confidential email).
So Lois got a new boss just two days prior to her astounding admission that her agency had it in for the Tea Party but that was in no way due to any political or partisan rationale, and they were all very sorry so lets move on? Add in the fact that the AP is reporting from the leaked IG report that said "Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011. Furthermore add in the fact one of the "Senior Internal Revenue Service officials" is a former Democratic Senate staffer who delves in partisan politics and one can see a lot of coincidences.
The intrigue at the IRS will eventually unfold for all to see with or without the aid of its loose tongued IG. What we will see is an agency that felt it could break they law because the president sees no wrong in breaking the law as long as it's expedient.
That sad fact is that the despicable behavior of the IRS is exactly what the public has come to expect from this narcissistic man child. In the end Barack Obama has crippled the IRS far beyond anything Grover Norquist would have done on his meanest day. Under the best of circumstances no politician is going to spend more than two minutes praising the IRS but now even the perfunctory bs about the hard working men and women who work tirelessly bla, bla, might be going to far as election day nears. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and the entire Tea Party caucus could never begin to fire up the Republican base the way Lois Lerner has. Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson confined their respective IRS vendettas to a few selected well healed targets. The Obama IRS took on a huge segment of the voting population and when the next poll reveals a horrendous enthusiasm gap among partisan voters the Obama IRS can take a bow.
Every facet of the Obama administration reeks of partisanship from food stamps to Obamaphones; from contraceptive mandates to SEAL team 6. Nothing is ever done because it is the proper thing to do. It is done because it is the political thing to do. The Tea Party has been demonized by the Dept of Homeland Security, by the once Speaker of the House, and by the Obama sycophants in the media. There were violated by the IRS because the IRS thought they deserved to be violated.
Turning to the IRS, supposedly the revelation of criminality was made to sooth the sting of an upcoming inspector general report. Here one has to wonder what sort of IG cannot not keep his report confidential until its release. AP has a partial copy as does the Washington Post as does FoxNews as does everyone else on the web save Post Obotomy Syndrome. What is up? Do grand jury indictments find their way into print? What sort of agency should be trusted with any personal information when its own inspector general can't keep a confidence? Snooping around the IRS's web site reveals that it was in the process of making changes in its top personal. Just two days before Lois Lerner dropped her bomb the agency filled two vacancies. This may well be coincidental but when the division responsible for the malfeasance replace people prior to announcing wrong doing it invites suspicion. ( I suppose we could call Lois and ask her being that the web site gives us her phone number which is more forthcoming than say, the EPA which deal in aliases such Richard Windsor who gets confidential email).
IR-2013-47, May 8, 2013 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the selection of Joseph H. Grant as commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division and Sheldon Kay as Chief of Appeals. “Joseph and Shelly are strong leaders who will provide strong leadership and continuity in these critical parts of the IRS,” said Steven T. Miller, Acting IRS Commissioner. Grant has served as the TE/GE Deputy Director since 2007. As TE/GE Commissioner, Grant will oversee the administration of tax law relating to employee plans, tax-exempt organizations and various government entities. TE/GE serves approximately 3 million organizations. Grant originally joined the IRS in August 2005 as director of the Employee Plans Rulings & Agreements division. Before that, he was Chief Operating Officer and a Deputy Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Grant also served on the staff of the Oversight and Social Security subcommittees of the House Ways and Means Committee. |
The intrigue at the IRS will eventually unfold for all to see with or without the aid of its loose tongued IG. What we will see is an agency that felt it could break they law because the president sees no wrong in breaking the law as long as it's expedient.
We Might Have A Humpty Dumpty Situation On Our Hands
I am still bitter about the 2012 election. Obama could not have won without a certain amount of, shall we say, finesse? When Nixon used the IRS to harass his enemies, I don't think it was done in the open. That was pre-Internet so no one was bombarded with emails that said, "We too, are being terrorized by government agents."
We should note that even though Barack Obama was the ultimate beneficiary of IRS abuse and he is a compulsive liar and a tyrant and a thug, we cannot be sure that the White House orchestrated the criminal activity. With that said, we are stupid beyond redemption if we believe that this scandal goes no higher than low-level employees from Cincinnati. It might be the DNC who puppeteered the crimes. It might be the mysterious entities of the "shadow government." And yes, it might just be the White House.
At any rate, it will be fun to find out who hijacked our country. Peel off the masks and view their thuggish faces. The abuse was widespread. There are lots and lots of guilty parties.
I don't know how extensive Nixon's abuse happened to be but Obama/DNC/ Spooky Dude Henchman were amazingly proficient. If you did not know this scandal was being conducted, it was because you took a vow of ignorance. You made an effort to look the other way. In the words of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, "You can't handle the truth." You drank the Kool-Aid.
This scandal will probably dwarf Watergate. Barry has always played by a different set of rules and he might skate over this bump in the road with a smile on his face. But all the president's horses and all the president's men have their work cut out for them. We might have a Humpty Dumpty situation on our hands.
We should note that even though Barack Obama was the ultimate beneficiary of IRS abuse and he is a compulsive liar and a tyrant and a thug, we cannot be sure that the White House orchestrated the criminal activity. With that said, we are stupid beyond redemption if we believe that this scandal goes no higher than low-level employees from Cincinnati. It might be the DNC who puppeteered the crimes. It might be the mysterious entities of the "shadow government." And yes, it might just be the White House.
At any rate, it will be fun to find out who hijacked our country. Peel off the masks and view their thuggish faces. The abuse was widespread. There are lots and lots of guilty parties.
I don't know how extensive Nixon's abuse happened to be but Obama/DNC/ Spooky Dude Henchman were amazingly proficient. If you did not know this scandal was being conducted, it was because you took a vow of ignorance. You made an effort to look the other way. In the words of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, "You can't handle the truth." You drank the Kool-Aid.
This scandal will probably dwarf Watergate. Barry has always played by a different set of rules and he might skate over this bump in the road with a smile on his face. But all the president's horses and all the president's men have their work cut out for them. We might have a Humpty Dumpty situation on our hands.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Reviewing The Worship of Barack Hussein Obama. Part III
The story of Barack Hussein Obama is part Orwell, part "Twilight Zone," part Jonestown and part "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Obama has made rational appeals to certain special interest groups (the legal profession, unions, teachers, illegal immigrants to name a few) but Obama voters are largely irrational. That is not a patronizing assessment nor is it a snide commentary about people who do not share my political views. It is simply reaffirming the obvious: Barack Obama's ongoing political campaign rarely, if ever, appeals to the voter's rational faculties. For non-members of special interest groups, supporting Barack Obama is a non-rational undertaking.
Obama followers cannot articulate their love anymore than a teenager can explain her first crush. It is visceral, not analytical. It is based not on reason, but sentiment. For many, the ardor blossomed into full blown religious expression. Fools like me underestimated the breadth and depth of Obama worship. It is real. It is too real.
This blog started out chronicling displays of Obama worship. We joked about Obama worship but we didn't literally mean it. Those idiots in 2008, they were just caught up in the moment, right? Wrong! The worship was and is literal. As genuine as Jonestown.
I wrongly thought I could change people's minds by showcasing folly in the extreme. I posted dozens of disturbing videos of silly Obama supporters. Sadly, I barely scratched the surface. There are hundreds of Youtube videos of fools bowing down to a hollow man they do not know and don't care to know. Who needs facts when one is showered with a bounty of such splendid iconography?
Somewhere along the way this blogger felt that he had made his point. Yes, the cult of Obama was as creepy as it gets. The fundamentalists would still bow down to their messiah. Can't save the mindless, no. But most Obama voters would distance themselves from the Kool-Aid cult if only to retain a measure of self-respect. Wrong! 2012.
An aside. The 2008 election made me rethink the merits of organized religion. We are a religious species. If we don't find a sane outlet for our religiosity, we might end up following a sleazy-cheesy community organizer whose real intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Religion by its very nature requires the participant to think in a pararational manner. Fully engage one's knowledge to its limits and then defer to faith. There were guard rails in place. Idolatry was strictly prohibited. The exercise of religion did not license one to practice self-delusion as a preferred lifestyle.
It is imperative that opponents of Barack Obama come to grips with reality. It is time we face the ugly truth. Let us acknowledge the obvious:
1. The worship of Barack Obama is literal.
2. The cult of Barack Obama is colossal. Humanity has never before witnessed a religious cult that has snared so many, so fast. The ramifications have largely been ignored.
3. The worship of Barack Obama is by no means spontaneous. From fainting women to the Obama Halo, from the rewritten spirituals that praise the new messiah to the hypnotic speeches void of content, the deification of Barack Obama is deliberate and it is contrived. Look closely and you will see the marionette's strings and the steely determination written on the faces of skillful puppet masters.
4. Obama fundamentalists, as with other fundamentalists, cannot be swayed with logic. They will not and cannot "come to their senses."
5. Obama worshipers are dangerous people.
6. A personality that embraces his own deification is a dangerous human being! This can never be under emphasized.
These first two videos were originally posted July 5, 2009. The Ludacris vid is the original soundtrack but with an honest graphic accompaniment.
LUDACRIS (I THINK SOMEONE MIGHT HAVE HAD SOME FUN EDITING THE STILLS)
I like this next tune. I would probably like it even more if I had a big glass of Kool-Aid to chase it down.
WHATEVER ELSE WE CAN SAY ABOUT AMERICA'S DESTRUCTION,
IT SURE HAS A KICKING SOUNDTRACK
It seems that I am not the only observer who has a flare for the obvious. This video was embedded here July 12, 2009.
Dennis Kucinich: IRS Was Politically Targeting Tea Party
Dennis Kucinich is never lost for words and I suppose that is our misfortune; not his. Back in the day, when he, as mayor was plunging Cleveland into bankruptcy they called him Dennis the Menace yet I must give him credit for maintaining at least a modicum of intellectual honesty and predictable consistency. As far as foreign policy is concerned I would much prefer him to John McCain who is neither honest nor consistent.
Kucinich: How could it not be?
Wallace: So you think this was political targeting?
Kucinich: How could it not be?
Nixon Would be Embarrassed By This Comparison To Obama
I noted in my first post on the IRS-Tea Party scandal that tampering with the IRS contributed to Richard Nixon's downfall. George Will saw the comparison too.
“He has, through his subordinated and agents, endeavored…to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner,’ — Section 1, Article 2, the impeachment articles of Richard Nixon."
“He has, through his subordinated and agents, endeavored…to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner,’ — Section 1, Article 2, the impeachment articles of Richard Nixon."
When Silence Is Deafening
I just sat through an hour of MSNBC news because I was curious how they would spin the IRS scandal. It was mentioned as the lead story but that story never materialized except as a brief scroll (or is it a chiron?) at the bottom of the page.
In that hour we learned that Ariel Castro is bad. OJ is seeking a new trial. Jodi Arias is on suicide watch and the death penalty should be reserved only for "heinous" crimes but that all murder is cruel. We learned that the Benghazi hearings are just more "be mean to Hillary" exercises. We saw excerpts of last night's "SNL" political spoof. In keeping with Mother's Day we saw a plug about two MSNBC employees who had written a book on motherhood. Oh, and we learned that most adults would rather have an elderly mother move in with them than an elderly father. One of the sages did reveal that gender stereotyping is not entirely valid because her father left a smaller carbon footprint than her mother. But the IRS scandal...
In the entire hour, they never got around to the IRS scandal. Apparently the spinmeisters have not figured this one out just yet. Sometimes it's not what you say, it's what you don't say that reveals your essence. I don't think MSM wants to spend a lot of time on this particular subject.
In that hour we learned that Ariel Castro is bad. OJ is seeking a new trial. Jodi Arias is on suicide watch and the death penalty should be reserved only for "heinous" crimes but that all murder is cruel. We learned that the Benghazi hearings are just more "be mean to Hillary" exercises. We saw excerpts of last night's "SNL" political spoof. In keeping with Mother's Day we saw a plug about two MSNBC employees who had written a book on motherhood. Oh, and we learned that most adults would rather have an elderly mother move in with them than an elderly father. One of the sages did reveal that gender stereotyping is not entirely valid because her father left a smaller carbon footprint than her mother. But the IRS scandal...
In the entire hour, they never got around to the IRS scandal. Apparently the spinmeisters have not figured this one out just yet. Sometimes it's not what you say, it's what you don't say that reveals your essence. I don't think MSM wants to spend a lot of time on this particular subject.
Washington Post; Obama Should Personally Apologize for IRS
This ain' t the Tea Party Express rather it's the Washington Post:
Read the entire editorial here.
A BEDROCK principle of U.S. democracy is that the coercive powers of government are never used for partisan purpose. The law is blind to political viewpoint, and so are its enforcers, most especially the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. Any violation of this principle threatens the trust and the voluntary cooperation of citizens upon which this democracy depends.
So it was appalling to learn Friday that the IRS had improperly targeted conservative groups for scrutiny. It was almost as disturbing that President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have not personally apologized to the American people and promised a full investigation.
Congressman Mike Rogers: More Whistleblowers
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers told Chris Wallace of FoxNews that more whistleblowers will come forward.
“I will tell you, we have had people come forward because of the testimony and say, ‘We would also like to talk, we feel a little bit intimidated by this, but we have information we think is valuable,”
“I will tell you, we have had people come forward because of the testimony and say, ‘We would also like to talk, we feel a little bit intimidated by this, but we have information we think is valuable,”
Obama Appointee Knew IRS Was Targeting Tea Party
The admission that the IRS had targeted Tea Party groups for special and excessive scrutiny has launched the fastest breaking political scandal in my memory. Aside from the media fire storm, the political response was not long in coming. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight has ordered the IRS to turn over by Wednesday
every communication in its records that includes the words “tea party,” “patriot” or “conservative.”
Oh you guys like to do keyword searches? Have fun with this . Just remember it has to be done by Wednesday. It's hard to imagine that things are going to get better for the Obama administration as the scandal progresses and it has progressed significantly since Friday when Lois Lerner made her spontaneous confession of probable criminal behavior.
Associated Press reports "Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner."
The AP goes on to speculate that Lerner's confession was purposely made to the blunt the findings of an impending Inspector General report.
When questioned by the White House press corps Jay Carney was quick to point out that the IRS was an independant enforcement agency (not exactly accurate it operates under Treasury) and the commissioner at that time was a Bush appointee. Carney did not mention that the office of chief counsel was also filled by appointment and that position was held by an Obama appointee, William J. Wilkins.
Wilkins is not exactly a Washington outsider nor is he apolitical. A little bit of snooping around the web reveals that he accepted a staff position on the Senate Finance Committee in 1981 when it was chaired by Democratic Senator Russell Long. He then became director and chief counsel of the committee staff under the chairmanship of Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
The Washington Post notes:
"As IRS general counsel, Wilkins is a key figure in the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to crack down on offshore tax evasion. The much-publicized 2009 showdown with the Swiss bank UBS -which resulted in the disclosure of previously secret American accounts-is indicative of a larger push within the IRS to increase tax compliance."
Wilkins is hardly a fat cat but he has made about $35,000 in contributions to Democrats over the course of his career including $4250 to the present Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.
Place your bets. Will Wilkins' name surface in this scandal? Try this.
Obama appointee knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner."
Oh you guys like to do keyword searches? Have fun with this . Just remember it has to be done by Wednesday. It's hard to imagine that things are going to get better for the Obama administration as the scandal progresses and it has progressed significantly since Friday when Lois Lerner made her spontaneous confession of probable criminal behavior.
Associated Press reports "Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner."
The AP goes on to speculate that Lerner's confession was purposely made to the blunt the findings of an impending Inspector General report.
When questioned by the White House press corps Jay Carney was quick to point out that the IRS was an independant enforcement agency (not exactly accurate it operates under Treasury) and the commissioner at that time was a Bush appointee. Carney did not mention that the office of chief counsel was also filled by appointment and that position was held by an Obama appointee, William J. Wilkins.
Wilkins is not exactly a Washington outsider nor is he apolitical. A little bit of snooping around the web reveals that he accepted a staff position on the Senate Finance Committee in 1981 when it was chaired by Democratic Senator Russell Long. He then became director and chief counsel of the committee staff under the chairmanship of Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
The Washington Post notes:
"As IRS general counsel, Wilkins is a key figure in the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to crack down on offshore tax evasion. The much-publicized 2009 showdown with the Swiss bank UBS -which resulted in the disclosure of previously secret American accounts-is indicative of a larger push within the IRS to increase tax compliance."
Wilkins is hardly a fat cat but he has made about $35,000 in contributions to Democrats over the course of his career including $4250 to the present Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.
Place your bets. Will Wilkins' name surface in this scandal? Try this.
Obama appointee knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner."
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