Reflecting on NSA, Obama, and the Left

NSA has filed a criminal complaint with the Justice Department in the matter of the leaking of two heretofore unknown and top secret programs. The idea of announcing that action strikes me as almost childish. It's almost like putting the neighborhood on notice that you have filed a police report over the theft of your bicycle and from here on out someone caught stealing your second bike would, as Obama would say, be held responsible.
This is really a great time to write for a blog. There is no shortage of scandal, public displays of vanity and stupidity, and a few instances of publicly expressed disappointment in Obama. I mean just last month a guy could tune into Hardball secure in his belief that Chris would sort it all out for him. Benghazi was just partisan and racial politics at it very worse, comprehensive immigration was eminent and health insurance premiums would soon fall dramatically. Suddenly Obama has revealed himself to be worse than George Bush and the hope and change ain' t working The left feels a deep sense of betrayal tantamount to the feeling one would associate with the discovery of an act of spousal infidelity.
The downside to having a sudden wealth of subjects on which write is, in my case, the urge to attempt to report as much as I possibly can meaning that there isn't time for reflection or insight. Now it's time to sort through the information that has been so hastily digested and to add opinions both my own and those I've gleaned from the web. Larry Johnson over at No Quarter has a smart assed style I find amusing.

Trust Barack Obama? Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? Well, let me see. . .are there any reasons we should not trust you? Let me count the ways:
1. Fast and Furious–Obama claims he was ignorant of a scheme cooked up in the Department of Justice to run weapons into Mexico, which were then used to kill Mexican citizens. Says he learned about it on the news don’t cha know.
2. Benghazi–Claims he had no idea about who carried out a pre-planned attack on US facilities in Benghazi and then blamed the Intelligence Community for talking points that were changed at the direction of the the White House.
3. IRS scandal–Claims he learned about it from news reports. Yet, his Chief of Staff and General Counsel were informed much earlier.
4. Seizure of AP phone records–Yep, claims he learned about this on the news.
So this buffoon from Hawaii wants the American people to believe that he actually knows what is going on with the NSA effort to collect meta data off of the phones, internet and credit cards of all Americans? No Barack, we’re not as fucking stupid as you.

I agree with Johnson 100%. There is no earthly reason to trust Obama. The man is a inveterate liar. Let's look at his claim that the Verizon misadventure is managed by all three branches of the government. Right. And the chief enforcement officer from the executive branch is Attorney General Eric Holder who has twice lied to Congress. The administration treats its congressional partners just as Justice and the IRS treat congressional committees. It stonewalls. Just as in the case with the IRS it has missed deadlines to furnish requested material. Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner who authored, in part, the Patriot Act claims that recent actions by NSA are beyond anything congress ever intended to enact. Then there is the FISA court that has denied 11 requests from the approximate 20,000 sought by NSA and the FBI since 9/11/2001. The Washington Post furnishes this helpful graphic.
Suddenly the left is beginning to realize that if they had only listened to Glenn Beck and not Barack Obama we wouldn't be in this shape and that realization hurts.

Zuckerberg and Page Lied, Twitter Defied

Both Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page lied to the American public. So says the New York Times;

The companies that negotiated with the government include Google, which owns YouTube; Microsoft, which owns Hotmail and Skype; Yahoo; Facebook; AOL; Apple; and Paltalk, according to one of the people briefed on the discussions. The companies were legally required to share the data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. People briefed on the discussions spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are prohibited by law from discussing the content of FISA requests or even acknowledging their existence.
In at least two cases, at Google and Facebook, one of the plans discussed was to build separate, secure portals, like a digital version of the secure physical rooms that have long existed for classified information, in some instances on company servers. Through these online rooms, the government would request data, companies would deposit it and the government would retrieve it, people briefed on the discussions said.

One wonders how much longer Google bloggers will be able to post criticism of the Obama administration. For the record Twitter did not cave which raises the question just how much of Google's, Facebook's et al cooperation was voluntary.
 

But It's Only Metadata

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an ongoing lawsuit in pursuit of a FOIA request of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ruling that held NSA's data gathering violates the 4th amendment. Obama is just plain lying when he maintains that the courts and congress act as a check on NSA. The entire congress has not been briefed on the Verizon phone records dragnet nor has it been advised about the latest intrusion into privacy, Prism. Members of the intelligence committees in both houses may be briefed but they are forbidden to share information even when they oppose an NSA/FBI action.
Worse yet when a FISC court holds an action to be unconstitutional the decision is classified and not available to the public. This is the nature of EFF's suit. Show us the court decision. Secret courts and secret decisions do little to safeguard anyone except the perpetrators of abuse from criminal and civil liability. If, as the administration claims, no one is listening to your conversation why should you worry. EFF gives these examples;

What they are trying to say is that disclosure of metadata—the details about phone calls, without the actual voice—isn't a big deal, not something for Americans to get upset about if the government knows. Let's take a closer look at what they are saying:

• They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don't know what you talked about.
• They know you called the suicide prevention hotline from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the topic of the call remains a secret.
• They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don't know what was discussed.
• They know you received a call from the local NRA office while it was having a campaign against gun legislation, and then called your senators and congressional representatives immediately after. But the content of those calls remains safe from government intrusion.
• They know you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local Planned Parenthood's number later that day. But nobody knows what you spoke about.

Massachusetts Senate in a Dead Heat

With the disclaimer "This survey was organized and funded by John Jordan, a Republican donor and activist" McLaughlin & Associates goes on to announce that the Massachusetts Senate race is a dead heat. The Real Clear Politics average of polls gives Congressman Ed Markey a double digit lead of 10.4%. One may ask how much polling experience does McLaughlin & Associates have? The answer is about as much as anyone else who has polled the race except for PPP. In a poll released on May 1 PPP gave Markey a 4 point lead. The rest of the polls were conducted by New England College, Emerson College, WBUR/MassINC, and Suffolk/7News. Neither Gallup nor Rasmussen has polled this race.
Is it not conceivable that the barrage of scandals that have erupted in the past two weeks has taken a toll on Washington insiders such as Markey? The McLaughlin poll breaks down thus.

Gomez Total	44%
Definitely Vote Gomez	31%
Probably Vote  Gomez	10%
Lean Gomez	4%
Markey Total	45%
Definitely Vote Markey	28%
Probably Vote  Markey	11%
Lean Markey	6%
Undecided	11%

On the favorable/unfavorable scale Markey is not held in high esteem by 42% of the voters. He is 42% favorable and 42% unfavorable. Gomez is viewed favorably by 48% and unfavorable by only 27%.
 

NSA Whistleblower; Gen David Petraeus Brought Down by Illegal Surveillance

The central government defines what's wrong. We have seen that theme consistently sustained by the IRS's targeting of Tea Party group, of pro life groups and pro Israel groups. A group or individual may be acting in a way that it perceives as perfectly innocent, even noble, but the government claims to be the sole arbiter of what is right and wrong. As the government's moral compass vacillates what was proper one day is verboten the next but the electronic record of what was said or written remains on NSA computers.
NSA whistleblower William Binney believes that General David Petraeus was brought down by illegal surveillance that revealed his adulterous affair.

Further Reflections On Obama At Columbia

A good book is one that you cannot put down. A great book is one that you have to put down to reflect on what you have read. The mind cannot keep pace with the wonder.

While we are bombarded with scandal and malfeasance on a daily basis--the page-turner if you will--I am forced to stop and reflect on the absurdity of the Columbia University reunion (prior post) where none of Obama's classmates could remember seeing him (never mind interacting with him.)

Perhaps the most intriguing facet to this story is that by Wayne Allyn Root's estimation, 90% of his classmates (or maybe it was 90% of poli sci majors) supported Barack Obama's political campaigns. So we have something even more absurd than the fact that a man who could never get a low-level security clearance would somehow be trusted with our nuclear and espionage secrets.

The greater farce is the unsettling realization that our best and brightest did not give a second thought to handing the keys to a phantom. These are people who know first hand that there is something fundamentally, (umm, is fraudulent too strong a word?) about our president. This is not the TMZ/Justin/Jayzee/Tweety/Oprah crowd.

Yes, some of the these Columbines are beneficiaries of Obama's big government, hyper-legal, pro-lawyer agenda. But 90% of them do not have fortunes that rise and fall with Jeffrey Immelt's or David Axelrod's or Stephanie Cutter's. The loudest irony of the Obama campaign was that he was largely supported by people who would not benefit and might even be damaged by his rise to power. The Millenials, African-Americans and public pensioners are but three groups that have not fared well under Obama and we could add other groups to that list.

We don't expect middle aged Ivy Leaguers to be so easily duped. We might think that they would want to kick the tires and maybe even look under the hood. Apparently not.

I wish other people shared my curiosity about the invisible man. But we seem to be a distinct minority. Guess it's time to turn the page.

Climate Deniers in Their Own Words

The Manchurian Candidate Skips His 30 Year Reunion

My good friend Cynthia plans to go to heaven. Upon admission, her first order of business will be to ask God to reveal what really happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963. There was a time when I would have shared Cynthia's first choice. Now, I would prefer to learn about the mysteries of Barack Obama's life because his life is stranger than Kennedy's death.

Wayne Allyn Root recently attended his thirtieth reunion at Columbia University. WAR was a classmate of Barack Obama. Since 2007 he has reported that not only did he not remember Barack Obama, he could not find a single classmate who had even a passing memory of Barack Obama. (For this revelation he would be treated to back to back IRS audits shortly after Obama assumed office.)

Understand, there were only about 700 graduates and only about 150 political science majors. Root has never said what percentage of his poly sci classmates were tall African-American men but black men are roughly 7% of the US population. At the risk of being a little bit politically incorrect, Barack Obama would have stood out in the crowd. People who had never spoken to him would probably recognize the lanky black guy. One might figure, anyway.

 Wayne Allyn Root returned to his alma mater for his class's pearl reunion:

So I asked every classmate I met at our 30^th reunion, many of them Political Science majors, if they ever met, or saw, or heard of Obama. The answer was a resounding NO from every one of them. I asked if they found this strange, or worried how this was possible? They all answered YES. I asked if they thought it was possible to be a Political Science major and never meet a fellow major in our small classes? They all gave me a very strange look and answered NO. So I asked, “How could this be possible? Can you explain this?” No one had an answer.

After all these years the Kennedy Assassination captivates and teases and frustrates. But the life of Barack Obama is even more captivating, more teasing and more frustrating. I hope the new puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma does not go unsolved. Something tells me we will only learn about the real Barack Obama the same way Cynthia will learn about the JFK assassination.


http://freepatriot.org/2013/06/04/barack-obama-never-attended-columbia-university-says-his-graduating-class/

Is the Taliban Prone to Workplace Violence?

No terrorism here. Lately Obama hasn't caught many breaks and the Islamic practitioner of workplace violence, Major Nidal Hasan isn't helping by calling into question the notion that he was not much more than a disgruntled federal employee who could go off deep end, the sort person who would be employed by the US Postal Service. The major has announced that the Fort Hood massacre was in defense of “the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban”. That really doesn't square with the assessment of President Hope and Change.

FISA Court Orders Verizon to Turn Over All Customer Phone Records

What ever happened to our free country? The Guardian, in a column by Glenn Greenwald, reports that the FBI and NSA have obtained an order from a FISA court forcing Verizon to "on an "ongoing, daily basis" give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries." The court order was obtained on April 25 and will remain in effect until July 19.

Julian Sanchez, a surveillance expert with the Cato Institute, explained: "We've certainly seen the government increasingly strain the bounds of 'relevance' to collect large numbers of records at once — everyone at one or two degrees of separation from a target — but vacuuming all metadata up indiscriminately would be an extraordinary repudiation of any pretence of constraint or particularized suspicion." The April order requested by the FBI and NSA does precisely that.

Skeptics can read the order themselves here. Hope and change? Under the Bush administration NSA disclosed large and unspecified seizures of phone records but it never admitted to the wholesale logging of all calls of a particular carrier. Furthermore it's not known if other phone carriers have been served similar warrants. The column also makes the point that two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, are critical of the incessant spying but cannot discuss the depth of the loss of privacy as both are members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and speaking openly on the subject would mean divulging classified information. "the two Democrats have been stridently advising the public that the US government is relying on "secret legal interpretations" to claim surveillance powers so broad that the American public would be "stunned" to learn of the kind of domestic spying being conducted."
Not to be outdone, the Department of Homeland Security has adopted a legal interpretation of search and seizure rules so secret that the interpretation is classified. With obvious glee the Associated Press and CBS remind the administration of the folly of picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel.

Since his election, President Barack Obama has taken an expansive view of legal authorities in the name of national security, asserting that he can order the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad who are suspected of terrorism without involvement by courts, investigate reporters as criminals and — in this case — read and copy the contents of computers carried by U.S. travelers without a good reason to suspect wrongdoing.

Forget "probable cause" the DHS rules don't even require suspicion. DHS claims the right to search laptops, tablets, and cellphones for practically anything they may find. An excerpt from it directive states;

"An Officer may detain electronic devices, or copies of information contained therein, for a brief, reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search. The search may take place on-site or at an off-site location, and is to be completed as expeditiously as possible."
Once the examination is complete and you have not been deemed a criminal, according to Homeland Security's privacy impact assessment: "CBP will contact you by telephone when the examination of the electronic device(s) is complete, to notify you that you may pick-up the item(s) during regular business hours from the location where the item(s) was detained. If it is impractical for you to pick up the device, CBP can make arrangements to ship the device to you at our expense."

DHS adopted this authoritarian attitude last summer and was sued by the ACLU. Incredibly the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals bought into the notion that the need to track down kiddy porn trumped the 4th amendment. Now the program goes back in force under revised rules.

US Deploys Large Force to the Jordanian-Syrian Border

The United States has deployed 1,000 marines to Jordan. Excuse me, but is not the Democratic Party the party that worries so much about foreign interventions, especially interventions not authorized by Congress. Debkafile, an Israel based English and Hebrew web site reports:

Our sources disclose that this American force numbers 1,000 troops, the largest to land in Jordan since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2012. They are members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force carried aboard the USS Kearsage amphibious assault ship, which has been anchored off neighboring Israeli Eilat since mid-May. Upon landing, the marines took to the road in a convoy of armored vehicles including Hummers.
Washington and Amman have imposed a blackout on their arrival. The Pentagon has only let it be known that the annual joint US-Jordanian “Eager Lion 2013” military exercise is due to begin later in June and last two months, with the participation of US F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missile defense systems.
According to our US sources, the arrival of the US force in Jordan was not directly related to the regular exercise but decided on at an emergency meeting at the Pentagon on May 31, which was attended by top military and civilian Defense Department officials. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is away from Washington, took part by video conference.
The meeting decided that the military situation evolving in Syria and threats it posed to Jordan – including widening evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria - were urgent enough to warrant the dispatch of extra American military strength to Jordan, over and above the contingents participating in the joint exercise. The Israeli Air Force will provide air cover for the force until the F-16 jets are in place for the drill.

And it gets worse.

That request, according to our sources, was for the US to leave behind when the exercise ended and the troops departed - not just some of the weapons systems but all of the equipment which arrived with the marines Wednesday, as well as the F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles.
There is no official word about Washington’s response to this request. However, the Obama administration is not expected to turn it down.

Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain are probably the only two legislators dumb enough to vote to send troops to Jordan which is probably why the deployment was done secretly. Jay Carney will lie to the public and say this was a long planned military exercise with our old allies the Jordanians and Susan Rice will say we are trying to chase down the source of an offensive YouTube video. God help us all!

Hey, Pvt. Manning, Panetta Revealed Top Secret Information To “Zero Dark Thirty” Filmmaker

What little respect people had former DOD Secretary Leon Panetta is apt to soon disappear. An Inspector General report accuses Panetta, while Director of the CIA of revealing top secret information at a CIA awards ceremony attended by “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Mark Boal

“During this awards ceremony, Director Panetta specifically recognized the unit that conducted the raid and identified the ground commander by name,” the draft report said. “According to the DOD Office of Security Review, the individual’s name is protected from public release” under federal law.

Reflecting the appalling politicization that is the hallmark of the Obama administration the release of the report was postponed until after the election. This is the same administration that went to court to obtain the phone record of Fox reporter James Rosen. How is Leon Panetta less culpable than Bradley Manning? Read more.

Red Eye Out Draws Morning Joe

Some people see MSNBC's fortunes as being inextricably linked to Obama's popularity. Now that Obama is deservedly sinking in a swirly of scandals MSNBC has been taking on water at an alarming rate. I have finally taken to occasionally watching the lean forward crowd as it blames mostly Darrell Issa for the administration's woes while it reminds viewer of the need to focus on jobs and immigration reform but the influx of a few gloating conservatives isn't enough to offset the loss of its once enthusiastic hope and change, Obamabot, minions. It is bad. It is so bad that Fox's Red Eye which airs at 3AM eastern out draws Morning Joe. Salon has more.

“Morning Joe” is the lowest rated of the big three cable news morning shows in both total viewers and the younger demographic. Fox News’ Red Eye — a show Fox airs at 3 in the morning — had more total and 25-54-year-old viewers in April 2013 than “Morning Joe” did. “Morning Joe” in April 2013 was down, from its April 2012 numbers, in total and in young viewers by a greater percentage than the rest of the network as a whole.
I’m not harping on “Morning Joe” because I think the show is representative of everything wrong with contemporary political elite thinking, though it is, but because it illustrates MSNBC’s larger problem: It’s a political talk show. Every other TV morning show is mostly fluff and weather. “Morning Joe,” instead of entertainment news updates, has a former member of Congress wave a newspaper at Mark Halperin for a while. MSNBC’s target audience may just be much less interested in listening to people talk about politics in spring 2013 than they were during an election year.

Southern Tennessee Citizens School US Attorney on First Amendment

Obama flack, Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney of East Tennessee reportedly vowed to use federal civil rights statutes to clamp down on offensive and inflammatory speech about Islam, according to Politico.

"We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected," Killian told the newspaper.

Killian, along with the FBI special agent that runs the Knoxville office, are set to speak next week to a special meeting with the local Muslim community, informing them about their rights under federal law.

"This is an educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom of religion," Killian said about the meeting. "This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are."

Killian pointed to a recent controversy where a local Tennessee politician posted a photo of a man aiming a shotgun at the camera with the caption "How to wink at a Muslim."

"If a Muslim had posted ‘How to Wink at a Christian,’ could you imagine what would have happened?" Killian asked, according to the newspaper.

The people of Manchester, Tennessee were in no mood to listen to Killian's thoughts on political correctness. Reminiscent of Arlen Specter's attempt to sell Obamacare to the voters, Killian's seminar on political correctness crashed on the launch pad.

Will The Clintons Undercut Obama?

The US Presidency is a unique job with unique benefits. True, it does not pay all that well but ex-presidents are all wealthy. They are wealthier than say, former governors of southern states. And the perks! Oh my.

A few years back, circa 2007, Dick Morris estimated the White House perks to be worth $50 million/year. That was before the Obamas brought their lavish lifestyle to DC. Following the Obamas lead, a future president could enjoy a benefits package well into nine figures per year.

The Clintons love to be pampered. They could get used to the comforts of a post-Obama presidency. And yes, they would enjoy the limelight once more.

The Clintons and Obamas have never patched their fences. The two camps hate each other. Obama's feelings (as well as his legacy) will probably not serve as a roadblock to the White House. The Clintons are not hungry in the rice and beans sense of the term. But they are hungry in a champagne and caviar sort of way. Be careful underestimating the power of that drive.

So if you were Hillary Clinton who would you rather face in a 2016 Primary? An incumbent vice president who was carrying on his party's legacy or an incumbent president who rose to his status as a result of a series of horrible scandals that tarnished the entire administration? If I were managing her campaign I would rather face President Biden instead of Vice President Biden.

Of course it will be hard for Hillary to extricate herself from the Benghazi wreckage. Not everyone will walk away unscathed but Hillary might just survive the blowback. She is a Clinton after all.

There is no love lost between Bill and Barack. If The ex-president could kneecap the current president without getting some dust on his wife, he would gladly do so. This is a rivalry well worth monitoring.

IRS Chief Counsel Represented Jeremiah Wright's Church in Tax Case

In a post I authored on May 12, just two days after Lois Lerner's contrived news release at an ABA tax conference, I closed with the following question:

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."

Suddenly Wilkins has become something of an online celebrity though I doubt that he is much pleased about his new found fame, or if you will, infamy. I noted that Wilkins was a Washington player.

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.

It has come to light that Wilkins and Obama go back to Obama's Senate days when Wilkins and his law firm, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, won the dismissal of an IRS case against the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, later became a clergyman of national repute. From the American Lawyer, May 22, 2008:

The IRS initiated an investigation early this year after a speech by Obama at a 50th anniversary celebration of the church last June. It was a reference by Obama to his presidential candidacy in a talk otherwise focused on faith that caught the agency's attention. Tax laws prohibit non-profits--including churches--from engaging in political speech or promoting candidates. The IRS can withdraw an organization's tax-free status if the organization is found to violate the rule.

Reuters reports that Wilkins' office was made aware of the targeting of conservative groups as early as August 2011, according to the inspector general report. Now Wilkins' computer is among those being examined by investigators probing the IRS scandal. Are we to believe that it is coincidence that Obama appointed the lawyer who defended his church to be chief counsel of the IRS? Are we to believe further the Wilkins did not let the White House and Obama know of the Tea Party targeting which the IRS was engaged in a year before the election? Are we going too far to suspect that Wilkins had a hand in the targeting, virtually making the IRS the political action wing of the Obama campaign?

Richard Windsor to take position at Heartland Institute?

Legendary EPA employee Richard Windsor is reported to be considering taking a position with the Chicago based Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank long regarded as anathema by climate scientists. A spokesman for Heartland, speaking only on background denied the report saying while a high profile player such as Windsor would enhance any organization's media exposure Heartland was troubled by his lack of authenticity. " This guy is an empty suit who owes his entire existence to Lisa Jackson. He would be nothing without her."
Jackson, presently an environmental advisor to Apple, offered somewhat cryptic praise of Windsor noting that the EPA certified Windsor as a “scholar of ethical behavior.” Furthermore the EPA reported he “satisfactorily competed the online email records management training”; took the 2010 “No FEAR Act Training Module”; and a completed a “Cybersecurity awareness training” course in 2011, where he scored 83 percent.
The White House adamantly stated that Windsor's name did not appear in its visitor log and he has never been considered for a position at the IRS. Furthermore it did not know if Windsor had an EBT card but such information would be protected by his right to privacy. President Obama knew him only through newspaper accounts, it added.
Windsor was not available for comment.

Louisiana State Senator Leaves Democratic Party To Become First Black Republican Senator Since Reconstruction

Remember State Senator Karen Carter Peterson of Louisiana? She declared that the reason people oppose Obamacare is because Obama is black. To borrow a phrase from another iconic race theoretician, Jeremiah Wright, the chickens have come home to roost. Today another black Democratic senator announced he was leaving "the party of disappointment and joining the Republican Party.

"Today, the party of disappointment has moved away from the majority of Louisiana. They have moved away from the traditional values of most Americans," he said. "Their policies have encouraged the high teen birth rates, high school drop out rates, high incarceration rates and very high unemployment rates."

Evan Thomas; Obama guilty of commiting a "huge act of hypocrisy"

Did Evan Thomas call our exalted president a dishonest  hypocrite? Sounds like it. When the former editor of Newsweek talks like that what is the rest of the country thinking?

The IRS Scandal Began in Washington

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released excerpts from transcribed interviews between committee investigators and Cincinnati IRS employees. In these interviews Cincinnati IRS employees reject the White House’s and Lois Lerner's ridiculous claim that the targeting was merely work of “rogue” agents and say targeting of conservative political groups came from Washington, D.C. Intuitively we already knew as much. There were far too many employees involved for this to have been a rogue, low level, operation.
How long did the targeting go on? Inasmuch as more than 20 groups are still waiting for approval it's fair to say it's still going on. So set the beginning at March 2010 and it looks like 38 months and counting.

One Cincinnati IRS employee interviewed by the Oversight Committee rejects the White House assertion and points to Washington as being responsible for targeting effort:

Q: In early 2010, was there a time when you became aware of applications that referenced Tea Party or other conservative groups?
A: In March of 2010, I was made aware.
Q: Okay. Now, was there a point around this time period when [your supervisor] asked you to do a search for similar applications?
A: Yes.
Q: To the best of your recollection, when was this request made?
A: Sometime in early March of 2010.

Where did the targeting originate?

Q: Did [your supervisor] give you any indication of the need for the search, any more context?
A: He told me that Washington, D.C., wanted some cases.
Q: So as of April 2010, these 40 cases were held at that moment in your group; is that right?
A: Some were.
Q: How many were held there?
A: Less than 40. Some went to Washington, D.C.
Q: Okay. How many went to Washington, D.C.?
A: I sent seven.

The agent then explained that he or she sent hard copy versions to Washington, selecting the first 7 in his file. Then the agent was asked for 2 specific application. It's not random when someone asks for an application by name.

Q: Did anyone else ever make a request that you send any cases to Washington?
A:  [Different IRS employee] wanted to have two cases that she couldn't ‑‑ Washington, D.C. wanted them, but she couldn't find the paper.  So she requested me, through an email, to find these cases for her and to send them to Washington, D.C.
Q: When was this, what time frame?
A: I don't recall the time frame, maybe May of 2010.
Q: But just to be clear, she told you the specific names of these applicants. 
A: Yes.
Q: And she told you that Washington, D.C. had requested these two specific applications be sent to D.C. 
A: Yes, or parts of them. 
Q: Okay.  So she asked you to send particular parts of these applications. 
A: Mm‑hmm.
Q: And that was unusual.  Did you say that? 
A: Yes.
Q: And she indicated that Washington had requested these specific parts of these specific applications; is that right?
A: Correct. 

And evidently Washington was setting up the fall guy by giving him or her more applications than he or she could possibly process in a timely manner.

Q: You have stated you had concerns with the fairness and the timeliness of the application process.  Did you have concerns with just the fact that these cases were grouped together and you were the only one handling them? 
A: I was the only one handling the Tea Party's, that is correct. 
Q: Did that specifically cause you concern? 
A: Yes, it did.  And I was the only person handling them. 
Q:  Were you concerned that you didn't have the capacity to process all of the applications in a timely manner? 
A: That is correct.  And it is just ‑‑ I mean, like you brought up, the micromanagement, the fact that the topic was just weirdly handled was a huge concern to me. 

In a future post I'll pursue the notion that has been advanced by both CBS News and McClatchy News Services that the IRS was just part of a government wide action that brought the full force of the government to bear on those opposing the Obama administration. That list would include, aside from the IRS, the FBI, ATF, EPA and OHSA.

Reviewing The Worship Of Barack Hussein Obama. Part XII

The Jesus cover-up. This happened in April 2009 when the flowers were blooming, the birds were chirping and the honeymoon was as sweet as saccharin.

This blog did not mention the Jesus cover-up. Even though I was frightened by the cult of Obama and I was roiling at the gross preferential treatment the press had afforded The Pampered One, I had yet to view the president as a power-hungry, worship-craving tyrant who would be jealous of the adoration others showered on Jesus Christ. Yes, I wanted our president to succeed.

I snickered at what I interpreted to be the exulted one's political ineptitude. In retrospect, this incident is much more disturbing. It would be a harbinger, a sneak preview of a megalomaniac blossoming before our very eyes.

Of course, this event would not have transpired without the cooperation of Georgetown University. The Catholic Church has been co-opted by leftists. If one returns to the pews after a long absence, one should be prepared to hear about the plight of "undocumented workers" or equitable sharing of resources or the horrors of draconian budget cuts.

But that is another subject for another time. Today, let us take a long, hard look at the man who removed the name of Jesus from an institution founded by The Society of Jesus. Can you say 'Messianic Complex?'

Oh, one more thing. Georgetown spokesmen revealed that the shrouding of religious symbols was performed at The White House's request.

THE 'BEFORE' PHOTO DISPLAYING 'IHS'

AFTER

THE MAKEOVER UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

 LOOK WHO'S SPORTING A HALO!

        HOW MANY NOBEL PRIZES DID YOUR PRINCE OF PEACE WIN?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/belief-blog/2009/apr/15/obama-at-georgetown-the-mystery-of-the-missing-sig/