No ordinary scandal
Peggy Noonan‘s latest WSJ blog post is a blistering attack on the Obama administration’s use of the IRS as a bludgeon to intimidate, censor, and silence political opponents. It is an essential read for anyone interested in policy and politics.
The IRS scandal has two parts. The first is the obviously deliberate and targeted abuse, harassment and attempted suppression of conservative groups. The second is the auditing of the taxes of political activists. …
This is not about the usual partisan slugfest. This is about the integrity of our system of government and our ability to trust, which is to say our ability to function.
Axelrod has (accidentally) sided with the Tea Party
This video is classic Chicago-style politics. Pass the buck, blame someone else, don’t look behind the curtain, just focus on the spin and everything will be fine.
Sad thing for David Axelrod is that he apparently doesn’t even realize he has just given the Libertarians and the Tea Party their winning 2014 election soundbite. Watch the video; you’ll see.
Yes, you did just hear Axelrod argue that that President Obama can’t possibly be to blame for the IRS scandal (and by logical extension – Benghazi, Fast & Furious, the Justice Department seizing two months of AP phone records, the brewing EPA scandal, etc., etc., etc.) because the government is “so vast” that it is impossible to track what happens in these diverse and sundry bureaucracies.
“So vast” were his words – e’nuf said.
But for those who might have missed the obvious … THAT”S THE WHOLE POINT!!! That’s exactly why supporters of limited government are pushing to have all of this addressed, taxes cut, the bureaucracy limited. Government has passed the point of accountability and effective, efficient, Constitutional service to “we the people.” By Axelrod’s own admission government has become a massive, gaping hole, where responsibility and accountability go to die – along with multiple trillions of our tax dollars.
When pro-big government socialists like Axelrod are openly admitting government is “so vast” that no one can know what it is doing, it really is time to cut budgets on a massive scale.
A seismic shift in the burden of proof from “tinfoil behatted” to the government
I posted yesterday about the gross miscarriages of justice by the “Justice” Department, the IRS, and the State Department. (Of course, I forgot to include the even more overt criminal acts carried out by the Justice Department as part of their Fast and Furious scandal where the federal government effectively supplied thousands of firearms to drug cartels. Those firearms were then directly involved in the death of US Border Guard, Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican citizens.)
Today we are learning that the EPA routinely played politics in their handling of fee waivers for environmental groups and politically conservative groups. The Competitive Enterprise Institute noted today that,
It’s not just the IRS that treats groups on the right differently from the rest. According to documents obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency is in on it too.
Public records produced by EPA in response to a lawsuit filed by CEI under the Freedom of Information Act illustrate a pattern of making it far more difficult for limited-government groups – in particular those who argue for more freedom and less EPA – to access public records. …
EPA routinely grants … fee waivers to its favored left-wing groups who demand a more intrusive and powerful EPA, but systematically denies waivers for groups on the right, according to research compiled by CEI Senior Fellow Christopher Horner, author of “The Liberal War on Transparency.”
In a review of letters granting or denying fee waivers granted at the “initial determination” stage from January 2012 to this Spring, Horner found green groups, such as the National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and EarthJustice, had their fees waived in 75 out of 82 cases. Meanwhile, EPA effectively or expressly denied Horner’s request for fee waivers in 14 of 15 FOIA requests over this same time.
It seems that many of the federal government bureaucracies are now infested with career employees who feel quite comfortable playing political games with citizens and taxpayers. The actions of these government employees necessarily lead reasonable people to believe that government is working hand in glove with left-wing political and environmental groups to further so-called progressive world views.
When even John Stewart is saying that the partisan, corrupt, and possibly even criminal behavior of these government employees is encouraging the very anti-government mindset that so many progressives have derided as lunatic fringe, you know that it is well past time for Congress to step in and clear up this mess.
| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Barack Trek: Into Darkness | ||||
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Investigations, firings, fines/loss of pensions, and jail time need to become real possibilities for government employees and managers that refuse to follow the Constitution, legislation, and regulations.
Justice Department seizes AP phone records
I don’t care who you are, who you voted for, what you believe … etc. When you start adding these reports together, it’s time for reasonable people to start asking some serious questions about what is going on in our federal government.
The IRS has admitted to targeting conservative non-profits, and now this article indicates that the IRS may have released the unapproved applications from conservative groups to Propublica, a generally left-leaning news organization. Propublica admits to having published redacted examples of those applications.
Furthermore, the Obama administration abandoned consulate staff in Benghazi and then repeatedly edited their reports and talking points about the Benghazi attack for several weeks, prompting House investigations into their actions. Those investigations are ongoing, while the Obama administration claims they are politically motivated “circus.”
To top off the questionable performance of this current administration, we learned today that the Justice Department secretly collected two months of phone records for more than 20 separate Associated Press telephone lines last year.
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 outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of the calls.
In all, the government seized the 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 where phone records were targeted, on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
Of course no one should miss the sick irony of this all coming to light a short time after the President told Ohio State students that they should “reject the voices” that warn of government tyranny.
Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.
On statism
The worst of this ever growing cancer of Statism is its moral effect. The country is rich enough to stand its frightful economic wastage for a long time yet, and still prosper, but it is already so poverty-stricken in its moral resources that the present drain will quickly run them out.
- Albert Jay Nock, “Journal of Forgotten Days” [May 28, 1934]
A brigand or an emperor
Set aside justice, then, and what are kingdoms but great bands of brigands? For what are brigands’ bands but little kingdoms? For in brigandage the hands of the underlings are directed by the commander, the confederacy of them is sworn together, and the pillage is shared by law among them. And if those ragamuffins grow up to be able enough to keep forts, build habitations, possess cities, and conquer adjoining nations, then their government is no longer called brigandage, but graced with the eminent name of a kingdom, given and gotten not because they have left their practices but because they use them without danger of law. Elegant and excellent was that pirate’s answer to the great Macedonian Alexander, who had taken him; the king asking him how he durst molest the seas so, he replied with a free spirit: “How darest thou molest the whole earth? But because I do it only with a little ship, I am called brigand: thou doing it with a great navy art called emperor.”
- St. Augustine, City of God, Book IV, [A.D. 413]
A political standard of right and wrong
“There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation than the current one that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong…. In fact it is only reestablishing under another name and a more specious form, force as the measure of right.”
–James Madison, letter to James Monroe, 1786
Rep. Andy Harris questions head of CDC over vaccination cuts
This testimony from the head of the CDC demonstrates clearly how brazenly this White House and senior administration officials will use the health and welfare of children to advance their political goals.
In his questions to the head of the CDC, Rep. Andy Harris demonstrates that President Obama’s suggested budget projected spending cuts in the CDC’s 317 program of over $58 million. The CDC believed that, despite those cuts, they would be able to maintain current levels of vaccination. However, cuts of $30 million, brought on by sequestration-based spending limitations, caused CDC officials to state that they would have to cease providing vaccinations to over 2,000 children in the state of Maryland.
I’ll restate in simpler language so the math-deficient among us can understand. The CDC says it could weather a $58 million cut, if President Obama was the one making the cut. However, since the Obama administration wants to reinforce the idea that sequestration cuts are the Republican’s fault and that they are going make the sequestration as painful as possible for the average person on the street, Obama administration employees in the CDC were willing to let $30 million in sequestration cuts decimate Maryland’s vaccination program.
So, which side is playing politics with the health of children?
Matt Damon movie attacks domestic energy industry – funded by OPEC
It’s becoming tiring listening to the allegedly green – but in reality just anti-domestic energy – agenda. We’re supposed to believe the lie that domestic energy producers are all money-grubbing rapers of the natural environment. However, since the green industry so often questions the underlying motives of industry actions with the question, “how were you funded,” it makes sense for those who support our domestic energy industry to ask the same question of their multi-million dollar NIMBY and anti-energy campaigns.
A perfect example exists in the new Matt Damon movie “Promised Land,” an anti-domestic energy screed that is reported to go to “absurd lengths to vilify oil and gas companies.”
Word on the street is that “Promised Land” has been bankrolled in part by the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, an OPEC member that would benefit greatly if American oil/natural gas production were limited. The reality is that as the U.S. moves further into the export market for our growing natural gas and oil production, we begin to impact on market share for other oil producers, like the UAE.
Is anyone out there at all surprised that the attacks on our domestic energy industries may not all be quite so grass roots and green in origin?
MSNBC edits audio again
Amazing to see MSNBC once again editing and misrepresenting news in a transparent effort to defame and detract from conservative candidates. (Remember the edits to Romney’s sandwich making comment and their equally odious edits to the Zimmerman 911 call? Note that I would be equally concerned if the editing and outright lies were being done in a manner that attacked and defamed liberal/progressive candidates.)
I have heard and read first hand accounts from more than one person who was at this campaign event and they are all saying that the crowd was yelling “Romney, Romney, Romney” and Mr. Romney stopped them and asked them to include Ryan in their chant. If one actually listens to the crowd, you can clearly hear that they are chanting “Romney.” However, that chanting is cut short by MSNBC audio techs. So they have deliberately misrepresented the crowd’s chant as “Ryan, Ryan, Ryan”. That way, when Romney stopped and asked them to chant both names, he appears weak and ineffective – having to remind the crowd who is leading the ticket. Instead Romney was lowering himself and raising up his running mate.
MSNBC apparently couldn’t stand to have Romney appear as a humble or self-effacing candidate, so they chose to smear the conservative in the story by editing the audio and reporting a lie.
Tell me again why anyone watches this channel? They’re not even doing a good job as a paid wing of the Democrat party because their attempts to smear the other side are so transparent that they become almost comical.
Obama on immigration-related executive orders
In March 2011, Obama clearly stated that he could not just go around Congress on the issue of immigration-related executive orders. He took great pains to explain the roles and responsibilities of each branch of government to the people listening to this speech. But last week, he just ignored those sentiments and did the very thing he said was illegal, just 15 months ago.
So … I’m left wondering what changed over the past year?
Of course it appears that the electoral ‘love’ he might have gained from ignoring his own words with his Dream Act-related executive order, has been effectively quashed with this little number.
¡Cuidado! No Forks Allowed at Obama’s Latino Luncheon
Judging from Obama’s actions at this years National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) luncheon, Obama’s newest fear is Latinos with forks. Obama had the Secret Service confiscate all the dinner forks from the participants at the June 22 event held in Orlando, Florida.
Several participants Tweeted that butter knives were banned outright and forks were confiscated as soon as the diners finished eating and before the President entered the room to speak.
The attendees were elected officials and their staffs, not just the average Jose off the street. Nevertheless, Obama took away their forks as if they were inmates at a prison. Many of these elected officials are probably wondering why the president was concerned for his safety.
An Imperial Presidency
Obama continues to ignore our Constitution and his own words as it suits him to do so. This Heritage Foundation article describes his most apparent and egregious actions to install himself as the modern day version of King George III.
By repeatedly enacting laws that have been rejected by a duly elected Congress and the voters, he is willfully damaging the office he currently holds and placing himself above the rule of law. Through executive and regulatory fiat he has unilaterally imposed his version of Cap-and-Trade, the Employee Free Choice Act, Internet regulation, and waivers to federal education laws. He has simply ignored immigration law (and actively attacked those who attempt to enforce it). He has thumbed his nose at existing narcotics laws, the DOMA, and other legislation as it suited him to do so. Most recently, his Attorney General has carried out a two year long campaign of stonewalling Congressional investigations, which Obama himself has now topped off by claiming executive privilege. He has effectively argued that his Department of Justice is exempt from responding to Congressional investigations.
As the Heritage article argues, although we currently have an imperial presidency, we don’t need a new Declaration of Independence from our modern day King George. We need a President that will humble himself and take up his proper role as a servant of the people. We need a President who will abide by the Constitution that he has sworn to “preserve, protect, and defend.”
Update: Reason magazine picks up on the same theme and adds to the list of Mr. Obama’s anti-Constitutional offenses. Worse, they are forced to explain to Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, why not getting his own way does not justify trashing the Constitution.
Obama’s “personal narrative” crumbling
As we learn more and more about Obama’s “composite” girlfriends, and self-stated place of birth, we begin to see that much of this life before Washington was a fabrication and marketing scheme.
Now, we’re also learning that his much shared story about the death of this mother is also false.
Throughout the 2008 campaign season, and later, in support of his massive overhaul of our medical system, Obama was widely quoted as saying his mother had been the victim of a greedy and vindictive insurance system. He claimed she spent her final days in the hospital, fighting with insurance companies over her medical coverage.
For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.
In reality, we are now learning that there is something fundamentally wrong with a person spreading yet another false narrative about the evils of insurance companies, as a means of obtaining the most powerful political office on the planet.
The fables Obama seems to have told about his alienation, his girlfriends and the rest of his over-intellectualized voyage of self-discovery actually pale in comparison to the whopper he told when running for election in 2008 that his mother died because she had been denied coverage and treatment of her disease. Scott revealed that in fact the expenses relating to her cancer had been paid by her insurance. Though she had a separate and totally unrelated dispute relating to disability coverage, Scott’s research proved that Obama’s statement during the 2008 presidential debate was fiction [...]
It bears repeating that the president knew this account was false because he served as his mother’s attorney in all her dealings with the insurance company.
It is time for Obama’s many, varied, and colorful personal narratives to be brought out into the sunlight. That this man is serial liar and much of his life appears to be little more than marketing spin and fable has become increasingly clear. It’s time that the media did its job and the American people saw through the hype and PR. It’s time to finally vet this man’s career and credentials.
Protections against government action
Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights; it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is man’s deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against governmental actions that the Bill of Rights was written.
— Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness [1964]
Marketable minority profiles
Victor Davis Hansen considers the failure of the assumable minority identity in a recent post. As I noted in my previous posts on the Obama “Kenyan” bio (here and here), the fault lies wholly at the feet of the people engaging in the fraud. But few, if any, in positions of power have the courage to stand up and say that the king is strutting down the street buck naked.
Hansen quite rightly notes that many in the postmodern, politically correct, and progressive community feel no qualms engaging in fraudulent misrepresentation of their lives and history as a means of bolstering the progressive street cred. However, the problem with their situational ethics is that there is no longer a foundation upon which we can review their performance or abilities.
… we seem to forget that these are not just absent-minded slips, but deliberate frauds. These lies always result in making the author/professor/candidate more, not less, exotic and thus more marketable in today’s PC landscape. So when Obama, the former editor of the Harvard Law Review and current president of the United States, and Warren, a Harvard Law professor, fabricate their identities for career advantage, then who polices the police?
No one would ever seriously and openly advocate that our youth pattern their lives after frauds and liars. However, given the politically correct straightjackets that censor rebuttals to the ‘assumable minority identity,’ no one is free to criticize Warren because to do so would be to attack her imaginary Native-American “heritage.” One can’t criticize Obama’s own 16-year long claim to a Kenyan birth because to do so is to engage in “birtherism” and a racist assault on his – for the purposes of marketing a book – Kenyan heritage.
One dare not question the motives underlying their collective fraud because that implies a patriarchal, modernist, racist, … colonialist, … sexist – did I forget any? – attack on whatever parentage or heritage they have most recently claimed.
Their background is fraudulent and their experience is fraudulent. Therefore, their achievements are primarily based in lies and then bolstered and funded by additional lies and politically correct fear. Their lives are a fraud, but they are celebrated in the progressive world as shining examples of successes that others should mimic.
This is simply nonsensical.