Bocage

    Bocage

Bocage? How to cut through the impenetrable hedges in Normandy, 1944?  Sherman tanks fitted with hedge utters slashed through the bocage with rugged tusks designed by GIs and fabricated with angle-iron salvaged from German beach obstacles.  How long did it take for welders and virtually all of the oxygen acetylene cylinders in England ( flown into Normandy ) in an assembly line in St. Jean-de-Daye to turn out 300 cutters?   2 days.  My God! 2 days. Name a spectacular, entrepreneurial something we can accomplish now in 2 days?  2 days.  I the past 2 days, the politically correct media and our crazy culture can destroy the reputation of Gordon Gee, President of OSU over a joke. Really!   Ho, ho ho!

the words contain no meaning

Meaning absents itself from advertising for products. Do you know how to “raise your expectations about what a Kubota ( lawn mower) can do for you?  No, the words contain no meaning.  Meaning presents itself, however, in great narrative writing such as Rick Atkinson’s depiction of the troops, planes, and landing craft released on D-day, June 6th, 1944 as an “effluent of liberation.” Which do you prefer?  Emptiness or fullness of expression? No brainer, I say.

CRONY CAPITALISM

CRONY CAPITALISM
THE HILL: Cantor says Obama ‘disconnected,’ has ‘lost focus’ in office. He never really had a lot of focus, except on getting re-elected.

SHIKHA DALMIA: Obama’s Orwellian Doublespeak On Drones. “The question is whether liberals will protect their principles or their man.”
Oh, I don’t think there’s much of a question.

How Obama Aides Are Cashing In.

ANOTHER CASE FOR MY REVOLVING-DOOR SURTAX RIGHT HERE: Former EPA head Lisa P. Jackson becomes Apple’s top environmental adviser.

DEREK HUNTER ON CRONY CAPITALISM: “Current scandals aside, when the history of the Obama Administration is written the topic of crony capitalism will need a section to itself. From the high profile failures of green energy projects to the bailouts of Wall Street and Detroit, handing out taxpayer dollars to private industry is a hallmark of the president’s economic policy. But President Obama is not alone responsible for approving these giveaways. Congress has played a critical role, especially when it comes to subsidies to Hollywood and the recording industry.” Yes.

James Madison’s April 1787 memo, “Vices of the Political System of the United States,”
“Representative appointments are sought from 3 motives. 1. ambition 2. personal interest. 3. public good.  Unhappily the two first are proved by experience to be most prevalent.  Hence the candidates who feel them, particularly, the second, are most industrious, and most successful in pursuing their object: and forming often a majority in the legislative Councils, with interested views, contrary to the interest, and views, of their Constituents, join in a perfidious sacrifice of the latter to the former.  A succeeding election it might be supposed, would displace the offenders, and repair the mischief. But how easily are base and selfish measures, masked by pretexts of public good and apparent expediency?  How frequently will a repetition of the same arts and industry which succeeded in the first instance, again prevail on the unwary to misplace their confidence?
How frequently too will the honest but unenlightened representative be the dupe of a favorite leader, veiling his selfish views under the professions of public good, and varnishing his sophistical arguments with the glowing colours of popular eloquence?”

One of the flaws of the modern punditry – and, more generally, of what Deirdre McCloskey calls “the herd of independent minds” – that I find most distressing is its refusal to be cured of its cancerous romanticism about government and coerced collective actions. Faith that some Great Man or Great Woman or Great Council – faith that some secular savior or saviors – can be found or fashioned to exercise power selflessly and in ways that, We are promised, will improve upon the realities of free markets and other venues of voluntary human interactions is an unshakable conviction among far too many elite pundits and intellectuals (who, amazingly, fancy themselves to be reality-based and science-driven).

Mandate Us to Utopia

Mandate Us to Utopia
Yevdokiya Zagumenova 
All mandates do is force workers to spend what they earn on the things government mandates instead of spending their earnings on goods and services they individually might prefer.

Socialism never works as a policy, but thanks to human traits of envy and gullibility, it’s often successful as a con.

The rest is just details.

                                    The rest is just details.

ED MARKEY: Let me put it in terms a smart financial journalist like Brauchli can readily understand. On Wall Street, financial crisis destroys jobs. Here in Washington, it creates them. The rest is just details.

USA TODAY COLUMN : Penalties for politicians: We entrust an inordinate amount of power to people who don’t feel any pain when we fall down.

OBAMA’S STRATEGY: Inducing “Scandal Exhaustion?”

JAY LENO: How To CloLet me put it in terms a smart financial journalist like Brauchli can readily understand. On Wall Street, financial crisis destroys jobs. Here in Washington, it creates them. The rest is just details.se Gitmo: Have Obama Make It A Government-Funded Solar Company.

GOOD QUESTION: Why, Exactly, Was The IRS Commissioner Such A Constant Visitor To the Obama White House? And why don’t the visitor logs give more information about who he met with and why?

STEVEN GREENHUT: IRS Scandal Highlights the Dangers of Big Government.

TRIAL & ERROR OBAMACARE

TRIAL & ERROR OBAMACARE
Out on a Limb
"Only time will tell which health plans will look wiser a year or so from now: those that took a leap of faith (based on past experience) into the unknown waters of Covered California, or those that stayed on the shore and watched the others splash and try to find the right stroke to navigate their way."--Chris Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, May 24

A Memorial Day reminder

    A Memorial Day reminder

Who knows that 300 Shites have been killed in sectarian violence ( mostly Sunnis) in Iraq in the past 2 weeks?  What does this total have to do with our anti-war President?  Nothing, because he was against the war in Iraq.  Unnoticed too must be the record number of our soldiers being killed in Obama’s ‘good’ war in Afghanistan.  Hypocrite- in- chief can wax eloquent with his speech writers’ words on the ultimate sacrifice of our military heroes but he’s still a hypocrite and still not eloquent.

Pernicious teachings

What fostered the New York Draft riots on July 13, 1863?  “Pernicious teachings scattered among the ignorant” led to over a hundred deaths and widespread destruction. So where will the dangerous teachings of progressive Democrats spread among the low-information voters lead?  Just asking...   

TRIUMPH OF THE KNOW-NOTHING PARTY

TRIUMPH OF THE KNOW-NOTHING PARTY
JONATHAN TURLEY:

There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand.

Clearly, there was a degree of willful blindness in these claims. However, the suggestion that someone, even the president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.

HEH: Leno-Obama tells Morehouse College grads their future is great. Unless, of course, they want jobs. Then, they are totally screwed.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the day to decorate the graves of the fallen, but how about a few words on  ‘siwashes’ who have traditionally be subjected to prejudice. ‘Siwashes’ ( a phonetic pronunciation) were savages ( ½ Alaskan Indians,  ½ American Indians, ½  Southern slaves, perhaps even Southern slave-holders, you too can name them).  They traditionally felt the sting of  prejudice from their betters.  ‘Siwashes’ run amok nowadays as Muslim terrorists. No ½ bred background, just perversion of their Muslim Faith that has led and is leading to savagery and barbarism. True savagery and barbarism - not the misunderstood concept of ‘siwash’ in by-gone days.

On Memorial day, of course, we honor the dead.  Yet all dead at the hands of Muslim jihadists are also dead.  Let’s say a prayer for them today too.  Until American politicians reform their leadership from that of the philosopher Lao Tzu who believed that a ruler should fill the people’s stomachs and empty their heads - America is doomed to suffer at the hands of evil, terrorist ‘siwashes’ of every color and creed.  America the beautiful and bountiful could be no more!

pneumatic multiculti Tourette

Mark Steyn:
This passivity set the tone for what followed. In London as in Boston, the politico-media class immediately lapsed into the pneumatic multiculti Tourette’s that seems to be a chronic side effect of excess diversity-celebrating: No Islam to see here, nothing to do with Islam, all these body parts in the street are a deplorable misinterpretation of Islam.

Ronald Williamson • 31 minutes ago -
Countries get what they deserve. Sheep generally are slaughtered. Any country that bans guns doesn't speak English. It bleats.

the authentic sound of stonewalling

PEGGY NOONAN:
"I don't know." "I don't remember." "I'm not familiar with that detail." "It's not my precise area." "I'm not familiar with that letter."
These are quotes from the Internal Revenue Service officials who testified this week before the House and Senate. That is the authentic sound of stonewalling, and from the kind of people who run Washington in the modern age—smooth, highly credentialed and unaccountable. ....They came across as people arrogant enough to target Americans for abuse and harassment and think they'd get away with it.

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: True The Vote Sues IRS Employees In Their Personal Capacity. “True the Vote is not only suing the IRS, but also taking action against the IRS employees who participated in the harassment of the voter education and election monitoring organization. Those employees could personally be held liable to pay damages that would be established in litigation.”

BARACK OBAMA: World’s Greatest Gun Salesman! A lot of the guns sold during Obama’s presidency will still be around 50 or 100 years from now.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Intimidation: Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense.

WHY THE IRS WENT AFTER THE TEA PARTY

WHY THE IRS WENT AFTER THE TEA PARTY, instead of Establishment Republicans. “Isn’t it ironic that the Tea Party now stands for the rule of law and that elements of the United States government and the Washington establishment have become the rogue, criminal element in America?”

Sen. Rand Paul properly suggests that if members of the U.S. Congress really want to grill financial predators, they bring a large mirror to Capitol Hill and grill themselves.

BELIEVABLE: “Asked why he visited WH 118 times, Former IRS Commish Doug Shulman, cited the Easter Egg Roll as one reason.”

THE THEME OF 2014? “When it comes to the I.R.S., we’re all Tea Partyers.”

“INCIVILITY” DEFINED: IT MEANS CRITICIZING OBAMA. Going after those racist, terroristic TeaBaggers who should all be hunted down and killed? That’s just good government.

THEY FOOLISHLY THOUGHT THEY WERE EXEMPT: Peter Wehner: Liberals Are Now Shocked, Shocked at Obama’s Culture of Intimidation.

JAY LENO: “The Obama White House is still denying he knew anything about the IRS scandal in advance. They say that would have been inappropriate because Obama was too busy not knowing about the Benghazi scandal.”

WHY THE IRS WENT AFTER THE TEA PARTY

WHY THE IRS WENT AFTER THE TEA PARTY, instead of Establishment Republicans. “Isn’t it ironic that the Tea Party now stands for the rule of law and that elements of the United States government and the Washington establishment have become the rogue, criminal element in America?”

Sen. Rand Paul properly suggests that if members of the U.S. Congress really want to grill financial predators, they bring a large mirror to Capitol Hill and grill themselves.

BELIEVABLE: “Asked why he visited WH 118 times, Former IRS Commish Doug Shulman, cited the Easter Egg Roll as one reason.”

THE THEME OF 2014? “When it comes to the I.R.S., we’re all Tea Partyers.”

“INCIVILITY” DEFINED: IT MEANS CRITICIZING OBAMA. Going after those racist, terroristic TeaBaggers who should all be hunted down and killed? That’s just good government.

THEY FOOLISHLY THOUGHT THEY WERE EXEMPT: Peter Wehner: Liberals Are Now Shocked, Shocked at Obama’s Culture of Intimidation.

JAY LENO: “The Obama White House is still denying he knew anything about the IRS scandal in advance. They say that would have been inappropriate because Obama was too busy not knowing about the Benghazi scandal.”

Obama administration is showing that it cannot be trusted with the basic functions of government

Obama administration is showing that it cannot be trusted with the basic functions of government
THE COMMON THREAD IN THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION SCANDALS
John Yoo identifies the common thread in the major Obama administration scandals:

Add up all the recent scandals and the message is clear: the Obama administration is showing that it cannot be trusted with the basic functions of government: law enforcement (surveillance of reporters), taxation (IRS scandals), and national security (Benghazi).

How, then, can we trust the administration when it comes to immigration — an area in which it already has refused to enforce portions of the law that it doesn’t like?
POSTED ON MAY 21, 2013 BY PAUL MIRENGOFF IN IMMIGRATION, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SCANDALS

ROLL CALL ON LOIS LERNER’S DECISION TO TAKE THE FIFTH: “The IRS official in charge of the division accused of improperly targeting conservative groups will invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against compelled self-incrimination at a committee hearing Wednesday, a sign of concern that the political controversy is heading into the criminal arena. . . . The announcement signaled a potentially dramatic turn in a controversy that has embroiled Capitol Hill and the IRS since the release last week of an inspector general’s reporting describing actions by IRS workers over several years to single out conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and subject them to intrusive questioning.”


THEY FOOLISHLY THOUGHT THEY WERE EXEMPT: Peter Wehner: Liberals Are Now Shocked, Shocked at Obama’s Culture of Intimidation.

COLUMBUS DISPATCH: Wake Up, Watchdog: White House probes of reporters should shake complacency. “After treating President Barack Obama with uncommon deference throughout his first term, many members of the press finally may be realizing that this is a one-way street.”

BENGHAZI SUSPECTS SAFE BUT DRONE COULD HIT TEA PARTY MEETING ANY MOMENT

BENGHAZI SUSPECTS SAFE BUT DRONE COULD HIT TEA PARTY MEETING ANY MOMENT
Benghazi Suspects ID’d, But Administration Won’t Nab Them Because It Doesn’t Want to Send Them to Gitmo
   
Despite the fact that the Obama administration regularly strike at terrorists with lethal drone hits in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the White House is reportedly not rounding up five suspects identified in the Benghazi attack because of a lack of evidence to try them in civilian court.

The Associated Press cites officials who said there is enough evidence to seize the men as enemy combatants and send them to Guantanamo Bay.

But apparently the Obama administration wants civilian trials for anyone involved in the Benghazi attack and has sent the FBI back to collect more evidence, which could be challenging in a more tumultuous Libya today.
by
BRIDGET JOHNSON
PJ Media

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY, LIMITED GOVERNMENT & FREE MARKETS - NAH

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY, LIMITED GOVERNMENT & FREE MARKETS - NAH
Vern McKinley shows in his book “Financing Failure: A Century of Bailouts”
Yet there is a deep irony in the 2400 pages of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform legislation: No serious person believes that it will prevent the next financial crisis and, despite bravado to the contrary, no one really believes that when that financial crisis hits that massive bailouts of financial institutions will not be forthcoming.
...  And the picture that McKinley presents is both depressing and realistic.  He shows government officials simultaneously consumed by panic, arrogance, and ignorance, bumbling frantically and repeatedly, producing responses that not only failed to accomplish their stated goals but actually producing counterproductive results, with George W. Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson coming off as Washington’s chief Keystone Cop.

THE CHICAGO WAY: A tea-party group targeted by Democrats gets attention from the IRS—and the FBI, OSHA, and the ATF.
UPDATE: WaPo/ABC News Poll: Majority Believe Obama’s IRS Targeting of Tea Party Was Intentional and Illegal.
WHICH IS, OF COURSE, THE GOAL: Michael Barone: Obama’s IRS and AP scandals cast Big Chill on free speech.
WELL, FIRST THEY CAME FOR FILMMAKER NAKOULA, AND THE A.P. DIDN’T DO ANYTHING: Shredding the Constitution: Obama’s attack on the media.
TWEET OF THE DAY: #Fact: DOJ had more surveillance of @JamesRosenFNC than Tsarnaev brothers.
Related: Investors Business Daily: The Obama Objective: To Control The News.
And note that neither George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney ever did anything like this. That was left to The Lightbringer.
HOW THE PRESS CAN STRIKE BACK: Just start covering Obama — on everything — the way you would if he were a Republican President. #Toast.

We’re split as wide open as a country

The President’s poll numbers show his approval rating holding steady at near 50%.  Really? This indicates a total bifurcation of ideologies in America.  We’re split as wide open as the country before the Civil War. Left vs. right. Liberal vs. conservative.  Bad in the sense that followers are destroying America; good in the sense that we are trying to stop the slide to Gomorrah.

Need a teeny bit of proof from a local ad from a kindergarten?  A cheerleader for the school says that it teaches all children to be leaders,  “most everyone.”  He says that  “those such a things” are taught. Really? Really?  Low information vs. informed.
America represents them vs. us.    

“YOU GOT A PROBLEM, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY” SANG THE MUSIC MAN.

“YOU GOT A PROBLEM, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY” SANG THE MUSIC MAN.
Has an Iron Curtain Descended on the Cincinnati IRS Office?
[MUST READ 2 COMMENTS FOLLOWING NEW ITEM]

ABC News visited the IRS Determinations office in Cincinnati, OH, the office that determines eligibility for 501(c)(3) and (4) groups. It has become a security state.
On Thursday morning, after news that Miller was sacked, two ABC News journalists walked into the Peck Federal Building in Cincinnati looking for answers. The newsmen were screened at the door by security. They emptied their pockets as instructed, removed their belts, then went through the metal detectors.We wanted to ask who about made the decisions in the unit and when the profiling started. And whether those decision makers been identified yet.
But the answers – like the people involved – remained elusive.
As we traveled the public hallways of the building – watched over by security cameras – an armed uniformed police officer with the Federal Protective Service followed us. We were looking for a particular office—of someone who would not want to be seen talking to reporters–but chose to bypass it because of our official babysitter.
Asked why we were being escorted in a public building, the officer identified himself as Insp. Mike Finkelstein and said he was only trying to make sure that the newsmen were not a “nuisance.” He brushed aside further questions. The cop said a supervisor would call to explain.

One of the reporters wanted to know if the act of following the journalists was an effort intended to scare off any federal employee who might have considered speaking to the press. That’s sure what it looked like; and, even if that wasn’t the goal, it was the effect.

The supervisor never called to explain. After repeated calls to Washington to obtain an explanation, the Department of Homeland Security eventually called back to tell the ABC reporters that the security guard following them around was proper.

So, the reporters’ calls of inquiry about a Department of the Treasury office were eventually referred over to the Department of Homeland Security. For what?

Is this America anymore, or have we truly been fundamentally transformed into something else?

h/t Dan Riehl

COMMENTS:

Kirk Parker
Sadly unenterprising of the ABC reporters. Here's how to escape your "minder":
1. Go up to every person you meet.
2. Say, "Hi, I'm from ABC news. If you have anything of interest you'd like to tell me, privately, here's my card."
3. Hand them your card.
So now Mr. Minder has no idea who, if any, of the recipients might actually call one of the ABC folks, and if they *did* try to confiscate the business cards wouldn't *that* make for a wonderful story in and of itself?

elkhoong
Let's be clear to use the correct terms for the transformed America: minders, not babysitters; Schutzstaffel, not Homeland Security; apparatchiks, not officers or supervisors.

THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND: IRS Scandal Contradicts Central Narrative of Obama Administration.
Posted at 8:39 am by Glenn Reynolds

Much now being done by the state could better be done by free enterprise

Milton Friedman’s and Daniel Boorstin’s
The accepted approach to this problem [of highway provision] is an illustration of the way in which the proponents of our free enterprise system accept the role which is given them by their opponents – a role as fighters of a rear-guard action against socialism.  While they devote their energies to preventing further encroachment by government, they take for granted that those areas in which government is at any moment operating must be so operated.  Those of us who believe in free enterprise should show as much imagination, intellectual daring, and willingness to experiment in extending the scope of free enterprise as the opponents of free enterprise have shown in seeking to extend the power of the state.  If we do, we shall find that much now being done by the state could better be done by free enterprise.

OBAMA AND THE IRS: The Smoking Gun? President met with anti-Tea Party IRS union chief the day before agency targeted Tea Party.

FREE NAKOULA
Indeed. Also, filmmaker Nakoula is still in jail, over a YouTube video that no one now thinks led to the attacks.

AROUND THE COUNTRY, TEA PARTIERS WILL BE PROTESTING AT IRS OFFICES ON TUESDAY. At noon, local time. Yeah, it’s short notice, but I’ll bet some people will show up.

It's Obamanomics, baby. Punish the productive, reward the reprobate

Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun?

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30
In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”
The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:
April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.
In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.

SALENA ZITO: Scandals vs. Sway:
In T.S. Eliot’s drama “Murder in the Cathedral,” kowtowing knights who overhear England’s Henry II vent frustration with Thomas Becket decide to please the king by killing the archbishop.

Confronted with the scandalous murder, Henry is forced to deny involvement and punish his knights. Secretly, he is quite happy to be rid of the pesky archbishop.

So when Obama joked about auditing enemies’ taxes, it wasn’t really a joke at all. . . .


THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS BECOME THE STUFF OF NEW YORKER SATIRE: Obama Denies Role in Government.
[Fiction turning into fact]
President Obama used his weekly radio address on Saturday to reassure the American people that he has “played no role whatsoever” in the U.S. government over the past four years.

“Right now, many of you are angry at the government, and no one is angrier than I am,” he said. “Quite frankly, I am glad that I have had no involvement in such an organization.”

The President’s outrage only increased, he said, when he “recently became aware of a part of that government called the Department of Justice.”

“The more I learn about the activities of these individuals, the more certain I am that I would not want to be associated with them,” he said. “They sound like bad news.”

Mr. Obama closed his address by indicating that beginning next week he would enforce what he called a “zero tolerance policy on governing.”

Obama Denies Role in Government.

[Fiction turning into fact]

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS BECOME THE STUFF OF NEW YORKER SATIRE: Obama Denies Role in Government.

President Obama used his weekly radio address on Saturday to reassure the American people that he has “played no role whatsoever” in the U.S. government over the past four years.
“Right now, many of you are angry at the government, and no one is angrier than I am,” he said. “Quite frankly, I am glad that I have had no involvement in such an organization.”
The President’s outrage only increased, he said, when he “recently became aware of a part of that government called the Department of Justice.”
“The more I learn about the activities of these individuals, the more certain I am that I would not want to be associated with them,” he said. “They sound like bad news.”
Mr. Obama closed his address by indicating that beginning next week he would enforce what he called a “zero tolerance policy on governing.”

‘RETRAIN THE HORSE’

‘RETRAIN THE HORSE’
Peter Drucker’s 1967 volume, The Effective Executive:
“The need to slough off the outworn old to make possible the productive new is universal.  It is reasonably certain that we would still have stagecoaches – nationalized, to be sure, heavily subsidized, and with a fantastic research program to ‘retrain the horse’ – had there been ministries of transportation around 1825.”

MARK HEMINGWAY: Ideological Revenue Service.
Some 471 conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status were harassed by the IRS over a period of years, and our self-styled watchdog media played no role in bringing this injustice to light. It only became a scandal after the IRS publicly admitted its wrongdoing.

THE HILL: Complaints of IRS targeting by religious groups on the rise.

The number of religious groups reporting they were improperly targeted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is increasing.

At least a half-dozen conservative groups say they received an unusual degree of scrutiny from the IRS, according to the Religion News Service, a non-profit news service operated out of the University of Missouri’s journalism school.

Earlier this week Rev. Billy Graham’s son made headlines with a letter to President Obama accusing the administration of targeting the Samaritan’s Purse charity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in an attempt to intimidate the group.

Since then, the Catholics United Education Fund and the Christian Voices for Life have reported significant delays in their applications for tax-exempt status from the IRS.

The Coalition for Life of Iowa also said that it took unusually long to receive their tax exempt status, according to the Thomas More Society, a non-profit group focused on supporting pro-life causes.

At a House hearing investigating the IRS abuses on Friday, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) called attention to The Coalition for Life of Iowa’s complaint, citing one particular question that the group was asked by the agency.

“Their question, specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition for Life of Iowa: ‘Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers. Would that be an inappropriate question to a 501 c3 applicant? The content of one’s prayers?” asked Schock of the IRS’s former acting commissioner, Steven Miller.

Render unto Caesar . . . . But what if what Caesar needs is a swift kick in the ass?

OBAMA AIDE: Legality of IRS targeting conservative groups “irrelevant.”

Also “irrelevant” — where the President was during Benghazi attacks. Not a good day for the White House on the Sunday shows. . .

SCAPEGOATED “LOWER LEVEL OFFICIALS” NOW LEAKING IN SELF-DEFENSE: Anonymous Cincinnati IRS official: “Everything comes from the top.”

THE REALLY BAD NEWS FOR THEM ISN’T THAT PEOPLE ARE CALLING IT A CULTURE OF INTIMIDATION, IT’S THAT THEY AREN’T BEING INTIMIDATED ANY MORE: White House defends IRS handling, McConnell asserts ‘culture of intimidation.’

THE POWER TO TAX IS THE POWER TO DESTROY: The IRS Will Come for You Next, Unless Congress Acts Now. “The scandal isn’t about politics—it’s about civil liberties. And Congress needs to make sure it never happens again.”

AROUND THE COUNTRY, TEA PARTIERS WILL BE PROTESTING AT IRS OFFICES ON TUESDAY. At noon, local time

Does anyone still trust Obama?

Does anyone still trust Obama?
BY: CHRIS WILSON
Right now, our government is embroiled in scandals which show how much the rights of Americans have eroded in the five years Barack Obama has been in office.

 When there’s a scandal, Obama always finds out what his administration is doing from the news
BY: DAVID FREDDOSO
Jonathan Stewart pointed out on last night’s Daily Show that President Obama’s bad habit of finding out what his own government is doing from the news.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Cloudy with a 100% chance of scandals: Obama ducks and weaves.


Bob Woodward compares Benghazi with Watergate. Is he right? (+video)
The similarities: line-by-line edits of what to tell the public, says Bob Woodward, the media's authority on all things Watergate. Regarding the White House Benghazi edits, they show pressure 'in the system not to tell the truth' about what happened, he said Friday.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

“The murder of four Americans in Benghazi has become a mess of partisan bickering. But the disturbing facts now transcend politics. The Obama administration — the president himself, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, White House press secretary Jay Carney — all at various times blamed an obscure video maker for the “spontaneous violence” that killed Americans last September.

The problem is not just that such scapegoating was untrue, but that our officials knew it was untrue when they said it — given both prior CIA talking-point briefings and phone calls from those on the ground during the attacks.
What is the common denominator in all these second-term administration embarrassments? “Hope and change” is fast becoming the 1973 Nixon White House.”

:
JONATHAN TOBIN: Denial Flows Like A River At The IRS.

Related: Questioner initially denied IRS Q&A was set up.



"Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers."
IS THERE NOTHING THAT CANNOT BE ASKED OF A CONSERVATIVE ORGANIZATION?
Information the IRS demanded from the Coalition for Life of Iowa. Asked if that's an appropriate question to a 501(c)(3) applicant, IRS commissioner Steven Miller says he's pained at his inability to answer

"Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers."

"Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers."
IS THERE NOTHING THAT CANNOT BE ASKED OF A CONSERVATIVE ORGANIZATION?
Information the IRS demanded from the Coalition for Life of Iowa. Asked if that's an appropriate question to a 501(c)(3) applicant, IRS commissioner Steven Miller says he's pained at his inability to answer.

“more efficient workload selection?”

Did you know the stated reason from the IRS for targeting Tea Parties and conservative groups (including Jews) was “more efficient workload selection?”  Are we not thoroughly tired of this liberal Democrat doublespeak?  Also, with the claim that there was “no political motivation” for the targeting?  Are we not fed up with lies, just lies?  I for one am ‘sickofit.’  

GOVERNANCE BY INTIMIDATION

RAND SIMBERG: A CULTURE OF INTIMIDATION. “If Barack Obama didn’t directly order the harassment of his political enemies, he certainly encouraged it.” Punch back twice as hard.

MICHAEL BARONE: Benghazi and IRS Targeting: Politics by Other Means. “What do the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS scandal have in common? They were both about winning elections, under false pretenses.”

BRIDGET JOHNSON: Durbin Asked IRS’ Shulman to Probe ‘Several’ Conservative 501(c)(4) Groups in 2010. “Democrats’ background on the issue underscores their interest in turning the current scandal into a campaign finance narrative.” (You may remember Durbin as the Sen. Who compared our troops to Pol Pot, Nazi Genghis Khan)

TWEET OF THE DAY: “These scandals are so bad that for the first time Obama wants to talk about the economy.”

COVERUP: Report: IRS Deliberately Chose Not to Fess Up to Scandal Before Election. “[I]f this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different.”

BARACK OBAMA AND THE CASE AGAINST EMPATHY. “Empathy has some unfortunate features—it is parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate. We’re often at our best when we’re smart enough not to rely on it.”
Psychopaths are surprisingly high in empathy. They understand other people’s feelings very well. They just don’t care, except to the extent that they can use them for their own benefit.
In a thoughtful new book on bullying, “Sticks and Stones” (Random House), Emily Bazelon writes, “The scariest aspect of bullying is the utter lack of empathy”—a diagnosis that she applies not only to the bullies but also to those who do nothing to help the victims. Few of those involved in bullying, she cautions, will turn into full-blown psychopaths.

Related: A Bad Week For Obama, A Worse Week For Statism.

UPDATE: Frank J. Fleming: Without letting the left in charge every so often, our arguments about how awful the government could be would only be theoretical.

PEGGY NOONAN: This Is No Ordinary Scandal: Political abuse of the IRS threatens the basic integrity of our government. “Everyone involved in this abuse of power should pay a price, because if they don’t, the politicization of the IRS will continue—forever. If it is not stopped now, it will never stop. And if it isn’t stopped, no one will ever respect or have even minimal faith in the revenue-gathering arm of the U.S. government again.”

Peggy’s right, but I was saying the same thing — right there in the Wall Street Journal — way back in 2009, when she was still going on about Obama’s transformational energy. So welcome to the party. Wish you’d gotten here before the re-election. . . .

Posted at 10:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

JAMES TARANTO: President Asterisk: Why the Obama IRS scandal may be worse than “a cancer on the presidency.” “No one can deny that Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire were highly skilled athletes. But their accomplishments are forever tainted by their use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The use of the Internal Revenue Service’s coercive power to suppress dissent against Obama is the political equivalent of steroids. The history books should record Obama’s re-election with an asterisk to indicate that it was achieved with the help of illicit means. . . . One thing we have learned from the IRS scandal is that sports journalists are morally superior to political journalists. Whereas the former understand that cheating is an assault on the basic integrity of the sport, the latter all too often treat it as if it were just part of the game.”

“GOP do you love me?”, asked the Tea Party

“GOP do you love me?”, asked the Tea Party.
SO WHY DIDN’T ROMNEY, OR THE GOP, PUSH THESE SCANDALS HARDER BEFORE THE ELECTION? A variety of explanations are offered, and I find this one troublingly plausible: “Obama’s prime target was the Tea Party (which had crushed him in the 2010 midterms), and the establishment Republicans were at odds with the Tea Party movement. I’m not saying I believe this, but sober reflection tells us we need to redraw the line between paranoia and vigilance. The theory is that establishment Republicans appreciated the suppression of the Tea Party.”
Plus, from the comments: “The IRS chilling hampered some of the exact groups who might have brought this stuff to light.”

IT JUST GETS WORSE: IRS tax exemption/Obamacare exec got $103,390 in bonuses.
Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harrassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.
More recently, Ingram was promoted to serve as director of the tax agency’s Obamacare program office, a position that put her in charge of the vast expansion of the IRS’ regulatory power and staffing in connection with federal health care, ABC reported earlier today.
Great. So the woman who oversaw the targeting of Tea Partiers is now in charge of healthcare regulation? You may be paranoid. But are you paranoid enough?

PEGGY NOONAN: This Is No Ordinary Scandal: Political abuse of the IRS threatens the basic integrity of our government. “Everyone involved in this abuse of power should pay a price, because if they don’t, the politicization of the IRS will continue—forever. If it is not stopped now, it will never stop. And if it isn’t stopped, no one will ever respect or have even minimal faith in the revenue-gathering arm of the U.S. government again.”

Peggy’s right, but I was saying the same thing — right there in the Wall Street Journal — way back in 2009, when she was still going on about Obama’s transformational energy. So welcome to the party. Wish you’d gotten here before the re-election. . . .
Posted at 10:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

MOE LANE ON THE IRS SCANDALS: Remember, this is not a failure of the system. This is the system.

THE “SOFT SPOT” OF LIFE

THE “SOFT SPOT” OF LIFE Analysis of the human condition is no better appraised than by our greatest living philosopher, Earl Pitts, who speaks truth to power each morning on my local radio station. When our illustrious politicians in Washington claim the economy has hit a “soft spot,” beware. Nothing from propaganda land, of course, can be further from truth. Earl Pitts, American, paints the correct picture for us folks out here safe from the beltway of wisdom. Normal Americans struggle daily, living so to speak, in a “soft spot” for their entire lives. The struggle to maintain the status quo is a soft spot - not on ground totally hardened and impossible to till, not totally squishy enough to sink us into the slough of despond. Earl’s right; Washington’s wrong. Earl speaks for ‘real’ Americans; Washington elites lie.

Obama’s intelligentsia

Back with a visit to our Obama’s intelligentsia. The only field of intellectual activity - apart form radical journalism and revolutionary theorizing - which the intelligentsia regarded as beneficial was that of the natural sciences. Sound familiar? 1. Science is everything even if it is fakes to back up an agenda. 2. They believe in the establishment of restraints upon the absolute freedom of the citizen as a prerequisite for the orderly existence of human society. Sound familiar? 3. They are indifferent to constitutionalism, individual liberties and civil rights, the rule of law is a meaningless abstraction. 4. Intelligentsia are willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause. 5. Lastly, they are predominately atheists. Bells of ringing in the new, totally transformed America!

Does any of this sound familiar?

Does any of this sound familiar? Guess who are devoted to an idealized concept of the ‘people’ blended with an aristocratic contempt for the actual down-to-earth, prosaic propensities of the real people? The Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century. The Russian intelligentsia worshiped at the shrine of the people but they remained convinced that the people could never achieve salvation on their own; an exterior agency was needed to guide them to their goal, all the more so since the people had no conception of where their real interests lay. Their primacy was ideology - social justice - fundamental to the intelligentsia as a whole. Their objective was a perfect society. Does this not sound like our American elite, our intelligentsia also hell bent on ‘totally transforming’ America? The Russian intelligentsia were the driving force of the Russian revolutionary movement which led to the 1917 Russian revolution. And we know where that lead!

TRUST GOVERNMENT - SO MUCH EASIER THAN BEING FREE

TRUST GOVERNMENT - SO MUCH EASIER THAN BEING FREE is from page 261 of Robert Higgs’s indispensable 1987 book, Crisis and Leviathan: After the ideological transformation that took place during the Progressive Era, each genuine crisis has been the occasion for another ratchet toward Bigger Government. The Progressive ideological imperative that government must “do something,” must take responsibility for resolving any perceived crisis, insures new actions. The actions have unavoidable costs, which governments have an incentive to conceal by substituting coercive command-and-control devices for pecuniary fiscal-and-market means of carrying out their chosen policies.

“What a wonderful strong vote.”

“What a wonderful strong vote.” These words from a Minnesota politician tell all. 12 states, believe it or not, including the most recent, Minnesota, from these now un-united States of America have legalized gay marriage. Imagine that, not for better but for worse when it comes to morals. Women love women, men love men, I like my goldfish, but I’m not going any further than that. Imagine what hides behind bedroom doors, if you can. Doesn’t the “wonderful strong vote,” surely imply that gay marriage is now a must?

TRUST OBAMA?

TRUST OBAMA? INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Obama’s Biggest Deficit Is Trust. “He’s simply not seen as an honest broker. Public opinion polls show he’s also having a hard time convincing the American people he’s sincere.” GEORGE WILL: Benghazi attack was not “a movie review conducted with rocket propelled grenades.” Related: Sen. McCain calls Benghazi a ‘cover-up.’ IF IT TOOK HIM THIS LONG TO REALIZE THAT WE DIDN’T NEED HIM AS PRESIDENT EITHER! VIOLENT, ABUSIVE, CONTROLLING, PROFLIGATE: “[P]eople who are infatuated with government… have no realistic idea of what an awful husband the government really is.” Plus: “Big government will always mean giving bureaucrats some control, and these bureaucrats will always tend to be Democrats. If they aren’t restrained by the apolitical civil service ethic, then they will always tend to harrass conservatives and Republicans.” NOTHING SAYS “MOTHERS DAY” BETTER THAN CONTRACEPTION - PRES. OBAMA Mothers Day Tweet by Pres. Obama: THE WHITEHOUSE @whitehouse “Thanks to the #ACA, [OBAMACARE]1 in 3 women under 65 gained access to preventive care - like birth control - with no out-of-pocket costs. #Happy Mother’s Day “

NOTHING SAYS “MOTHERS DAY” BETTER THAN CONTRACEPTION - PRES. OBAMA

NOTHING SAYS “MOTHERS DAY” BETTER THAN CONTRACEPTION - PRES. OBAMA Mothers Day Tweet by Pres. Obama: THE WHITEHOUSE @whitehouse “Thanks to the #ACA, [OBAMACARE]1 in 3 women under 65 gained access to preventive care - like birth control - with no out-of-pocket costs. #Happy Mother’s Day “ Mary Lou (comment): This message from the President is so contradictory. He is elated over the convenience that women can obtain an contraception so easily without cost to them and then, turns around and wishes them a happy mother’s day! I guess that’s what’s called talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Energy conservation and health care concerns be d......

Energy conservation and health care concerns be d...... The “golden holocaust” (tobacco) was partially responsible for saving the Western world Nazi domination. I explain: The U.S. Army in Europe burned 4 million gallons of gas a day, smoked 30 million packs of cigarettes a month and fired 500 million rounds of machine-gun ammunition and 23 million artillery shells between D-day and VE-day, 1944-1945. Energy conservation and health care concerns be d...... Unfortunately no lesson of history has been learned by 2013 because anti-oil, anti-guns, anti-tobacco issues trump political agendas. AND even though this administration has been exposed by having the IRS target their enemies, the Tea Party, they will continue to lie about Obama’s involvement and their deliberate actions as if no one knew; so they will investigate.

“IF ONLY THE FUHRER KNEW” (Er, I mean only if Obama knew about IRS abuses)

“IF ONLY THE FUHRER KNEW” (Er, I mean only if Obama knew about IRS abuses) POLITICIZING THE IRS: IRS anti-Tea Party scandal gets real — senior IRS officials aware of targeting. “This is getting real. Yesterday it was just some ‘low level’ employees involved. Now AP is reporting that senior IRS officials were aware of the targeting.” Time: The IRS Mess: The piece goes on to make excuses for Obama by blaming underlings, but it’s still an acknowledgment. I THINK THE GERMANS TRIED THAT LINE AT THE END OF WWII - DIDN’T WORK Here’s the story: “A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011. The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted. . . . The Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The Associated Press obtained part of the draft report.” So that’s why they released the story early — they knew it was coming out anyway. (Bumped). HOPE AND CHANGE: Shorter IRS: “Sorry about our massive abuse power while mining your data, but trust us with your health records!”

No Connection

No Connection What is to be done now that America has become unhinged from reality? There’s no connection between morality and behavior, freedom and responsibility or parents and parenting. So if your life is being used up by drab or passionate pursuits, be aware that outside your circumscribed world, reality is being compromised. The opening of Iron Man, an escapist film, pulls in over a $100 million dollars but the murder of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans is disconnected from the White House and accountability. A brief, childishly produced anti-Muslim video and a terrorist attack in Benghazi are not connected except as a video fantasy of the Obama administration. In Ohio, questions are now being asked why no connection was made between a crazy sex pervert and the abduction of three women a decade ago. No connection exists between natural disasters and man’s influence on them. No connections exist between giving back to community and taking care of yourself or between hostage situations and neighborhood evacuations. Why do lawyers connect an accident to manslaughter when filing charges? Justice is no longer connected to the swift and sure. Are you fooled by Chris Christie claiming his weight loss operation is connected to a concern for his family? Put to rest the false premise that gun ownership relates to violent crime Health care does not connect to healthy living. Food banks and food cards cannot foster healthy eating. Food and obesity can obviously be disconnected with smaller portions. Where is the connection between an education degree and good teaching or government spending and improved test scores? Does large student debt relate to a good job? Can a standardized test test what a student has not learned? Are sports programs connected to character building or just the price of skipping homework and intellectual achievement? Reality, however, does seem to reveal a strange connection between students and teachers having sex. How many amber alerts find missing children? What is the connection between a basketball camp for 3-6 yr old girls other than a community get-together for parents and children ( who won’t be tall). Ohio’s recent shame was the passage of an exotic animals law totally unrelated to the crazy man who released his charges before committing suicide. After a horse escapes from the barn, it’s too late to lock the gate. No connection exists between the new law and a possible recurrence of the tragedy. Shame on you, grandstanding Ohio politicians. Where was PETA? Symbols do not change realities. Pink ribbons for breast cancer, walks for awareness and slogans on bumper stickers simply represent causes and promote emotional gatherings, not cures. Giving to United Way does not ‘unite’ donors. A celebrity like Heidi Klum who is paid to “stand up for cancer,” cannot guarantee wise use of your money. Teddy bears at a makeshift memorial do not reflect the status of the victim’s soul. As a memorial to caring, residents in Sandy Hook just voted for a $40 million dollar rebuilding of the elementary school. Can there be any active lifestyle in nursing home living? Do you believe that GE cancelling its financing of local to gun shops will prevent gun crime? Do you believe plural families, polygamy or gay marriage connect legitimate marriage partners? Not unless you re-define marriage. Are you not tired of every crime being reported as ‘alleged’ and every criminal ‘allegedly guilty?’ De facto guilt cannot be connected to a crime. We are all know an adult who has struggled with abuse or problems in childhood. It goes with the territory. We also know there’s no necessary connection between youth and criminal behavior later in life. Programs like DARE for drug and alcohol prevention don’t connect to prevention because testosterone and estrogen eventually conquer adolescence. To summarize the status quo. Our culture’s unhinged like a liberal from reality and politicians and advertising from truth. What is to be done? Living in the dark or with a bag over one’s head to avoid reality seems a depressing option. I suggest employing a pattern of behavior inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘imp of the perverse.’ Flip the coin. Just do the opposite. If reality discourages a God-connection, fight back with Faith and pursuit of God’s teachings. If reality encourages consumption without a connection to responsible spending and borrowing, just spend less and give more. Whenever government asks for your money or liberty, just say no. Look out for valid connections - as positives - with friends, family, career, co-workers or God. Assume that your watchful time on earth is the only watch that counts and fear that you will be connected to your actions after death. Comedian Earl Pitts, our greatest living philosopher, wakes up America with his incisive, humorous observations. He exposes rather than denies our human foibles and cultural discrepancies. He connects us to reality. Yes, we flawed mortals have a right to be stupid, but only ‘really’ stupid.

OUR ELITES KNOW BEST - YOUR JOB IS JUST TO OBEY THEM

OUR ELITES KNOW BEST - YOUR JOB IS JUST TO OBEY THEM From the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs website: “An astute person listening to the official audio recording of yesterday’s Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing noticed that the official recording continued following conclusion of the hearing. The discussion that was caught, apparently among several senators and staff, is outrageous, and reveals legislators’ true view of gun owners. A YouTube video with an excerpt of that recording has been posted here. The following lines can be heard in the recording: “We needed a bill that was going to confiscate, confiscate, confiscate.” “They [gun owners] want to keep the guns out of the hands of the bad guys, but they don’t have any regulations to do it.” “They don’t care about the bad guys. All they want to do is have their little guns and do whatever they want with them.” “That’s the line they’ve developed.” The discussion appears to be among Senator Loretta Weinberg (D37), Senator Sandra Cunningham (D31),Senator Linda Greenstein (D14), and at least one member of Senate Democratic staff.”

TEA PARTY IS THE ENEMY - IRS

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

Sick-of-it

Sick-of-it No coverage of Benghazi hearing. No coverage of sex trade in Toledo, OH. BUT, coverage of the moron in Cleveland, OH. An interview with an expert on 911 calls justifies the response in Cleveland to the woman’s plea for help. He characterized the 911 as a “HIGH ACUITY TYPE OF CALL.” So what do we make of this language? Obfuscation, cover-up, deflection of blame, you name it, please. Newspeak? I am sick-of-it!

PROPAGANDA WORKS

PROPAGANDA WORKS: Gun crime has plunged, but Americans think it’s up, says study. “Gun crime has plunged in the United States since its peak in the middle of the 1990s, including gun killings, assaults, robberies and other crimes, two new studies of government data show. Yet few Americans are aware of the dramatic drop, and more than half believe gun crime has risen, according to a newly released survey by the Pew Research Center.” VIDEO: Mother of Slain Benghazi Victim: ‘I Blame’ Hillary Clinton for Son’s Death. Benghazi was a pathetic display of ineptitude and ass-covering. I’d also like to know who decided to scapegoat Nakoula. Note that Hillary was still pushing the lame video excuse at the memorial service, by which time everyone knew it wasn’t true. UPDATE: Hicks: Higher-ups at State told me not to talk to GOP congressman about Benghazi; Update: “Effectively demoted.” QUESTION: “What kind of president could Hillary possibly be if she needs this much protecting?”

Columbus to add surveillance cameras

Columbus to add surveillance cameras - AS WILL EVERY OTHER CITY NOW- ABSURD A society whose government succeeds at preventing its citizens from engaging in peaceful activities is, to that extent, a failed society: that society has failed to protect its liberties from the uncivilized and dangerous intrusions uncorked by mob manias. The always-wise Steve Chapman warns against a too-ready embrace of surveillance cameras. I love his concluding paragraph: Enthusiasts for electronic surveillance may say: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. But there’s a reason people don’t live in glass houses. QUOTE FROM THA PAST WHEN BENGAZI WAS JUST ‘ MOB INSPRED BY VIEO’ ACCORDING OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: “We owe it to the American people to make sure that we understand: Exactly what happened, What went wrong, Why couldn’t the greatest military in the world respond when an attack occurred almost over a seven hour period, and why were there at the minimum, misstatements made and certainly misimpressions given to the American people about the nature of this attack in the immediate explanations provided by the administration in two weeks following the attack.” Sen Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) 11-14-12 Disgraceful. And filmmaker Nakoula, whose YouTube video served as the basis for a lame cover story that no one believes any more, is still in jail. UPDATE: Reader Richard Whitten writes: “How long before Obama Administration throws Hillary under the bus? They seem to have a penchant for doing that.” Right now, protecting her for 2016 is a priority, but if she looks like damaged goods they’ll sacrifice her pretty fast. BLAME HILLARY BEGINS: PAUL MIRENGOFF: Hillary Clinton — culpable for Benghazi from beginning to end. “When it first became clear that the CIA’s Benghazi talking points had been altered, many of us viewed the White House as the prime suspect. After all, it served President Obama’s political purposes to claim, at the height of a political campaign in which he was taking credit for the fall of al Qaeda, that the death of a U.S. ambassador was down to spontaneous outrage over a video, rather than pre-planned terrorism. It turns out, however, that the State Department was the prime culprit. It was State that pushed back hard against the original talking points. The White House, probably for the political reason cited above, took its side.” ROGER SIMON: Benghazi Continued: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. “From what we know so far, the U. S. Department of State participated in the cover-up of an Islamist terror attack on the brink of a U. S. presidential election, implying the murders of our fellow citizens were inspired by an execrable video that nobody saw. I can’t think of anything more despicable and more disrespectful to all of us — and most especially to the families of the deceased.” And filmmaker Nakoula is still in jail.

The impossible dream

The impossible dream The Soviet State held contempt for the individual. Its revolutionary intelligentsia denied man’s significance and fostered total subordination of spiritual values to social goals. Its formalism and bureaucracy and its faith in the omnipotence of rules were the markings of a police state which practiced a revolutionary fanaticism. Here in the US, a 100 years later, the Obama administration ( liberal Democrat, socialist, Communist, progressive, you pick the term) is still trying to totally revolutionize America through political correctness and its agenda to create heaven on earth. The impossible ( Fascist?) dream is our present nightmare. .

Sycophants

Sycophants Should everyone go along with the President? According to Alexander Hamilton: “There are some who would be inclined to regard the servile pliancy of the Executive to a prevailing current, either in the community or in the legislature, as its best recommendation.” No, according to Hamilton. “Unqualified complaisance” is to be avoided. Though the people usually want the “public good,” they should not go along with the “adulator” who pretends that the public always reasons right about the means of promoting it ( the common good.).” Yes, Hamilton issued the warning against public adulation of the President. Against going along with him out of “servile pliancy” or the “sudden breeze of passion” or “every transient impulse.” Warning. Warning. Hamilton warned us about the “wiles of parasites and sycophants, ... the ambitious, the avaricious, the desperate... about men who possess their confidence more than they deserve it...” I’m thinking that what Hamilton warns us against, applies both to our President and his liberal sycophants. Check out the sound and fury of Obama’s commencement address to OSU Saturday. Yuck!

The business of corruption

Hamilton wrong again Alexander Hamilton knew that “The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, ( in the three branches of our Constitutional government) requires time as well as means.” He feared not for his beloved country if the Constitution was ratified. Hamilton thought he knew that “Talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honours in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.” He failed to see that “low intrigue” and the little art of “popularity” coupled with the “business of corruption” could enable Obama to become President. He also failed to realize that the time and the means for liberal Democrats to affect their agenda to “totally transform America” have come to pass.

We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go.”

We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go.” CBS News has learned that during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG). "The CSG is the one group that's supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies," a high-ranking government official told CBS News. "They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon." JOHN_IN_SD says:What was it 10 days after the attack the President before the United Nations and lied about the video. I can live with some messed up but to carry on lies for a week plus really hurts. CBS NEWS: Official: We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go.” But the Administration still blamed filmmaker Nakoula, who is still in jail. They did this to keep the Benghazi debacle from exploding before the election. It worked. And filmmaker Nakoula is still in jail. Related: Dem Rep. Stephen Lynch on Benghazi Talking Points: ‘It Was Scrubbed … It Was False Information. There’s No Excuse For That.’ Posted at 12:28 pm by Glenn Reynolds “SMART DIPLOMACY:” Obama Defenders Now Claiming “Red Line” Remark Was Off-The-Cuff Gaffe. Posted at 12:43 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FILMMAKER NAKOULA IS STILL IN JAIL

FILMMAKER NAKOULA IS STILL IN JAIL CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Obama: The Fall. “From king of the world to dead in the water in six months. Quite a ride.” Gee, maybe they should have listened in 1934? Henry Simons’s posthumous 1948 collection, Economic Policy for a Free Society; specifically, it’s from Simons’s famous 1934 pamphlet, A Positive Program for Laissez Faire: A nation which wishes to preserve democratic institutions cannot afford to allow its legislatures to become engaged on a large scale in the promiscuous distribution of special subsidies and special favors. Once this occurs, there is no protecting the interests of the community at large, and, what is more important, there is no protecting the political institutions themselves. Tariff legislation is politically the first step in the degeneration of popular government into the warfare of each group against all. ROGER SIMON ON THE BENGHAZI REVELATIONS: “Barack Obama is bloody lucky he’s a Democrat, because if he were a Republican, he’d be in deep trouble right now, close to the brink of extinction.” FILMMAKER NAKOULA IS STILL IN JAIL: The Benghazi Talking Points. “Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults. The Weekly Standard has obtained a timeline briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing the heavy substantive revisions made to the CIA’s talking points, just six weeks before the 2012 presidential election, and additional information about why the changes were made and by whom.” QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If you want to introduce someone to libertarian thinking, encourage them to try this experiment. Spend a few days reading nothing but technology news. Then spend a few days reading nothing but political news. For the first few days they’ll see an exciting world of innovation and creativity where everything is getting better all the time. In the second period they’ll see a miserable world of cynicism and treachery where everything is falling apart. Then ask them to explain the difference.” GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE: Snow continues delay of spring planting

Fallen down the Hill

Fallen down the Hill “Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power. ... before such a revolution can be effected, the Senate, ... must be in the first place corrupt itself... must then corrupt the House of Representatives and must finally corrupt the people at large. ... the Senate must be first corrupted before it can attempt an establishment of tyranny” “As to corruption, the case is not supposable,” according to John Jay. “In short, ... the Constitution has taken the utmost care that they shall be men of talents and integrity...” Can you believe how far we have fallen down the shiny city on the Hill?

And Everywhere That Mary Went, the Rat Was Sure to Go

And Everywhere That Mary Went, the Rat Was Sure to Go "Rat Meat Sold as Lamb Highlights Food Fears in China"--headline, New York Times website, May 3 “SMART DIPLOMACY:” US Policy in Syria: Dither Until It’s Too Late. Given that nobody in this civil war is anyone we like — or who particularly likes us — dithering while they kill each other may not be such a bad strategy. But it’s an informative contrast to the humanitarian proclamations that accompanied the Libya intervention, and which would seem — if the Obama Administration actually believed them — to impel a similar intervention here. Related: From Bad To Worse In Egypt. Posted at 8:50 am by Glenn Reynolds THEIR BIGGEST PROBLEM IN 2012 WAS THE WHITE PEOPLE WHO STAYED HOME: Byron York: Winning Hispanic vote would not be enough for GOP. Posted at 8:50 am by Glenn Reynolds JAKE TAPPER: Change you can believe in? Obama’s bundlers get plum posts. WHERE MONEY MEETS MOUTH: Democrats Pick Pro-Gun Senators to Carry 2014. HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Poll: 29% of Registered Voters Believe Armed Revolution Might Be Necessary in Next Few Years. JAY LENO ON CLOSING GITMO: “President Obama held a press conference earlier today, and he said he still wants to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, but he doesn’t know how to do it. He should do what he always does: declare it a small business and tax it out of existence.It will be gone in a minute.” I guess this is why NBC wants to get rid of him

POETIC JUSTICE FOR MAYOR BLOOMBERG

Bloomberg Refused Second Slice of Pizza at Local Restaurant. “The owners of Collegno’s Pizzeria say they refused to serve him more than one piece to protest Bloomberg’s proposed soda ban,which would limit the portions of soda sold in the city. Bloomberg was having an informal working lunch with city comptroller John Liu at the time and was enraged by the embarrassing prohibition. The owners would not relent, however, and the pair were forced to decamp to another restaurant to finish their meal.” GIVE MAYOR NANNY A DOSE OF NANNYISM!

Questions to be answered not by sheeple.

Questions to be answered not by sheeple. Why a new “Freedom Party of America” who insists on uniform views? Why exchange green paper for silver? Why should Sherry’s Berries give away berries (deemed too small to sell) to the homeless shelters? Why are elections ‘rigged’? “With a disposition to invade the essential rights of the community, and with the means of gratifying that disposition, it is presumable that the persons who were actuated by it would amuse themselves in the ridiculous task of fabricating election laws for securing a preference to a favourite class of men? Would they not be likely to prefer a conduct better adapted to THEIR own immediate aggrandizement? Would they not rather boldly resolve to perpetuate THEMSELVES in office by one decisive act of usurpation, that to trust to precarious expedients which, in spite of all precaution that might accompany them, might terminate in the dismission, disgrace, and ruin of their authors? Would they not fear that citizens not less tenacious than conscious of their rights, would flock from the remote extremes of their respective States to the places of election, to overthrow their tyrants, and to substitute men (or women today) who would be disposed to avenge the violated majesty of the people? Translation for a reader of the above Hamilton in #60 Federalist. Give a politician an inch and he/she will take a mile out of your walk to freedom when people become apathetic sheeple who don’t vote.

Obamacare: Violates the 5th amendment’s due-process clause

Obamacare: Violates the 5th amendment’s due-process clause. Everyone concedes that, as Mr. Sandefur reports, “Obamacare was passed hastily, by lawmakers who admitted they had not read the bill.” In what universe is due process of law served when legislators vote for legislation that they have not read? Because, as is our habit, legislation is regarded as law – and because the process that bestows upon legislation the lofty status of law is deliberation and majority votes in Congress – surely a bill passed by legislators who admit to being ignorant of the contents of the bill cannot reasonably be said to have become law through a procedure deserving the description “due process.” While the due-process clause has never been interpreted to nullify legislation in the way that I propose here, I submit that my suggested application of that constitutional clause is reasonable and wholesome in light of the courts’ history of interpreting constitutional language expansively. If, as the Supreme Court has held, the commerce clause can be read to govern farmers growing wheat for their own consumption, then the due-process clause can be read to govern legislators who do not read the bills they impose on their own constituents – bills that, in some real measure, deprive Americans of liberty and property. Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Just How Ignorant Is Obama About ObamaCare? “At his press conference this week, President Obama tried to reassure Americans about ObamaCare. Instead, he displayed either an incredible lack of understanding about his own law, or something far worse.”

SUB PRIME QUEEN GIVEN TOP OBAMA JOB

OBAMA NOMINATES PENNY “SUB-PRIME” PRITZKER FOR COMMERCE SECRETARY. SUB PRIME QUEEN GIVEN TOP OBAMA JOB REWARDS FOR CRONIES EDITOR’S NOTE: This report originally appeared on suntimes.com in 2008, written by former Sun-Times political reporter Abdon Pallasch. “Part of the reason we got a current mortgage crisis has to do with the fact that people got suckered in to loans that they could not pay,” he told a crowd in Reading, Pa., last week. “There were a lot of predatory loans that were given out, a lot of teaser rates. Banks and financial institutions making these loans were making money hand over fist.” One of the banks that went under after making a lot of subprime loans -- leaving 1,400 of its customers without part of their savings -- was Chicago’s Superior Bank. At the helm of Superior Bank at least some of the time was Obama’s national finance chairwoman, Penny Pritzker, an heiress to the Pritzker fortune. But a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows that until the end, Pritzker appeared to be taking a leadership role in trying to revive the bank with an expanded push into subprime loans. Pritzker wrote in May 2001 that her family was recapitalizing the bank, and she pledged to “once again restore Superior’s leadership position in subprime lending.” The bank shut down in July 2001. .....“They still owe me $113,000,” said Fran Sweet, 63, of Downers Grove, who deposited her $480,000 retirement account at Superior a month before it collapsed. “To the Pritzkers, this is nothing. They probably think, ‘Why pay her back?’ That’s nothing. But we’re all upset that someone who made these decisions could be in that position.” Judging from the record-breaking job Pritzker has done raising money for Obama’s campaign, her fund-raising skills do not appear to be in question, but Sweet said it sends the wrong message.

Win one/ lose one

Win one/ lose one From Federalist #55 “In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly should STILL have been a mob.” True. “I am equally unable to conceive that there are at this time, or can be in any short time, in the United States, any sixty-five hundred men (in State legislatures) ) capable of recommending themselves to the choice of the people at large, who would either desire or dare, within a short space of two years ( their term in office), to betray the solemn trust committed to them.” False.

WISDOM FROM OUR LEADERS

SLEEPING THROUGH THE 3AM CALL. NOT PAYING ATTENTION: Saudi Arabia ‘warned the United States IN WRITING about Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2012.’ “ So we were warned about him by both the Russians and the Saudis and still did nothing? What exactly are all those hundreds of billions for Homeland Security going for? Related: Sleeping through the “wake-up” calls. UPDATE: WaPo: As FBI expands Boston investigation, Obama defends law enforcement efforts. ANOTHER UPDATE: DHS denies any knowledge of Saudi warning. LIFE IN OBAMA’S POST-RACIAL AMERICA: Black Politician Says Asian Sculptor Racially Unsuitable To Do Civil Rights Sculpture. LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS: ObamaCare Poll Finds 42% Of Americans Don’t Know It’s The Law. However, the president took no blame WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Obama defends relevancy, blames Congress for political gridlock. “Obama’s press conference marked the 100th day of his second term, an early measure of his job performance. Over the past three months, Obama has seen his push for new gun restrictions die on Capitol Hill and still faces an uphill battle to implement other centerpieces of his agenda, such as immigration reform. Foreign events, including evidence that Syria used chemical weapons against anti-government rebels, have also cast a shadow over the president’s domestic agenda. . . . Obama also faced questions about Guantanamo Bay, the American prison in Cuba where suspected terrorists, or enemy combatants — held for years by the U.S. — are now engaged in a hunger strike. He had pledged in his first campaign to shut it down.” My favorite bit: “However, the president took no blame for Guantanamo remaining open, saying Congress repeatedly blocked his efforts to shutter the prison.” He’s not much for taking blame. by Glenn Reynolds He still thinks he’ll do his thing from the balcony (After all, it worked for Mussolini) MAUREEN DOWD: Say, Obama’s not actually that good at being President, is he? “Actually, it is his job to get them to behave. The job of the former community organizer and self-styled uniter is to somehow get this dunderheaded Congress, which is mind-bendingly awful, to do the stuff he wants them to do. It’s called leadership. He still thinks he’ll do his thing from the balcony and everyone else will follow along below. That’s not how it works.” YESTERDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE STILL NOT WOWING THEM: The Hill: President Obama bristles, says he still has juice for second term. “The remark was a far cry from the triumphant tone heard in 2009, when Obama proclaimed he was ‘proud of what we’ve achieved’ and ‘pleased with our progress’ after 100 days in the Oval Office.” Related: Politico: President Obama: I’m still relevant. And, even from NPR: Logic Behind Obama News Conference Hard To Fathom. NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Obama moving toward sending lethal arms to Syrian rebels, officials say. Benjamin D. Reese Jr., president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. ........ said Reese, who is also vice president for institutional equity at Duke University. Public Choice, Past and Present: The Legacy of James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock (Dwight R. Lee, editor, 2013): Rather than analyzing how both markets and collective decision-making handle economic problems, mainstream economics continues to model government as if it were an omniscient, benevolent social planner available to impose ideal solutions…. Implicitly, this methodology treats the political process as if it is a corrective device available to impose ideal social outcomes, something like a pinch hitter that always delivers the game-winning hit. But this is a fantasy. A choice between the real world of markets and the hypothetical ideal of government intervention is not an option. Instead, the choice is always about how markets work compared to the alternatives. Put another way, the relevant choice is always between the real-world operation of markets and the real-world operation of the political process. I cannot explain this bizarre dualism except by assuming that those who look to the state as being at least a potential secular savior have a kind of religious belief in the transformative power of sovereign power. The continuing rejection and ignorance of public-choice analyses reflects the fact that public-choice threatens not a mere scientific paradigm; rather, public-choice apparently threatens a deeply held and cherished dogma – a dogma featuring a belief in secular creationism and the need for, and possibility of, useful intervention from a higher power.

REPORTING WIFE TO FBI

REPORTING WIFE TO FBI Today I discovered a Pressure Cooker in a closet. Last week, Carolyn volunteered to sort out the nail and screw drawers. Being smarter that Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, I connected the dots and realized what she was up to. I wasn’t waiting until she started emptying my shotgun shells of gunpowder. I have called in the SWAT Team. But now I wonder, who will make dinner.