op ed review 5/25
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Attorney General Eric Holder signed
off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James
Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized
seizure of his private emails.
The US Attorney for the District of Columbia, the man who carried
out the aggressive surveillance and phone record scrutiny at Fox News - is also
a big donor to the Obama Campaigns.
Now Holder will investigate himself
to see if he did anything improper:
“Criminality Appears To Lie at the Heart
of the IRS Scandal” The IRS was taking
the Tea Party out of play for the 2012 election, as it looked to avoid a repeat
of 2010 and another Tea Party landslide.
“IRS official pleads the Fifth after insisting she did
nothing wrong.”
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanded information
about conservative groups’ college-aged interns, prompting outrage from one of
the country’s top conservative activist organizations and leading one former
intern to wonder whether his family’s pizza parlor would be endangered.
The brother of a top Obama administration official is the
president of CBS News, and the network may be days away from dropping one of
its top investigative reporters for covering the administration’s scandals
too aggressively.
White House Aide calls Criticism of Obama ´Offensive´
Triumph of the social engineers: The Boy Scouts of America have reversed their
longstanding membership guidelines to allow homosexuals to join the
organization. In an email to CNSNews.com, the BSA public affairs office said
the vote on the resolution to “remove the restriction denying membership to
youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone” was passed with 61.44 percent
in favor and 38.56 percent opposed.
After a British soldier wearing a
Help for Heroes charity T-shirt was run over, stabbed and slashed with machetes
and a meat cleaver, and then beheaded, the British government advised its
soldiers that it is probably best not to appear in uniform on the streets of
their capital.
British-born suspect became 'obsessed with radical Islam as
schoolboy'
Youth gang riots in the Swedish
capital have entered the fifth straight night. Hundreds of mostly immigrant
teenagers tore through the suburbs, smashing windows and burning cars in the
country’s worst outbreak of violence in years.
“For years, Sweden –
one of Europe’s most tranquil countries,
famous for its attractive immigration policies and generous welfare system –
has been accepting an influx of immigrants, which now make up about 15 per cent
of its population. These migrants have failed to integrate into Swedish
society, and are only in the country to enjoy the country’s social benefits
system”
Steyn: “Stockholm
has been ablaze every night with hundreds of burning cars set alight by
"youths." Any particular kind of "youth"? The Swedish Prime
Minister declined to identify them any more precisely than as
"hooligans."
On “Fox News Sunday”, White House
aide Dan Pfeiffer was asked about President Obama’s whereabouts the night of
the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi.
Since the president is commander in chief, one would think where he was and
what he did during such an event would be of obvious public concern. Pfieffer said it was “irrelevant.”
Pfeiffer on IRS Scandal: 'Law Is Irrelevant'
The Democratic Party´s edge over the GOP on who the public
trusts more on ethics and corruption issues has flipped in the wake of the IRS
and Benghazi scandals, according to Rasmussen Reports. Not only do voters trust
Republicans more now, they have their highest level of confidence in the GOP
and the lowest level in Democrats in seven months.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/after-irs-benghazi-scandals-public-trust-shifts-to-gop/article/2530167
“Three Labor Unions, Including Teamsters, Want ObamaCare
Repealed; When Will Media Report?”
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-vespa/2013/05/21/three-labor-unions-including-teamsters-want-obamacare-repealed-when-will
Texas and other Red States
Beat Blue
States On Jobs, Growth
“Obama Meets With Illegal Aliens
in White House” (‘undocumented democrats’)
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to allow illegal
immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/20/senate-panel-oks-tax-welfare-benefits-for-newly-le/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet#ixzz2TwC1xiPq
Over 150 conservative leaders, groups and grassroots activists have
signed an open letter opposing the Senate immigration reform bill.
The Tea Party wants former Alaska governor Sarah Palin to join their
favorites in the Senate, Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.). They say she
can win and they have a poll to prove it.
A large majority of Americans hold a bleak outlook on the
state of morality in the United States, as 72% said the nation’s moral values
are “getting worse,” and only 20% said that moral values are “getting better,”
according to a recent Gallup survey.
The 9th Circus Court of appeals struck down
Arizona´s ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Doctor Who Did 1,200 Abortions Tells Congress to Ban Them
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Thomas Sowell
5/8
If there is ever a
contest for words that substitute for thought, "diversity" should be
recognized as the undisputed world champion. You don't need a speck of evidence, or a
single step of logic, when you rhapsodize about the supposed benefits of
diversity. The very idea of testing this wonderful, magical word against
something as ugly as reality seems almost sordid.
To ask whether
institutions that promote diversity 24/7 end up with better or worse relations
between the races than institutions that pay no attention to it is only to get
yourself regarded as a bad person. To cite hard evidence that places obsessed
with diversity have worse race relations is to risk getting yourself labeled an
incorrigible racist. Free thinking is not free.
The Supreme Court of
the United States
has ruled that the government has a "compelling interest" in
promoting diversity -- apparently more compelling than the 14th Amendment's
requirement of "equal protection" of the law for everybody.
How does a racially
homogeneous country like Japan
manage to have high quality education, without the essential ingredient of
diversity, for which there is supposedly a "compelling" need? Conversely,
why does India,
one of the most diverse nations on Earth, have a record of intergroup
intolerance and lethal violence today that is worse than that in the days of
our Jim Crow South? Even to ask such questions is to provoke charges of
unworthy tactics, and motives too low to be dignified with an answer. Not that
the true believers in diversity could answer anyway.
Among the candidates
for runner-up to "diversity" as the top word for making thought
obsolete is "fair."
Apparently everyone
is entitled to a "fair share" of a society's prosperity, whether they
worked 16-hour days to help create that prosperity or did nothing more than
live off the taxpayers or depend on begging or crime to bring in a few bucks. Apparently
we owe them something just for gracing us with their presence, even if we feel
that we could do without them quite well.
At the other end of
the income scale, the rich are supposed to pay their "fair share" of
taxes. But at neither end of the income scale is a "fair share"
defined as a particular number or proportion, or in any other concrete way. It
is just a political synonym for "more," dressed up in moralistic-sounding
rhetoric. What "fair" really means is more arbitrary power for
government.
Another word that
shuts down thought is "access." People who fail to meet the standards
for anything from college admission to a mortgage loan are often said to have
been denied "access" or opportunity. But equal access or equal
opportunity is not the same as equal probability of success. Republicans are
not denied an equal opportunity to vote in California,
even though the chances of a Republican candidate actually getting elected in California are far less
than the chances of a Democrat getting elected.
By the same token,
if everyone is allowed to apply for college admission, or for a mortgage loan,
and their applications are all judged by the same standards, then they have
equal opportunity, even if the village idiot has a lower probability of getting
into the Ivy League, and someone with a bad credit history is less likely to be
lent money.
"Affordable"
is another popular word that serves as a substitute for thought. To say that
everyone is entitled to "affordable housing" is very different from
saying that everyone should decide what kind of housing he or she can afford. Government
programs to promote "affordable housing" are programs to allow some
people to decide what housing they want and force other people -- taxpayers,
landlords or whatever -- to absorb a share of the cost of a decision that they
had no voice in making. More generally,
making various things "affordable" in no way increases the amount of
wealth in a society above what it would be when prices are "prohibitively
expensive." On the contrary, price controls reduce incentives to produce.
None of this is
rocket science. But if you don't stop and think, it doesn't matter whether you
are a genius or a moron. Words that stop people from thinking reduce even smart
people to the same level as morons
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/05/08/words-that-replace-thought-n1588497/page/full
________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"Many countries around the world have introduced
government health systems since 1945, but ... only in America does 'health'
'care' 'reform' begin with the hiring of 16,500 new IRS agents tasked with
determining whether your insurance policy merits a fine. So now not only are
your books and Facebook posts legitimate tax issues but so is your hernia, and
your prostate, and your erectile dysfunction. ... Big Government is erecting a
panopticon state -- one that sees everything, and regulates everything. It's
great 'customer service,' except that you can never get out of the store."
-Mark Steyn
"[T]his will be
a scandal like Watergate if it turns out that the IRS was acting under orders
from Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett. If the White House's conduct turns out to
be unimpeachable, then it is something far worse: a sign that the government
itself has become a threat to the Constitution."
-James Taranto
"Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All
he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years:
Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious
deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see
harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action."
-Kim Strassel
"[T]he left suggests that only greater government can
fix the issues that trouble Americans. That's because, according to the left,
one grand, unifying problem underlies all the other problems: Americans are
nasty. Some Americans are poor because other Americans are greedy. Minorities
are disproportionately poor because white Americans are racist. Women are
trapped in socioeconomic oblivion because male Americans are sexist. America is not
a melting pot. America
is a hell pit designed to consume its non-white, female, non-Christian
inhabitants. How then can the patriarchal, xenophobic majority be defeated?
Only with a coalition of victims. ... The true American experience, according
to Obama ... is marginalization. And marginalization justifies massive
government interventionism to foster e pluribus unum."
-Ben
Shapiro
"The White House issued new embassy personnel
guidelines. They guarantee rescue. From now on, every U.S. embassy
must include a gay basketball player, an illegal alien and a woman in need of
free contraception, and the Marines will be there in minutes."
-Argus Hamilton
_________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
BBC: Since 1998,
there has been an unexplained "standstill" in the heating of the
Earth's atmosphere.
But “the science is settled”. The new Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz on
global warming: “I am not interested in debating what is not debatable.”
__________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
A vomitous human being. This is really the only way to
describe one Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
She’s also the author of following tweet that went out to her 75,000 followers
not long after a two-mile-wide tornado destroyed the town of Moore,
Oklahoma.
Among the 51 dead are a reported 20 children. “The IRS targeted conservatives. God is doing
the same with this tornado.”
_______________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
A British soldier was decapitated a few hundred yards from a
UK Army base by two men with large knives and saying ‘we swear by almighty
Allah we will never stop fighting you’.
What does a murderous jihadist terrorist have to do to get
some recognition for his cause? You hack a British soldier to death in broad
daylight on a London street while shouting “Allahu akbar” and then “swear by
the almighty Allah” that you’ll never stop fighting, and the U.S. broadcast
networks still can’t bring themselves to utter a word about Islam.
________________________________________________________________________
CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY
That seeming inability to quickly connect moments of
national outrage with meaningful legislation on the part of Republicans will be
on display in the weeks, months and perhaps years ahead as it struggles to
figure out how to channel the national rage that is building over the
revelations about the IRS's insidious effort to single out conservative groups
for increased scrutiny. As anger
against the current tax system grows, the Democrats' only hope to avoid such a
debacle will be to rely on the GOP's historic inability to capitalize on
moments of national anger and outrage and channel it into the legislative
process. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the party that loathes government
doesn't understand how to harness its power. If they ever become adept at
legislating as their Democratic counterparts across the aisle are, the IRS may
be in for the greatest defensive battle in its hundred year history……..“Does the GOP understand IRS scandal opportunity? If the Republicans could unify around
anti-IRS message, the results could be a national landslide.”
The contrast between Republican voter turnout in 2010 and
2012 can be summed up in two words: Tea Party. Now we know the answer to
all those questions about what happened to the Tea Party. It was busy being
abused and silenced by the Obama Administration IRS. You think it coulda had an
effect on the election results?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/squelching_the_tea_party_gave_obama_the_election.html#ixzz2UDbqnLPz
_________________________________________________________________________
ACTIVISM
Tech activism for conservatives: Sat June 1st, Coast Hotel, Bellevue WA,
9am-6pm “We believe technology has the potential to revolutionize the political
process. But change has been slow in coming to the center-right. Join us in changing
that. Spend one day listening, engaging, influencing, and building the next
wave of political and technological change. Get training in essential software and learn cutting-edge social media
strategies and tools….What tools do you need? Find them here. If they don’t exist, find someone
to build them…..See how technology can impact policy decisions. Join us to learn new skills, meet like-minded people, make new
connections, and find business opportunities in both tech and politics.”
_________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Any scandal investigation that expects a "Eureka!" moment, a
White House e-mail, or Oval Office smoking gun will be misguided. In fact, the
dots are already connected directly to the president. Barack Obama is not
foolish enough to have a tape recording system hidden in his desk. And his
administration staff are not careless enough to send one another incriminating
e-mails……we can be sure the communications were all sotto voce and in persona,
like any good Chicago political operator. But….Obama's 2008 campaign was
demanding the Justice Department criminally prosecute conservative groups with
501(c)4 tax-exempt status. Then, last year, President Obama's re-election
campaign "targeted private citizens who had donated to Romney
groups."
Richard Milhous Obama
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're
surrounded by legal and employment protections, they know how to parse a
careful response, they know how to blur the essential point of a question in a
blizzard of unconnected factoids. They came across as people arrogant enough to
target Americans for abuse and harassment and think they'd get away with it.
From the Washington Post: "For years,
administration officials have used the power of the federal government to
isolate their opponents." Meanwhile, the unionized employees who populate
the IRS and other agencies across the country routinely take their cues from
union bosses, whose political donations and speeches show their support
Marijuana is drug
most often linked to crime, study finds
____________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
A very comprehensive guide to IRS abuse.
___________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our
wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the
state of facts and evidence."
-John Adams
"Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory
tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people
see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon."
-Winston Churchill
______________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Leno: You know, if
Republicans really want to do away with ObamaCare, they should endorse it as a
conservative non-profit -- let the IRS take it down. ... President Obama
announced the appointment of a man named Daniel Werfel as the new acting
commissioner of the Internal Revenue. The other guy was fired. See, they're
called 'acting' commissioner because he has to act like the scandal doesn't
involve the White House
posted by gary at
8:01 AM
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