op ed review 6/2
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
A group of anti-abortion activists in Iowa had to promise the Internal Revenue
Service it wouldn’t picket in front of Planned Parenthood. A woman’s
family and business in Texas
were audited by the government after her voting-rights group sought tax-exempt
status from the IRS. A retired military veteran became active in and
donated to conservative causes, then found the IRS challenging his church
donations. The emerging stories from
real people raise questions about whether the IRS scrutiny extended beyond
applicants for tax-exempt status and whether individuals who donated to these
tax-exempt organizations or to conservative causes also were targeted.
'Could point to secret political
vendetta within government against conservatives'...
A new poll finds an overwhelming majority support appointing
a special prosecutor to investigate the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS)
targeting of political groups.
In the months before President Obama declared al Qaeda was
“on a path to defeat,” his aides were telling Congress that the terrorist
network was expanding and was capable of inflicting mass casualties in the U.S.
In California,
Obamacare Will Increase Individual Health Insurance Premiums By 64 to 146%
In a little-noticed speech to the Iowa Republican Party, Kentucky
Republican Senator Rand Paul mocked President Obama's signature health care
overhaul, noting the 122,000 new medical diagnostic codes doctors will have to
use in order to inform the government about injuries sustained by Americans. Those
codes, said Sen. Paul, a medical doctor himself, include line-items for
'injuries sustained from a turtle,' 'walking into a lamppost' and
'injuries sustained from burning water skis.'
Hillary Clinton’s approval rating has
dropped from 61 to 52% since her mishandling of the Benghazi affair has become more public.
A recall effort against Sheriff Joe Arpaio has failed.
Harvey Whittemore, once the most powerful lobbyist in Nevada
and the head of a billion-dollar development company, was convicted of using family and employees to funnel
illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in
2007.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio´s repeated criticism of parts
of the sweeping U.S.
immigration bill he helped craft has unsettled immigration reform advocates and
others who support its passage. Rubio, a Cuban-American lawmaker from Florida seen as a
possible 2016 presidential contender, has consistently defended the bill´s
centerpiece - providing legal status for roughly 11 million undocumented
immigrants. But he has publicly said he wants changes to the bill and said last
week that he agreed with some of the concerns voiced in a letter by 150
prominent conservatives who oppose the legislation.
A record 72,600,000 Americans were enrolled in Medicaid for
at least one month in fiscal 2012. That
is more that the population of France
or the United Kingdom.
The 10,978,040 disability beneficiaries in the United States
now exceed the population of all but seven states. For example, there are more
Americans collecting disability today than there are people living in Georgia, Michigan,
North Carolina, New
Jersey or Virginia.
California
lawmakers advanced a dozen gun-control measures, including background checks
for ammunition buyers, and gave early approval to a tax penalty on the Boy
Scouts for barring openly gay leaders.
While delivering the commencement speech at historically
black Morehouse College, President Obama predictably
utilized "victimology 101" to access the inner victim that presumably
exists inside all black Americans. He disingenuously reminded the all-male
graduates, "As an African American, you have to work twice as hard as
anyone else if you want to get by." Unsurprisingly, this underhanded
insinuation that racism is so pervasive that no amount of individual effort
will overcome it received a thunderous ovation, even though this recycled
notion has the legitimacy of a three-dollar bill.
In a party where good news has been hard to find over the
past two years, the current state of play in 2014 Senate races gives
Republicans some reason to smile. A combination of raw numbers, a shift in the
political environment and some notable recruiting failures has handed Senate
Republicans a realistic — but by no means certain— chance of picking up the six
seats they need to win back control of the chamber.
Jiroemon Kimura, of Japan, has become the last man
alive to have been born in the 19th century. Literally the last man.
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Investor’s Business Daily 5/23
“Now the Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense “
The inexplicable raid nearly two years ago on a guitar maker
for using allegedly illegal wood that its competitors also used was another
targeting by this administration of its political enemies.
On Aug. 24, 2011, federal agents executed four search
warrants on Gibson Guitar Corp. facilities in Nashville
and Memphis, Tenn., and seized several pallets of wood,
electronic files and guitars. One of the top makers of acoustic and electric
guitars, including the iconic Les Paul introduced in 1952, Gibson was accused
of using wood illegally obtained in violation of the century-old Lacey Act,
which outlaws trafficking in flora and fauna the harvesting of which had broken
foreign laws.
In one raid, the feds hauled away ebony fingerboards,
alleging they violated Madagascar
law. Gibson responded by obtaining the sworn word of the African island's
government that no law had been broken. In another raid, the feds found
materials imported from India,
claiming they too moved across the globe in violation of Indian law. Gibson's
response was that the feds had simply misinterpreted Indian law.
Interestingly, one of Gibson's leading competitors is C.F.
Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin's catalog, several of their guitars
contain "East Indian Rosewood," which is the exact same wood in at
least 10 of Gibson's guitars. So why were they not also raided and their
inventory of foreign wood seized?
Grossly underreported at the time was the fact that Gibson's
chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, contributed to Republican politicians.
Recent donations have included $2,000 to Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and
$1,500 to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. By contrast, Chris Martin IV, the
Martin & Co. CEO, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in
contributions to Democratic candidates and the Democratic National Committee
over the past couple of election cycles.
"We feel that Gibson was inappropriately
targeted," Juszkiewicz said at the time, adding the matter "could
have been addressed with a simple contact (from) a caring human being
representing the government. Instead, the government used violent and hostile
means." That includes what Gibson described as "two hostile raids on
its factories by agents carrying weapons and attired in SWAT gear where
employees were forced out of the premises, production was shut down, goods were
seized as contraband and threats were made that would have forced the business
to close."
Gibson, fearing a bankrupting legal battle, settled and agreed
to pay a $300,000 penalty to the U.S. Government. It also agreed to make a
"community service payment" of $50,000 to the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation — to be used on research projects or tree-conservation
activities. The feds in return agreed to let Gibson resume importing wood while
they sought "clarification" from India.
The feds say they acted to save the environment from greedy
plunderers. America is a
trivial importer of rosewood from Madagascar
and India.
Ninety-five percent of it goes to China, where it is used to make
luxury items like $800,000 beds. So putting Gibson out of business wasn't going
to do a whole lot to save their forests.
Juszkiewicz' claim that his company was
"inappropriately targeted" is eerily similar to the claims by Tea
Party, conservative, pro-life and religious groups that they were targeted by
the IRS for special scrutiny because they sought to exercise their First
Amendment rights to band together in vocal opposition to the administration's
policies and the out-of-control growth of government and its power.
The Gibson Guitar raid, the IRS intimidation of Tea Party
groups and the fraudulently obtained warrant naming Fox News reporter James
Rosen as an "aider, abettor, co-conspirator" in stealing government
secrets are but a few examples of the abuse of power by the Obama
administration to intimidate those on its enemies list.
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/052313-657569-gibson-guitar-raid-like-tea-party-intimidation.htm#ixzz2UyQhuJR8
________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"[A] Fox poll asked people which of the recent
scandals concerned them the most. IRS topped the list with 32%; followed by Benghazi with 27%; the
monitoring of AP reporters scored 21%; and 10% went for none of the above,
claiming that all of them were of grave concern. ... [T]he truly shocking number
was 8%. That represented the percentage of Americans who were not the least bit
concerned about any of these matters. And I will remind you that these
ignoramuses are allowed, even encouraged, to go out and vote every Election
Day."
-Burt Prelutsky
"From around
1630 to 1966, immigrants sank or swam. About a third of them couldn't make it
in America
and went home -- and those are the ones who weren't rejected right off the boat
for being sick, crippled or idiots. That's why corny stories of someone's
ancestors coming here a half-century ago are completely irrelevant. If their
ancestors hadn't succeeded, their great-grandchildren wouldn't be here to tell
the story because no one was given food stamps, free medical care and housing to
stay. (And vote Democrat.) Now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel by
holding ourselves out as the welfare ward of the world and specifically
rejecting skilled immigrants. As Milton Friedman said, you cannot have open
borders and a welfare state. The reason a country's average immigrant matters
is that the losers never go home -- they go on welfare. (Maybe if they had to
work, immigrants wouldn't have as much time to build bombs.)"
-Ann Coulter
"We have truly entered the world of 'Alice in Wonderland' when the CEO of a
company that pays $16 million a day in taxes is hauled up before a
Congressional subcommittee to be denounced on nationwide television for not
paying more. Apple CEO Tim Cook was denounced for contributing to 'a worrisome
federal deficit,' according to Senator Carl Levin -- one of the big-spending
liberals in Congress who has had a lot more to do with creating that deficit
than any private citizen has………Government's power to bully people who have
broken no law is dangerous to all of us. ... No American government can take
away all our freedoms at one time. But a slow and steady erosion of freedom can
accomplish the same thing on the installment plan."
-Thomas Sowell
_________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS
Must read: “Here's a story you probably haven't
heard…..You tell me if it qualifies as "news" that the
"news" media should be covering. It involves a young man who would
someday become one of the best-known and most powerful men in the world. A new
book is out. It explores recently uncovered diaries kept by this young man
which document his fascination with Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He wrote: “….in a few years, Hitler will
emerge from the hate that now surrounds him and come to be regarded as one of
the most significant figures that ever lived…..He was made of the stuff of
legends." If this young man's name was Ronald Reagan, it is undeniable
that this new book would be a top-shelf media story everywhere. But his name
wasn't Reagan. It was John F. Kennedy.”
“For your summer-reading consideration this year, I
recommend the following books (all with a Cold War element): “Witness”, by
Whittaker Chambers — Witness remains one of the greatest memoirs ever written.
We live in a time when everyone under 40 (give or take a few years) has
essentially forgotten about the Cold War. Possibly better than any other
volume, Witness spells out the stakes involved and tells an amazing human story
of colliding lives at the same time. I cannot remember the last time a book
captured me as fully as this one did.”
__________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
Obama: ´I Don’t Have Much Patience
for People Who Deny Climate Change”
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
‘Liberal Activist’ Admits to Bugging Mitch McConnell’s
Office
Florida
high school students are being told that terrorists are driven by ” low self-esteem
and the need for a ‘sense of belonging’”
CBS Sports writer wants the Washington Redskins to change
their team name, and thinks any American Indian who doesn’t feel the same way
is a new “Uncle Tom.”
_______________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
Even more shocking than the barbarity of the terrorist
attacks in London and Boston
is the denial by authorities on both sides of the Atlantic
about their common religious motive. British Muslims offered the same
explanation as American Muslims for slaughtering their fellow citizens —
Islamic holy war — yet the political classes on both sides of the pond rejected
it out of hand.
_______________________________________________________________________
SECOND AMENDMENT
The California Senate this week approved a collection of
bills, including one (SB 53) that would require background checks, permits, and
fees for the purchase of ammunition.
The NRA has given an 8-year-old boy a free lifetime
membership. He was suspended from his school for chewing a Pop-Tart into the
shape of a gun.
An Oregon
military veteran is facing criminal charges after firing a warning shot at a
suspect trying to break into his house. The suspect was unharmed but police
ruled he was not “aggressive enough” to justify the warning shot.
________________________________________________________________________
CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY
The Tea Party movement is showing signs of a resurgence
following the revelation that the IRS targeted groups and other politically
conservative organizations for the past several years. A recent poll shows
Americans have a more favorable opinion of the less-government, anti-tax
groups. And one of the biggest groups in the grassroots movement told
FoxNews.com this weekend that fundraising and donations have increased since
news of the IRS targeting broke earlier this month. However, one of the biggest
remaining questions is whether the Tea Party can take the momentum in the 2014
elections. The movement started in 2009 as a reaction
The Republican Party, having lost the popular vote in five
of the last six presidential elections, confronts a dilemma that´s easier to
describe than to solve: How can it broaden its appeal to up-for-grabs voters
without alienating its conservative base? There´s no consensus yet on how to do
it. With the next election three years away, Republicans are tiptoeing around
policy changes even as they size up potential candidates who range from tea
party heroes to pragmatic governors in Republican- and Democratic-leaning
states. There´s a partial road map, but it´s more than two decades old,
How is anyone proud to say that they are a Democrat? Isn’t
there a point when even liberals have to cry uncle over multitude of the
scandals? It was just a few months ago when left-wing pundits were dancing on
the GOP’s grave. Now it looks like 2014 could be a good election cycle for
Republicans.
_________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Clarity: When the American mission in Benghazi,
Libya was attacked on
September 11th, 2012, only one person had the positional authority, legal
mandate, and communications apparatus to give the order to defend our personnel
on the ground: the President of the United States. The President did
not give that order, and four Americans died in Benghazi that day. All the rest of the
nonsense to which we have been treated–from prepared talking points, congressional
hearings, and finally to the outright lies–matter not when compared to the
ignominious moments in which the President of the United States refused to do his
job.
Like Watergate, Benghazi
has several layers. But the most revealing one is the active collusion between this administration and
Al Qaida. Al Qaida is a Saudi-inspired and
Saudi-funded terror gang. Almost all of the terrorists on 9/11 were Saudis.
Those facts are always covered up, but they are crucial to understanding the
Jihad War. In Benghazi
we ran arms from Libya to Al
Qaida rebels in Syria.
The Saudis are funding that rebellion…..Obama has consistently supported the
most radical Muslim elements in the Middle East.
Let´s begin with a verbatim quote from President Obama from
July of 2009, touting the legislative perfection that would be Obamacare: “If
you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like
your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.
No one will take it away. No matter what.” This unambiguous, clearly-stated
pledge was demonstrably false when it was first uttered and has remained so to
this day.
What Real Health Care Reform Looks Like: Dr. Michael Ciampi of South Portland, Maine,
might do more to reform health care than the entire Obama administration. On
April 1, Ciampi decided to stop taking insurance at his primary care practice,
charging people instead a fixed, out-of-pocket price for all services. By
cutting out the insurance middlemen on all claims, Ciampi will save both
himself and his customers time and money. Before, Ciampi charged $160 for an
office visit…..Now, he charges $75.
This in the Washington Post:
“Eric Holder, giving Justice a bad name”
“There was a time
when Obama couldn’t get a bad headline in this town. Now he’s the new Nixon. I
dropped out of writing about US politics three weeks ago to finish a book and,
on my return, I discover that everything’s changed. The President has been hit
not by one Watergate but by three – Benghazi,
the IRS, the DOJ phone records scandal – and even the mainstream media has
stopped treating him like the bringer of hope and change predicted in the
Bible. He´s not a Messiah, he´s a very naughty boy.”
____________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you
don't want the government spying on you (and they include 'pork', 'cloud' and 'Mexico')
___________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort
is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties,
or his possessions."
-James
Madison
______________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Leno: Time magazine found a picture of President Obama at his high school prom
back in 1979. Let me tell you how long ago that was. Back then, Obama had to
ask a girl for her phone number. He couldn’t illegally obtain it through the
Justice Department……..It is not looking good for President Obama. Today, his teleprompter
took the Fifth. In fact, the White House has changed its slogan from “Yes, we
can” to “No, I can’t remember…….The latest scandal in Washington, of course, is raising questions
about the IRS. You know, I have a question. Why is it called the Internal
Revenue Service? How is having your money confiscated a service?........A
Democratic congressman said that he worries that the IRS scandal might have a
chilling effect on the IRS and that they might be afraid to audit people. So
finally some good is coming out of all of this.
“…..ever since Jay Leno announced that he’s retiring, it
sure seems like his jokes have veered in an anti-Obama direction. Enjoy his
latest, as well as contributions from others.”
posted by gary at
7:56 AM
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