IRS Head of Exemptions Lois Lerner to Plead the 5th

May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Internal Revenue Service

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

In essence, Lois Lerner does not want to incriminate herself. In court, it sticks nicely. In the court of public opinion, Lois Lerner is guilty, as is the Internet Revenue Service.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Nobody seems willing to admit that some conservative groups were treated unfairly, but they’re not willing to defend their actions, either. As far as the world is concerned, they’re guilty as can be.

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Shamefully Plays the Role of Victim of the Oklahoma City Tornado Tragedy

May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Sheldon Whitehouse

I’ve heard some silly rants given at exactly the wrong time by politicians in Washington DC over the years, but the callous, shameful nature of RI Senator Sheldon Whitehouse‘s rant today in the middle of the Oklahoma City tornado disaster is one of the worst cases of poor judgment I’ve ever heard of from anyone.

The Senator utilized precious time in the midst of a tragedy to push his political agenda. What’s worse is that he did so from the perspective of being the victim of events that have happened in Alabama, Texas, and now Oklahoma. “When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover,” he said.

Wow. Talk about bad timing. Talk about insensitivity. Dead bodies were still being pulled out of the rubble in Oklahoma City when this disgraceful, petty man thought it necessary to complain about the economic impact it would have on his home state. At the moment that mothers were crying over the bodies of their dead children, Sheldon Whitehouse felt it was the ideal moment to complain about how it all affected him, how he was one of the victims of these tragedies, how it was the evil Republicans and their position on climate change that was creating events that caused his state financial troubles.

Shame on you, Senator. Shame on you for being opportunistic. Shame on you for attempting to draw attention away from the people of Moore, Oklahoma, who just had two schools leveled, who were desperately trying to find an entire third grade class while you maniacally ranted about federal aid for natural disasters somehow induced by the Republican minority in the Senate. You would be a fowl American if you were an American at all, but it is impossible for me to classify someone as an American when they use disgraceful political tactics like that.

Here’s a section of his rant from the Daily Caller:

“So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

Whitehouse went on to condemn the current Republican position on global warming, citing economic, environmental and diplomatic damages.

“You drag America with you to your fate,” he continued. “So, I want this future: I want a Republican Party that has returned to its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that has done right by its people and the world. That’s what I want. I don’t want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that you will wake up before it is too late.”

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Democrats are Sticking their Heads in the Sand Over Recent Obama Follies

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Benghazi Attacks

The IRS targeting of conservative groups falls under the category of, “duh.” The Justice Departments seizure of journalists’ communication records created a dangerous precedent that is already making sources dry up. The way the Obama administration handled the Benghazi terrorist attack on 9/11 was arguably the most masterful spin job in US political history. With all that is starting to come to light about this corrupt and destructive administration, the response so far from the left has been to stick their heads in the sand and hope the scenery is still cheery when the smoke clears.

Benghazi PollThat’s the takeaway from a recent Gallup poll that suggests the people just aren’t that interested in these types of news items. Republicans are more willing to follow them with 2/3rds claiming they are watching the IRS situation and the Benghazi investigation very or somewhat closely. Only 40% and 45% respectively of Democrats are doing the same.

Benghazi is the truly damaging one because of the implications it had. The administration knew that they would have a hard time winning the election if they were caught sleeping through a terrorist attack on the anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, particularly from a group that they have conveniently and quietly tried to remove from public consciousness. They spun it to appear as if it was a spontaneous action in response to a video.

They lied. They know it. They wanted to win the election at all costs, even if it meant desecrating the memories of the public servants that died as a result of the administrations ineffectiveness and unwillingness to protect them thoroughly. Now that it’s coming to light, the left seems unwilling to hear the truth. After all, it would mean that their chosen savior for the nation might actually be doing the wrong things for the country, that he’s more corrupt than even the Bush administration, and that he and his team intentionally misled the American people in order to keep hold of their power.

This is all disgusting on many levels, but the worst part is that many Democrats are gleefully willing to play the role of sheep. Conservatives were among the most vocal when Bush made poor choices. Why are liberals not willing to do the same when their guy turns out to be a manipulative scoundrel?

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Will Anyone Important Talk to the Press Knowing the Government is Listening In?

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Big Brother

There is a need to take the right courses of action when it comes to national security. Protecting the lives of Americans is arguably the most important job of the government and should definitely take a priority over nearly every impediment. However, there was a wisdom written into the Constitution that is so solid, so relevant today and for the foreseeable future that it must not be trampled upon for any reason including being pushed aside by the shield of national security.

A free press is comprised of two components. On one side, journalists have a responsibility to report what they find and to inform the population about what’s going on in the world. This seems to be the focus of the outrage currently being tossed at the Justice Department over the phone records they grabbed.

“It’s too early to know if we’ll take legal action but I can tell you we are positively displeased and we do feel that our constitutional rights have been violated,” said AP CEO Gary Pruitt.

The rights and privacy of the journalists have been trampled upon and this is a serious issue, but it’s the lesser of the two evils that have been perpetrated.

The other component of a free press is the source. The people who are willing to talk to the press about what is going on in our world are a necessary part of a free press and the fact that they have been exposed to the government is much more damaging than anything done to the journalists themselves.

“Officials that would normally talk to us and people we talk to in the normal course of news-gathering are already saying to us that they’re a little reluctant to talk to us,” Pruitt said. “They fear that they will be monitored by the government.”

This is a big problem. It means that the truth is going to be held. It means that sources with important information are going to be reluctant to tell anyone for fear that they are going to be exposed. Nobody likes to be secretly monitored and the DoJ has shown that they’re going to go after those who leak information. The press, for their part, have done a pretty good job at releasing information at the appropriate time. They’ve been responsible in most cases; the leak that led to this investigation in the first place was done in response to a leak in which the story was held until after an operation was complete.

If you had access to information that could lead to a hot story, particularly one that would be considered “dirt” against the US government, would you be willing to tell anyone? Could you trust that your anonymity would be maintained? No. The sources are already drying up. The truth is being suppressed. Anyone who believes that this wasn’t the intention is not paying attention to the trends.

This happened at the right time for the wrong reasons. It was released at a time when there’s so much happening in the news against the current administration from Benghazi to the IRS conservative targeting that there’s no reason to believe this wasn’t planned. They wanted to be caught. They wanted it to happen right now. This is such a clear case of spinning, but few seem willing to see it. This isn’t a black eye on the DoJ or the administration. This is a warning to those who would consider leaking the truth that they’re not safe, they’re being monitored, and they will be dealt with harshly.

This is a threat. Unfortunately, it worked.

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Sequestration furloughs have no impact on ObamaCare workers

April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment

ObamaCare Signing

The politicization of the sequester has been a clear central point of the furloughs that have affected millions of Americans as high profile programs and events have been affected. White House tours, the Blue Angels, and airport slowdowns have been pushed as “see, I told you so” items that the Democrats cling onto when demonstrating the evil ways of the fiscally conservative right. Those working to administer and organize ObamaCare, however, appear to have been vaccinated from the impact.

“We’re talking about at least a 15 percent furlough of current air-traffic controllers, resulting in delays and perhaps safety concerns, but yet this has been a selective political item by the administration,” said Rep. Greg Harper (R-Miss.).

The sequestration has resulted in several government agencies furloughing employees, reducing hours, and cutting pay. The fact that the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight was not forced to make these cuts while air traffic controllers vital to the safety of travelers across America are facing furloughs is a brilliant political move by the Obama administration. They selected agencies that would provide pain points to citizens and get press from mainstream media in an effort to pressure Republicans to raise taxes even further, but they did not select anything, including ObamaCare, in which the negatives of the furloughs would reflect badly on the administration.

This is a clear case of using the sequestration for political agendas first and foremost. The use of logic by creating a hierarchy for the cuts to actually make sense is something that this administration is unwilling to do. It’s not about what will be best for the country. It’s about what will be best for the administration. They have done many things over the last five years that have been questionable, even criminal in the case of Benghazi and other incidents, but this is the most glaring example of “politics at all costs” while also saying “the citizens be damned”.

America is in a state of great need in the way of leadership and responsibility. This administration seems to hold both of these qualities as very low on their list of attributes.

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Teacher Asks Students to Depict Jews as Evil for Nazi English Class Assignment

April 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Adolf Hitler

Schools in America are supposed to teach our children information that can be useful to them as adults. Teachers are supposed to have proper judgment in making assignments and not put their own personal feelings into play. That hasn’t been the case for a long time (if it ever really was at all) as can be seen by the liberal leaning of most educators, but sometimes they take it too far.

Such is the case in upstate New York where a students were asked to enhance their “persuasive writing” skills by putting themselves into the mindset of a someone loyal to Nazi Germany to write a letter that proved that Jews were evil and the source of the government’s problems.

Let’s call it what it is. There is absolutely no way that anyone in their right mind would innocently make such an assignment. Teachers, particularly “veteran” ones as this unidentified teacher has been described, realize that their assignments have effects on their students that go beyond the purpose of the assignment. Agendas are often put into play. The ability to craft the mindsets of their students gives teachers such a powerful influence over the future of the community, the country, and the world. It is during the school years that much of what a person will believe for their whole lives is set. It is then that the foundations for complex opinions are formed.

The most hopeful scenario is that the teacher was simply an absolute moron with the type of poor judgment that should never allow them to find their way into any school system. The more likely scenario is that this is a person that is trying to craft the minds of the youth to promote antisemitism. One does not ask young people to pretend that they hate Jews and then find evidence to be able to draft a letter supporting their premise without an evil agenda of their own. Even with the slim chance that this was just an innocent attempt to stretch the minds of children, one would hope that a teacher, particularly an English teacher, would have the creativity necessary to come up with an assignment that would not be as destructive.

The minds of students can be molded very easily. Taking them down a path where they must formulate reasons to hate any group of people can have the effect of making their assignment turn into a reality. If the teacher didn’t know this, they need to work the drive-thru somewhere instead of trying to teach children English. If the teacher did know this, then he/she is a danger to society because it demonstrates a desire to spread hate. With the desire to spread hate comes the potential for deadly actions.

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North Korea is Apparently Targeting Colorado Springs, TX

April 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

North Korea Targeting Colorado Springs, Texas

It’s not prudent to take the threats of the North Koreans lightly as we mentioned in a previous post, but it’s hard to take them seriously when their computer generated graphics of their attack plan pinpoints Colorado Springs, the home of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), to be somewhere around the Texas/Louisiana border.

The graphic matches the map that was pictured behind leader Kim Jong-un last week in a propaganda image released to the media. At the time, it was assumed that they were targeting Texas but it is clear in the video that was released to the state-run media services that they were selecting Colorado Springs as their second target right after Washington DC. Here’s the video:

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Mitch McConnell Should Drop the Recording Scandal

April 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Mitch McConnell

There are times when publicity should be harnessed. Often the best type of publicity to promote is the type that paints a politician as a victim, which is the situation that Mitch McConnell and his campaign staff find themselves in after liberal super PAC Progress Kentucky allegedly taped the Senate Minority Leader and his campaign staff during a strategy session discussing then-potential opponent Ashley Judd.

In this specific instance, the point has been made and it’s time to for his team to let it go. It isn’t that they want the story to go away. It’s that at this point, the story has legs of its own and there’s nothing that McConnell or his staff can do to make it any more beneficial. Every subsequent mention of the “Nixonian tactics” will do nothing more than turn people off

Progress Kentucky is a shining example of why super PACs shouldn’t exist in the first place, but that’s another discussion altogether. What’s important to know is that these political simpletons have already done enough to solidify the Senator’s re-election in 2014 for now. Things can change quickly in politics, but their alleged actions have given McConnell a comfortable boost against anyone the democrats put up against him.

Damage done. Now it’s time for McConnell to drop it. At this point, it’s a lot like a joke. You tell it once, then you let the people laugh. You don’t tell it again and again. Let it go. It won’t drop off the radar. Despite the liberal leanings of the mainstream media, the story is too juicy for them to sweep under the rug. They’ll continue to cover it whether McConnell or his staff talk about it going forward.

Now, it’s time to get back to business. McConnell’s team needs to play this off as an unfortunate and comical circumstance. They need to promote the concept that the authorities have it under control and that they will no longer be focusing any of their effort on the subject because America needs action, not attention given to morons. They need to take the high road and get back to work. There’s no need to milk this any more. It will continue to pour out milk on its own for as long as it needs to and will die off at the right time. Prolonging it artificially by participating in the discussion cannot help their cause.

People love victims, but they don’t like whiny political victims. The point has been made. Move on and let the press do their job.

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North Korea is Too Unpredictable to take their Nuclear Warnings Lightly

April 9, 2013 by 1 Comment

North Korean Army Marches

Unpredictable. It’s a word that’s often used to describe leaders around the world who are potentially willing to do things that evade logic. These are the leaders who will hurt their own people for the sake of their egos, who will condemn others around the world for the sake of their own power, and who seem to always have something to prove even when nobody needs the proof. It is what best describes North Korean leader Kim Jung-un and it’s the reason that the threats that are being reported as “sabre rattling” across most major news outlets should be taken at face value and acted upon immediately.

The regime has threatened to attack the United States, South Korea, and our allies with nuclear weapons. There have been debates about whether this is even possible. There doesn’t need to be debates. There is no need to ponder as to what action they might take if they aren’t able to fire nuclear warheads. We don’t need to examine the psychology of the leader nor do we need to speculate on missile launcher movements and their purpose.

A country with an army of 1.2 million has threatened to go to war, to annihilate other countries, and to do so against the wishes of everyone including their own allies in China. This must be dealt with immediately. Some would say military action is in order, but we’re not there yet. What we do need to do is call the bluff. When nuclear threats are made, it’s the responsibility of the United Nations to take the harshest non-military action against North Korea and continue the pressure until they start playing nice.

The truce with South Korea has been allowed to linger. The war never ended. It must be ended now. The United Nation needs to proclaim a state of complete isolation. No trade. No aid. Even China should be forced to comply. Either North Korea backs down completely, halts all nuclear advancements, and reduces their military to a defensive size, or they will be blocked from any form of contact with the rest of the world. They’ve been given numerous opportunities to play nice. They have not been threatened. There has been no chance until now that military action would be taken against them. They cannot be reasoned with and they continue to be a ticking time bomb that could send the entire planet into a state of turmoil.

Call the bluff. Place a stranglehold of sanctions on them and enforce them with an iron net that would prevent any form of trade. Only then will they ever stop being a problem. Only then will their peace-loving neighbors to the south feel relatively safe.

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Flashback to June 2012: “The private sector is doing fine.” ~ POTUS

April 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Obama Chair

The tune in Washington changes quickly depending on the needs. When there was an election around the corner, the problems of this country weren’t as bad as everyone seemed to think according to President Barack Obama. This video is from June 8, 2012. It seems that today, we aren’t sharing the same sentiment.

Of course, it’s probably the Republicans’ fault, right?

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