Category: Cronyism


Another Obama Administration Scandal Is Brewing

 

 

” Just when we thought it was safe to turn the news on again, a new scandal is brewing in the Obama administration, this one involving the Environmental Protection Agency. It has every possibility of being as big as the IRS scandal, because just like that one, it centers on administration officials playing favorites.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute reviewed FOIA requests received by the EPA from January 2012 to the spring of 2013, according to The Washington Examiner and the results were startling.

The Examiner’s Michal Conger reported:

For 92 percent of requests from green groups, the EPA cooperated by waiving fees for the information. Those requests came from the Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthJustice, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, The Waterkeeper Alliance, Greenpeace, Southern Environmental Law Center and the Center for Biological Diversity.

CEI received almost the exact opposite results — 93 percent of their requests for fee waivers to the EPA were denied.

The White House’s Chicago-style politics served as a blueprint for all the agencies under its control — the IRS, HHS, EPA, Justice and Labor to name a few. As Sen. Marco Rubio noted in a floor speech Wednesday, “These are the tactics of the third world.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE LOSS OF TRUST

 

 

 

 

” Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture by the professionally pious, this past week has been amusing. There was the spectacle of advocates of an ever-larger regulatory government expressing shock about such government’s large capacity for misbehavior. And, entertainingly, the answer to the question “Will Barack Obama’s scandals derail his second-term agenda?” was a question: What agenda?

The scandals are interlocking and overlapping in ways that drain his authority. Everything he advocates requires Americans to lavish on government something his administration, and big government generally, undermines — trust.

Obama’s supposed “trifecta” of scandals — Benghazi, the IRS, and the seizure of Associated Press phone records — neglects some. A fourth scandal is power being wielded by executive branch officials (at the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) illegally installed in office by presidential recess appointments made when the Senate was not in recess.

A fifth might be Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius soliciting, from corporations in industries HHS regulates, funds to replace some that Congress refused to appropriate. The money is to be spent by nonprofit — which does not mean nonpolitical — entities. The funds are to educate Americans about, which might mean (consider the administration’s Benghazi and IRS behaviors) propagandize in favor of, Obamacare and to enroll people in its provisions. The experienced (former governor, former secretary of education, 10 years in the Senate) and temperate Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., compares this to the Iran-contra scandal, wherein the Reagan administration raised private funds to do what Congress had refused to do — finance the insurgency against Nicaragua’s government.

Obama’s incredibly shrinking presidency is a reminder that politics is a transactional business, trust is the currency of the transactions, and the currency has been debased. For example:”

 

 

Read The Whole Sordid Thing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRS Official In Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

 

 

 

 

” The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRS Rejected Group On Behalf Of Planned Parenthood

 

 

” The IRS scandal of targeting tea party or conservative organizations grew deeper Wednesday with the revelation that the agency denied tax-exempt status to a pro-life organization because of its hypothetical opposition to Planned Parenthood. The Thomas Moore Society, a public interest law firm announced that one of their clients was told that their approval as a non-profit was conditioned on a commitment not to protest outside Planned Parenthood abortion clinics…

…The alleged actions against the pro-life organization, however, are an order of magnitude more serious. If the allegations are true, the IRS used a specific political litmus test to approve non-profit status. It also conditioned approval on actions related to a specific, political organization. It effectively allowed Planned Parenthood to silence political opposition.” 

 

 

See Entire Post With A Roundup Of Links To Targeted Groups Here

Here Is A Sampling :

 

Bill Donohue: IRS Targeted Catholic League

Chilling: IRS reportedly demanded list of high school and college students from conservative group

Was the IRS used as a weapon against Glenn Beck?

 

 

Lots More At The Link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Pelosi Gem: GOP Makes So Much Of Scandals Because Obama Is ‘Such A Great President’

 

 

 

 

” Nancy Pelosi, like Joe Biden, is the gift that keeps on giving. Today she offered up more brilliant analysis as to why The GOP is “making so much” of the scandals: because Barack Obama in “such a great president.”

“They make so much of these issues, because this president is such a great president. He’s a visionary – you’ve heard me say this so many times.

This is a great president. He’s a visionary. He has a knowledge of our country, concerns of the American people that give him judgment as to what plan we should have to go forward to strengthen the middle class.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ObamaCare Side-Effect: Fewer Hours, More Gov’t Aid

 

 

 

 

” ObamaCare was sold as a way to achieve several goals: affordable care, guaranteed coverage, protections against bankruptcy.

But before such promises have a chance of being realized, the health reform appears to be delivering something else: Germany-style work-sharing.

Economists hailed Germany’s work-sharing for reducing unemployment during the recession. ObamaCare may be having a similar effect. But there are differences that make the health reform’s labor side-effects much more questionable.

Over the past year, retailers have cut average weekly hours for nonsupervisory workers by 2%, the sharpest such decline in more than three decades. Meanwhile, rank-and-file employment is up 132,000, or 1%, over the same period.

Some 2.3 million workers might have their hours cut due to ObamaCare’s employer mandates, even if there’s no negative impact on total hours worked, a recent study from the University of California at Berkeley Labor Center estimated.

The other part of the equation involves more government benefits for those facing shorter hours. This will come starting in 2014 from ObamaCare health subsidies. Households working less may also get additional benefits, such as food stamps.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lax State Rules Provide Cover For Sponsors Of Attack Ads

 

State_Money_Politics

 

 

” While much criticism has been lobbed at the federal system for failing to adequately identify who is spending money to influence campaigns, 35 states have independent spending disclosure laws that are less stringent than federal election law.

In fact, in 30 states it’s impossible to total how much money outside groups are spending on campaigns, information that is mostly available when it comes to federal contests.

That’s according to a new 50-state analysis by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which graded the states on disclosure requirements for super PACs, nonprofits and other outside spending groups.”

 

 

    To see in detail how your state ranks in the battle against soft money click Report Card .

 

 

Report Card

” The National Institute on Money In State Politics graded each state by the strength of their independent spending disclosure laws through April 2013. It looked at:

  • Does the state require reporting of independent expenditures, political spending that urges voters to support or oppose a candidate but is not coordinated with the campaign?
  • Does the state require reporting of the target, the identity of the candidate who is the subject of the independent spending?
  • Does the state require reporting of position, whether the spending supports or opposes the target
  • How does the state monitor “electioneering communications” — advertising that airs close to an election that names a candidate but does not urge viewers to vote for or against the candidate?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obamacare Is About Power

 

 

 

” Members of the House of Representatives are scheduled to vote Thursday to repeal all of Obamacare. Given that the House voted to repeal the law last year, some commentators and observers have questioned the need for another repeal vote.

However, the scandals coming to light over the last week perfectly make the case for why Congress must eradicate the law from the statute books.

On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service finally disclosed that it had spent years targeting tea party and other conservative groups, delaying their applications for non-profit status and giving those applications additional scrutiny — solely because of those groups’ political beliefs.

Also on Friday, The Washington Post revealed that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius personally asked health industry groups to contribute to Enroll America, a pro-Obamacare front group working to “educate” the public about the law’s supposed benefits.

While we don’t yet know all the details about these scandals, we do know that the IRS grossly abused its power at a time when Obamacare grants it massive new authority. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General has said Obamacare represents “the largest set of tax law changes in 20 years,” with at least 42 provisions adding to or amending the tax code.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soros Gave $6.1 Million To Groups Linked To Pressure On IRS To Target Conservative Nonprofits

 

 

 

 

” Several Soros-funded groups including the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, the Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones and Alternet have worked to pressure the IRS to target conservative nonprofit groups. The subsequent IRS investigation flagged more than 100 tea party-related applications for higher scrutiny, including applications that included the words “Tea Party” and “patriot.”

The IRS scandal can be traced back to a series of letters that the liberal groups Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Democracy 21 sent to the IRS back in 2010 and 2011. Both groups were funded by George’s Soros’s Open Society Foundations. The CLC received $677,000 and Democracy 21 got $365,000 from the Soros-backed foundation, according to the Foundation’s 990 tax forms.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D.C. Turns On Obama

 

 

 

 

” The town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.

Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama — and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now. Establishment Democrats, never big fans of this president to begin with, are starting to speak out. And reporters are tripping over themselves to condemn lies, bullying and shadiness in the Obama administration.

Obama’s aloof mien and holier-than-thou rhetoric have left him with little reservoir of good will, even among Democrats. And the press, after years of being accused of being soft on Obama while being berated by West Wing aides on matters big and small, now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.

This White House’s instinctive petulance, arrogance and defensiveness have all worked to isolate Obama at a time when he most needs a support system. “It feel like they don’t know what they’re here to do,” a former senior Obama administration official said. “When there’s no narrative, stuff like this consumes you.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Then There Were Five Obama Scandals…?

 

 

 

 

” The Environmental Protection Agency stands accused today of showing favoritism toward liberal groups over conservative groups.

Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.

For 92 percent of requests from green groups, the EPA cooperated by waiving fees for the information. Those requests came from the Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthJustice, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, The Waterkeeper Alliance, Greenpeace, Southern Environmental Law Center and the Center for Biological Diversity.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CBS Anchor: ‘We Are Getting Big Stories Wrong, Over and Over Again’

 

 

 

” CBS anchor Scott Pelley said at a speech at Quinnipiac University that journalists “are getting big stories wrong, over and over again.”

“Our house is on fire,” said Pelley. The video of Pelley’s speech is courtesy of nowthisnews.com.

“These have been a bad few months for journalism,” he added. “We’re getting the big stories wrong, over and over again.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Should Be Abolished

 


” If the American people truly understood how the Federal Reserve system works and what it has done to us, they would be screaming for it to be abolished immediately.  It is a system that was designed by international bankers for the benefit of international bankers, and it is systematically impoverishing the American people.  The Federal Reserve system is the primary reason why our currency has declined in value by well over 95 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger over the past 100 years. 

The Fed creates our “booms” and our “busts”, and they have done an absolutely miserable job of managing our economy.  But why do we need a bunch of unelected private bankers to manage our economy and print our money for us in the first place?  Wouldn’t our economy function much more efficiently if we allowed the free market to set interest rates?  And according to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Congress is the one that is supposed to have the authority to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”. 

So why is the Federal Reserve doing it?  Sadly, this is the way it works all over the globe today.  In fact, all 187 nations that belong to the IMF have a central bank.  But the truth is that there are much better alternatives.  We just need to get people educated.

The following are 11 reasons why the Federal Reserve should be abolished…

 

 

#2 The Federal Reserve Is Systematically Destroying The Value Of The U.S. Dollar

 

The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.

If you do not believe this, just check out the inflation chart in this article.

The Federal Reserve systematically penalizes those that try to save their money.  Inflation is a tax, and the value of each one of our dollars goes down a little bit more every single day.

But over time, it really adds up.  In fact, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by 83 percent since 1970.

Anyone that goes to the grocery store on a regular basis knows how painful inflation can be.  The following is a list that shows how prices for many of the things that we buy on a regular basis absolutely skyrocketed between 2002 and 2012

Eggs: 73%

Coffee: 90%

Peanut Butter: 40%

Milk: 26%

A Loaf Of White Bread: 39%

Spaghetti And Macaroni: 44%

Orange Juice: 46%

Red Delicious Apples: 43%

Beer: 25%

Wine: 60%

Electricity: 42%

Margarine: 143%

Tomatoes: 22%

Turkey: 56%

Ground Beef: 61%

Chocolate Chip Cookies: 39%

Gasoline: 158%

Even the price of water has absolutely soared in recent years.  According to USA Today, water bills have actually tripled over the past 12 years in some areas of the country.

So how can the Federal Reserve get away with claiming that we are in a “low inflation” environment?

Well, what Ben Bernanke never tells you is that the way that the government calculates inflation has changed more than 20 times since 1978.

The truth is that the real rate of inflation is somewhere between five and ten percent right now, but you will never hear about this on the mainstream news.” 

 

 

Read them all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FROM SOVEREIGN TO SERF – The Book

 

 

From_Sovereign_To_Serf

 

 

” America endured eight years of war and 25,000 casualties rather than submit God-given, Natural Rights to government control. Yet in the 150 years since the civil war, we have seen the United States Federal Government expand its scope of power and authority and our freedoms eroded almost exponentially with each change of the executive.

Today the US has the largest, most powerful government in the history of humankind – a government far more controlling, taxing, and demanding than our founding generation abolished.

How did this happen? And what, if anything, can you do about it?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slavery-Courtesy-Notice-USA

 

 

www.peoplestrust1776.org

United By One . Divided By Zero

We Are Anonymous. We Are Legion.

We Do Not Forgive . We Do Not Forget .

Expect Us!

 

Presidents Of ABC and CBS News Have Siblings Working At White House With Ties To Benghazi

ABC_CBS_Incest

 

 

” RICHARD GRENELL: I think the media’s becoming the story, let’s face it. CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi. Let’s call a spade a spade.

Let’s also show you why CNN did not go very far in covering these hearings because the CNN deputy bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Hillary Clinton’s deputy, Tom Nides. It is time for the media to start asking questions why are they not covering this. It’s a family matter for some of them.

JON SCOTT, HOST: So they don’t want to bring embarrassment upon folks who, who they’re close to?

GRENELL: Who directly are related to this story. Absolutely. They’re covering for them. There’s no question about it.

For the record, Ben Sherwood’s sister, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is the Special Assistant to Barack Obama.

Virginia Moseley’s husband, Tom Nides, is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FreedomWorks On Tap “The Truth Behind The Farm Bill”

” This week’s episode of FreedomWorks On Tap “The Truth Behind The Farm Bill” Featured Austin Petersen (FreedomWorks Director of Productions & Editor of TheLibertarianRepublic.com), Josh Sewell (Senior Policy Analyst for Taxpayers for Common Sense), Drew White (Government Relations Deputy for Heritage Action for America), & Josh Withrow (FreedomWorks Legislative Affairs Manager).”

WHO IS GIVING WHITE HOUSE ORDERS TO CBS NEWS ON BENGHAZI?

 

 

 

” With reports suggesting that CBS News brass is unhappy with reporter Sheryl Attkisson for her focus on the White House’s actions surrounding the Benghazi attacks of September 11, 2012, new questions are being raised about the relationship between CBS News and the Obama administration. According to the Washington Post:

[Attkisson] says she has received “a tremendous amount of pushback” from the White House as a result of her reporting on Benghazi and Fast and Furious. Among other things, she says, White House officials have called and written her bosses at CBS to complain about her work. She says she doesn’t find that unusual or even disturbing.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

OBAMA SPENT $11.45 MILLION PER ‘GREEN JOB’ CREATED

 

 

” In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to create 5 million “green jobs” if elected president. However, an analysis by the Institute for Energy Research (IER) finds that since 2009, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) $26 billion loan program created just 2,298 permanent jobs, at a cost of $11.45 million per job created.

In his New York Times bestselling book Throw Them All Out, Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer revealed that 80% of Department of Energy loans went to companies owned by or connected to President Barack Obama’s top campaign fundraisers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Come To This: Solar Installer Now Suing The Government For More Money

 

 

 

 

 

” Last December, the Inspector General of the Treasury launched a probe of the three largest providers of solar panel installation companies that received funds from the much-vaunted 1603 Program — “Payments-In-Lieu-Of-Tax-Credits,” part of President Obama’s stimulus law meant to help the residential market make a switch to more renewable-energy use — as part of an ongoing investigation into whether the companies received excessive government grants via inflating their reported work costs.

One of the companies in question, SolarCity (several of whose executives and venture capital firm backers, you might remember, were generous Obama donors), is now countering with their own lawsuit against the federal government, demanding that they haven’t been paid enough money because their payouts were actually smaller than promised. From the WSJ:

The suit, filed quietly in February in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, comes as SolarCity and other industry players are defending solar-friendly government policies, and it could undermine the industry’s message that solar power will soon be viable without government help. …”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gore Is Romney-Rich With $200 Million After Bush Defeat

 

 

California

 

 

Tennessee

 

” In 1999, Al Gore, then U.S. vice president and a Democratic candidate for president, sold $6,000 worth of cows.

The former senator, who spent most of his working life in Congress, had a net worth of about $1.7 million and assets that included pasture rents from a family farm and royalties from a zinc mine, remnants of his rural roots in Carthage, Tennessee. Funds from the cattle sale went to three of his kids, according to federal disclosure forms filed as part of his presidential run.

Fourteen years later, he made an estimated $100 million in a single month. In January, the Current TV network, which he helped to start in 2004, was sold to Qatari-owned Al Jazeera Satellite Network for about $500 million. After debt, he grossed an estimated $70 million for his 20 percent stake, according to people familiar with the transaction. “

 

 

His yacht: Bio Solar One

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obama To Grads: Reject Voices That Warn About Government Tyranny

 

 

 

 

 

” U.S. President Barack Obama gives the commencement address to the graduating class of The Ohio State University at Ohio Stadium on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Enjoys 51% Rise In Profits

 

 

 

” Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm led by Warren Buffett, has posted a 51pc rise in profits thanks to the performance of its insurance companies and the rising value of the businesses it owns stakes in.

Berkshire said net income rose to $4.89bn (£3.14bn) in the first quarter of its financial year on the back of revenues growing 15pc to $43.9bn.

The conglomerate controls almost 100 companies across insurance, utilities, clothing and consumer goods, but also holds stakes in some of the world’s biggest businesses, including Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and Tesco, which is Berkshire’s biggest holding outside the US.”

 

 

 

 

 

Terry McAuliffe Explains Why He Left His Wife In The Delivery Room To Go To A Fundraiser

 

 

 

“As Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski reported yesterday, Terry McAuliffe shares in his 1997 book “What a Party,” a story about the time he left his wife, Dorothy, and his crying newborn child in the car so he could attend a Democratic fundraiser.

In the video above, McAuliffe explains the episode in an audio version of his book:

Dorothy was starting to well up in the backseat. She was having trouble understanding how I could be taking my wife and newborn baby to a fund-raiser on our way home from the hospital. We got to the dinner and by then Dorothy was in tears, and I left her with Justin and went inside.”

 

 

Think of his lies about his “green” car company and of course his long association with our most ethical president Bill (Blue Dress) Clinton .

 

 

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