Tag Archive: Politics


Political Appointees Helped bin Laden Filmmakers Over Objections Of Career Officials At Pentagon

 

 

 

Political appointees at the Defense Department, the CIA and the White House brushed aside concerns from career officials about helping two Hollywood filmmakers research their 2012 movie about the top-secret Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, according to a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general.

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, who had been nominated to take over at the PentagonMike Vickers, defense undersecretary for intelligence; and politically appointed public affairs staff in both agencies and the White House helped secure for the filmmakers a meeting with a participant or planner of the 2011 raid, the report shows.”

 

    This report confirms a post we had earlier in the week about the politicization of the bin-Laden raid and amply demonstrates that political expediency trumps national security every time with the thugs that presently occupy the White House .

 

” “At the direction of Director Panetta, the CIA is cooperating fully” with the filmmakers, Mr. Vickers wrote to Douglas Wilson, who was assistant defense secretary for public affairs. In reply, Mr. Wilson promised to “check with the [White House] to update them on status.”

Investigators said that, as a result of these efforts, screenwriter Mark Boal attended a June 2011 ceremony at CIA headquarters in which raid participants were honored and were clearly identified, despite efforts to keep their identities secret.”

 

      The next time you hear Obama prattle on about the need for secrecy to maintain “national security” keep in mind the fact that the term is actually meaningless to him and his staff . To them EVERYTHING is viewed through the PRISM of politics and how  the given situation/event can best be spun to make them look good . There is never any selfless consideration of what’s good for the country , only what’s good for Obama and his Statist agenda .

If you doubt that this could be the case just pause for a moment and consider , Fast & Furious , Benghazi , Sequestration , IRS , James Rosen , AP Phone Records , PRISM , War On Whistleblowers , et al . Observed with an eye towards Obama’s political survival the administration’s seemingly bizarre actions make sense .

 

 

 

 

 

 

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IRS Scandal Brings Out More Charges Of Political Audits

 

 

”  If reports of political targeting of conservatives by the Internal Revenue Service shocked the nation, they didn’t seem that surprising to many other groups who experienced problems with the tax agency in the past.

Liberal groups such as Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals say they were targeted, too, by past administrations. The conservative group Judicial Watch says it was singled out for tax scrutiny during the Clinton administration because it supported impeachment.

Charges of politically motivated targeting by the IRS are notoriously difficult to prove or disprove. The older cases differ from the current scandal and the evidence of political attacks is circumstantial. But in interviews with McClatchy, leaders of these well-known activist groups assert they were targeted during Bush and Clinton administrations.

“We have been targeted,” said Jeff Kerr, chief counsel for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “

” Many audits are triggered by anonymous or direct information about a group or citizen, a so-called “information item.” The IRS also offers rewards to tipsters equal to about 10 percent of taxes owed.”

 

     The entire concept of anonymous tips that is utilized throughout the law enforcement community is merely an open invitation to corruption , retaliation , spite and greed . It needs to be ended . It harkens back to the old Soviet Union control method of pitting neighbor against neighbor and , just as in the USSR is destroying civil society .

 

“The process of obtaining an exemption is a privilege. Not everyone in the United States is exempt from taxation . . . you have to meet highly specific criteria, that Congress decided, not the IRS . . . and jump through hoops and answer questions,” he said, adding that he never witnessed political motivation but worked in Washington during the Nixon revelations and was shocked. “I knew a lot of people and nobody I know has ever had that experience.”

 

    The concept of exemptions is another idea that does nothing but foster the culture of abuse of power . Who is to decide who gets “special” treatment ? What ever happened to the founding notion of “equal protection before the law” ? 

 

 

Further reading on the history of IRS abuse .

 

RealClearPolitics - History of IRS Abuse

Cato Institute Highlights History of IRS Abuse

Factbox: IRS’s rich history of scandals, political abuse

IRS Has a Long History of Political Abuse - Hit & Run : Reason.com

History of IRS Abuse:A real eyeopener

IRS Scandal Echoes a Long History of Political Harassment

 

 

 

 

The Social Construction Of A Mass Shooting Epidemic

 

 

 

 

 

” The killings of 20 first-grade students and six adult staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, obviously constitutes a terrible, newsworthy event. But the news coverage did more than report the details of what happened at Newtown. It also sought to classify this incident as an instance of a larger problem. The initial news reports described what had happened as “the second deadliest school shooting,” “another mass shooting,” and a “mass killing” (all in stories in the next day’s New York Times) and as “the second deadliest shooting event in U.S. history” (The Washington Post). The Post’s website ranked the 12 “Deadliest U.S. shootings” (the earliest case on their list occurred in 1949), while the Mother Jones website added Newtown to its page “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” (which included only cases from 1982 to 2012).”

 

    The categorization of “mass shootings” , “mass murders” , “workplace violence” or whatever other clever nomenclature that happens to be in vogue are decided upon by the media that reports on the stories and we would do well to remember that the present day media , the so-called mainstream anyway , are anything but dispassionate observers and reporters of fact .

 

” According to The New Republic, there were 70 mass shootings between 1982 and 2012, leaving 543 people dead. The magazine does not say whether this death toll includes the shooters, who often—but not always—also die. But let us assume that only the shooters’ victims were counted. (Amy Sullivan, the New Republic article’s author, says she believes that is the case.) That works out to about 2.3 incidents and 18 victims’ deaths per year. Last year was an unusually bad year, with 68 people killed in seven mass shootings—a terrible toll, to be sure. But in the context of some 2.5 million deaths from all causes last year, mass shootings, while dramatic, are simply not a major cause of death. And because these events are quite rare, and their number fluctuates from year to year, it is difficult to determine a clear trend. The horrors of 2012 made it easy from some commentators to claim that mass shootings were on the rise, but should there be fewer cases in 2013, it is unlikely that people will note that the problem is growing smaller.”

 

 

    As with most any news items today , how events are portrayed in the media is really more an issue of what particular ax the reporting organization has to grind than it is a fair illustration of the facts .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have You Ever Wondered Whether The Money You Spend Ends Up Funding Causes You Oppose?

 

BUYCOTT

 

 

” A buycott is the opposite of a boycott. Buycott helps you to organize your everyday consumer spending so that it reflects your principles.

Example: During the SOPA/PIPA debate in 2012, a number of companies pushed to pass legislation that reduced online freedom of expression, while other companies fought hard to oppose the legislation. With Buycott, a campaign can be quickly created around a cause, with the goal of targeting companies with a boycott unless they change their position, or buycotting a company to show your support.

When you use Buycott to scan a product, it will look up the product, determine what brand it belongs to, and figure out what company owns that brand (and who owns that company, ad infinitum). It will then cross-check the product owners against the companies and brands included in the campaigns you’ve joined, in order to tell you if the scanned product conflicts with one of your campaign commitments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join With Us

 

 

 

 

Your Donation Dollars
at Work in 2012

 

 

” As an Independent Institute member, you will receive the latest Independent Institute publications, discounts to upcoming events, and the opportunity to exchange ideas with leading experts, while supporting the Institute’s program with a tax-deductible contribution.

We look forward to having you as a member! To receive more membership information, please contact our Associate Director of Development at (510) 632-1366 x152, or send an email. Our Taxpayer Identification Number is 94-3008370.

The Independent Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation and subscribes to the Donor’s Bill of Rights. The Independent Institute does not support or oppose political candidates or proposed legislation. Contributions to the Independent Institute by individuals, corporations, foundations, partnerships, and other organizations are tax-deductible.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Obvious Student Aid Is Driven By Politics. But Not This Obvious

 

 

 

 

Federal aid for college students, it’s really no secret, is driven by what works politically, not what’s best for students. While logic and evidence strongly suggest that aid mainly enables colleges to raise their prices at breakneck speeds, politicians talk nonstop about aid making college “affordable.” Financial reality simply does not trump appearing to “care.” But on Friday, the Obama administration appears poised to take aid exploitation to a new level.”

 

   If you thought student aid was about students you’d be mistaken . As with all that DC does it’s about aiding politicians , not constituents. Silly taxpayer , aid is for pols …

 

” At this point, you’d think the President would be negotiating, not grandstanding. But then you wouldn’t understand federal student aid (or, really, almost anything government does). It is first and foremost about politicians – who are normal, self-interested people – getting what they need: political support, not sane college prices. And you get a lot of that support by appearing to want to “help people” more than the other guys.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Cutter Attended WH Meetings With IRS

 

Stephanie_Cutter

 

 

” An interesting factoid emerges from a look at a transcript of last Friday’s edition of “The Lead With Jake Tapper”Stephanie Cutter was in on the White House meetings that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman attended. 

Cutter insists that Shulman was simply meeting about implementation of ObamaCare — and in fairness, one of her responsibilities was managing communications strategy for the unpopular law.  But as everyone knows, Stephanie Cutter’s expertise is not primarily in the policy area; it is in the realm of politics: Political strategy and communications.  She has been described by the Daily Beast as a partisan “pit bull.”  Her job isn’t the nuts and bolts of governing.  She is a political fixer.  That’s why she was a Deputy Campaign manager for the President’s re-election.”

 

 

Nothing political to see here . Now move along .

 

 

” Consider the following timeline:

May 2009 - Cutter moves to White House from Treasury Department

January 2010 – Citizens United is handed down; Democrats are hysterical

March 2010 - IRS begins targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups

April 2010 - Cutter assigned to sell health care reform; if meetings with Shulman didn’t occur before, presumably they did so afterwards.” 

 

 

   Stephanie Cutter is the poster girl for all things political . Having her involved with the Shulman IRS meetings stinks to high heavens . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nixon and Obama: Like brothers from another mother

Published on May 28, 2013

” Many pundits and journalists, including CBS’ Bob Schieffer, have drawn parallels between the Obama White House’s handling of scandals plaguing the administration and Former President Nixon’s management of Watergate. We looked back in the archives to see just how close they were.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis Miller Time – Chris Christie/Barack Obama/Eric Holder – Bill OReilly – The Factor – 5-29-13

 

Washington Launches Four Different Investigations Into IRS Scandal

 

 

 

 

 

” By the time lawmakers return to session next week, at least four different investigations will be underway.

As The Daily Caller has reported, at least five different IRS offices including Cincinnati, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois and El Monte and Laguna Niguel, California improperly targeted conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny between 2010 and 2012.

So for those of you keeping score at home (this reporter is still waiting for Ken Starr to send in his bracket picks) The Daily Caller presents a list of some of our favorite investigations into potential IRS wrongdoing. Which one will come up with the “Alexander Butterfield” quote?”

 

Read On

 

Illustration by Jeff Parker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damage Control For Dummies

 

 

 

 

“ Writing a column on the recent IRS abuses is a hazardous undertaking. The scandal is expanding so quickly that it’s hard to get a paragraph on paper without having to revise it with new, shocking details. As I write this, an unctuous-looking former IRS commissioner by the name of Douglas Shulman is telling the Senate Finance Committee that he knows nothing, to the consternation of Senator Max Baucus. A Democratic senator angry at a Bush-appointed bureaucrat over the targeting of Tea Party groups—strange times on Capitol Hill.

But even in post-scandal Washington, some things always stay the same. One of them is the inclination of many progressives to defend the president at all costs, no matter what the accusation. Some of these arguments—with their logical contortions and obstinate immunity to new facts—have been downright impressive. Media Matters, head to the job fair. America has a hack surplus.

Let’s take a look at six of these rationalizations that have been circulating on the left.”

 

 

Read The Whole Thing

 

These right-wingers are just upset that the IRS is doing its job.

 

 

 

 

 

IRS Protest St. Louis County May 21, 2013

Published on May 21, 2013

” Residents of St. Louis County met in front of the IRS offices on May 21, 2013 to protest the IRS’ practice of targeting and harassing conservatives, patriots and Tea Party supporters. There were no city or county police there, ONLY DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY POLICE. According to the IG report, the IRS began targeting conservative organizations, especially Tea Party groups, in Feb. 2010, (although there is much evidence that they have been targeting conservative groups and Christian groups since the 1980′s.) The IRS agents were directed to target organizations with the words “patriot” or “tea party” in the names. The power to tax is the power to destroy. This is what it is like to live in a police state tyranny. It has become evident that they are planning on using the IRS as their Gestapo.”

 

 

 

 

 

TRIFECTA: ObamaCare Will Disrupt Your Health Care and Your Life

Published on May 21, 2013

” While many think that ObamaCare will improve the quality of their health care, a recent report proves the opposite to be true. President Obama’s health care law is so complex, that simple life events like marriage, child birth or a new job could throw families into an accounting nightmare. Hear why on this Trifecta.”

 

 

 

 

 

Leak Ended Informant’s Rare Opportunity, U.S. Officials Say

 

 

 

 

” Saudi-born Briton had gained the trust of terrorists in the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda and helped foil a bomb plot, they say, but his work was cut short by Associated Press and newspaper reports.

His access led to the U.S. drone strike that killed a senior Al Qaeda leader, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Quso, on May 6, 2012. U.S. officials say Quso helped direct the terrorist attack that killed 17 sailors aboard the U.S. guided-missile destroyer Cole in a Yemeni harbor in October 2000.

The informant also convinced members of the Yemeni group that he wanted to blow up a U.S. passenger jet on the first anniversary of the U.S. attack that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. They outfitted him with the latest version of an underwear bomb designed to pass metal detectors and other airport safeguards, officials say.”

 

 

 

     This would seem to be another case of projection on the party of the present administration . As we recall , Obama outed the spy , and Britain was rightfully outraged , in order to take credit for foiling a terror plot . 

   This particular “revelation” appears to be an attempt to deflect attention away from DoJ’s blatant intrusion into the AP phone records and a justification of that policy . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRS Punished Conservative Non-Profits, Perhaps Also Pro-Israel Groups

 

 

 

 

 

” For more than a year the U.S. Congress has been investigating whether the Internal Revenue Service was inappropriately treating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, or burdening such groups with requests and demands which are impermissible, as many had claimed.

While they are at it, the committee might want to ask the IRS whether their list of targets extended beyond political party discrimination. There is evidence the IRS also targeted pro-Israel groups whose positions were potentially inconsistent with the administration’s.

For example, in 2010, the passionately pro-Israel organization Z STREET filed a lawsuit against the IRS, claiming it had been told by an IRS agent that because the organization was “connected to Israel,” its application for tax-exempt status would receive additional scrutiny.  This admission was made in response to a query about the lengthy reveiw of Z STREET’s tax exempt status application.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT MONTY PYTHON CAN TEACH CONSERVATIVES ABOUT SEQUESTER POLITICS

 

 

 

 

 

” One of my favorite Monty Python movies excerpted on the channel is Life of Brian. The film’s stoning scene is actually very instructive for today’s Republican party. In fact, a comment made by the person about to be stoned should be front and center in the mind of every Republican who ever proposes cuts in government spending.

Sounds a little far-fetched, but let me explain.

The scene starts like this: in Jerusalem, 33 AD, a man is brought in front of a crowd holding stones, and a magistrate announces the defendant’s name and the conviction of blasphemy. The sentence will be death by stoning.

The magistrate yells out the charge of “blasphemer,” as the man was caught saying the name of Jehovah, and angrily points at the defendant. The defendant explains that he was merely complimenting his wife’s cooking, saying it was “good enough for Jehovah.” The crowd gasps, ready to start the stoning, and the magistrate yells “he said it again!” The prisoner says “what, Jehovah?” The magistrate shouts “hey, you’re only making it worse for yourself!” To which the man says “how can it get any worse?”

Then he begins dancing and crying out “Jehovah! Jehovah!” to the outraged crowd. But you can’t really blame the guy. If ever he had any inclination to say the name “Jehovah” out loud, he might as well say it now and as many times as he wants. He is about to get stoned to death for saying it anyway. At this point he really has nothing to lose, and it certainly won’t get worse than getting stoned to death.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magpul Magazine Manufacturing Fully out of Colorado, New Products Left and Right

 

 

 

 

” Following through on their promise to leave the state if Colorado were to pass new gun control laws including a magazine capacity limit, Magpul is shifting their manufacturing out of the state.

From now on, not a single magazine will be manufactured or assembled in Colorado. ”We have started making PMAGs outside CO for the first time ever. The sights are made outside CO. We are actively moving forward with moving other items out.” 

Magpul has not disclosed where they have relocated to, although previously they said they were looking at a neighboring state.

As frustrating as the move must be, Magpul doesn’t appear to be slowing down in any form. They’ve recently announced a commercial polymer AK-47 magazine which we expect to do tremendously well. It will be the first of a series of AK PMAGs, presumably with other calibers to follow. The first PMAG will be for 7.62x39mm cartridges.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 Reasons To Dislike Barack Obama

 

 

 

 

” As a conservative, picking out things you don’t like about Barack Obama is kind of like pointing to the wettest part of the ocean. It also goes beyond politics. Not only is Barack Obama wrong politically, he’s not a good guy, “cool,” or even moderately likable. To the contrary, he’s one of the nastiest, least admirable people in politics and he gets by based on a phony persona he created when he ran for President in 2008 — along with the help of press corps liberals that work to protect him like they’re on his payroll. Based on his performance and his personality, Barack Obama deserves to be the least popular man ever to sit in the White House.

1) Nobody but an ass would say“It’s very rare that I come to an event where I’m like the fifth- or sixth-most interesting person.”

2) He’s a former (maybe, who really knows?) coke-snorting pothead who governs with all the care and due diligence you’d expect from a coke-snorting pothead.

3) Barack Obama actually said, “The private sector is doing fine.” Given that the private sector has never at any point been doing fine since he became President, he’d have to be dumb, dishonest or delusional to say something like that.

4) He is a bigger liar than Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter put together. There’s nothing the man says you can count on his meaning unless he’s saying something nice about himself.” 

 

Read The Whole Thing

 

 

 

 

Democrats Looking To Retreat On FAA Furloughs

 

 

 

 

” Senate Democrats are beginning to realize that President Obama has dealt them a losing hand on Federal Aviation Administration furloughs linked to sequestration, and they are now trying to minimize the damage.

The entire purpose of sequestration was to inflict pain on the American people until they forced Republicans to raise taxes. But the reality is that the federal government is perfectly capable of reducing the growth of its spending, while still performing what few vital functions it actually performs. And the FAA is a great example.

President Obama requested $15.172 billion to run the FAA for 2013 and Congress initially gave him $16.668 billion. The sequester has since cut the FAA’s budget by $669 million, leaving the agency with $15.999 billion. That’s right: Even after the sequester “cuts,” the FAA actually has more money to spend this year than Obama originally asked for to begin with.”

 

 

 

 

 

Denver Cops Criticize Obama In Advance Of Denver Speech

 

 

 

” Some current and former Denver police officers have taken to Facebook to criticize President Barack Obama’s planned use of Denver police officers as a backdrop for a Wednesday speech on gun control.

“This is wrong and it shouldn’t be happening,” said Mike Rossi, a retired Denver police detective who left the department in 2005.

CBS4 has learned that the Denver Police Department has been asking for officers — in uniform — to volunteer to stand behind Obama as he makes his speech Wednesday at the Denver Police Academy.

 “Who better to stand behind you when you’re trying to ban guns than police officers. What an awesome prop,” said Rossi. He said DPD officers should not be used as a backdrop to make it appear the Denver Police Department and the City of Denver support stronger gun control measures.”

 

 

 

The University Utopia

 

 

 

” Just after November’s election, I posed three paradoxes of American politics, asking why certain demographic groups make up reliable voting blocs for the left, even though the pro-free-market ideas of the right have so much to offer them.

I have begun to revisit these paradoxes. In part one of this series, I laid out the case for why the pro-free-market right needs to reclaim these key demographic groups—young people, racial minorities, and city dwellers—and why I regard these as natural constituencies for the free market whose lockstep voting for the left is a paradox.

In this installment, I take up the first of the paradoxes: Why do the young vote for dependency—when the essence of youth is a quest for independence? My purpose for now is mostly just to solve the paradox, to explain the reason for the apparent contradiction, and to indicate what this implies for how the right should change its message and its sales tactics. When I am done looking at all three paradoxes, I will look in greater depth at an agenda of reform for the political strategy of the right.

First, let me explain why I do not include women among the main demographic groups the right needs to reach. Despite the left’s rhetoric on this issue, women are not a monolithic voting bloc. If you break down the numbers for last fall’s election, for example, Mitt Romney won the vote of white women by 56 to 42 percent. President Obama only won the women’s vote on the strength of his enormous advantage among racial minorities. The “marriage gap” was equally striking. Romney won 53% of the votes of married women, while Obama won 67% of the votes of unmarried women.”

 

 

 

From The Jim Turney Collection Comes This Lecture From Murray Rothbard

” A prolific author and Austrian economist, Murray Rothbard promoted a form of free market anarchism he called “anarcho-capitalism.”

In this video from the first Libertarian International World Libertarian Convention in 1982 in Zurich, Switzerland, Rothbard gives a lecture on what he identified as the six stages of building an independent libertarian (or any philosophical) movement. Rothbard identifies possible growing pains associated with the growing popularity of libertarianism but ultimately concludes that such risks are necessary because “Libertarians, it seems to me, are not content with contemplating justice, contemplating truth, goodness and beauty, we’re not playing intellectual games — we mean to change the world. We want to put this thing into reality.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 Things Presidents Are REALLY Spending Our Tax Money On

 

 

” It is said that two things are certain: death and taxes. Of course, that ignores the inevitability that those taxes will be spent on ridiculous crap. We asked our readers to show us what presidents have secretly splurged on with our hard-earned money. The winner is below, but first the runners-up … “

 

#8 By: Froggar

 

 

 

 

 

 

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