Just this weekend, a case has arisen in Idaho, where city officials have told ordained ministers they have to celebrate same-sex weddings or face fines and jail time.
The Idaho case involves Donald and Evelyn Knapp, both ordained ministers, who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel. Officials from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, told the couple that because the city has a non-discrimination statute that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Idaho’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the couple would have to officiate at same-sex weddings in their own chapel.
The non-discrimination statute applies to all “public accommodations,” and the city views the chapel as a public accommodation.
On Friday, a same-sex couple asked to be married by the Knapps, and the Knapps politely declined. The Knapps now face a 180-day jail term and $1,000 fine for each day they decline to celebrate the same-sex wedding.
A week of honoring their faith and declining to perform the ceremony could cost the couple three and a half years in jail and $7,000 in fines.
States must protect the rights of Americans and the associations they form—both nonprofit and for-profit—to speak and act in the public square in accordance with their beliefs. It is particularly egregious that the city would coerce ordained ministers to celebrate a religious ceremony in their chapel. The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion arguing that this action “violates [the Knapps’s] First and 14th Amendment rights to freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, substantive due process, and equal protection.”
Protecting religious liberty and the rights of conscience is the embodiment of a principled pluralism that fosters a more diverse civil sphere. Indeed, tolerance is essential to promoting peaceful coexistence even amid disagreement.
In the video blow you will see Bill Elliot, who lost his insurance due to Obamacare, could not afford the new Obamacare premiums and deductibles, had resigned himself to die:
Along comes C. Steven Tucker, Chicago TEA Party Leader and also one of the top insurance brokers in the country. Tucker reached out to Bill Elliot and this is how he saved Mr. Elliot’s life, but the IRS was not amused about telling their story on Fox News:
UPDATE – Aside from the comment section below which has several links, videos and comments, Mark Levin went more in-depth into the BLM’s deliberate abuse of power, creating a legal quagmire to destroy the lives of ranchers, coal miners, small farmers, and commercial fisherman. Listen here:
UPDATE II – Fox News’ Sean Hannity reported today that the Chinese Solar plant Sen. Harry Reid broke ground on is not 213 miles from Clive Bundy’s ranch, it is 35 miles.
Mark Levin, famed lawyer, author, legal scholar, and former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Ed Meese says Cliven Bundy is right.
Levin explained in his April 11th broadcast how Bundy had agreements with the State of Nevada before the BLM claimed jurisdiction.
Mark Levin
Originally Bundy and the other ranchers in the area cooperated with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They negotiated water rights and grazing rights, building of roads and irrigation all with the approval of the state and BLM.
BLM was collecting fees from Bundy and the other ranchers in the area when BLM reneged on their earlier agreements [including agreements with Clark County H/T Michele Fiore]. BLM began a systematic and deliberate campaign to drive ranchers out of Southern Nevada. Levin said that while the BLM had granted itself the power to behave in such a way to make it “legal”, BLM’s war on local ranchers is a deliberate abuse of power.
Among the tactics used by BLM was a mandate for “environmental” reasons that Bundy and the other ranchers in the area decrease their cattle herd to 150 head, which would put every rancher out of business and did, including 52 ranchers in Clark County alone, leaving Cliven Bundy the last rancher standing.
BLM demands that ranchers sign a contract agreeing to new terms before they take payment. While BLM was successful in driving every other rancher out Cliven Bundy refused to agree to the new terms, stopped paying BLM and a 20 year legal battle began, with Bundy not being able to afford attorney’s for a drawn out legal battle (so much for due process). [NOTE: Cliven Bundy’s English is so bad and so broken that he can barely manage to express himself.]
Another tactic that BLM engaged is was to declare much of the land off-limits because they said that the Desert Tortoise was endangered, while at the same time the population of Desert Tortoises was so abundant that the government initiated a program to hunt them.
Levin’s entire April 11th broadcast can be downloaded at the following link:
Late on April 11th, bloggers searching public documents discovered that Nevada Senator Harry Reid, whose former long-term aid now directs BLM, has been negotiating a deal with a Chinese energy firm to build a $5 billion solar energy facility on the land near the Bundy Ranch. Harry Reid’s son represents the Chinese firm looking to develop said land.
[NOTE: While the ground zero point of the Chinese Solar facility is 200 miles from the Bundy Ranch, it is within the area of the many dozens of ranchers the BLM has driven out in recent years as well as the associated public grazing land. Also water rights can easily be affected by such a large development 20035 miles away (See Update II above). In any case, the overpopulated Desert Tortoise means that horses and cattle can’t graze, but a massive solar facility ….well that is great for the so-called “endangered” tortoise?]
After the news of Harry Reid’s involvement in plans to seize and develop these lands with the Chinese had begun to go viral on the internet, the following morning the BLM agreed to pull its 200 armed men out and return seized cattle to Cliven Bundy. At the time of this writing the BLM had not indicated if the arrival of nearly 2000 (many armed) citizens was a factor in their motivation to stand down.
Editor’s Note:
Has the political class has taken lands in the West much the same way they stole the land from the Indians and slaughtered them? What politician ran on “I am going to seize control of 86% of Nevada”?
They did it by a thousand cuts, incrementalism, and before you know it they have taken control of 86% of the land for no other reason other than they got away with it.
This is the problem, the Congress over time has handed so much “regulatory” authority to the executive branch that they can make up and change “the law” as they go at a whim. We have witnessed the wholesale breakdown of separation of powers.
Is not civil disobedience, the First Amendment right to protest, parts of Article V, and the Second Amendment all checks against the deadly power of lawmaking under such circumstances?
It is important to keep in mind that one of the government’s tactics in takings cases is to drag out court proceedings and make your legal bills so high that you run out of money and give up, which is why Cliven Bundy represented himself in court. Can one honestly say that Cliven Bundy got his due process in federal court with no legal team to help him?
The recent trial of George Zimmerman has been used as a tool among anti-Second Amendment advocates to attack the concept of self defense, gun ownership, and “Castle Doctrine” laws also known as “Stand Your Ground” laws. While neither the prosecution or the defense argued on the bases of such a law it was still a part of the jury instructions in the case. Those hostile to the human right of self defense such as Van Jones and Eric Holder are putting all of their chips of criticism on a section of law that was merely a footnote in this trial.
UPDATE – Obama co-sponsored a bill that strengthened Illinois Stand Your Ground law – LINK.
The Case Against Castle Doctrine Laws
Some believe that such laws give the person with the firearm “too much” benefit of the doubt in that, some people who might not have absolutely had to use deadly force would use deadly force knowing that the law was in effect. There will be cases, in the view of some prosecutors, where the circumstances did not justify the use of deadly force, but the way the statute is written does. In some cases fear that was not reasonable or immediate could be argued by slick lawyers to make it appear that the person with the gun had a reasonable fear.
In a worst case scenario there may be cases where someone who acted in a moment of rage would dress up that rage as “legitimate fear” of bodily injury and escape prosecution. The way such laws are written is overly vague and may invite disaster that is not completely warranted, thus making a mockery of the intent of the law.
Let us be clear, there have been and will be a small number of cases where this law is misapplied, but is that a case for repealing the law altogether or merely revisiting the law’s language and interpretation for improvement?
The Case For Castle Doctrine Laws
Twenty-one states have castle doctrine laws. The National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbied for such laws for some very good reasons.
“Must retreat” laws have resulted in unneeded deaths and bodily injury as well as a great many unjustified prosecutions of citizens who were defending themselves legitimately. This is not a “may” or a “could” and this is not a theory. There is a long, almost incalculable, list of examples and cases where such laws resulted in great bodily harm or death of innocents. There is an equally long list of prosecutions by overzealous and/or politically motivated prosecutions by prosecutors who are dead against citizens owning firearms or other political reasons that have no place in a court of law.
The George Zimmerman case was just such a prosecution. The chief of police and the local prosecutor refused to file charges against Zimmerman because the the evidence did not warrant it. The police chief was fired under the political pressure and a special prosecutor was appointed. The prosecution was caught breaking the law by illegally hiding exculpatory evidence from the defense about the state of mind and history of Trayvon Martin and it was a prosecution staffer who blew the whistle. The prosecutor lied to the judge, misled the court and was not forthcoming with the evidence. “Criminally perjurious“, “corrupt and politically motivated” is how (liberal) Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz described the prosecution.
“Must retreat” laws endanger the public. Victims of domestic violence and others who are required to make an attempt to retreat tactically give the aggressor more time to carry out their attacks. They require the victim to make snap legal judgments that can mean decades in prison while they should be focused on defending themselves and loved ones in chaotic and crisis situations.
Must retreat laws allow lawyers months to “Monday morning quarterback” someone who was in terrible danger and was forced into making a snap judgment; thus, in application, putting a burden of proof on the victim which is a violation of due process in the 5th and 14th Amendments.
Castle Doctrine laws require that prosecutors do what they have been constitutionally charged with doing since the founding of the republic; prove their case.
Fortunately concealed carry permit holders (which does not include those who merely keep a firearm in their home) have shown themselves to be very responsible gun owners with good judgment.
Since the George Zimmerman trial was in Florida, lets us look at the rate that people given a concealed carry permit have those permits revoked for inappropriate conduct. That rate in Florida is 1.4 revocations per thousand. One knows that the application of the law is never perfect, but a .0014% rate is as close to perfect as anyone could hope for.
The Ridiculous
Stand Your Ground laws must be repealed because George Zimmerman was a racist blah, blah, blah:
It is monumentally irrelevant who is morally guilty in a court of criminal law. If one thinks that George Zimmerman was observing Trayvon Martin for police because Martin is black or if one thinks that there is a 60% chance that George Zimmerman was guilty of some kind of ill will, than the responsible juror must return a verdict of not guilty. Such moral judgments have no place. Why? Because if they did people would get convicted because they were a fool or a jerk, not because they actually violated the law. In short, even a Klansman has the right to defend himself with deadly force against someone who is smashing his head against a four inch thick block of cement.
Stand Your Ground Laws must be repealed because they can be misapplied:
In the George Zimmerman case the law against second degree murder was misapplied, shall we repeal it?
Stand your ground laws are a license to kill any black person you see (you can thank Al Sharpton for this one) :
Black Floridians have made about a third of the state’s total “Stand Your Ground” claims in homicide cases, a rate nearly double the black percentage of Florida’s population. The majority of those claims have been successful, a success rate that exceeds that for Florida whites.
You will never see a case where “Stand Your Ground” protects a black person with a smoking gun is standing over a white person (you can thank a guest on the Sean Hannity show for this one):
Roderick Scott (2) says he acted in self defense when he confronted Christopher Cervini and two others saying they were stealing from neighbors cars. He told them he had a gun and ordered them to freeze and wait for police. Scott says he shot Cervini twice when the victim charged toward him yelling he was going to get Scott.
Stand Your Ground allows people with guns to shoot unarmed people:
If three men confront you in dark ally and say that they are going to rape you and cut you the prudent person would shoot them even if it was before they saw a knife and even if the three later proved to be unarmed.
John McNeil, 46, received a life sentence in November 2006 after killing a white man who was trespassing on his property. Police detectives investigating the case determined that McNeil acted in self-defense, but Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head decided a year later to try the case and won a conviction.
The incident took place Dec. 6, 2005, when McNeil arrived home after his teenage son had called him about an unfamiliar man lurking about their property.
Brian Epp, a hired contractor with whom McNeil had past difficulties, had already pulled a knife on the teenager.
Epp refused to leave, and McNeil, who had called 9-1-1, fired a warning shot into the ground. Epp then charged toward McNeil while reaching into his pocket. McNeil fatally shot him in the head at close range. Court documents state that a pocketknife was clipped inside Epp’s pants pocket. McNeil’s neighbors who witnessed the incident backed his story.
Kennesaw police detectives investigated the case, decided that McNeil had acted in self-defense and didn’t charge him.
In this case it certainly seems that McNeil was justified in using force to defend himself, but this incident happened a year before Georgia passed it’s Stand Your Ground law, so this prosecutor was able to score another conviction in his portfolio. Stand Your Ground would have protected McNeil, a black man, from what police concluded was an obvious case of self defense.
The McNeil case should be reviewed. If one would like to contact Governor Nathan Deal to ask that John McNeil be pardoned, or at least have his life sentence commuted, one can do so HERE.
UPDATE – Law Professor Eugene Volokh seems to have proposed several of the same points – LINK
It is amazing how the elite media hid this for so long, but as Winston Churchill said, “A lie gets half way around the world before the truth can get its pants on”.
Lean – it is a street drug popular with the “gangsta rap” scene and one of the more popular recipe’s is Robitussin DM, Watermelon flavored Arizona Tea and Skittles. Guess what kind of tea Trayvon Martin bought at 7-11 along with his Skittles.
It’s more than a drug; it’s a culture. It’s what’s known on the street as “Lean,” a highly addictive cocktail of cough syrup, cold medicine, alcohol and candy — so potent it makes you “lean” over when high. The drug first began to get attention a few years ago, when a popular Houston DJ overdosed on it. At that time, it was easy to make and easy to get, says Ron Peters, a professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health. “As far as across Texas, across also the southern part of the United States, estimates have shown that it to be at one time a pretty common drug of choice amongst kids…anywhere from ninth grade all the way up to young adults,” says Peters.
Martin had 1.5 nanograms of THC – the active ingredient in marijuana – and 7.3 nanograms of another THC substance found in his blood. Traces of cannabis – marijuana – were also found in his urine.
The liver damage from Martin’s drug abuse was also apparent in Martin’s autopsy report:
What causes patchy yellow discoloration due to fatty metamorphosis of the liver? Well, morbid obesity, Reye’s Syndrome, alcohol addiction, and drug abuse.
Trayvon Martin’s social networking showed that he was actively involved in “Lean” production:
George Zimmerman said in his call to police that Martin was behaving strangely like he was on drugs. This is the kind of trouble our inner city youth are in today and the elite media, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and President Obama could not seem to care less.
Be sure to also read the special editor’s note below!
George Zimmerman with a broken nose
As I sit back and go back over the trial video a few things come to mind that thinking people should to be aware of.
The prosecution and the press did a pretty good job of applying ill motives to George Zimmerman, but when one looks closer it was all maybe’s, assumptions, could haves and other assertions not in evidence. It amazes me how easily people adopt false narratives based on emotional appeals and assertions.
He was a “creepy cop wannabe”? Really? Did you know that as a part of the neighborhood watch program he was offered a car with flashing yellow lights, a uniform, and a computer system that tied into law enforcement? He turned it down. Is that what a creepy cop wannabe does? In fact, turning that down showed to be a mistake because if he had that car it would have identified him as neighborhood watch.
George Zimmerman is a racist? Really? The facts: his prom date was black and he mentored two young black children a mentoring program – even after the county ran out of funding. Sanford Police and the FBI did an extensive investigation, including talking to dozens of people who know George Zimmerman. Both police organizations concluded that he has never shown evidence of racism. Just who was it who called who a “crazy ass cracka”?
According to the prosecution, George Zimmerman had ill intent and hate towards Trayvon and looked for an excuse to… Not only did they have no evidence to support that claim, but Zimmerman, while on the phone with police, twice asked nicely for an officer to be sent out. Are those the actions of a hateful man bent on murder in the second degree?
George Zimmerman “stalked” Trayvon? Really? When Zimmerman called police and started following Trayvon until an officer showed up, Trayvon was texting and on the phone with his girl friend and realized he was being followed. After Trayvon hung up it was four minutes later that Trayvon jumped George Zimmerman and started ground pounding him MMA style and smashing his head against the cement. Now stay with me; in that four minutes did Trayvon run away? Nope. Did he run home? Nope. Did he use his cell phone to call the police after he hung up with his girlfriend? Instead he looped back around and came out at George Zimmerman attacking him. So in that four minutes who was stalking who?
[Note: Juror 37B said that Trayvon “got mad and attacked George Zimmerman” adding “Trayvon threw the first punch”. More details below and in comments. ]
There is a world of difference between “stalking” someone and merely observing them for police. As much as media pundits drumming up racial angst for ratings shout otherwise, observing someone for police does not make one an “aggressor”.
What verifiable evidence does anyone have that George Zimmerman was anything less than a normal decent guy before that fateful moment?
The ignorant man, wishing to ‘rise above’ as ‘a good post-modernist thinker’, will cast negativity on both sides, judging both with the same condemning brush, so as to create the illusion of their own ‘enlightenment’.
When police tried to trick Zimmerman into making an incriminating statement they lied and told him that a camera had caught the whole thing on video Zimmerman’s response was “Thank God”.
When expert law enforcement witnesses on self defense took the stand were asked “During the attack what alternative did George Zimmerman have besides using deadly force the witness said , “None.”
If Trayvon Martin had survived his wound what would he have been charged with?
[Note: Smashing Zimmerman’s head against the cement block likely would have resulted in charges of aggravated battery, a felony in Florida. This may seem insensitive, but as a matter of law the facts are the facts – Trayvon Martin was, as the evidence indicates, killed in the act of committing a felony.]
It is not often when lawyers Alan Dershowitz and Ann Coulter are on the same page. All of the physical evidence, expert testimony, and eye witness accounts confirm George Zimmerman’s account of what happened. The prosecution was caught breaking the law hiding exculpatory evidence from the defense about the state of mind and history of Trayvon Martin and it was a prosecution staffer who blew the whistle. The prosecutor lied to the judge, misled the court and was not forthcoming with the evidence. “Criminally perjurious“, “corrupt and politically motivated” is how (liberal) Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz described the prosecution.
Now George Zimmerman is suing NBC News for carefully editing the 911 tape to make him appear racist along with putting out demonstrably misleading information on a daily basis to create a demonic false picture of him. ABC News doctored video and pictures of Zimerman to hide his injuries to push the same false narrative. CNN’s coverage was so over the top and unethical that even those who resist claims of media bias were taken aback. It was these news organizations that repeated over and over that police told George Zimmerman not to get out of his car, which is of course demonstrably false.
CNN said even after the verdict that Trayvon Martin was armed with nothing ore than a bag of skittles, ignoring the damage to his knuckles from beating George Zimmerman and omitting the four inch thick block of cement that he was pounding George Zimmerman’s head into.
The actual block of cement Trayvon Martin smashed George Zimmerman’s head into repeatedly
“And the suggestion by the state that that’s not a weapon, that can’t hurt somebody … is disgusting,” O’Mara said.
The elite media showed the world pictures of a nine year old boy who they claimed was gunned down when he went out to buy some Skittles the facts are that Trayvon Martin was a muscular athlete who towered over George Zimmerman.
Cutouts of Trayvon Martin standing next to George Zimmerman
As someone who is well trained in communications law I have little doubt that these ‘news organizations’ will be writing George Zimmerman a hefty check. Elite media consumers motivated by the lies and false narratives are engaging in violence in the streets.
Honestly, I hope that the Zimmerman team refuses to take what ever settlement NBC, ABC and the rest offer him and go to a very public trial, because the nation needs to see just how corrupt the elite media has become.
Editor’s Note: On Piers Morgan last night, Trayvon Martin’s girl friend Rachel Jeantel, according to her phone conversation with Trayvon Martin just before the attack, explained that Trayvon turned hostile toward George Zimmerman because he thought George Zimmerman was gay; perhaps some kind of gay rapist. The left has invested themselves beyond reason and fact into supporting, according to this new evidence, a probable gay basher. Martin had a cell phone and could have called police, but it seems that Martin took things into his own hands.
NOTE: Mediaite, in the link above has edited the story and headline to remove most of the gay comment references. History is being re-written already, however, we expected that so we posted the transcript below in the comments.
So who was violating federal hate crime laws? A case can be made that Trayvon Martin was. Eric Holder’s non-existent civil rights case against George Zimmerman just went out the window. I imagine this is some of the evidence that prosecutors kept from the defense.
Felony battery is wrong no matter if it is against perceived gays or anyone else. In her interview with Piers Morgan Rachel Jeantel explained in ghetto vernacular that George Zimmerman should have known that Trayvon Martin wasn’t going to kill him and that Trayvon just wanted to give Zimmerman a dose of what she called “whoopazz”.
UPDATE II– Friends, Hell has officially frozen over. Attorney Leo Terrell who has a long history of saying “everything” is racial BLASTS those who made the Zimmerman case a racial issue. My jaw is agape as I type this. Leo said that the jury decided this case correctly saying this was not a race case at all.
Note** On Zimmerman’s referenced “martial arts training”. His Martial Arts instructor said that on a scale of 1-10 in fighting skill, he managed to get Zimmerman from a 0.5 to a 1 and that he wasn’t a threat to a punching bag.
UPDATE III– Via Kevin B. Shearer:
Sherman Ware. A black homeless man who was beaten by the son of a white policeman in Sanford, FL in 2010. Anyone want to guess who was the one ‘white’ person who went to churches passing out flyers calling attention to a coverup? Anyone want to guess who went to public meetings and demanded that this black man deserved better? Do you know who spent tireless hours putting fliers on the cars of persons parked in the churches of the black community? Do you know who waited for the church‐goers to get out of church so that he could hand them fliers in an attempt to organize the black community against this horrible miscarriage of justice? Do you know who helped organize the City Hall meeting on January 8th, 2011 at Sanford City Hall? You guessed it. George Zimmerman. But the main stream media isn’t talking about that are they.
UPDATE IV – Black Pastor: If you think that George Zimmerman was guilty than you are looking through your black eyes only, not the eyes of Jesus, not through the Blood of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. You are looking through the eyes of hate – you are black therefore George is guilty.
He explains further:
UPDATE V – Bill Cosby: This was not about racism – LINK
UPDATE VI – Evidence: Trayvon Martin was at 7-11 buying chems for home made drug cocktail – LINK
UPDATE …We told ya so: Obama’s Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers – LINK
This story is not about partisanship. It is about the difference between what Palpatine called, “I will make it legal” and what is truly lawful.
For starters we need legislation making third-party records with phone companies, internet, credit card, etc private. Just because technology has out-stepped the 4th Amendment does not mean that we cannot adjust the trajectory of that Amendment to keep up with technology. The “papers and effects” of today are smart phones and computers. The Constitution doesn’t say “you have the 4th Amendment until the moment your papers are in a digital format”. Shall we poll the American people on that one?
Most Americans would be outraged if they knew that Supreme Court once ruled that you have no expectation of privacy on such personal data.
One of the reasons the Founders petitioned the Crown and then wrote the Declaration of Independence is because of unspecific “General Warrants”. The reason that the 4th Amendment was enumerated is because the British issued these general warrants which were essentially legalized ‘fishing expeditions’ into people’s lives. Eventually the Crown gave the Red Coats the ability to write their own warrants. Today we are doing the same with “national security letters“.
They have made it illegal to tell anyone you are targeted, so you can’t even go to court to fight it.
How are we to know who was hurt or whose private information was leaked, or who’s phone and email was tapped and that information was used against them secretly? Since you can’t check and see if you have been snooped upon ever, you technically have no standing in court…. how convenient. This little maneuver is how the Obama Administration has been getting such cases thrown out of court.
The entire purpose of the courts, and especially the FISA Court, is to ensure that government surveillance is not overly broad and it’s actions not heavy-handed. Yet the FISA Court somehow signed off on this unlimited illegal surveillance and the Obama Administration was able to hop from judge to judge until it found one that would sign off on tracking the life of Fox News Reporter James Rosen, his family, and the entire Washington Bureau of the Associated Press. What we are experiencing is a wholesale breakdown of both the system of checks and balances and separation of powers.
The courts have said that the government needs a warrant to put a GPS tag on someone or their car, but meta data, among other things, tracks GPS off your calls and whereabouts instantly, so each and every log entry of an American without probable cause, each case… and there are millions, is a violation of law and people’s 4th Amendment rights. Where are the prosecutions? “I was just following orders” never has flown before, and doesn’t fly now.
What I don’t like is that Edward Snowden was put in the position of having to do this. The overreaches and abuses in the NSA, IRS, EPA and other agencies should have been nipped in the bud a long time ago. The tools the NSA was given were supposed to be used on foreign targets and only those in the USA where probable cause was clear and/or a specific warrant issued.
It seems to me, who Government was targeting certainly were not two brothers in Boston calling Chechnya to speak to their jihadi mother and trainers.
In every election this president has ever been in he has utilized private and sealed records against his opponents.
I used to favor the Patriot Act, I defended it against everyone in my college class on the Patriot Act in a debate – all of them vs me, and I won those debates (according to the prof), but I always gave my support with the caveat “so far as these tools are not abused, and the men using them respect the limits of their office”. Obviously this is no longer the case. Who is it that says the government is violating the restrictions placed in the Patriot Act? None other than Representative James Sensenbrenner, the author of the Patriot Act.
Snowden is not to blame for damaging our national security.
When Carter and Clinton reigned in (some say hobbled) the CIA and our intelligence capability it impacted our ability to stop the 9/11 hijackers, it was an over reaction to the abuse of the FBI, CIA, IRS etc under LBJ and Nixon. While Carter and Clinton should have acted more wisely to be sure, it was those who abused those tools in the first place that endangered our national security by causing the backlash.
Snowden is not to blame for the same reason. Those to blame for impairing our national security in the reign in that is sure to come are those who took this too far, abused the tools of government, lied to us repeatedly, forgot the limits of their office and somehow got it in their head that we are their subjects and not the other way around.
They say “trust us” after we have seen abuse after abuse of private information stored by government. They say They say “trust us” after lying to Congress about what they were doing. They say “trust us” after telling the media that “every member of Congress knew about this when clearly this was not the case. They say “trust us” when they say that “they only collected meta-data” as if somehow that is OK, for us only to discover later that they are collecting more content than they admitted after being caught.
They say that we need to trade-off some of our liberty and privacy because security is all important, and at the same time they invite millions to cross the border illegally, and accuse those of wanting to know who are crossing our borders of being racists. The government won’t even go after jihadists who over stay their student visas. In modern times, government has demonstrated time and time again that politics always trumps security.
“A ‘find the target first, then find the crime’ political approach requires access to information of an unprecedented level. Which is exactly what is happening. When everything is a crime, government data mining matters” – Prof. William Jacobsen
President Obama:
This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.
That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are.
What does it tell you when a 29-year-old high school drop-out has a better understanding of the 4th Amendment than the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA)?
I have been warning that academia has become so radical that it has become subversive. I am not alone in this line of thinking as Justice Scalia says that academia is largely responsible for these nonsensical, fast & loose interpretations of the Constitution.
There needs to be a massive effort to educate people on the 4th Amendment and that education needs to start with traditionalists, conservatives and republicans. Why? Because if those who claim to embrace the ideals of the nation’s founding don’t get it how can lay people be expected to?
[Editor’s Note – In this post we will be providing links to the many stories on this emerging scandal. This post will take some time to complete and will be continually updated for some time.]
In a nutshell the Obama Administration bugged an entire division at the Associated Press (AP) and many reporters at Fox News, including the parents of reporters. When asked if a national security leak could be justified into such a wide net of bugging computers, emails and phones former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, who served four presidents, said that such an action “is inconceivable”.
Former AP Washington Chief Fournier: DOJ’s phone record seizure of reporters is “Unprecedented, chilling and plain stupid”
CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson (who exposed the “Fast n’ Furious” scandal) : My computer has been compromised – LINK – LINK.
US Attorney in Justice Department who targeted Fox News reporters a large Obama campaign donor – LINK.
Obama Administration targeted other Fox News employees – LINK. Tracking at least one’s every movement. Administration claimed that Fox broke the law by merely asking questions about the scandal. The Obama Administration used the Patriot Act “administrative subpoena” to carry out this abuse. Megyn Kelly comments on this nonsense:
Joseph Curl: CIA source says Fox News scandal the “4th Shoe”; says it goes much deeper; says White House also sitting on “something” that has top aides terrified – LINK.
Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on bugging Fox News and labeling Fox reporter James Rosen a “co-conspiritor” – LINK.
Karl Rove: This is how Eric Holder lied to Congress
James Rosen Comments
Ann Coulter goes through the history of “national security” when it comes to reporters under the Bush Administration vs the Obama Administration:
NBC’s Lisa Myers explains how the Obama Administration history of intimidating reporters and sources:
Obama Administration seized records of Fox News reporters parents
Attorney General Eric Holder’s “I don’t know syndrome” under oath:
MORE – IRS Chief Steven Miller: “I Can’t Remember” Who Is Responsible for Targeting Conservatives
Associated Press: Obama Administration has intimidated people from talking to us – LINK.
CNN outlines the timeline of how the Obama Administration accused Fox News reporter Jim Rosen of being a criminal to get his personal information and then lied about it:
Brit Hume: ‘Chilling’ Search of Fox Reporter Shows DOJ Treats ‘Ordinary News Gathering As Crime’
Megyn Kelly – Eric Holder misled Congress:
Kirsten Powers and Denis Prager on Obama’s war in critics:
More prominent liberals call for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation – LINK.
BUSTED – If At First You Don’t Succeed? Report: Holder Went Judge-Shopping for James Rosen Subpoena – LINK.
Senator Ted Cruz: Obama Administration does not respect the Bill of Rights. Eric Holder should resign. Obama should tell the truth. They are telling flat-out falsehoods:
Bob Woodward: I would not dismiss Benghazi as merely politics; compares it to Watergate:
IJR: You’re Right, Obama is No Nixon: Tricky Dick was an Amateur – LINK.
Senator Ted Cruz: Obama Administration does not respect the Bill of Rights. Eric Holder should resign. Obama should tell the truth. They are telling flat-out falsehoods:
Dr. Walter Williams: Why Americans deserve the IRS – LINK.
[Editor’s Note – It is rare that we copy an entire article from another web site and present it in total. Usually we print a key excerpt of the most important points and have a link to the rest, which is considered “best internet manners”. However, in some rare cases, when the piece is so important, the information so crucial, that presenting the entire piece becomes warranted.
This piece from Michelle Malkin shows that some of the same people who were caught abusing the IRS under Bill Clinton, were re-appointed by Obama and are some of the guilty parties today. This indicates clear premeditation from the White House. What other reason would a President re-appoint a man with a criminal history like IRS Department Head Steven Miller?]
UPDATE – IRS boss of Tea Party probes targeted anti-Clinton group in 1990s – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS Official Admits Clinton Enemies Were Audited – LINK.
It’s always the “low-level” peon’s fault, isn’t it? When Democrats get caught red-handed abusing government powers and bullying their political enemies small and large, nobody at the top knows nuttin’. The buck stops … in the janitors closet or something.
Here’s what I know: While they pretend to champion privacy rights, top left-wing operatives have routinely ransacked and plundered through the private documents and personal records of conservative groups, business owners and public figures. Through it all, those on the right standing against government tyranny have refused to stand down.
During the Clinton years, senior IRS official Paul Breslan revealed that the administration’s auditors specifically targeted conservative critics. On the hit list: Judicial Watch, Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, the National Rifle Association, The National Review, The American Spectator, Freedom Alliance, National Center for Public Policy Research, Citizens Against Government Waste, Concerned Women for America, and the San Diego Chapter of Christian Coalition.
Steven Miller, one of the Clinton IRS agents who helped conduct those witch hunts in the 1990s, is currently the head of the Obama IRS department that has now admitted it discriminated against tea party groups. Jackboot history repeats itself.
In 1997, far-left Congressman Jim McDermott obtained and leaked an illegally taped phone call involving House GOP leaders to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times. Far from a low-level underling, McDermott was the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee at the time. Ohio GOP Rep. John Boehner won a $1 million civil lawsuit against McDermott. McDermott’s leak was condemned by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan as “willful and knowing misconduct (that) rises to the level of malice in this case.”
In 2005, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — headed by New York Sen. Charles Schumer — targeted then Maryland GOP Lt. Gov. Michael Steele as he considered a U.S. Senate bid. Two of Schumer’s staffers illegally obtained Steele’s credit report by using his Social Security number, which they got from public documents. They set up a fake email account and then impersonated Steele on a website to filch his financial information.
Democrats framed the sleazy move as the work of junior staffers. But the supervising operative involved, Katie Barge, was senior research director of the DSCC, a former researcher at the George Soros-funded attack group Media Matters for America and a researcher for presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards.
Schumer’s other document plumber, Lauren Weiner, was a DSCC researcher who had worked for Dick Gephardt and the Democratic National Committee. She pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a credit report and escaped jail time. After she was fired, she earned a journalism degree at the Columbia University School of Journalism.
In 2006, longtime Democratic operative Bob Fertik called on his minions to attempt to obtain the private phone records of prominent conservatives through shady online information brokers. “If money is scarce,” Fertik vowed, “Democrats.com will reimburse you if you buy the records for an important phone number and discover gold when you get the records.”
In October 2008, top Ohio Democrats targeted real plumber Joe Wurzelbacher after he challenged then presidential candidate Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” radicalism. Helen Jones-Kelley, then director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, ordered underlings to scour government databases for dirt. In addition to pawing through his child-support papers, her agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes.
Jones-Kelley was not just a high-level state official. She was also an Obama campaign donor who volunteered to arrange an event for Michelle Obama and provided the campaign with nearly 20 names of potential donors ahead of a Dayton campaign stop. Three years after resigning, she found herself back on the taxpayer dole with another government job. Corruptocrats protect their own.
Also in 2008, Obama’s allies at a Soros-tied outfit named Accountable America sent out “warning” letters to 10,000 top GOP givers “hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.” Witch hunt leader Tom Matzzie, formerly of Soros-funded MoveOn.org, promised “legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.” Matzzie also advertised a $100,000 bounty for dirt on conservative political groups “to create a sense of scandal around the groups” and to dissuade donors from giving money.
The effort was supported by Judd Legum, founder of Think Progress, which is run by former Clinton scandal manager turned Obama confidante John Podesta’s Center for American Progress.
During the 2010 midterms, the Obama bully brigade waged a similar campaign against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its donors as payback for the organization’s ads opposing the federal health care takeover. During the 2012 election season, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina declared war on free-market philanthropists Charles and David Koch and private donors to their nonprofit activist group Americans for Prosperity.
As I warned in my column in March 2012, it seemed “no small coincidence” at the time that Team Obama was threatening conservative activists publicly “just as numerous tea party organizations (were) reporting that the Internal Revenue Service (had) targeted them for audits. According to Colleen Owens of the Richmond (Va.) Tea Party, several fiscally conservative activist groups in Virginia, Hawaii, Ohio and Texas (had) received a spate of IRS letters. The missives demand(ed) extensive requests to identity volunteers, board members and … donors.”
The latest confession by Obama IRS officials that they targeted tea party, pro-Constitution and pro-Israel groups isn’t a sign of “rogue” behavior. It’s tyrannical Democratic business as usual.
Remember what we were told when this explosive story first broke less than a week ago? The IRS official in charge of tax exemptions for organizations said the improper methods employed within her division were executed by “low level workers” in Cincinnati who weren’t motivated by “political bias,” and impacted roughly 75 organizations? Wrong, wrong and wrong.
“Low Level” – Officials within the highest echelons of the agency were aware of the inappropriate targeting, including the last two commissioners — at least one of whom appears to have misled Congress on this very question. Now Politico reports that Lerner herself sent at least one of the probing letters to an Ohio-based conservative group:
The director of the Internal Revenue Service division under fire for singling out conservative groups sent a 2012 letter under her name to one such group, POLITICO has learned. The March 2012 letter was sent to the Ohio-based American Patriots Against Government Excess (American PAGE) under the name of Lois Lerner, the director of the Exempt Organizations Division…at the time of the letter, the group was in the midst of the application process for tax-exempt nonprofit status — a process that would stretch for nearly three years and involve queries for detailed information on its social media activity, its organizational set-up, bylaws, membership and interactions with political officials. The letter threatened to close American PAGE’s case file unless additional information was received within 60 days.
These burdensome requests were apparently designed to bury the victimized groups in paperwork. Carol reported last night that some 58 percent of these applicants were asked for unnecessary information and data, according to the Inspector General’s review. Some inquiries asked for screenshots of organizations’ Facebook posts and even lists of what books (!) its members were reading.
“No Political Bias” – This claim was laughable on its face from the start, in light of the agency’s surreal criteria for added scrutiny and the “red flag” words and phrases that triggered investigations. Now add to the mix this scoop from USA Today:
In February 2010, the Champaign Tea Party in Illinois received approval of its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 90 days, no questions asked. That was the month before the Internal Revenue Service started singling out Tea Party groups for special treatment. There wouldn’t be another Tea Party application approved for 27 months. In that time, the IRS approved perhaps dozens of applications from similar liberal and progressive groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows. As applications from conservative groups sat in limbo, groups with liberal-sounding names had their applications approved in as little as nine months. With names including words like “Progress” or “Progressive,” the liberal groups applied for the same tax status and were engaged in the same kinds of activities as the conservative groups.
Lerner also reportedly fast-tracked an approval for a foundation operated by President Obama’s half brother, taking the extraordinary step of granting it retroactive tax-free status.
“Seventy-five organizations effected” – That number almost immediately swelled to 300. Now it’s closer to 500:
The IRS targeting of conservative groups is far broader than first reported, with nearly 500 organizations singled out for additional scrutiny, according to two lawmakers briefed by the agency. IRS officials claimed on Friday that roughly 300 groups received additional scrutiny. Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that the number has actually risen to 471. Further, they said it is “unclear” whether Tea Party and other conservative groups are being targeted to this day.
We have an answer to that question now, too. Here’s Carol again, quoting the cover letter from the IG’s findings, dated yesterday: “A substantial number of applications have been under review, some for more than three years and through two election cycles, and remain open.“ Lest you even ask, nobody involved in this scheme has been disciplined (yet); just the opposite, in fact:
After recent revelations, perhaps it is time to just change the name of the IRS to the KGB or the STASI. The motto of the STASI was “the sword and shield of the party”.
The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”.
So why will the Obama IRS require your personal identifying health information?
Simply put, there is no way for the IRS to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate without such an invasive reporting scheme. Every January, health insurance companies across America will send out tax documents to each insured individual. This tax document—a copy of which will be furnished to the IRS—must contain sufficient information for taxpayers to prove that they purchased qualifying health insurance under Obamacare.
This new tax information document must, at a minimum, contain: the name and health insurance identification number of the taxpayer; the name and tax identification number of the health insurance company; the number of months the taxpayer was covered by this insurance plan; and whether or not the plan was purchased in one of Obamacare’s “exchanges.”
This will involve millions of new tax documents landing in mailboxes across America every January, along with the usual raft of W-2s, 1099s, and 1098s. At tax time, the 140 million families who file a tax return will have to get acquainted with a brand new tax filing form. Six million of these families will end up paying Obamacare’s individual mandate non-compliance tax penalty.
As a service to the public, Americans for Tax Reform has released a projected version of this tax form to help families and tax specialists prepare for this additional filing requirement. Taxpayers may view the projected IRS form at www.ObamacareTaxForm.com. On the form, lines 3-4 show where taxpayers will disclose their personal health ID information.
Editor’s Note – The fact that the IRS scandal is portrayed as being centered in Cincinnati, Ohio sets up a false narrative; as if “oh it didn’t happen in DC so perhaps it wasn’t as political as some feared”. That is the misnomer of misnomers. The political fact is this: he who wins Ohio wins the presidency. The importance of of Ohio in electoral politics cannot be overstated. UPDATE – IRS officials in DC and California involved in targeting conservative groups – LINK.
Editor’s Note II – The same IRS department head, Steven Miller, who politicized the IRS under Clinton at center of current scandal – LINK. Why reappoint a man with his history? This indicates premeditation on the part of the administration.
UPDATE – IRS boss of Tea Party probes targeted anti-Clinton group in 1990s – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS Official Admits Clinton Enemies Were Audited – LINK.
This post is being constantly updated so please check back from time to time.
UPDATE – IRS chiefs knew about politically motivated audits in 2011 – LINK.
UPDATE – The crazy things the IRS asked TEA Party groups during the illegal inquiries – LINK. No one can say this was not politically motivated after reading this.
UPDATE – ABC News’ George Will “How stupid do they (IRS and Obama Admin) think we are?”
“He has through his subordinates and agents endeavored to cause in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.” Section 1, Article 2, the Impeachment Articles of Richard Nixon.
UPDATE – Dennis Kucinich Slams IRS’ Political Targeting:
UPDATE – ABC News: IRS IG Report shows that IRS started targeting conservative groups in 2010 (video). Groups targeted included those who watch government spending, educating on the Bill of Rights, those who focus on tax policy and Jewish groups.
UPDATE – IRS Leaking private information for political reasons – LINK.
UPDATE – Koch Industries Lawyer to White House: How Did You Get Our Tax Information? – LINK.
UPDATE – Coulter: Obama’s signature campaign move was opening sealed records – LINK.
UPDATE – Jon Stewart Skewers Obama over scandals – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS intimidation used to shut down TEA Party groups – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS Execs knew political targeting was happening and lied to Congress about it:
Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, charged top IRS officials, including former commissioner Doug Shulman, of lying to Congress over the targeting of tea-party groups.
“They knew this was going on and responded in writing to the committee that it was not,” said Camp in an interview at the Capitol. He also said “yes” when I asked him whether he felt that Shulman and others had lied.
UPDATE – An IRS Exec at center of the illegal political targeting was promoted and given $42,531 in bonuses:
Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.That figure was included in data provided by the IRS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Washington Examiner. Lerner is director of the IRS exempt organizations division, which processes and approves or denies applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status.
UPDATE – Over $100 million in IRS bonuses since 2009 – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS Gave liberal groups a pass, put conservatives on hold for 27 months – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS targeted over 500 conservative organizations, religious organizations, educational organizations that teach American civic history, Jewish and other pro-Israeli organizations – LINK.
UPDATE – Franklin Graham also targeted by IRS – LINK.
UPDATE – Fox News host Eric Bolling was targeted by the IRS – LINK.
UPDATE – Another IRS Official at the center of the illegal targeting promoted, now in charge of IRS Obamacare office – LINK.
Sarah Hall Ingram
UPDATE – Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.
More recently, Ingram was promoted to serve as director of the tax agency’s Obamacare program office, a position that put her in charge of the vast expansion of the IRS’ regulatory power and staffing in connection with federal health care, ABC reported earlier today.
UPDATE – IRS illegally gave records on conservatives to a leftist George Soros sponsored group. Soros is the number one contributor to various Democrat Party organizations – LINK.
UPDATE – Soros gave $6.1 million to groups that pressured the IRS to target conservatives – LINK.
UPDATE – Romney donor Frank Vandersloot smeared by Obama campaign audited twice:
UPDATE – WOW! IRS Asked Tea Party Leader for Back-Door Password to Group’s Website:
UPDATE – Report: IRS Deliberately Chose Not to Fess Up to Scandal Before Election. IRS Commissioner knew this was going on for over a year – lied to Congress – LINK:
UPDATE – IRS Denied tax exempt status to pro-life groups on behalf of Planed Parenthood – LINK – LINK.
UPDATE – Conservative Hispanic Groups Targeted In IRS Scandal – LINK.
UPDATE – Mark Levin – It’s Time to Kill the IRS:
UPDATE – CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The testimony from [Steven] Miller comes under the category of ‘how stupid do you think we are?’ Here’s a guy who said that the IRS openly discriminated against groups on the basis of their politics, but the action was not a political action. It was instead an attempt at efficiency. You’ve got to be a knave or a fool to say that and you have to be an idiot to believe it. It’s simply a contradiction in terms. – LINK.
UPDATE – Texas TEA Party leader was subject to IRS, FBI, ATF and OSHA audits after applying to IRS for tax exempt status. Texas Congressman Kevin Brady asks, “Is this America anymore?”:
UPDATE – Five IRS employees to testify next week to answer for wrongdoing – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS: ‘Please Detail the Content of Your Members’ Prayers.’ – LINK:
UPDATE – Chris Matthews: Miller was full of it and there was clearly targeting going on – LINK.
UPDATE – Piers Morgan: I guess government can become tyrannical after all:
UPDATE – Paul Ryan grills IRS Commissioner. Can there be any doubt that Commissioner Miller mislead Congress in his previous July 2012 testimony?
UPDATE – IRS Chief Steven Miller: “I Can’t Remember” Who Is Responsible for Targeting Conservatives:
UPDATE – Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough & Lisa Myers: IRS is lying, lied to Congress. Timeline:
UPDATE – IRS lied in FOIA requests to conceal documents – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS agents classified applications from conservatives and churches as “obnoxious” – LINK.
UPDATE – Rep. Mike Kelly receives standing ovation after epic grilling of IRS Commissioner:
BUSTED – Top Obama Administration officials were briefed on IRS political targeting in June of 2012 – NY Times – AP – WSJ – Breitbart:
The inspector general gave Republicans some fodder Friday when he divulged that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel he was auditing the I.R.S.’s screening of politically active groups seeking tax exemptions on June 4, 2012. He told Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin “shortly after,” he said. That meant Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.
OUTRAGE – Suit Alleges IRS Improperly Seized 60 Million Personal Medical Records – LINK.
UPDATE – IRS asked churches for membership lists:
ILLEGAL – IRS ignored Congressional demand for documents relating to the illegal targeting of citizens – LINK.
UPDATE – Trey Goudy questions former IRS Commissioner Schulman. “Can’t remember”. Schulman admits that he did nothing to stop the illegal practices at the IRS [Note – Some are saying that Schulman was a Bush appointee. Schulman gave $250.00 a month to the Democratic National Committee]:
UPDATE – IRS official Lois Lerner pleads the Fifth Amendment after waiving that right by her opening statement. You do not get to tell your side of the story and refuse cross examination by pleading the Fifth. Pleading the Fifth means that you are not testifying in fear that doing so will reveal criminal activity that can be used against you:
SHOCK – IRS official Lois Lerner asked targets of investigations about their prayers when she was at the Federal Election Commission (FEC); sued Christian Coalition in a politically motivated lawsuit and lost:
UPDATE – Ranking Democrat at the Government Oversight Committee blasts IRS:
UPDATE – Senior White House staff, including Obama’s lawyer, White House Council Kathy Ruemmler, knew about illegal IRS targeting and claim they didn’t tell Obama – LINK:
Does anyone believe this story?
UPDATE – Krauthammer: Obama still dodging questions and lying about IRS
Washington Post (2)- Key Obama Administration claims about IRS scandal untrue:
1 – Illegal targeting happened months before the Citizens United court ruling.
2 – Claims about “inadvertent targeting” due to “massive increase of 501c4 applications” also untrue, as there was no appreciable increase in the first year of the illegal targeting.
3 – IRS Council Lois Lerner’s claim that she found out about the illegal targeting in the press also false as the IG report shows that she knew about it at least as far back as June 2011.
4 – Lerner misled Congress.
UPDATE – How did a White House economics advisory Austin Goolsbee get private tax information on Obama Administration political enemies – LINK.
UPDATE – Senator Mitch McConnell: Obama Administration used IRS as “Speech Police”:
UPDATE – More “I don’t know – I don’t recall” video from Obama Administration officials:
UPDATE – NBC News: Senior Washington IRS officials requested information of conservative groups:
Cleta Mitchell, another attorney representing conservative groups that allege they were targeted, said an IRS agent in Cincinnati told her a “task force” IRS office in Washington, D.C., was making the decisions about the processing of applications, and that she subsequently dealt with IRS representatives there.
“(The IRS agent in Cincinnati) told me that in fact the case would be transferred to a special task force out of Washington, and that he was told – he was the originally assigned agent – that he wasn’t allowed to make decisions, the decisions were all going to be made in Washington,” Mitchell said. “I know that this process was going on in Washington because I’ve dealt with those people.”
UPDATE – Anonymous Cincinnati IRS official says ‘Everything comes from the top.’ – LINK:
Everything comes from the top. We don’t have any authority to make those decisions without someone signing off on them. There has to be a directive.
UPDATE – Fox 19 Ben Swann: Individual IRS Agents/Supervisors named and they all are supervised by Agent Supervisor Cindy Thomas. Thomas visited with IRS Chief Council Lois Lerner regularly:
UPDATE – The Blaze/NBC News: IRS Chief Council Lois Lerner personally signed at least some illegal questionnaires to targeted groups – LINK.
UPDATE – Pro-Israel organizations audited by IRS say government targeting coordinated – LINK.
UPDATE – Illegal IRS targeting started the day after President Obama met with the Treasury Department/IRS employees union chief – LINK.
WOW – Lois Lerner to Republican Senate Candidate “promise me you will never run for office again and this investigation will go away”. How Lois Lerner tried to strong-arm Dick Durbin’s opponent out of 1996 Illinois Senate race – LINK – LINK.
Orwellian – Obama Administration sends armed DHS Agents to peaceful protests against IRS – LINK.
BUSTED – IRS’s Doug Shulman had more public White House visits (157) than any Cabinet member. Bush met with his IRS chief once – LINK: UPDATE – Bill O’Reilly not happy that former IRS chief visited the White House 157 times, could be a smoking gun:
Conservative radio talker Mark Levin appears to have touched off the investigation into Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative political groups back in March 2012.
In a letter last year on behalf of the Landmark Legal Foundation, an organization he heads, Levin requested an investigation into what he called “misconduct.”
On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service revealed that it had improperly targeted conservative groups for audits during the 2012 election. During a conference call, Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of exempt organizations, explained that IRS staffers selected groups that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax exempt status.
Levin told The Daily Caller Friday afternoon his organization had litigated similar complaints of political audits during the Clinton administration and specifically referenced the Heritage Foundation as one of the tax collector’s targets at the time.
More recently, Levin said, conservative and Tea Party groups approached him complaining of harassment by the IRS, which prompted his organization to petition Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George.
The House oversight committee will look into the IRS’s admission Friday that it targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during last year’s elections — a move that committee Chairmen Darrell E. Issa and Jim Jordan said smacks of “political retaliation.”
The two lawmakers said they will hold those IRS officials who were involved “responsible … for this political retaliation.”
The IRS admitted that it unfairly sent conservative and tea party groups questionnaires last year asking them to justify their tax-exempt status. Republicans at the time accused the agency of trying to intimidate conservatives into silence ahead of the elections.
Friday’s admission appears designed to deflate an upcoming audit by the IRS’s inspector general looking into the matter.
“The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable,” Mr. Issa and Mr. Jordan said in a statement. “The committee will aggressively follow up on the IG report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thursday at a National Day of Prayer event on Capitol Hill, Rear Admiral William Lee spoke out against the growing religious hostility in the military. As first reported by World Magazine, the Admiral recounted a story of his decision to violate military rules preventing him from giving a Bible to a soldier who had attempted suicide.
The Admiral said, “The lawyers tell me that if I do that, I’m crossing the line,” Lee said. “I’m so glad I’ve crossed that line so many times.” Lee pledged not to back down from “my right under the Constitution to tell a young man that there is hope.” According to World Magazine, he asked those gathered to pray for military service members as they “weather the storm that I am almost certain will come.”
While some people may mock this or make light of it, this poll indicates that there is a growing discontent among voters who are weary of politicians who promise paradise and deliver misery. This loss of legitimacy is a serious problem. We believe that this loss of legitimacy is directly tied in to why more traditionally conservative voters did not show up at the polls.
If you doubt the veracity of this poll, go hang out at an auto parts store for a couple of days and bring up politics. You will get an earful.
What is stunning is that 29% were willing to say this to a pollster. On sensitive subjects it is known that people often do not trust that the poll is truly anonymous and they will lie or just hang up.
Twenty-nine percent of registered voters think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years in order to protect liberties, according to a Public Mind poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The poll, which surveyed 863 registered voters and had a margin of error of +/-3.4, focused on both gun control and the possibility of a need for an armed revolution in the United States to protect.
The survey asked whether respondents agreed, disagreed, neither agreed nor disagreed or did not know or refused respond to the statement: “In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties”
Twenty-nine percent said they agreed, 47 percent said they disagreed, 18 percent said they neither agreed nor disagreed, 5 percent said they were unsure, and 1 percent refused to respond.
Results of the poll show that those who believe a revolution might be necessary differ greatly along party lines:
The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.
However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
There may be a seemingly good reason to give the government more power and intrusion in our lives, but in case after case we find the tools given with those powers to be irresistible for those so entrusted to abuse.
The Founders were wise to chain the government as best they could, but even they well understood that eventually it would unravel if the people were not vigilant.
This video is so good on so many levels. With that said please pay special attention to how Dr. Monica Crowley explains how tyrants and leviathan statists use the soft sweet language of utopianism to lull people to sleep before they feel the iron fist of the state.
Most charities help the wounded, the ill and/or the poor. Obama constantly claims that Republicans want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the old, but Obamacare and his budget do exactly that. Democrats often blame Republicans for exactly what it is they are doing. Obamacare’s transfer of $714 Billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare bureaucrats has caused premiums for the elderly to rise.
President Obama’s long-awaited budget proposal, to be released today, does not come right out and say that it intends to reduce contributions to charity—but that is almost certainly what would happen were it to become law. Here’s why. The White House has effectively doubled down on a tax change it has been pushing for four years that would limit the value of the charitable tax deduction. The Administration has, since 2009, pushed unsuccessfully to allow only 28 cents on a dollar donated to charity to be deducted—even though the top tax rate for the wealthy donors who make most use of the deduction has been 35 percent. In the budget released today, the President again proposes to cap the charitable deduction at 28 percent—despite the fact that the top rate on the highest earners has increased to 39.6 percent. Think of it this way: the White House proposal would raise the cost of giving to charity from 60 cents per dollar to 72 cents per dollar. That’s a 20 percent increase in what can be called the “charity tax.”
When one taxes something more, of course, one gets less of it—and it’s likely that the current $168 billion in itemized charitable giving would decline. Indeed, Indiana University’s Center for Philanthropy has previously estimated that capping the charitable tax deduction’s value at 28 percent—even when the top income tax rate was 35 percent—would lower giving by 1.3 percent, or some $2.18 billion in 2010. The new proposal would likely take an even bigger bite from giving. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the reduction in giving could be as high as $9 billion a year.
We have seen this kind of propaganda before HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HEREsince Obama took office. The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are issuing reports and training materials equating Christians and political enemies of the far left with the most radical and dangerous hate groups. There is only one purpose for this kind of dehumanization, it hopes to desensitize the military and police to a point where they will fire on fellow Americans and ignore human rights.
So much for the First Amendment. This is what we call criminalizing political differences.
A combat battalion commander assigned to the 101st Air Borne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, sent an email out to several dozen subordinate officers and senior noncommissioned officers describing conservatives as members of hate groups.
Using the subject line of ‘Domestic Hate Groups,’ LTC Jack Rich warned his subordinate leaders that they include:
• members of the Christian right (like Focus on the Family’s former leader, James Dobson)
• anti-gay groups (those who oppose the “so-called homosexual agenda”)
• members of Patriot organizations (those “opposed to the ‘New World Order’”; those who believe that the “‘New World Order’ is imposing a global plan, called Agenda 21, to take away citizens’ property rights”; those who “believe that being well armed is a must”; those who fear “impending gun control or weapons confiscations, either by the government or international agencies”)
• anti-Muslim groups (those who “broadly defame Islam”; those who believe the “inherent danger to America posed by its Muslim-American community”, that Muslims are a “fifth column intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism”; those who “allege that Muslims are trying to subvert the rule of law by imposing on Americans their own Islamic legal system, Shariah law”)
• anti-illegal alien groups
Commissar Rich identifies the Family Research Council, American Family Association, United States Justice Foundation, Atlas Shrugs, Sharia Awareness Network, Bare Naked Islam, and many other organizations as hate groups.
This is not unusual for the left. As has been demonstrated again and again, such laws are not designed to stop crime, they are designed to put gun owners in jail, who are most likely the political enemies of Democrats. yes their intentions are that bad.
S. 374 just passed the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday on a vote of 10-8. S. 374 bears the Orwellian title “Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013.” With all of the talk about “Universal Background Checks,” it is time to see what Congress has in mind for you. In short, the bill is designed to land you in federal prison.
The act bans the transfer of a firearm without running a criminal background check on a transferee through the federal NICS system. This is the same system that is used for retail purchases of firearms now, whether at a gun store or a gun show. The bill would apply the check to transfers that are currently private and expand the definition of “transfer” beyond any reasonable conception of the term. The definition of a “transfer” in the bill is very broad, and it includes loaning a firearm. There are some exceptions, but the exceptions are very narrowly drawn.
Under S. 374 as it passed the Judiciary Committee, all transfers would first require a transfer to a federally licensed firearms dealer, who would then transfer the firearm to the recipient, after running a check through NICS.
Exceptions would include gifts to a spouse, sibling, parent-child, or grandparent grandchild.
Transfers within the home, say to a live in girlfriend, would be legal, but only if the firearm does not leave the home (or “curtilage”) and the transfer lasts less than 7 days. A temporary transfer at a shooting range would also be legal, but only if the firearm does not leave the shooting range. A loan for hunting would also be legal. Other loans would result in imprisonment for a year unless the NICS check is performed.
The term “transfer” specifically includes the term “loan,” so loaning a firearm other than in the situations outlined above would be a crime.
What about the following situations:
You leave on a trip for 10 days, with the firearm at home in possession of a room mate, fiancee, or lover.
You have a few acres here in Georgia. You step away from the “curtilage” of your home and permit a friend or relative to use your firearm to shoot targets or pests on your own property.
Both situations would land you in prison under S. 374.
It gets worse. What is a shooting range? Under the bill, it is only a shooting range if it is owned or occupied by a “duly incorporated organization organized for conservation purposes or to foster proficiency in firearms.”
Is the shooting range owned by a natural person? Prison.
Is the shooting range owned by a corporation dedicated to turning a profit, rather than conservation or fostering the aims in the bill? Prison.
What about loaning a firearm for shooting at a Georgia DNR range? Prison.
While there is an exception for shooting competitions organized by the Georgia DNR, there is no exception for loaning a firearm just for recreational target shooting practice.
There is much more to the bill. For instance, it does away with the Georgia Weapons Carry License as an exception to the NICS check. It permits Eric Holder to set the cost of the transfer fee when you loan your weapon. It mandates reporting the theft or loss of a firearm within 24 hours, the failure of which will put you in prison, and this part of the bill is a felony punishable by 5 years imprisonment.
The bill claims Congressional power to make these laws under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has claimed that agents do not need warrants to read people’s emails, text messages and other private electronic communications, according to internal agency documents.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request, released the information on Wednesday.
In a 2009 handbook, the IRS said the Fourth Amendment does not protect emails because Internet users “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.” A 2010 presentation by the IRS Office of General Counsel reiterated the policy.
Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, government officials only need a subpoena, issued without a judge’s approval, to read emails that have been opened or that are more than 180 days old.
Privacy groups such as the ACLU argue that the Fourth Amendment provides greater privacy protections than the ECPA, and that officials should need a warrant to access all emails and other private messages.
Traditionally, the courts have ruled that people have limited privacy rights over information they share with third parties. Some law enforcement groups have argued that this means they only need a subpoena to compel email providers, Internet service companies and others to turn over their customers’ sensitive content.
But in 2010, a federal appeals court ruled that police violated a man’s constitutional rights when they read his emails without a warrant.
Despite the court decision, U.S. v. Warshak, the IRS kept its email search policy unchanged in a March 2011 update to its employee manual, according to the ACLU.
In light of the fact that the Obama Administration is pushing for civilian gun registration, this news becomes even more disturbing. So much for the “right to privacy”.
A recent solicitation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) reveals that the agency is seeking a “massive” online database capable of pulling up individuals’ personal information, connections and associates.
On March 28, ATF posted the notice on FedBizOpps.gov, entitled “Investigative System.” The solicitation was updated on April 5 with a few minor changes.
The document says that the system will be utilized by staff “to provide rapid searches on various entities for example; names, telephone numbers, utility data and reverse phone look-ups, as a means to assist with investigations, and background research on people, assets and businesses.”
The system is described as a “massive online data repository system that contains a wide variety of data sources both historically and current that can be utilized in support of investigations and backgrounds.”
The overview of the solicitation states:
Staff will utilize “a number of internal databases as well as external sources to provide timely and relevant information and intelligence products to law enforcement agencies at the federal, state and local levels.”
The system “provides a means to rapidly check records across the country” and is “necessary in assisting investigators, agents and analyst to find people, their assets, relatives, associates and more.”
The ATF says they will use this system to provide information to Intelligence Analysts, Special Agents, Inspectors, Financial Investigators and Law Enforcement.
The investigative system will allow ATF to “obtain exact matches from partial source data searches such as, incomplete social security numbers, address, VIN numbers, etc.”
The system will also have the ability to “link structured and unstructured data to find connection points between two or more individuals.”
And the legislature did not become aware of it until 875 school districts had already adopted the program.
The curriculum, called CSCOPE, includes a list that shows capitalism on the bottom of the list of “just economic systems” along with nazism; with socialism and communism at the top of the most just. Of course those who have taken most any serious political history classes well knows that nazism and communism, in application, are virtually identical.
[Note While the propaganda used to sell communism and nazism/facism is very different, in application, as Professor of Russian and European history Dr. Dmitry Shlapentokh put it, “One is a great white shark and the other is a killer whale, sure one is a fish and the other is a mammal, but as far as their prey are concerned they are one in the same”.]
The curriculum also includes lessons having students design a new communist/socialist flag, pledging allegiance to Mexico, capitalism is “selfish”, the Founders were terrorists, etc. Sen. Larry Taylor (Friendswood) said he found the lesson plan “very egregious as a Texan and an American.”
We, here at Political Arena, have been following this story. When parents first became alarmed went to school boards for answers they were denied access or review of the curriculum. In some school districts students were even told to not tell parents what they were reviewing in class.
In fact, Texas State Board of Education member David Bradley issued the following statement:
…the ten-page CSCOPE contract that teachers are required to sign prior to using the curriculum. It prohibits educators from showing CSCOPE content to parents. This directly conflicts with the state law assuring parents the right to review any and all curriculum used in public schools to instruct their children.
In this same vein, it took the Chairman of our Education Board six months to obtain an access password from CSCOPE developers known as the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC). The TESCCC board is comprised of the 20 executive directors of the 20 publicly funded Regional Education Service Centers in Texas. Access to their meetings and minutes was repeatedly denied until the Texas Attorney General insisted that their meetings be posted and open to the public in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act.
This behavior indicates that the school administrators know very well what they are pushing on the kids and their efforts to keep it secret have been significant.
Imagine the ideological wolf pack mentality among teachers and school administrators to get this implemented in 875 Texas school districts before parents and the state legislature started to become aware, there was not one teacher or administrator who blew the whistle, not one.
And this is a fact, as of March 13, 2013 these are just the Obamacare regulations, over 20,000 pages (photo below). The tax code is over 60,000 pages.
Apple founder Steve Jobs, according to his book, told Obama that government has rendered it almost impossible for him to build a factory here in the United States, which is why he builds them in China. This very writer has a dear friend who runs a small business with less than ten employees. He tells me of the constant efforts by state and federal bureaucrats to put him out of business.
Over 20,000 pages of Obamacare regulations as of March 2013. Courtesy Senator Mitch McConnell
The Obama Administration has been using the EPA and the permitting process to make easy permitting for friends and campaign donors, but a GOP state like Texas gets the hand. This is the type of bnana republic abuse of power that is so typical with this administration. Welcome to Chicago.
Chase Power, the parent company behind the $3 billion Las Brisas coal power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, announced yesterday that it was cancelling the project.
“Chase Power … has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking alternative investors as part of a plan of dissolution for the parent company,” Chase CEO Dave Freysinger told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Freysinger made it very clear who was responsible for the projects death. “The (Las Brisas Energy Center) is a victim of EPA’s concerted effort to stifle solid-fuel energy facilities in the U.S., including EPA’s carbon-permitting requirements and EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for new power plants,” he said.
“If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X
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