Oversight from Washington, All Along

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE "This level of involvement from Washington confirms what many have suspected all along. “Those questions could not have been originated by a few rogue agents,” says Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which is suing the IRS on behalf of 17 tea-party groups whose applications were allegedly singled out by the IRS. Sekulow tells me he received a letter from a D.C.-based Tax Law Specialist in connection with his tea-party cases."

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Lois Lerner to plead the Fifth Wednesday before Issa Committee "We can now officially call the Obama administration besieged.  One of President Obama's underlings is set to plead her Fifth Amendment Right against self-incrimination in the burgeoning IRS scandal."

It Can Happen Here

Victor Davis Hanson  "Shortly before the second-term inauguration of Barack Obama this January, I wrote the following of my worries over the Obama way of doing business:

But the untruths and hypocrisy hover in the partisan atmosphere and incrementally and insidiously undermine each new assertion that we hear from the president — some of them perhaps necessary and logical. Indeed, the more emphatically he adds “make no mistake about it,” “let me be perfectly clear,” “I’m not kidding,” or the ubiquitous “me,” “my,” and “I” to each new assertion, the more a growing number of people will come to know from the past that what follows simply is not true. Does this matter? Yes, because when the reckoning comes, it will be seen as logical rather than aberrant — and long overdue.

"I ended my prognostications with the warning, “And so a reckoning is on the near horizon. Let us pray it does not take us all down with his administration.”

Hanson then concludes that it almost has in several ways...

Alan Caruba; Silencing Free Speech on College Campuses

Warning Signs   "The most fundamental fear of the Founders was a central government grown too large and acquiring powers to itself not delineated or prohibited by the Constitution. That document is devoted to limitations on the federal government and the states at the time it was introduced demanded that a Bill of Rights be included before they would ratify it.

"It is a precious legacy for all Americans, but it has also been the target for all manner of individuals and groups that want to impose their own interpretation on it and to expand it in ways that actually undermine it."

 

.... "Silencing free speech on our nation’s campuses is the official policy of the Obama administration. The mandate must be overturned before countless students find themselves expelled from colleges and universities for the flimsiest reasons. It affects what can be taught and discussed on those campuses. It is in direct contempt of the freedom of speech embedded in the First Amendment."

I'm from the IRS and I'm here to help you

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/05/branco-cartoon-lean-forward/

A smoking gun in IRS scandal?  "Via Ed Morrissey, Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator has tracked down either a fascinating coincidence or a smoking gun that puts Obama right in the middle of the IRS scandal."

 

IRS Scandal: Washington Post Factchecker Busts Washington Post

"On Sunday, "The Washington Post" tried to argue that one reason the IRS might have singled out Tea Party for paralyzing harassment in 2010 was due to a sudden surge in applications for a tax-exempt status. Monday, the "Post's" own factchecker said there was no surge."

 

Arabs Fly Nazi Flag near Hevron

Arutz Sheva   "Hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, were astounded Monday morning to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town of Beit Omar.

....

.... "I felt we were going back 75 years, losing our hold on the land. The Arabs no longer feel the need to hide their murderous tendencies, announcing out loud that they wish to annihilate us."

"An IDF spokesman said that the flag was hung on an electrical line, and that they were waiting to professionals to come and remove it."

 

Only one word changed

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Alan Caruba; The Morally Straight Boy Scouts of America

Warning Signs  "On May 23^rd, the BSA board of directors will vote on whether to change its policies to allow openly homosexual scouts as members and/or gay scout leaders. A survey of its members released in early May demonstrated that a majority support keeping the current, longtime policy of exclusion in place, prohibiting homosexuals from joining or leading the organization. Fully 61% favored keeping the current policy while 34% opposed it."....

"As attacks mounted against the BSA, the Supreme Court in 2000 ruled in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that it and all other private organizations are constitutionally protected under the First Amendment of freedom of association to set membership standards. In 2004, the BSA issued a statement that “Boy Scouts of America believes that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the obligations of the Scout Oath and Scout law to be morally straight and clean in thought, word and deed.” "

Next on the agenda: to force Girl Scouts to accept men as leaders. Can you honestly say it will not happen?

Mark Steyn; Once government is ensnared in every aspect of life, a bureaucracy grows increasingly capricious.

Mark Steyn  "...Barack Obama urged students to pay no attention to those paranoid types who “incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity.” Oddly enough, in recent days the most compelling testimony for this view of government has come from the president himself, who insists with a straight face that he had no idea that the Internal Revenue Service had spent two years targeting his political enemies until he “learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.” Like you, all he knows is what he reads in the papers. Which is odd, because his Justice Department is bugging those same papers, so you’d think he’d at least get a bit of a heads-up. 

"....That week, Kimberley Strassel began her Wall Street Journal column thus:

Try this thought experiment: You decide to donate money to Mitt Romney. You want change in the Oval Office, so you engage in your democratic right to send a check.

Several days later, President Barack Obama, the most powerful man on the planet, singles you out by name. . . . The message from the man who controls the Justice Department (which can indict you), the SEC (which can fine you), and the IRS (which can audit you), is clear: You made a mistake donating that money.

BREAKING: Nationwide TEA PARTY PROTESTS Set for Tuesday at IRS Offices (Pass It On!)

The Gateway Pundit:
PROTEST THE CORRUPTION – PROTEST THE CRIMINAL OBAMA IRS 
Thanks to Barack Obama the Tea Party is once again outraged and motivated.
The Tea Party Patriots on behalf of Tea Party, Patriot groups, 9/12, liberty activists, and the American people, we are calling for anyone and everyone to protest the IRS’ complete abuse of power on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at noon local time.

CLICK TO FIND A LOCATION NEAR YOU

NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND UP AGAINST THIS HORRIBLE ABUSE OF POWER!

Tuesday – May 21 – Noon – at Your Local IRS Office.

The true reason behind the IRS scandal was control of political activity by grass roots populist conservative organizations.

I'd say the author posits that Obama comes from third-world roots and mentors, turning America into a third-world banana republic, aided by a banana republic press with voters to match. Shame on us.

Intellectual Conservatives "Virtually all of the past abuses were in furtherance of political agendas, consolidation of power and restriction of the opposition.  The current scandal is no exception excepting that the surrounding circumstances illustrate an administration hell bent on achieving absolute power if possible, and destroying the social and cultural foundations of American society.  That’s what “change” was all about." 

"Obama loves to portray himself as a force for good and right in the world, all the while maintaining an under the radar interest in transforming our nation into a third world, banana republic style country which the could govern in the tradition of Juan Peron, Hugo Chavez, or better still, Fidel Castro." 

Krauthammer; Redacted truth, subjunctive outrage

Charles Krauthammer  "Note to GOP re Benghazi: Stop calling it Watergate, Iran-contra, bigger than both, etc. First, it might well be, but we don’t know. History will judge. Second, overhyping will only diminish the importance of the scandal if it doesn’t meet presidency-breaking standards. Third, focusing on the political effects simply plays into the hands of Democrats desperately claiming that this is nothing but partisan politics.

"Let the facts speak for themselves. They are damning enough. Let Gregory Hicks, the honorable, apolitical second-in-command that night in Libya, movingly and grippingly demolish the president’s Benghazi mantra that “what I have always tried to do is just get all the facts” and “every piece of information that we got, as we got it, we laid it out for the American people”.
"On the contrary. Far from assiduously gathering and releasing information, the administration was assiduously trying to control and suppress it.".....  (Emphasis added)

Reading list for you in Tunnel Dweller's absence

The Dweller family departs on the Holland America Oosterdam for an Alaska cruise and likely no access to the internet at that time since it costs mega bucks a minute. Perhaps this will entertain you, but news has a short shelf life.

Islamic Jew-hatred: 'Mounting evidence' that Boston Jihad Bombers Slit Throats, Murdered 3 Jewish Boys

CBS Anchor: 'We Are Getting Big Stories Wrong, Over and Over Again'
"And Pelley said the republic relies on the quality of the news business. "Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism," said Pelley. "America is strong because its journalism is strong. That's how democracies work. They're only as good as the quality of the information that the public possesses. And that is where we come in." "

'Obama's America' Producer Requests Michael Moore Be Removed From Motion Picture Academy Board   "Many conservatives were disgusted this year when "2016: Obama's America" didn't receive an Oscar nomination for best documentary."

Sen. Collins: Obama should condemn IRS for targeting Tea Party groups

The Liberal Wall of Benghazi Denial Cracks  "In discussing the revelations of the last week, [Maureen] Dowd must, of course, try to depict Republican attempts to bring accountability to the scandal as equally reprehensible as the administration’s failures and lies. But her framing the current debate as a contest between “Hillaryland” and “Foxworld” has at least the virtue of acknowledging the fact that what we are discussing is a disgraceful dereliction of duty by the administration:"...

ABC: Petraeus called final Benghazi talking points “useless” the day before Rice’s full Ginsburg; Update: Transcript added

 

Crazy Nancy Attacks GOP Over Benghazi

 "That's the point, Nancy! When you liberals demand that the subject is changed, we better dig deeper into the issue you don't want to talk about. "

Benghazi Coverup Uncovered  "Here are the relevant timeline features from Doug Ross (time is local D.C. time)"

Covering for Obama  "After all, the whole saga of Benghazi — before, during and after the terror attack — reflects nothing so much as the ultimate expression of Barack Obama’s politics. His preference for showing weakness abroad and contempt at home reached its full flowering in the massacre and its aftermath."

 Victoria Toensing: Administration Relying on Shoddy Benghazi Report to Absolve Itself of Blame "The White House has touted the Accountability Review Board (ARB) investigation of the Benghazi massacre as a review “led by two men of unimpeachable expertise and credibility that oversaw a process that was rigorous and unsparing.” In fact, the report was purposefully incomplete and willfully misleading."

Two by Stephen Hayes: Carney Keeps on Digging  ...."But in his attempts to protect himself and his administration colleagues, Carney offered a series of highly misleading answers that seem likely to do additional damage to his cause and White House credibility."
The Benghazi Scandal Grows  'One day earlier, analysts with the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis had drafted a set of unclassified talking points policymakers could use to discuss the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. But this new version​—​produced with input from senior Obama administration policymakers​—​was a shadow of the original.'