The ‘crime’ of the IRS

NY Post

RS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner testifies before Congress

 — but she shed little light on the scandal, only saying that she'd done nothing

wrong and that she wasn't planning on saying anything else.

 

"Only days after we learned the Obama administration had appointed an Obama donor to head investigations into the IRS targeting of conservative organizations, we now have a leak from law enforcement saying the FBI doesn’t expect to file criminal charges.

"That’s the gist of a late-breaking story Monday evening in The Wall Street Journal. The story notes that though the investigation may go on another few months, unless other evidence is unearthed, the FBI conclusion will be that the IRS was a “mismanaged bureaucracy” enforcing rules “ it didn’t understand.' ”

Has your Rep signed Congressional letter against Israel academic boycott?

Legal Insurrection

"I reported last Friday on the draft Bipartisan Congressional letter to denounce academic boycott of Israel.
"The letter reads, in part:

We write in strong opposition to the American Studies Association’s (ASA) recent decision to boycott Israeli universities and academic institutions. While ASA has every right to express its views on policies pursued by any nation or government, we believe that the decision to blacklist Israeli academic institutions for Israeli government policies with which ASA disagrees demonstrates a blatant disregard for academic freedom….
Even more concerning is the singular targeting of Israel for boycott. Like all democracies, Israel is not perfect. But to single out Israel, while leaving relationships with universities in autocratic and repressive countries intact, suggests thinly-veiled bigotry and bias against the Jewish State.

"As of Friday, there were 36 signatories. As of yesterday, the number had risen to 57.  [Update - see list at bottom of post for most current numbers and signatories]
"The final signature list should be released later this week.
American civil society has been heard loud and clear, with major academic organizations and 190 University Presidents (as of this writing) rejecting the academic boycott.
"Now it is the time for American political society to be heard against the anti-Israel academic boycotters, as well.
"Is your House Representative on the list of signatories? If not, now is the time to reach out to their offices and find out why not." ...

Right now, Liberty isn't a big priority in this country.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Obama Moves to Use IRS to Shut Down Political Opposition    Related: No federal criminal charges expected in IRS targeting of tea-party groups
"The DOJ lawyer who’s heading the investigation is an Obama donor and the FBI, after seven months of supposedly investigating this, only recently contacted tea-party groups targeted by the IRS. But other than that, everything here seems legit." ...

Report: IRS Harasses Sarah Palin’s Father   "Sarah Palin’s brother, Chuck Heath Jr., posted this note on Facebook on January 11:

My father, who worked multiple jobs and faithfully and honestly paid his taxes for fifty years, had never heard a word from the IRS. In 2008, his daughter was tapped to run for vice president of the United States. Since that time, he has been, in his words “horribly harassed” six times by the agency. They’ve tried to dig up something on him but he’s always operated above board.

 More on this from American Thinker:  ... "It is time for an IRS Special Prosecutor. This is a lot more serious than Chris Christie making TV ads for New Jersey tourism."

Dave Barry’s Review of 2013, the Year of the Zombies (Updated)

WaPo

 

... "Not in the sense of most of humanity dying from a horrible plague and then reanimating as mindless flesh-eating ghouls. No, it was much worse than that. Because as bad as a zombie apocalypse would be, at least it wouldn’t involve the resurrection of Anthony Weiner’s most private part.

"We thought that thing was out of our lives forever, but suddenly there it was again, all over the Internet, as Weiner came back from the political grave like the phoenix, the mythical bird that arose from the ashes to run for mayor of New York and use the name “Carlos Danger” to text obscene photos of its privates to somebody named “Sydney Leathers*.' ”...

*... a fan of politicians such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alan Grayson.

Update; My personal favorite quote from the above article:

In what could be seen as a troubling omen, on March 10, millions of Americans are forced to turn their clocks ahead one hour, despite repeated assurances from the Obama administration that “if you like the current time, you can keep the current time.”

Clarence Thomas confronts Joe Biden and his Senate Committee in 1991

Youtube

 

John Hawkins   The excerpt you are about to read occurs when Thomas is starting to become increasingly angry and frustrated with how unfair his confirmation hearings are to him.

The more I reflected on what was happening, the more it astonished me. As a child of the Deep South, I’d grown up fearing the lynch mobs of the Ku Klux Klan; as an adult, I was starting to wonder if I’d been afraid of the wrong white people all along. My worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia, but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony. For all the fear I’d known as a boy in Savannah, this was the first time I’d found myself at the mercy of people who would do whatever they could to hurt me — and institutions that had once prided themselves on bringing segregation and its abuses to an end were aiding and abetting in the assault. Hypersensitive civil-rights leaders who saw racism around every corner fell silent when my liberal enemies sneered that I was unqualified to sit on the Court; editors and reporters who claimed to be objective substituted a pretense of balance for true fairness, presenting outrageous, wholly unsupported allegations side by side with spluttering denials. The implausible was now being treated more favorably than the obvious.'

Via Kandy Sealy at Guardian Eagles

Gates-Gate; the president badly needs a Republican scandal right now

When the Commander-in-Chief is a narcissist   "No wonder the media are pushing the Chris Christie bridge story so hard; the revelations about President Obama's conduct in office in Robert Gates's new book are frightening. America's national security is in the hands of a flat-out self-obsessed narcissist. Via Moe Lane and Ace of Spades, we learn what happened when Admiral Mullen and General McChrystal asked for 5000 more troops for Afghanistan early in Obama's first term, to arrest a deteriorating situation:"   ....
Thomas Lifson

Just How Obsessed Were the Sunday Shows with Bridgegate?    "Here’s how long each program took before they deigned to discuss something other than the scandal:" ...

The Christie-Obama Show

Feds investigate Christie's use of Sandy relief funds   ... "CNN has learned that federal officials are investigating whether Christie improperly used some of that money to produce tourism ads that starred him and his family."

Christie office: Obama administration approved Jersey Shore TV ads
Aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are pointing out that the Obama administration approved of the New Jersey tourism ads starring Christie and his family that a Democratic congressman has encouraged federal investigators to probe.
....
“ 'The Stronger Than The Storm campaign was just one part of the first action plan approved by the Obama Administration and developed with the goal of effectively communicating that the Jersey Shore was open for business during the first summer after Sandy,” Christie spokesman Colin Reed said Monday."

Feds looking into Christie use of Sandy relief funds   "The money was earmarked for a marketing campaign and had absolutely nothing to do with general relief of New Jersey residents. The marketing campaign was approved by HUD so it could not have been "directly" used except as part of the advertising campaign. To claim otherwise is pure politics."  Rick Moran

More views on Bridge-gate

Dems Pile on Christie While Ignoring Hillary’s Past  ... "The list reads like an AM radio golden oldies countdown: Travelgate, the magical and mysterious Rose Law Firm billing records that showed up in a closet in the White House years after being subpoenaed, Whitewater, Bimbogate, and the vast right-wing conspiracy that unzipped her husband’s pants and forced him to have oral sex with Monica Lewinsky."

Judge Jeanine Pirro Gets Bridge-gate Exactly Right!   "I’m not a Christie fan but what’s fair is fair. Judge Jeanine Pirro got it exactly right with her thorough coverage in the opening statement of her Saturday show."

legalinsurrection

Americans have more to fear from the Obama administration than America's enemies do:

Federal Investigation To Look Into Chris Christie’s Use Of Sandy Money

 

New Scandal, Same Old Christie    "This week, the raging bull turned sad puppy for two hours of bravura contrition after cashiering yet another top aide who, he says, lied to him. It is a different time, and this is a very different scandal. Yet, I can’t help suspecting it’s the same old Christie." Andy McCarthy

 

IRS writing regs that allow it to suppress the tea party

Noisy Room

 

"The IRS got caught with their pants down last year. So now they are writing regulations that will allow them to do legally what they were doing illegally before. Every time you think these people can sink no lower, they go out of their way to prove you wrong. A cabal of leftist groups sued the IRS demanding they adopt these regulations, whereupon the IRS went out of its way to comply. This is a classic set up. It was probably agreed to in advance between the IRS and the plaintiffs. Now that they are complying, the leftists have magically dropped their suit!

"Here is how to fight back. The following was written by Cleta Mitchell, one of the best attorneys in this field. Read it, follow the instructions and pass them around. The following is reprinted verbatim with permission:" ....

Germany persecutes homeschoolers, with an assist from the Obama administration.

NRO

 

" Robin West...writes that homeschoolers are dangerous precisely because of the fact that, far from being docile sheep, homeschoolers are as adults more likely to be politically engaged, which Professor West worries might “undermine, limit, or destroy state functions that interfere with family and parental rights.” ... Many others on the left argue that homeschooling should be either banned outright or effectively regulated out of existence.  Kevin D. Williamson

President Obama has turned America into a banana republic

The Astute Bloggers, whose motto is: "ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

UNDER OBAMA:

• THE POTUS CAN REWRITE ANY LAW
• THE POTUS CAN ENFORCE OR NOT ENFORCE ANY LAW
• THE POTUS CAN APPOINT WITHOUT ADVISE OR CONSENT

....
More to the point, AB asks:

• WOULD HE BLACKMAIL OPPONENTS?!?!?!?!
• MAYBE A MAN WHO LIED ABOUT HIS ASSOCIATIONS WITH REZKO, FARRAKHAN, AYERS, REV. WRIGHT, EDWARD SAID AND RASHID KHALIDI, ACORN, AND THE NEW PARTY AND WHO REFUSES TO RELEASE HIS COLLEGE AND LAW SCHOOL RECORDS, AND HIS LAW PRACTICE FILES HAS A LOT MORE TO HIDE?...
•  AND JUST AS BIG A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW?

Posted by Reliapundit

 

The Arbitrary Diktats of Generalissimo Obama  "I wrote about this topic last month and asserted that one of “the defining characteristics of a civilized government is adherence to the rule of law.”
"Why is this important? Here’s some of George Will’s analysis of how Obama is subverting the law.' " 

Charles Krauthammer asks: Can Obama write his own laws?

 

Al Qaeda is on the run and here they come!

Bill Kristol on Obama's al Qaeda Claims: Now We're on the Run

... "Over the weekend on Fox News Sunday, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol again reminded Americans of Obama's phony claim."  Katie Pavlich

 

Fallujah has fallen to al-Qaeda: The failure that has led us here   ... "To be fair, the blame for the rise of ISIS and al-Qaeda in the region is not just Obama’s, nor is it President George W. Bush’s. They share the blame because they failed to understand the dangers their foreign and military policy decisions posed. Theirs was a fundamental failure to properly address those dangers." ...

That being said...

... "Unless the current administration recognizes the territory grab by radical groups as a credible threat, this will not be the last time we hear of a city falling to al-Qaeda linked forces."