Tag: IRS

IRS Whistleblower Says Biden Administration Mishandling Hunter Investigation

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

“An IRS Criminal Supervisory Agent seeking whistleblower protection claims the investigation into Hunter Biden is being mishandled by the Biden administration.

In a letter dated April 19, 2023, attorney Mark D. Lytle of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Nixon Peabody LLP tells members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate that his client has been overseeing the “ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020 and would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.”

The story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, and Fox News has since confirmed the story through a source familiar with the investigation that the subject at issue is Hunter Biden.

In Wednesday’s letter, Lytle said his client has already made legally protected disclosures internally at the IRS.

The protected disclosures, Lytle notes, “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee.”

Lytle also said his client has information that the investigator failed to mitigate “clear conflicts of interest,” adding that the investigator allegedly allowed preferential treatment and politics to infect decisions and protocols normally followed by law enforcement professionals if the subject was not politically connected.

“My goal is to ensure that my client can properly share his lawfully protected disclosures with congressional committees,” Lytle said in the letter. “Thus, I respectfully request that your committees work with me to facilitate sharing this information with congress legally and with the fully informed advice of counsel.” (Courtesy FoxNews.com)

Bias within the weaponized IRS?

Say it isn’t so. (/sarc)

It is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the Culture of Corruption, which surrounds the Deep State-protected Biden Presidency.

Does anybody seriously believe that any investigation run by a federal agency reporting under this administration will actually be run in a manner that would lead to charges against a Biden family member?

Let’s face it, boys and girls, the fix is in.

If that were to happen, the massive corruption that the Democrat Elite used to install dementia-riddled Joe Biden would have been all in vain.

The Democrat Elite would lose their political power.

You had better believe that orders have gone down through the ranks to ignore and hide any evidence of corruption leading back to the Bidens.

That is why this IRS Whistleblower is going to Congress.

The thing is, until the Republicans gain a majority in the Senate, it will be difficult to punish the Biden Crime Family for using Joe’s position in Washington to make themselves rich by selling “favors” to other countries, including our biggest enemies, like China.

I hope that I am wrong.

If anyone deserves to answer for what they’ve done, it’s the Biden Crime Family.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Atheist Organization Has IRS Monitoring Churches in Arizona

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

 

American ChristianityIn the “Left Behind” Christian Novel Series about the Rapture and subsequent Tribulation, people who become Christians after the Rapture find themselves abused by a repressive government, who keep tabs on Believers through informants.

That’s just fiction, right?

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

ChristianPost.com reports that

An Arizona-based legal group has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding that the Internal Revenue Service divulge information about an agreement it made with an atheist organization regarding the monitoring of churches.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group based in Scottsdale filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month.

ADF’s complaint charges that the IRS has failed to honor a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Alliance regarding the details of an agreement between the tax collecting federal body and the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“As of the date of this complaint, Defendant has failed to: (i) determine whether to comply with the request; (ii) notify Plaintiff of any such determination or the reasons therefor; (iii) advise Plaintiff of the right to appeal any adverse determination; and/or (iv) produce the requested records or otherwise demonstrate that the requested records are exempt from production,” reads the complaint.

“Plaintiff is being irreparably harmed by reason of Defendant’s unlawful withholding of records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request, and Plaintiff will continue to be irreparably harmed unless Defendant is compelled to conform its conduct to the requirements of the law.”

In 2012, the FFRF sued the IRS demanding that they enforce the Johnson Amendment, a provision that strips a church or its tax exemption if it is openly involved in political activity.

Last summer, the FFRF and the IRS reached an agreement wherein the federal body would make an effort to enforce the Johnson Amendment when violations are brought to their attention. But the IRS has not disclosed the details of that agreement.

“This is a victory, and we’re pleased with this development in which the IRS has proved to our satisfaction that it now has in place a protocol to enforce its own anti-electioneering provisions,” said FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor in a statement.

Last November the group Judicial Watch, which is representing ADF in its complaint, filed its own FOIA lawsuit against the IRS demanding “any and all records” relating to the agency’s “monitoring of churches and other tax exempt religious organizations.”

Judicial Watch had filed a FOIA request earlier that year, but the IRS failed to provide them with a response. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement last November that he found it “troubling that the IRS seems set to rely on a group of atheists to point them toward churches that might have criticized politicians.”

“And it is even more disturbing that the IRS would violate federal law, The Freedom of Information Act, in order to keep secret its monitoring of Americans praying together in church,” continued Fitton.

Regarding the April complaint brought against the IRS, ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb said in a statement that “Americans deserve to know what the IRS is up to.”

“The agency’s unwillingness to produce these records only furthers the perception that it makes secret deals with activists that it wishes to hide from the public,” said Holcomb.

Who is the Freedom of Religious Foundation (FFRF) and why should they be concerned about monitoring Christian Churches in Arizona?

According to their website:

The purposes of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

Incorporated in 1978 in Wisconsin, the Foundation is a national membership association of more than 17,000 freethinkers: atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree. The Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational organization under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). All dues and contributions are deductible for income tax purpose.

What Does the Foundation Do?

• Publishes the only freethought newspaper in the United States, Freethought Today

• Sponsors annual high school, college and grad student essay competitions with cash awards

• Conducts lively, annual national conventions, honoring state/church, student, and freethought activism

• Sponsors an online forum for members

• Bestows “The Emperor Has No Clothes” Award to public figures for “plain-speaking on religion”

• Promotes freedom from religion with educational books, literature, music CDs

• Provides speakers for events and debates

• Maintains a Web site at http://www.ffrf.org

• Broadcasts Freethought Radio

• Places freethought billboards and bus signs

…First Amendment violations are accelerating. The religious right is campaigning to raid the public till and advance religion at taxpayer expense, attacking our secular public schools, the rights of nonbelievers, and the Establishment Clause.

The Foundation recognizes that the United States was first among nations to adopt a secular Constitution. The founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution wanted citizens to be free to support the church of their choice, or no religion at all. Our Constitution was very purposefully written as a godless document, whose only references to religion are exclusionary.

It is vital to buttress the Jeffersonian “wall of separation between church and state” which has served our nation so well.

Funny.  Jefferson was a faithful attendant of Sunday Church that was held at the Capitol Building.  He once explained to a friend while they were walking to church together:

No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.

He also proclaimed

I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.

But, I digress…

Back in August of 2011, this same bitter bunch of Atheists sent a letter to the Schools Superintendent of Desoto County, Mississippi, insisting that the pre-game prayer, spoken over the stadiums’ loudspeakers, a tradition held in DeSoto County as long as anyone can remember,  be silenced.

DeSoto County Schools went along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s request, despite the disappointment of many students and parents.

And that’s when Americans started organizing.

Y’see, teammates traditionally would take a knee after the game to thank the Lord for a good game and His blessings and to pray for those injured during the game.  And their parents were bound and determined that their young men were not going to have that freedom taken away from them.

So, the next Friday night, instead of the coach telling the team to take a knee, the quarterback did.

Earlier, on Friday morning, students and parents held a prayer walk outside DeSoto County Schools.

As the bright, blessed day gave way to the dark, sacred night in DeSoto County, parents and students began to pray.

According to student Paige Lewis:

If they’re saying that we can’t pray over a loudspeaker, then we’re going to pray alone.

Earlier in the week, The Freedom From Religion Foundation had sent a second letter to School Superintendent Milton Kuykendall.  They not only asked the district to stop praying before school events, but also demanded an apology for the comments the superintendent made in a letter sent out earlier this week.

Cheeky, huh?

These bitter whiners were upset that Kuykendall wrote:

In my opinion, most people do not realize that this organization out of Wisconsin doesn’t really care if we have prayer in our schools. They see an opportunity to try and accuse us of breaking the law and therefore give them a chance to sue our district and win a lawsuit and take millions of our funds. This is money that is needed to pay teachers and educate our students.

In March of 2013, the Governor of Mississippi signed into law, State House Bill 683

What this law does is to allow students to initiate prayers in school and at student activities, to reference their religious beliefs in their schoolwork, both their assignments completed at school and their homework, as well. The bill also allows Mississippi’s students to speak to their classmates about their faith, to “give their witness” as we believers refer to our own personal testimony as to what God has done in our lives.

I make no bones about it. I am a Christian American Conservative. I pray daily. As I write this, I have just returned from a Church-Sponsored “Small Group Meeting” in someone’s home on a Tuesday night.

If it were up to Barack Hussein Obama and the rest of Modern “Liberals”, I would be forced to leave my faith every Sunday morning at the church door. What they don’t understand, is, the Author and Finisher of my faith is not Obama or anyone else up there on Capitol Hill, the Main Stream Media, or any self-proclaimed Liberal Political Pundit and newly-minted “Biblical Expert”.

I answer to Someone waaay about their pay grade.

Liberals, or “Progressives”, do not understand Christians at all. They believe that our faith is something that can be taken off and put back on again, as one would a shirt.

Groups like the FFDF believe that using the Obama Administration’s IRS to monitor Christian American Churches is somehow going to impede the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by Christian Americans.

They don’t have a clue.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Our Armchair President

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

Obama ArmchairWhen I was young, between elementary and junior high school-age, I was home from school sick a lot, due to being a severe asthmatic.

The television and radio were my connections to the world around me. Of course, back then, we had 4 TV channels, counting PBS, and all of our radio stations were on the AM frequency.

My illness isolated me from the potential perils of the outside world.

What is the President’s excuse?

Our current president of these United States, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), rode into office on his second term, making a lot of bogus promises, which low information voters lapped up like a dog at a rain puddle.

Unfortunately for ol’ Scooter, since he was sworn in for this, his “Lame Duck” Term in office, things has not exactly gone his way.

Obama has been hit with bad news concerning scandal after scandal, from the targeting of Conservative Groups, to a Hearing designed to get to the bottom of what happened at the Benghazi Embassy Compound,  being overseen by Congressional Conservative Firebrand Trey Gowdy, to the horrible mistreatment of our Brightest and Best at Veterans Administration Hospitals, a harbinger of the Obamacare “Death Panels” to come.

The President’s poor decisions, aloof manner, and waffling indecisiveness, while the White House Roof caves in on him, has not escaped the notice of  Beltway Politicians and Pundits…from both sides of the Political Aisle.

As Thomas Lifson writes in an article for americanthinker.com,

Wow, it’s finally happening. Democrats are catching on and turning on President Obama, at the moment off-the-record, but that won’t last for long if another midterm “shellacking” takes place in early November. Daniel Halper reports in The Weekly Standard.

CNN’s John King reports that Democrats are privately calling President Obama “detached,” “flat footed,” and “incompetent.”

If King is hearing about it, then it isn’t completely private. Maybe “off the record” and “not for attribution,” but not private when a journalist gets wind of it.

“Forget for a moment that Republican outrage,” said King on his CNN show this morning. “More and more Democrats in key 2014 races are calling for the president to get a spine, they say, and fire his Veterans Affairs secretary. And what more and more Democrats are saying privately is scathing, calling the president and his team detached, flat footed, even incompetent.

“Maggie Haberman,” said King turning to a panelist, “that’s what strikes me, what democrats are saying privately in the wakes of the healthcare.gov problems, they see a president who doesn’t want to take command, doesn’t want to act fast. Raising the competence question. Some Democrats, who believe in government, [are saying] this White House doesn’t appear to have its hand on the lever.”

…This is going to get very tricky for Democrats, since their black voter base, which accounts for roughly a quarter of their national vote, remains loyal to Obama. They may well see Democrats as stabbing the First Black President in the back if they criticize him too loudly. But with Obama dragging down the party with the rest of the electorate, failure to distance themselves also has a great cost.

Appearing on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News Program, “On The Record”, the Godfather of Conservative Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh, answered the reason why the Obama Administration is so scandal-ridden:

The bottom line is you can ask ‘why’ all day. If you have the courage to come up with the truth when you ask ‘why,’ the answer is they’re not qualified. They’re not qualified to run ObamaCare, they’re not qualified to run energy, they’re not qualified to run the economy, they don’t have anybody who knows what they’re doing in anything, Greta. Everything here is smoke and mirrors.”

Rush is, per usual, right.

Just look at the Obama White House’s latest blunder: the outing of a career covert CIA Officer, the top intelligent Official in Afghanistan, whose name was included on a publicly distributed list of dignitaries, who were invited to Obama’s Photo Op at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan on Memorial Day.

According to CNN.com,

A clerical misstep? Failure to double-check a routine process? Whatever the cause, the seemingly accidental outing of the CIA’s top intelligence official in Afghanistan could put the life of the spy and any family members in danger.

It also raised the question of whether the official can continue working in Afghanistan after the revelation in a White House media report sent to about 6,000 journalists.

“I think they are going to have to pull him out, now that he’s been identified publicly,” said CNN National Security Analyst Robert Baer, noting the Taliban would likely attempt to assassinate the official. “It will affect his career over the long term, too.”

Josh Rogin, who covers national security issues for The Daily Beast, told CNN on Tuesday the mistake was “catastrophic” for the official’s career and “potential future as a covert operator, both in Afghanistan or anywhere else.”

The official “was in the middle of a very dangerous mission, which was to govern the transition of CIA forces in Afghanistan,” Rogin noted.

If forced to leave now due to danger over being exposed, the official’s absence could hurt the mission, according to Rogin.

Given President Pantywaist’s horrible record as Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief, I would say that it is a very good thing for Obama to be receiving everything he knows about important national and international events, while sitting in his armchair, up on the second floor of the White House, far away from the Oval Office, watching the TV.

It is a whole lot safer for our country this way.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Holder Refuses to Replace Obama Donor IRS Scandal Investigator. Inadvertent Transparency Reigns.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

obamaholderAnd, you thought President Nixon was a crook…

Chron.com reports that…

A request by Sen. Ted Cruz to have a special prosecutor appointed to probe allegations the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting conservative groups was denied by the Department of Justice.

The IRS has been accused of targeting conservative groups and denying them tax-exempt status based on political views.

The Texas freshman Republican senator sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Jan 22 saying the investigation was currently being led by a “partisan Democrat” selected from “the most politically charged division of DOJ.”

Cruz asked that a special prosecutor “with meaningful independence” be appointed and pointed out the current lead investigator, Barbara Kay Bosserman, had contributed around $6,500 to President Obama’s two presidential campaigns.

The Department of Justice said the authority to create a special prosecutor has “rarely been exercised” and was “not warranted” in the IRS matter.

The letter went on to say “the Department remains committed to integrity and fairness in all of its law enforcement efforts without regard to politics,” rebutting Cruz’s accusations of bias.

Senator Cruz issued the following statement after the judge’s ruling:

It is the height of hypocrisy for the Obama Administration to claim that the investigator leading the investigation into the IRS’s illegal program has no conflict of interest. The investigator is a partisan Democrat who has donated over six thousand dollars to President Obama and Democrat causes. Just as nobody would trust John Mitchell to investigate Richard Nixon, nobody should trust a partisan Obama donor to investigate the IRS’s political targeting of President Obama’s enemies. Sadly, “in the discretion of the Attorney General,” Eric Holder has chosen to reject the bipartisan tradition of the Department of Justice of putting rule of law above political allegiance.

Both Nixon Administration Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno appointed special prosecutors whose integrity was beyond reproach; Eric Holder should do likewise. To date, nine months after a damning Inspector General report, nobody has been indicted, many of the victims have not even been interviewed, and Lois Lerner has twice pleaded the Fifth. And yet the Attorney General refuses to allow a genuine–and impartial–investigation.

The integrity of the Department of Justice deserves better. The American people deserve better.

Back on January 12th, the Washington Times gave us the details, concerning the hand-picked “investigator”…

Barbara Kay Bosserman is a trial lawyer at Justice who likes nothing better than stuffing envelopes with a contribution to Obama for America or the Obama Victory Fund. She has done this on 13 occasions, and counting.

She sent an additional $650 to the Democratic National Committee. She’s to be in charge of the “impartial inquiry” into the IRS harassment of conservatives.

This outrages the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as it should. The committee has been trying for months to get to the bottom of what happened, only to be obstructed by repeated stonewalling from the administration.

Rep. Darrell E. Issa, the committee chairman, and Rep. Jim Jordan, a subcommittee chairman, demand that Ms. Bosserman be removed from the case at once.

“It is unbelievable that the department would choose such an individual to examine the federal government’s systematic targeting and harassment of organizations oppose to the President’s policies,” the Republican members wrote.

Messrs. Issa and Jordan are engaging in only a mild bit of hyperbole. This turn of events is in fact entirely believable. This is the most partisan Department of Justice in a generation.

For months, the administration has dismissed the revelations of abuse as a “phony scandal.” Those who suffered IRS harassment feel otherwise, and they’re rightly furious with this attempt to rig the outcome.

The American Center for Law and Justice represents 41 targeted Tea Party and conservative organizations.

“Appointing an avowed political supporter of President Obama to head up the Justice Department probe,” says Jay Sekulow, the group’s chief counsel, “is not only disturbing, but puts politics right in the middle of what is supposed to be an independent investigation to determine who is responsible for the Obama administration’s unlawful targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups.”

The administration and its media acolytes want all eyes on Chris Christie’s traffic-cone scandal. Shutting down a lane on the George Washington Bridge to create gridlock to pay back a small-town Democratic mayor was dumb, foolish and petty, and Mr. Christie was rightly humiliated because it happened in his administration.

But it pales as scandal next to using the IRS, the most feared and abusive government agency, as the instrument of payback to conservative and religious groups for opposing Barack Obama.

The media acolytes that have been consumed by the traffic scandal should allot a few lines of type to a scandal of epic proportions.

Mr. Holder and his minions refuse to acknowledge anything wrong with the selection of Ms. Bosserman, delivering the standard-issue denial that they do not take into account the “political affiliation of career employees” when making personnel decisions.

Yeah, right. And,Mooch, Mudear, and the girls are in China on a “fact-finding mission”.

As Barack Hussein Obama was assuming office in January of 2009, his minions posted the following promise on whitehouse.gov:

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

Now, the following addendum has been added to the bottom of the page:

We’re updating the White House privacy policy. The new policy will go into effect on April 18, 2014. See the existing privacy policy here.

The White House is committed to protecting individual privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you visit WhiteHouse.gov, use our mobile app, or visit White House pages hosted by other sites (such as our official profiles on social networking sites). This Privacy Policy describes what information is made available to the White House and how that information is used and retained, and provides information on:

  • Information we receive (when you provide it, visit WhiteHouse.gov, use the WhiteHouse.gov mobile app, receive email updates, or interact with official White House presences on third-party sites)
  • How this information is used
  • Sharing of this information
  • Data retention
  • Third-party tools and sites
  • Children and privacy
  • Security

If you have questions about this policy or suggestions for its improvement, please let us know at WhiteHouse.gov/Privacy/Feedback.

Yep. This Administration is transparent, alright. But, not in the way they claim.

Until He Comes,

KJ

O’Reilly Interviews Obama: Pomposity, Petulance, and Prevarication

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamababyBefore the Super Bowl, President Barack Hussein Obama sat down for an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. Hilarity Prevarication and denial of responsibility ensued.

Fox News summarizes the interview:

President Obama, in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, tried to put behind him the scandals that have hung over his second term, suggesting his administration did not mislead the public on the Benghazi attack and going so far as to say the IRS targeting scandal had “not even a smidgen of corruption.”

Obama addressed concerns over Benghazi, the launch of HealthCare.gov and the IRS, during the interview Sunday before the Super Bowl. He adamantly rejected the suggestion that the IRS was used for political purposes by singling out Tea Party groups seeking tax exemption.

“That’s not what happened,” he said. Rather, he said, IRS officials were confused about how to implement the law governing those kinds of tax-exempt groups.

“There were some bone-headed decisions,” Obama conceded.

But when asked whether corruption, or mass corruption, was at play, he responded: “Not even mass corruption — not even a smidgen of corruption.”

He acknowledged that then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman had been to the White House more than 100 times but said he couldn’t recall speaking to him on any of those occasions.

Obama also downplayed the controversy over how the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attacks were described by the administration.

He said he considers any such strike an act of terror and that he was told by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the time only that it was an “attack” — and that the more important issue is whether security lapses have now been fixed. 

“All of the security precautions that needed to be taken didn’t happen,” the president said. “The key is that we’ve implemented the reforms that have been recommended.”

He also said his administration didn’t try to “hide the ball” regarding the attacks, in which four Americans were killed including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

“We revealed to the American people exactly what we understood at the time,” the president said.

Obama also claimed that the attackers were made up of a mix of people, some affiliated with terror organizations and others who were just “troublemakers.” A recent report from the Senate Intelligence Committee, though, definitively declared that individuals tied to Al Qaeda groups were involved.

On the rocky launch of the health care exchange system, Obama said he anticipated problems with the rollout of ObamaCare in October, particularly with the HealthCare.gov website because computer programs have glitches.

“But neither I nor anybody else anticipated the degree of problems with HealthCare.gov,” he said.

The president argued that total enrollment is now just about a month behind schedule and that young people, key to making ObamaCare work, are enrolling at a good rate.

He would not answer when asked repeatedly why he kept Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the job.

“I try to focus not on the fumbles but on the next play,” he said

Is it just me, or does Obama sound like the bad guy, at the end of a Scooby Doo Cartoon?

And, I would have gotten by with it, too. if it wasn’t for that meddlesome Fox News!

After watching Obama do his Lt. Frank Drebin (The Naked Gun) impersonation,

Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I did some research, and came up with the following list of Obama Scandals:

  1. The IRS targeted conservative and pro-Israel groups prior to the 2012 election.
  2. Benghazi: There are still 4 brave Americans, who are unavailable for comment. (And, their Commander in Chief chuckled inappropriately, when O’Reilly asked him about it.)
  3. The ATF “Fast and Furious” scheme: Federal agencies allowed weapons from U.S. gun dealers to “walk” across the border into the hands of Mexican drug dealers, leading to the December 2010 killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
  4. Holder told Congress in May 2011 that he had just recently heard about the Fast and Furious gun walking scheme.
  5. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius solicited donations from companies HHS might regulate. The money would be used to help her sign up uninsured Americans for Obamacare.
  6. Spying on The Associated Press: The Justice Department reviewed Associated Press reporters’ phone records as part of a leak investigation.
  7. Rosengate: The Justice Department treated Fox news Reporter as a criminal and monitored his phones and emails.
  8. Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress he had never been associated with “potential prosecution” of a journalist for perjury when in fact he signed the affidavit that termed Rosen a potential criminal.
  9. The Pigford scandal: An Agriculture Department effort that started as an attempt to compensate black farmers who had been discriminated against by the agency but evolved into a gravy train.
  10. The General Services Administration in 2010 held an $823,000 training conference in Las Vegas, featuring a clown and a mind readers.
  11. Veterans Affairs in Disney World: The agency wasted more than $6 million on two conferences in Orlando.
  12. Sebelius violates the Hatch Act: A U.S. special counsel determined that Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she made “extemporaneous partisan remarks” during a speech in her official capacity last year.
  13. Obama may have violated the Constitution and both the letter and the spirit of the War Powers Resolution by attacking Libya without Congressional approval.
  14. Vice President Biden’s office has repeatedly interfered with coverage of the Administration, including forcing a reporter to wait in a closet, making a reporter delete photos, and editing pool reports.
  15. The Administration paid millions to the former firm of then-White House adviser David Axelrod, AKPD Message and Media, to promote passage of Obamacare.
  16. Solyndra: Republicans charged the Obama Administration funded and promoted its poster boy for green energy despite warning signs the company was headed for bankruptcy.
  17. Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used the name “Richard Windsor” when corresponding by email with other government officials.
  18. The New Black Panthers: The SOJ was accused of using a racial double standard in failing to pursue a voter intimidation case against Black Panthers who appeared to be menacing voters at a polling place in 2008 in Philadelphia.
  19. Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel used Bill Clinton as an intermediary to probe whether former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) would accept a prominent, unpaid White House advisory position in exchange for dropping out of the 2010 primary against former Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).
  20. Obama has repeatedly been accused of making end runs around Congress by deciding which laws to enforce, including the decision not to deport illegal immigrants who may have been allowed to stay in the United States had Congress passed the “Dream Act.”
  21. Obama blocked veterans from visiting National Monuments by barricading them, to make Americans suffer, during to a Government Shutdown of the Budget.

So, Mr. President, did Fox News make up all of these scandals, as well?

Shortly after Obama was inaugurated, the following appeared on the official website, whitehouse.gov:

Transparency and Open Government

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

Joe Wilson was right.

He lied.

Until He Comes,

KJ

NSA Wiretapping Ruled Unconstitutional. Congressional “Caine Mutiny” Hearing to Follow?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamabigbroRemember all of Obama’s Domestic Scandals, beside Obamacare? Well, regarding the one involving the NSA, it is possible that, to paraphrase Obama’s Former Pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright,

Obama’s chickennns…are coming home…to roost!

Yesterday, wsj.com reported that…

President Barack Obama, facing growing pressure from Silicon Valley, will meet Tuesday with executives from Google Inc. Facebook Inc. and other technology and telecommunications giants to discuss their concerns about America’s surveillance operations.

According to the White House, Mr. Obama will also meet with the executives to talk about progress with the troubled online federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, and ways the government and technology industry can partner to boost economic growth.

The meeting comes a week after a group of technology companies jointly penned a letter to lash out at the Obama administration for collecting information on Americans. The companies said they wanted to see greater oversight of the government’s surveillance operations and limits on the government’s authority to compel companies to disclose data about their customers.

The letter followed a wave of disclosures about U.S. spying operations by Edward Snowden, a former government contractor now in Russia. The president will also talk about the national security concerns prompted by the leaks and their effect on the economy.

The administration has been reviewing U.S. spying operations and considering steps to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. Last week, a presidential task force submitted to the White House more than 40 recommendations to overhaul the National Security Agency. Mr. Obama’s chief spokesman, Jay Carney, said the White House was reviewing the report and would make public the full report in January.

This news comes on the heels of a ruling by a Federal Court Judge that telephone surveillance of Americans that has been conducted ad infinitum by the NSA, violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution…

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found that the program appears to violate the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. He also said the Justice Department had failed to demonstrate that collecting the information had helped to head off terrorist attacks.

Acting on a lawsuit brought by conservative legal activist Larry Klayman, Leon issued a preliminary injunction barring the NSA from collecting so-called metadata pertaining to the Verizon accounts of Klayman and one of his clients. However, the judge stayed the order to allow for an appeal.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval,” wrote Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

The preliminary injunction Leon granted Monday does not require him to make a definitive ruling on the constitutional questions in the case, but does take account of which side he believes is more likely to prevail.

Leon’s 68-page opinion is the first significant legal setback for the NSA’s surveillance program since it was disclosed in June in news stories based on leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. For seven years, the metadata program has been approved repeatedly by numerous judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and found constitutional by at least one judge sitting in a criminal case.

The very fact that the  National Security Agency (NSA) even existed, was not revealed for more than two decades after its establishment in 1952.

Of all the US intelligence services, it is has,for a long time, been the best hidden, and has prided itself on having the fewest leaks – at least until Edward Snowden came along.

When Harry Truman set up the NSA, its mission was to monitor communications abroad. However, what politicians and civil rights organizations have know, since the Senate unveiled it in 1975, is to what extent its ferocious appetite for data has encompassed American citizens.

As technology has evolved, so has the NSA’s capacity to intercept Americans’ communications. Satellites intercept calls and emails in the ether and beam the information back to earthbound receiving stations. One estimate suggests that each of these bases hoovers up roughly one billion emails, phone calls and other forms of correspondence every day, and the agency has up to 20 bases.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows…

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The actions of the NSA, are, of course, nothing new. as far back as Prohibition, government authorities have tapped American’s phones, if they felt that they were involved in “suspicious activities. However, those incidences of “wiretapping” were always done under the Rule of Law, with those doing the tapping have a warrant from a judge in their hand.

What we are dealing with here is nothing less than a usurpation of power, am old Soviet Union-style spying on one’s own countrymen, by an out-of-control NSA, whose petulant, didactic Commander-in-Chief, in his zeal to wield the power of the Oval Office, has pushed our Constitutional Republic in the direction of a Socialist Police State.

Through his use of such Government Agencies such as the NSA and the IRS to intimidate and harass his political opponents, President Barack Hussein Obama has exhibited a fearful paranoia that makes President Richard Milhous Nxon’s Watergate Scandal appear as inconsequential as a deck chair on the Titanic, and Obama as unstable a leader as Captain Queeg, so brilliantly played by the late, great Humphrey Bogart in “The Caine Mutiny”.

If Obama is ever brought before Congress to testify on his scandals, his prevarication and eventual meltdown will make Captain Queeg’s unraveling pale in comparison.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Scandalpalooza: The End of the New Camelot

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamakingI mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.

— Joe Biden, on January 31, 2007, describing fellow candidate Barack Obama. The remark was made the same day Biden filed the official paperwork to launch his presidential campaign. Biden later apologized and said the remark was taken out of context.

This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal.

–Barack Hussein Obama, June 3, 2008, Nomination Speech, Democratic National Convention, St. Paul, Minnesota

…Obama meets the Kennedy standard not only in substance; he also has its style and public appeal.

In 1961, Time magazine named JFK man of the year, after a tough election battle with GOP candidate Richard Nixon.

The article read: “The closeness of his victory did not disturb him; he took over the office with a youth-can-do-anything sort of self-confidence. He learned better; but learn he did. And in so doing,” the article says, he made 1961 “the most endlessly interesting and exciting presidential year within recent memory.”

Ted Sorensen, a former special counsel and adviser to President Kennedy, says there’s no question about the similarities between the two.

“Both of them were compassionate and cared about the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. … Both Kennedy and Obama, by spending time abroad during their youth … gave both of them a very good perspective of Americans’ role in the world. … Both of them were innovators.”

And it’s with those characteristics that Sorensen says Obama has lined himself up with the ideals of the Kennedy clan and has become a “natural fit.”

Both Obama and Kennedy “reached out to young people; tried to get them involved in politics and government after a period of cynical indifference on the part of young people,” Sorensen said. “Both Kennedy and Obama … were idealists … and paid less attention to the old politics and won by paying attention to the new politics.”

– Ed Homick, cnn.com, August 26, 2009, “Is Camelot’s future in Obama’s hands?”

Thus began the fable of America’s First Black President (second, if you count Bill Clinton). A man predetermined by his handlers, the Democratic Power Brokers, the Liberal unwashed, and the Main Stream Media to be infallible and untouchable…the new messiah.

What was proclaimed to be the story of King Arthur and the Round Table wound up being Hansel and Gretel, with average Americans being the children being cooked by the wicked witch (insert your own Pelosi joke here).

With the aid of his previously-mentioned Amen Corner,  and a Democratic Majority in both houses of Congress, he succeeded in forcing the Golden Goose to lay a whopper of an egg…a multi-trillion dollar law socializing, and destroying at the same time, the greatest Healthcare System on the face of the Earth.

(I have my ice floe picked out. Do you?)

Advertised before his election to be the new Great Communicator, and blasphemously compared to Ronald Wilson Reagan, he soon proved to be lost without TOTUS (the Teleprompter of the United States), even carrying it with him to speak to schoolchildren.

During his First Term, especially after the stunning rebuke by the American people in the Midterm Elections of 2010, Obama soon proved to be a divisive, perpetually campaigning president, taking up the mantle of class warfare, by blaming America’s wealthy (you know them, the folks who hire us.) for his horrible economic policies.

His Foreign Policy wasn’t any better. Obama embraced our enemies and alienated our friends. Then, this new Nero watched while the Middle East burned in a Radical Muslim Ode to Spring.

Shortly before the election, Obama’s horrible Foreign Policy led to the deaths of 4 brave Americans, including  an Ambassador, one murderous night at the U.S. Embassy Compound in Benghazi, Libya.

By obfuscation, subterfuge and downright lying, Obama and his Administration have hidden the truth about that night until this day.

Obama succeeded in getting re-elected, due to a poor campaign strategy by the Republicans, and “voting irregularities” and bribery, orchestrated by Baracky Clause and his loyal Democratic Elves.

Once Obama was re-inaugurated, he doubled down on his divisive brand of class warfare-Marxist-Chicago Politics, further dividing the nation he was supposed to be serving.

Now, less than 5 months into his Second Term, not only has Obama and his Administration’s malfeasance concerning Benghazigate become a scandal, but, news that Attorney General Eric Holder was wiretapping the Associated Press, Fox News, and who Know who else, has come to light.

But, wait…there’s more!

Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service, under President Barack Hussein Obama, harrassed, probed, and generally messed with hundreds of Conservative Groups seeking Nonprofit Status.

In response to all of this, Obama announced that there was going to be a thorough investigation…headed by Attorney General Eric Holder.

(Oh, look…squirrel!)

Holder himself is going to launch a “charm offensive”.

(A lot of us find his charm offensive.)

Holder also, on behalf of the most transparent Administration evah, summoned the Main Stream Media to a Closed Doors Meeting, so that he could “clean the air”.

(A Transparent Closed Door Meeting…is that like a Jumbo Shrimp?)

To summarize…what began as a shining New Camelot…now consists of a bunch of tarnished empty suits of armor and an overbearing stench from the stables.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Obama’s IRS

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

nationaldayofprayerI have always been told that prayer is a private thing.  Evidently, that’s no longer the case in Obama’s America.

The Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm that provides pro-bono representation with a focus on life, marriage, and religious liberty. Headquartered in Chicago, the firm provides these services from local trial courts all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the firm presented over 150 pages of analysis and evidence to the House Ways and Means Committee concerning repeated IRS harassment of pro-life organizations. Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) requested the memorandum, which was prepared by Thomas More Society President Thomas Brejcha, Executive Director Peter Breen, and Special Counsel Sally Wagenmaker.

The material they prepared presents solid evidence of IRS harassment of pro-life organizations dating back to 2009.

According to the Press Release, prepared by Tom Ciesielka of the Thomas More Society,

The memo details the history of IRS misconduct in the cases of three organizations represented by the Thomas More Society. The abuse dates back further than the now publicized 2010 complaints and extends beyond the IRS’s recently exposed Cincinnati office to also include the tax agency’s California operations in the charges of blatant bias. 

The IRS office in El Monte, California, began harassing Christian Voices for Life of Fort Bend County, Texas in 2011. In a series of questions penned by Exempt Organization Specialist Tyrone Thomas from the California office, the IRS asked a series of unwarranted questions ordering Christian Voices for Life without any foundation, to explain its content, message, and prayers as if they were engaging in highly offensive or criminal behavior. 

Coalition for Life of Iowa found itself in the IRS’s crosshairs when the group applied for tax exempt status in October 2008. Nearly ten months of interrogation about the group’s opposition to Planned Parenthood included a demand by a Ms. Richards from the IRS’ Cincinnati office unlawfully insisted that all board members sign a sworn declaration promising not to picket/protest Planned Parenthood. Further questioning by the IRS requested detailed information about the content of the group’s prayer meetings, educational seminars, and signs their members hold outside Planned Parenthood. 

In yet a third matter, an IRS agent in their Chicago office repeatedly harassed Daniel and Angela Michael of Small Victories, a pro-life organization, with an intrusive investigation, calling the leaders every 2-3 weeks over the course of 2011, beginning in January of that year. The IRS officially closed its investigation in January 2012, having found no illegal activities.

Are we still in America?

After Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over Mother Russia, Russian Orthodoxy, the predominant faith in Russia, was persecuted almost to extinction within 20 years. The Communists slaughtered hundreds of thousands of priests, sisters, and brothers.

Between 1917 and 1937, more than 50 million people were murdered by KGB extermination squads or in death camps, and 8 million people died of starvation in man-made famines designed to consolidate Communist power. All land was confiscated by the state.

Those who were left alive were allowed to live under Communist totalitarian control to help rally the people to fight the Nazi German invasion in 1939.

The Commies let some churches stay open if they were licensed by the Communist government. Of course,they were very limited in what they could do: they could celebrate liturgies and the sacraments, but they could not teach Russian Orthodoxy to children or to adults.

The Orthodox Church became just another a highly regulated arm of the Soviet government, and all newly ordained priests and bishops became agents or cooperators of the Secret Police (KGB). The sacraments of baptism and marriage, as well as funerals, were usually performed only after substantial fees were paid.

In all levels of the Soviet School System, Students were forced to learn and believe atheism as scientific truth. This belief system was reinforced in all youth organizations, as well.

There were no private Christian schools or clubs.

The fear of persecution and government reprisal during the period in which Joe Stalin ruled Russia (1927-52) made parents afraid to tell their children about the Triune God.

It only took two generations for Russia to become an atheistic society.

Freedom of religion finally came back to Russia in 1991. However, by then, less than 25% of the population were Christians.

As it stands today in the former Soviet Union, less than 0.50% (one-half of one percent) practice any faith at all.

Are we headed in that direction?

I mean, look at the brazenness of  The Obama Administration. Never in my wildest dreams, could I imagine an agency of OUR government, asking a Christian what they prayed about!

My Lord.

Did any of us ever think that this would happen in a land founded by Christian men and women?

The U. S. House Judiciary Committee wrote the following in 1854,

Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity… That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.

When you tell a Liberal that the Founders of our country were Christians, they always bring up Thomas Jefferson, claiming he was a Deist…or something.

Here is what Jefferson had to say about it:

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.65

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

Jefferson, while President, allowed church services to be held on Sunday mornings in the Capitol Building, which he attended. The practice continued until 1848.

So, what can we do about this encroaching darkness, brokered by an administration who is seeking to turn us into a Marxist nation, with limited personal freedoms, dictated by the State?

President Ronald Reagan said,

I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. We need God’s help to guide our nation through stormy seas. But we can’t expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living.

One of those whom Obama’s IRS attacked, Rev. Billy Graham, once remarked,

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

My fellow Americans, it is high time we started a National Conversation with Our Creator.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama, the IRS, and Character

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

ObamaIRSUp until now, Obama has denied knowing anything before last Friday about the malfeasance of the IRS, and their actions before the 2012 Presidential Election, where they basically acted as his Vanguard, clearing the way for his re-election.

Guess what? He lied.

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

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

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

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

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

“Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”

Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.

“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated. “I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also reacted to the revelation late Thursday, stating the news was “stunning, just stunning.”

It’s not really that stunning, Senator. Obama has been a manipulator and a con-man all of his political career

In 2004, Illinois State Senator Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) decided to run for The United States Senate.

In order to have a successful Senatorial campaign, Scooter  had to secure tremendous financial backing and be the recipient of astute political mentoring.  No problem.

It is now very well-known that George Soros, evil genius, major Democratic Party donor and anti-Israel crusader, has been a generous contributor to Barack Obama. However, not too many people know that a loophole in McCain-Feingold allowed Soros and his family members to be extremely generous in their support of Obama’s 2004 Senatorial campaign.

Obama had to run against Blair Hull in the primary and then Jack Ryan in the general (both multi-millionaires). Obama received huge donations from individuals, to so-called “millionaires exception.”  Usually,  individuals are limited to giving $2300 to candidates in federal elections, but if the candidates are running against millionaires, these limits do not apply and candidates are allowed to receive up to $12,000 from a single individual. Soros and his family gave Barack Obama $60,000. This does not count the money that Soros was funneled to so-called 527 groups (Moveon.org, for example) that have also been politically active; nor does it include money that Soros raised fromtapping a network of friends, business associates, and employees.

Besides garnering unlimited campaign funds, as the campaigns entered their closing rounds, the news ”happened to be” leaked to media outlets that both Hull and Ryan had “personal scandals” in their past. The timely release of this news wiped out both of their campaigns, leading to an easy victory for Obama in the primary and then in the general election.

The New York Times Magazinerevealed that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political and media adviser, may well have been behind the leak of the story that doomed the Hull candidacy as the primary reached its home stretch.  I’m shocked.

As he has shown over the years, Axelrod was right at home operating in this gray area, part idealist, part hired muscle. One can not bring up Axelrod’s name  in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. Approaching the 2004 Senate primary, it was clear that it was a two-man race: the millionaire liberal, Hull, leading in the polls, and Obama, who was the figurehead of an impressive grass-roots campaign. One month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune “just happened” to reveal, at the end of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. This revelation proceeded to erupt into a full-fledged scandal.  This scandal destroyed Hull’s campaign and handed Obama an easy primary victory.

The Tribune reporter who wrote the story later admitted in print that the Obama camp had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the story. However, a lot of folks in Chicago believe that Axelrod leaked the initial story. They will tell you that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama’s TV ad campaign just happened to start at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that “we had nothing to do with it” and that the campaign’s television ad schedule was in the works for a long time.

Axlerod’s explanation?

An aura grows up around you, and people assume everything emanates from you.

He lied, too.

An incident happened yesterday during Obama’s Joint Press Conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Since it was raining, Obama called over two of the Marine Honor Guard to hold umbrellas over him and the Prime Minister. Now, I was reading yesterday, that researchers went back nine presidents, and Obama is the first one to ever pull something like this. 

“I am going to go ahead and ask folks, why don’t we get a couple of Marines — they’re going to look good next to us,” Obama joked. “I’ve got a change of suits, but I don’t know about our prime minister.”

“You guys I’m sorry about,” Obama said to the press.

CNN got in touch with Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Greg Wolf. He explained that it’s “extremely rare” to see marines in uniform holding umbrellas, as they’re usually not permitted to do so — unless their commander-in-chief asks them.

It’s the things we do without thinking that define our character (or, lack thereof) to those around us.

Obama defined his.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama/Nixon: Presidential Scandal Deja Vu

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

ObamaNixonDid you ever have the feeling you were being played?

All of us should have that uneasy feeling after President Obama’s Address to the Nation last night, when he announced that Steve Miller, acting Commissioner of the IRS, was resigning over the burgeoning scandal,  which saw the Internal Revenue Service being used as a Campaign Tool for the president’s re-election, by keeping Conservative Groups out of the fight, by making it difficult for them to obtain tax-exempt status.

Forgive me if I don’t leap for joy.

Two points strike me immediately:

1.  Miller was not Commissioner when the scandal happened.

3. Miller’s tenure as acting Commissioner was up in June, anyway.

Big Whoop.

Besides seeking Miller’s resignation, Obama said his administration would put in place new safeguards to prevent a recurrence of the IRS actions and said he insisted the IRS implement the inspector general’s recommendations immediately. The IRS had agreed to seven of nine recommendations contained in the report.

Obama said the improper behavior at the IRS was especially egregious “given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives.”

The report lays much of the blame on IRS supervisors in Washington who oversaw a group of specialists in Cincinnati responsible for screening applications for tax exempt status. It does not indicate that Washington initiated the targeting of conservative groups, but it does say a top supervisor in Washington did not adequately supervise agents in the field even after she learned the agents were acting improperly.

The Justice Department is also investigating the IRS targeting, as are three congressional committees.

Fox…Henhouse.

All of The Lightbringer’s machinations remind me of another Presidential Address to the Nation, given the night of April 30, 1973…

Good evening:

I want to talk to you tonight from my heart on a subject of deep concern to every American.

In recent months, members of my Administration and officials of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President— including some of my closest friends and most trusted aides—have been charged with involvement in what has come to he known as the Watergate affair. These include charges of illegal activity during and preceding the 1972 Presidential election and charges that responsible officials participated in efforts to cover up that illegal activity.

The inevitable result of these charges has been to raise serious questions about the integrity of the White House itself. Tonight I wish to address those questions.

Last June 17, while I was in Florida trying to get a few days rest after my visit to Moscow, I first learned from news reports of the Watergate break-in. I was appalled at this senseless, illegal action, and I was shocked to learn that employees of the Re-Election Committee were apparently among those guilty. I immediately ordered an investigation by appropriate Government authorities. On September 15, as you will recall, indictments were brought against seven defendants in the case.

As the investigations went forward, I repeatedly asked those conducting the investigation whether there was any reason to believe that members of my Administration were in any way involved. I received repeated assurances that there were not. Because of these continuing reassurances, because I believed the reports I was getting, because I had faith in the persons from whom I was getting them, I discounted the stories in the press that appeared to implicate members of my Administration or other officials of the campaign committee.

Until March of this year, I remained convinced that the denials were true and that the charges of involvement by members of the White House Staff were false. The comments I made during this period, and the comments made by my Press Secretary in my behalf, were based on the information provided to us at the time we made those comments. However, new information then came to me which persuaded me that there was a real possibility that some of these charges were true, and suggesting further that there had been an effort to conceal the facts both from the public, from you, and from me.

As a result, on March 21, I personally assumed the responsibility for coordinating intensive new inquiries into the matter, and I personally ordered those conducting the investigations to get all the facts and to report them directly to me, right here in this office.

I again ordered that all persons in the Government or at the Re-Election Committee should cooperate fully with the FBI, the prosecutors, and the grand jury. I also ordered that anyone who refused to cooperate in telling the truth would be asked to resign from Government service. And, with ground rules adopted that would preserve the basic constitutional separation of powers between the Congress and the Presidency, I directed that members of the White House Staff should appear and testify voluntarily under oath before the Senate committee which was investigating Watergate.

I was determined that we should get to the bottom of the matter, and that the truth should be fully brought out—no matter who was involved.

Sound familiar?

William Shakespeare wrote that

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.

Even though Richard Milhous Nixon excelled at Foreign Policy, opening new areas of trade with China and other countries, he will always be remembered for the political chicanery known as Watergate.

And, now, even though Barack Hussein Obama, will still go down in history as America’s first Black President (second, if you count Bubba Clinton), that honor will be eclipsed. 

Instead, he will be known as the president who brought Chicago Politics to the White House.

So, as all these scandals continue to develop and surround The One who was supposed to bring America “Hope and Change”, consider the following…

Obama has actually trumped Nixon in a very sad and macabre way: Watergate was just a break-in. The Attack in Benghazi cost 4 brave Americans their lives.

Until He Comes,

KJ