Doug Ross @ Journal

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Larwyn's Linx: Shut It Down--An Open Letter To Speaker Boehner

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QOTD: "Fraud flows from the top down, not the mid-level up. Mid-level officials in the White House and the State Department do not call the shots — they carry out orders. They also were not running for reelection in 2012 or positioning themselves for a campaign in 2016. The people doing that were, respectively, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton.

Obama and Clinton had been the architects of American foreign policy. As Election Day 2012 loomed, each of them had a powerful motive to promote the impressions (a) that al-Qaeda had been decimated; (b) that the administration’s deft handling of the Arab Spring — by empowering Islamists — had been a boon for democracy, regional stability, and American national security; and (c) that our real security problem was “Islamophobia” and the “violent extremism” it allegedly causes — which was why Obama and Clinton had worked for years with Islamists, both overseas and at home, to promote international resolutions that would make it illegal to incite hostility to Islam, the First Amendment be damned.

All of that being the case, I am puzzled why so little attention has been paid to the Obama-Clinton phone call at 10 p.m. on the night of September 11." --Andrew McCarthy

Monday, May 20, 2013

If Your First Reaction to a Catastrophic Tornado is to Politicize Its Victims, You Might Be a Sick and Twisted Leftist

A massive, 200 mph tornado slammed into heavily populated areas of Oklahoma earlier today, killing at least 51 and leveling two schools. The first responses to the deadly storm by Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead and Vanity Fair editor Kurt Eichenwald are worth noting:

These Leftists are the lowest of the low.

In Eichenwald's case, he knows that conservatives opposed not the $17 billion Sandy relief bill, but the additional $33 billion in pork that included such necessities as:

$500 million for weather forecasting and to help create an ocean zoning plan–the later one of Obama’s pet projects. Also included are $10 million for FBI salaries $2 billion for road construction across the country, as well as funding for the Head Start program, roof repairs at the Smithsonian, and $150 million for fisheries across the country.

Everything with the Left is to be twisted to some partisan advantage, no matter how awful, tragic or unlawful.

I feel like we're living in early 1930's Germany, a state in which faith, traditions, and morals were sacrificed at the altar of an all-powerful central government. And we know how that ended up, eh, Eichenputz? But apparently that lesson is too complicated for the "editors" at "Vanity Fair" as well as the rest of the modern Democrat Party.

Hat tip: USCFP.

AND IN ENLIGHTENED SAUDI ARABIA: Two Asian Maids Sentenced to 10 Years and 1,000 Lashes for Practicing Sorcery

But according to Leftists like the loathsome Juan Cole, it's Israel that's barbaric.

A Saudi court sentenced two Asian housemaids to 10 years in jail and ordered their lashed 1,000 times each after they were found guilty of indulging in sorcery at their employers’ houses... Their Saudi employers reported the two maids to the Gulf country’s feared religious police, saying they had discovered that their families had been harmed because of sorcery practiced by the maids against them.

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice who searched the two houses in Riyadh found talismans and other magic items in the bedrooms of the two maids... Saudi Arabia, which strictly enforces Islamic law, has beheaded many persons convicted of practicing magic over the past years.

And I'm sure they were given a fair trial with a jury of their peers.

NO CONSPIRACY, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Voter Integrity Group targeted by IRS, FBI, OSHA, and ATF

There's a word for a government using the force of law to target and harass its political opponents: fascism.

Such is the story of the non-partisan voter integrity group True the Vote, founded by business owner Catherine Engelbrecht. For the last three years, Engelbrecht and her business have been systematically harassed and intimidated by the Obama administration.

[In] February [2012], True the Vote received a third request for information from the IRS, which also sent its first questionnaire to King Street Patriots. Catherine says the IRS had “hundreds of questions — hundreds and hundreds of questions.” The IRS requested every Facebook post and Tweet she had ever written. She received questions about her family, whether she’d ever run for political office, and which organizations she had spoken to.

“It’s no great secret that the IRS is considered to be one of the more serious [federal agencies],” Catherine says. “When you get a call from the IRS, you don’t take it lightly. So when you’re asked questions that seem to imply a sense of disapproval, it has a very chilling effect.”

On the same day they received the questions from the IRS, Catherine says, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) launched an unscheduled audit of their machine shop, forcing the Engelbrechts to drop everything planned for that day. Though the Engelbrechts have a Class 7 license, which allows them to make component parts for guns, they do not manufacture firearms. Catherine said that while the ATF had a right to conduct the audit, “it was odd that they did it completely unannounced, and they took five, six hours. . . . It was so extensive. It just felt kind of weird.”

That was in February. In July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration paid a visit to Engelbrecht Manufacturing while Bryan, Catherine, and their children were out of town. The OSHA inspector talked with the managerial staff and employees, inspecting the premises minutely. But Bryan says the agent found only “little Mickey Mouse stuff, like, ‘You have safety glasses on, but not the right kind; the forklift has a seatbelt, but not the right kind.’” Yet Catherine and Bryan said the OSHA inspector complimented them on their tightly run shop and said she didn’t know why she had been sent to examine it.

Not long after, the tab arrived. OSHA was imposing $25,000 in fines on Engelbrecht Manufacturing. They eventually worked it down to $17,500, and Bryan says they may have tried to contest the fines to drive them even lower, but “we didn’t want to make any more waves, because we don’t know [how much further] OSHA could reach.”

There's also a word for the coordinated targeting of a political opposition group by four different arms of the government: conspiracy.

I can assure you that when the entire history of this administration is written, we will discover that Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett and/or David Axelrod instigated these illegal and un-American attacks.

It's time for a special prosecutor and, if the president won't begin a legitimate inquiry, one can assume he's guilty of coordinating the conspiracy.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: The Impeachment Option

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

The Impeachment Option: NRO
Within Range: Belmont Club
On #Benghazi, “What did Obama do, and when did he do it?”: LI

About those “doctored” Benghazi e-mails…: Jazz Shaw
Obama DOJ tracked Fox News reporter: Blaze
Sen. Cornyn blasts White House for 'culture of cover-ups, intimidation': Hill

The Liberal Faith in the Perfectibility of Politics: Elephant
Complaints of IRS targeting by religious groups on the rise: Hill
AG Harris Bans All New Semiautomatic Handguns in California: TAG

Obama’s Secret to Corruption: Never Appoint a Special Counsel: CFP
What did Hillary and Obama discuss at 10pm?: McCarthy
The Actual Issue on Benghazi?: Denninger

Economy

Multiculti U.: Mac Donald
Washington Hits the $16.7T Debt Ceiling with $300B in New Debt: Foundry
Senior Advisor to Obama: "The Law Is Irrelevant.": Ace

Scandal Central

Top Obama Official on IRS Scandal: “The Law Is Irrelevant”: USCFP
Two IRS offices targeted Hawaii GOP leader at the same time: DC
Yes, the IRS asked Pro-Life groups what their members prayed about: Daley Gator

Media

Great job by CBS News' Bob Schieffer: hammers Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer's evasive answers: NB
Homicide Rates Before Guns?: Extrano's Alley
Beck: Failure to Impeach Over IRS Scandal Means America 'Already Operating Under Tyranny': Clash

The Autocrat Accountants: Steyn
Obama’s tapped-out trust: Will
IRS Attacking Politically Active Veterans?: MrConservative

World

Obama Administration Behind Another Leak, Hanging Israel Out To Dry, Putting Them In Greater Danger: WZ
Al-Jazeera runs then deletes anti-Semitic screed by Columbia Univ. Prof. Joseph Massad: LI
2 Minn. women sentenced in al-Shabab terror case: PoliceOne

Cornucopia

If armed resistance to tyranny is 'un-American,' America has died: Examiner
PIC OF THE DAY: BRING A SPARE GUN…: MSW
Civil disobedience going mainstream: Countdown

Image: @DPhilipVeitch
Sponsored by: Audit THIS! Tea Party groups to protest at IRS offices nationwide on Tuesday

QOTD: “Why Is It You Apologize To Muslims and Lie To Americans?”

“Why is it that you use the IRS to silence political dissent and the DOJ to threaten the press?”

“Why is it that you mobilize the IRS to go after political enemies but you can’t mobilize troops to save American lives in Benghazi?” --Jeanine Pirro

Sunday, May 19, 2013

DAMNING: The Complete Benghazi Timeline Spreadsheet [Updated]

The complete Benghazi timeline, now augmented with information from eyewitness testimony before Congress, various leaks from the warring Obama/Clinton camps, Stephen Hayes, Sharyl Attkisson, and the House Oversight Committee [PDF], leads me to four inescapable conclusions.

It is now clear to me that:

a) Hillary Clinton lied to Congress.
b) Barack Obama went to sleep knowing that a U.S. Ambassador and other Americans were under terrorist attack.
c) Barack Obama awoke refreshed the next day to begin fundraising.
d) The entire Executive Branch lied repeatedly to the American people to save Obama's chances for reelection.

Could someone drag John Boehner out of whatever bar he's in, wake him up, and get him to name a Select Committee on Benghazi?

Related: OBAMA AIDE: It's Now "Offensive" to Ask What President Did for Eight Hours as Four Americans Fought and Died in #Benghazi

Nancy Pelosi's Greatest Hits

Guest post by Allan Erickson of Clash Daily

Actual quotations or paraphrases from former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA):

• Unemployment benefits are the best form of economic development.

• The IRS admission it illegally targeted conservative groups is the fault of the Supreme Court.

• ObamaCare is responsible for bringing down the deficit.

• We have to pass the bill (ObamaCare) to see what’s in it.

• The Tea Party is astroturf.

• Every week we don’t pass a Stimulus package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs.

• I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.

• We don’t have a spending problem.

• The CIA misleads us all the time.

• I didn’t know about torture. Bush tricked us. OK, I did know but I didn’t think it mattered because it worked, but now I’m definitely against it, although I didn’t know it was going on.

• Enforcing immigration laws is un-American.

Editor's postscript: And to think, Pelosi is what passes for an intellectual in the modern Democrat Party.

Hat tip: BadBlue.com/Guns.

OBAMA AIDE: It's Now "Offensive" to Ask What President Did for Eight Hours as Four Americans Fought and Died in #Benghazi

The White House appears to be in full cover-up mode over the President's missing eight hours as the Benghazi attack unfolded.

The latest evidence: Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer appeared on Fox News Sunday and made the astounding claim that asking questions about the President's actions during the terror attack "is offensive."

WALLACE: ...the ambassador goes missing, the first ambassador in more than 30 years is killed. Four americans, including the Ambassador, are killed. Dozens of Americans are in jeopardy. The president at 4:00 in the afternoon says to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to deploy forces. No forces are deployed. Where is he while all this is going on?

PFEIFFER: This has been tested to by --

WALLACE: Well, no. no one knows where he is, who was involved, the --

PFEIFFER: The suggestion of your question that somehow the president --

WALLACE: I just want to know the answer.

PFEIFFER: The assertions from Republicans that the President didn't take action is offensive. There's no evidence to support it.

WALLACE: I'm simply asking a question. Where was he? What did he do? How did he respond in who told him you can't deploy forces and what was he doing as president?

PFEIFFER: The president was basically uninterested in getting involved, because acknowledging any terror attack with a military response could have jeopardized his reelection. Remember, he'd just spent the entire convention claiming Al Qaeda is dead and GM is alive! He went to sleep, Chris, so he could get some rest for his trip to the Vegas fundraiser.

I made up that last snippet from Pfeiffer. Suffice it to say that's precisely what happened, though.

It wasn't offensive to question the President's actions when G. W. Bush served. Remember the incredible questions the media raised after the 9/11 attacks regarding Bush's seven minutes reading The Pet Goat to an elementary school class? How the media portrayed Bush as cowardly and clueless for taking seven whole minutes to respond?

Never mind that the Secret Service needed that infinitesimally small delay to prepare Air Force One to scramble as well as to scout evacuation routes to the airport.

When questioning the president's actions during a terror attack is portrayed by the White House as "offensive", you can be sure his actions (or, rather, his inaction) were egregious. And the act of suppressing questions from the press is itself offensive and indicative of a fascist mindset.

Tweet o' the Day: Flag You

Via Moe Lane by way of the invaluable BadBlue News.

Homeowners Association told man he couldn't the American flag in his yard. ►His Response: twitter.com/TweetSmarter/s…
— TweetSmarter (@TweetSmarter) May 19, 2013

BUSTED: The Complete IRS Scandal Timeline in Spreadsheet Format
[Updated]

Reading this timeline, I have come to three conclusions:

1. Steve Miller lied to Congress
2. Lois Lerner lied to Congress
3. Barack Obama lied to the American people

This scandal has the fingerprints of Axelrod, Jarrett and/or the Chicago Machine all over it.

This is fascism on the part of the IRS and the White House. It is fascism, straight up.

Or, as I call the IRS: Organizing for Revenue.

Related: DAMNING: The Complete Benghazi Timeline Spreadsheet - Updated With the Latest Testimony and Leaks.

Larwyn's Linx: Senator Ted Cruz leads call to abolish IRS in wake of its targeting scandal

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Nation

Sen. Ted Cruz leads call to abolish IRS in wake of targeting scandal: Twitchy
Obama and the ‘Official Truth’: Glick
Jack Lew learned of IRS probe in March: Politico

The Most-Corrupt Administration Ever?: Denninger
IRS accused of hiding existence of Tea Party targeting documents: WFB
Camp: IRS ‘Arrogance’ Came Across at Hearing: WFB

Obama Administration Talking Points Scrubbed "Jihadists": Power Line
Rep. Issa subpoenas Benghazi auditor Thomas Pickering: Hill
What did Hilary and Obama discuss at 10pm on 9/11/2012?: TAB

IRS Chief Apparently Lied During Testimony Yesterday: WZ
Friday Obama dump … “Me demand more taxes”: PW
Gang of Eight: Never Have So Few Told So Many Lies: RWN

Economy

Lew asks Congress for debt increase, says it’s 'not open to debate': Hill
Fifth IRS Agent In Cincinnati Office Tied To Tea Party Scandal: WZ
HHS: We Need Money To Implement Obamacare: RWN

Scandal Central

Highlights of Friday's IRS Hearing: Power Line
Obamacare Donor-Gate Scandal Looming Over White House: Shark Tank
Is the IRS scandal the worst political scandal in American history? I say “yes.”: Bookworm Room

Climate & Energy

EPA inspector general to look into FOIA scandal: DC
Three Cheers For Tesla: Power Line
Republicans see IRS scandal parallel in EPA info requests: Reuters

Media

Benghazi and Other ‘Concocted’ Scandals: RSM
NYT's Peters 'Cleans Up' Jonathan Weisman's Original Report on Friday's IRS Scandal Hearing: NB
Joe Scarborough, Piers Morgan: Obama Scandals Prove Gun Advocates Aren't Crazy: Breitbart

WaPo Mocks IRS With Tea Party Tax-exempt Form Demands: Produce a 'Non-Blurry Photo of a Yeti': NB
Judge Jeanine Pirro RIPS the Obama administration in another fantastic monologue: Scoop
Totalitarian Subversion- Can we Awaken from the Nightmare?: Loyal to Liberty

World

Did Huma Abedin ‘quietly’ step down as Deputy Chief of Staff in same month Bachmann letter sent to IG?: Shoebat
Obama Administration to Sign U.N. Arms Trade Treaty "In the Very Near Future": NRA-ILA
Biden Now Blamed in SEAL Team 6 Deaths: WND

Terrorists given new identities allowed to board commercial flights, watchdog finds: WaPo
Report: Syria prepared to fire missiles at Tel Aviv: ynet
Obama War Powers Under 2001 Law ‘Astoundingly Disturbing,’ Senators Say: NoisyRm

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Military 3-D Printers: Wired
Meet the career con man who pulled off a federal sting that forced Google to pay $500 million.: Wired
Google App Engine finally supports PHP, the language that runs 75% of the web: VenBeat

Cornucopia

WHAT THE GOP CAN LEARN FROM THE WWE (YES, THAT WWE): Brodigan
Addition in the Age of Obama (subtraction, not so much): MOTUS
The Republican Party’s History On Race: RWN

Image: Addition in the Age of Obama (subtraction, not so much)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Call John Boehner Now: We Demand a Select Committee

QOTD: "The absolute worst scandal that’s emerged lately, and the worst administration scandal in American history is the IRS scandal. Why? Because you, the People, became the targets of a comprehensive federal government effort to stifle dissent, one made using the government’s overwhelming and disproportionate policing and taxing powers.

All of the other scandals, going back to Andrew Johnson’s post-Civil War scandals, Warren G. Harding’s 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, Nixon’s Watergate, Reagan’s Iran-Contra, and Clinton’s Oval Office sexcapades have actually been narrowly focused acts of cronyism, garden-variety political chicanery, or personal failings. It’s been insider stuff.

The IRS scandal, by contrast, is a direct attack on the American people." --Bookworm Room