Is The USA Now A Soft Tyranny? Milton Friedman – Freedom vs Tyranny & Misery

Woodward: Don’t dismiss Benghazi as a scandal

May 17, 2013
hotair.com

We heard from one half of the Watergate-exposing journalistic duo this week on the AP scandal, and now the other half weighs in on the supposedly waning Benghazi debate. The White House released 100 pages of e-mails that went around the administration on 9/14 — but oddly not on 9/12 or 9/13 — less than an hour before Barack Obama gave a speech on the IRS scandal and pushed the e-mails back into the background. Bob Woodward tells Morning Joe that they won’t stay in the background, because it shows an exercise by the White House to keep people from learning the truth about the terrorist attack … and that looks mighty familiar to him: Read More

Ryan’s Tense Exchange with IRS Head on Why He Withheld Targeting Info in July Despite Knowing About It

May 17, 2013

An Even Bigger Scandal: Why Are IRS Audits Being Used To Punish Obama’s Political Enemies?

May 16, 2013
theeconomiccollapseblog.com
By Michael Snyder

"Unfortunately, thanks to new "Big Brother" technology that the IRS has been implementing, pretty soon there will be very little about us that the IRS does not know."

Is it right for Barack Obama to use IRS audits to punish his political enemies? As crazy as that sounds, there is a mounting body of evidence that indicates that this is actually happening. And if this can be proven, it is a much, much larger scandal than the IRS giving "extra scrutiny" to the applications of conservative non-profit groups. Let me be clear - if Barack Obama has been using IRS audits to punish his political enemies, that is an impeachable offense. Of all of the other scandals that are out there right now, this is the one that could actually bring down the presidency of Barack Obama. That is how serious this is. As you will read about below, there is a huge amount of circumstantial evidence that political enemies of Barack Obama have been singled out for IRS audits. We need to find out who initiated these audits. Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent, this kind of abuse of government power should sicken and horrify you. If it can be proven that Barack Obama has been using IRS audits to attack his enemies, every single U.S. citizen should be calling for him to resign. This is something that is beyond politics - this is a direct threat to the very integrity of our system.

The recent revelation that the IRS has been specifically targeting patriot groups and Tea Party organizations for "extra scrutiny" has opened up the floodgates. In recent days, a large number of highly respected people have come forward claiming that they were the subject of IRS audits that were politically motivated.

For example, Larry Conners, a respected local news anchor at KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, Missouri says that he was hit with an IRS audit almost immediately after he conducted an interview with Barack Obama in April 2012... Read More

The Mainstream Media Obama Psychodrama

May 16, 2013
americanthinker.com
By Thomas Lifton

Do not underestimate the psychological shock currently being processed by many members of the mainstream media and the low-to-medium information voters who rely on them for political analysis. To them, the election and re-election of Barack Obama, the first African American to hold the office of President of the United States, was a cause, a fulfillment of heartfelt dreams.

With his Ivy League pedigree and ability to deliver a speech, Obama charmed the liberal media folk into believing that he was the one they had been waiting for, an inspiring black man on a white horse who could heal our lingering racial wounds, if only given the chance. They hoped he could change an America their progressive belief system held to be flawed by racism, history, and greedy businessmen, and by helping him do so, they too could nudge history along in a positive direction. Perhaps in their own minds making up for whatever personal flaws or unfair advantages they might have possessed along their way to the top of the media food chain. Everyone wants to believe he or she is a good person, doing good things in the overall scheme of things, after all.

So they invested themselves in making the dream come true, attaching their self-concept to his cause. This is why information that was dissonant tended to evoke a rather widespread hostile reaction. Only racists and birthers could doubt any of the official Obama narrative. The Tea Party became an object of hatred, slander, and even physical attacks when it first appeared and threatened the Great Obama Project. When the tea partiers inflicted a serious blow to the political standing of Obama and the Democrats in the 2010 election, taking over the House, they became an obstacle to be removed.

People react with discomfort and hostility when their self-concept, their source of self-esteem, is threatened. It is subconsciously received as a challenge to one's status as a good person.

Three serial shocks (and their continuing aftershocks) are sufficiently grave to produce a form of trauma in those who hitched their hearts to Obama:

1. Facing proof from one of their own that Obama and his administration lied and then continued to lie to the faces of the White House Press Corps through Jay Carney about Benghazi casts serious doubt on other claims of his they have supported and defended;

2. Continuing revelations of the IRS's misbehavior toward the hated tea partiers and conservatives calls into question which side are the good guys (see point 1);


3. And finally the revelation that all their loyalty bought them no consideration at all when it came to secretly grabbing records of their communications in AP, tells them loyalty is one way street with this guy and his crowd.

The big question now is how many of the liberal media will return to form as this process unfolds itself with more whistleblowers emerging, and with documents subpoenaed and witnesses put under oath over the coming months. To be sure some already have reverted to their default position of excuse-making support, floating rationalizations to minimize the damage: Obama is too remote and disconnected (even, it may even be intimated as a fallback concession, a bit lazy what with all that golf and partying) to have actively instigated these shocks.

This would be the face-saving option for both Obama and the journalists who wish to remain invested in his cause, albeit at lower intensity now that they have conceded incompetence and perhaps sloth. He has disappointed them a little, but any overestimation they may have engaged in was out of the best of motives.

But others will take a different tack. Having devoted five plus years to the narrative of Obama the good, they will be ready to follow a new story line now, because it has the ultimate virtue in the news business: it is new. If the special committees which will investigate the scandals do their job, there will many veins to mine in uncovering and telling the stories of wrongdoing. In the 1970s, nobody made a good career move defending the Nixon administration's use of the IRS against its opponents, after all.

Professor Charles Lipson of the University of Chicago shared with me his thoughts on how those in the journalistic world who think in terms of institutional survival might understand the situation they face:

How did the reporters keep from getting killed when they did stories on the Mafia in the bad old days? Answer: They had what international-relations specialists call "Second-strike capability," which served as an effective deterrent. Concretely, the Mafia knew that any strike against a reporter would lead to a devastating response, namely a whole slew of stories by newspapers on all aspects of the Mafia's local business. If a reporter was killed, all the newspapers would assign a slew of reporters to investigate and publish everything they could about the whole Mafia organization. That implicit threat kept reporters safe. In Chicago, Jake Lingle was the only reporter ever killed by the Outfit, as our Mafia is called, but it turned out that he was a Mafioso himself. (It happened in 1930, during the Capone era.)

Following this line of reasoning, the AP's best response to the DOJ's intrusion is to assign as many investigative reporters as they can to all aspects of DOJ's activities, including Fast and Furious, the Minnesota scandal involving Tom Perez, Eric Holder's life history (including an armed take-over at Columbia during his college years), and everything else they can think of. That should even-up the scales the next time the DOJ or other government agencies think about overstepping their bounds.

It might also get the AP back in the habit of actually investigating an incumbent administration that is not Republican.

The mainstream media psychodrama that is about to unfold before us promises to be amusing and even gratifying or those of us who have been frustrated for years by the ability of the Obama organization to make its storylines stick in the face of contrary data. No doubt there will be a certain amount of "I told you so" gloating. But we should also be prepared to welcome and encourage those former inhabitants of the media plantation who venture out into the intoxicating realm of uncovering the deceptions that enabled a program to fundamentally change America to get as far as it has.

If enough members of the media see the light and join in the discovery of all the deceptions proffered over the last few years, we may see the partisan divide actually diminish, as common revulsion at the dishonesty and abuses brings people together. In a way that he never anticipated, Barack Obama finally may become what he promised to be: a uniter not a divider.

The Chicago Way: Bring out the baseball bats...Intim-O-Gate...

May 15, 2013
glennbeck.com

The Chicago Way: Bring out the baseball bats

Also Intim-O-Gate

Lions And Tigers And Terrorists, Oh My!

  This is an excellent article



May 15, 2013
alt-market.com
By Brandon Smith

The debate over what actions actually constitute “terrorism,” I believe, will become one of the defining ideological battles of our era. Terrorism is not a word often used by common people to describe aberrant behaviors or dastardly deeds; however, it is used by governments around the world to label and marginalize political enemies. That is to say, it is the government that normally decides who is a “terrorist” and who is a mere “criminal,” the assertion being that one is clearly far worse than the other.

The terrorist label elicits emotional firestorms and fearful brain-quakes in the minds of the masses. It causes the ignorant and unaware to abandon principles they would normally apply to any other malicious enterprise. They begin to reason that a criminal should be afforded justice, while a terrorist should be afforded only vengeance, even though the act of branding a person a “terrorist” is often completely arbitrary. This vengeance is usually pursued by any means. Thus, the terrorist moniker becomes a rationalization for every vicious and inhuman policy of the establishment, as well as for the citizenry.

Dishonorable and foolish people claim the existence of terrorism essentially gives license for the rest of us to become criminal, willfully trampling on individuals’ rights to privacy, property, free speech, due process, civic participation, etc. Mass criminality against the individual in the name of social safety is the glue that holds together all tyrannical systems, triggering a catastrophic cycle of moral relativism that eventually bleeds a culture dry. Read More

The Still-Forgotten Obama Lie

May 15, 2013
americanthinker.com
By Nick Chase

"Benghazi-gate," "IRS-gate," "AP-gate" -- it would seem the intrepid investigators in the dinosaur media, in an effort to repair their shredded reputations, are finally catching up to the truths known months or years ago to those of us who get our news from the internet.

IRS targeting "patriots"? Not a problem for the dinosaurs; those racist lovers of the Constitution deserved it. Hillary, Susan, and crew covering up the Benghazi terrorist attack with a bald-faced lie about a video trailer? The dinosaurs had no problem swallowing this lie until the whistleblowers made it apparent what fools they were for doing so. Then they had to quickly regroup. But the Obama administration sucking their vitals from the Obama-friendly Associated Press? Well, that hurts them directly. They're under attack! Unforgivable!

Hey, dinosaurs, now that we have your attention, we have a hot tip for you: there's one big Obama lie that's two years old that you completely missed. In fact, you suppressed the truth. And you don't have to dig very hard to find this lie; it can still be downloaded at any time from whitehouse.gov for your own inspection and analysis. It's the Obama long-form "birth certificate" forgery.

That this digital document is a forgery has been proved beyond question. Various experts have proved its fakery on different levels: Read More

The same IRS that targeted conservative groups for punitive audits will be demanding your private health insurance records in January

May 14, 2013
naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) By now, everyone is aware that the IRS has been caught red-handed conducting politically-motivated audits of conservative non-profit groups. Non-profits that taught the Constitution or even mildly criticized the federal government were targeted for special scrutiny, and the IRS demanded they turn over names of all their donors and volunteers.

"The IRS came under fire on Friday when its Office of Inspector General released a draft of an investigative timeline showing that the agency had played political favorites with nonprofit groups seeking tax-exempt status," reports the Daily Mail.

"In 2010, according to that investigation, the Cincinnati-based IRS office responsible for vetting tax-exempt applications began targeting groups with 'Tea Party or similar' words in their names -- including words like 'patriots' and '9/12' -- for tighter scrutiny."

The Obama administration, in other words, has been using the IRS as a political weapon to silence dissent and threaten political enemies.

"This is obviously disturbing," said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Committee, in a USA Today article. "Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied to the American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeted conservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should take notice that top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don't have to answer to anyone."

Documents reveal the IRS scheme stretched all the way to Washington D.C. IRS offices. Read More

How Many Scandals Will It Take To Oust Obama?

May 14, 2013
godfatherpolitics.com

There is no doubt in my mind that Barack Hussein Obama is the most corrupt president that we have ever had. I said it numerous times and I’ll say it again, the man is worse than any leader of organized crime in the history of the United States. I don’t understand is why Congress has not done something to hold him accountable for his many crimes.

When Richard Nixon was president it only took one scandal to force him to resign the presidency. When it became apparent that he had lied to the American people, in his attempts to cover up the Watergate scandal, it left Nixon no alternative but to leave office.

Nearly 40 years later we have a president who is facing his third and fourth scandals and yet he is hanging on to the presidency like an alligator hangs on to its prey. Read More

Beck’s Passionate Break Down of the IRS ‘Inquisition’ of Conservative Groups — and What’s Coming Next in the Case

May 13, 2013
theblaze.com

Benghazi, IRS Create Perfect Storm Threatening Obama's Credibility

May 13, 2013
nationaljournal.com
By Ron Fournier

When two storms collide, the weather gets hairy. For President Obama, the IRS and Benghazi stories converged this weekend for a self-inflicted tempest that threatens his credibility.

His people can’t get their stories straight.

Internal Revenue Service officials denied for months the targeting of conservative political groups for reviews of their tax exempt status. With investigators poised to expose the chilling operation, a high-ranking IRS official acknowledged it late last week and apologized for it.

The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. That appears to be untrue. The Associated Press reported Saturday that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report.

Politicizing the IRS threatens the integrity of an agency entrusted with Americans' secrets and the taxes that fund government. It also fuels the paranoia of conspiracy theorists. Read More

Fabrication power to the People! Why no government can stop the 3D printing revolution

Friday, May 10, 2013
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of  NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) The 3D printing revolution has arrived, and it's freaking out governments around the world because distributed, non-centralized fabrication technology threatens their monopolistic controls over physical objects. For a few thousand dollars, anyone can purchase a 3D printer (an "additive" desktop fabrication device) and print out physical objects using ABS plastic. (See list of manufacturers, below.) 3D plans are freely available to download online, and the printers are on the verge of flooding into the marketplace with a wide range of affordable, easy to use models from a large number of manufacturers.

Being able to print your own objects sounds amazing to the average citizen. Need a hose mender for your garden hose? Don't drive to Home Depot to get it -- just print it! Need a replacement part for your child's toy? Just design it in 3D software and print it! Any object you can imagine can be printed in ABS plastic, including complex gears and objects with intricate details. Many printers can print in multiple colors, too. Read More

It's the character, stupid

May 11, 2013
americanthinker.com
Thomas Lifson

Mark Steyn has a magnificent column today on the Benghazi Lie. He directs our focus to an issue more important than policy" character. The Benghazi episode reveals what he later characterizes as "depravity." With his trademark incisiveness and wit, he eviscerates the behavior of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The entire column demands to be read, but here is one of many excellent examples: Read More

The Enemy from Within and the Enemy from Without

May 11, 2013
americanthinker.com
By William J. Meisler

"For Westerners to think that what the West does will matter with regard to the necessary internal reformation of Islam represents intense narcissism and arrogance."

In 1453, with the Turks literally on the verge of storming the once-impregnable walls of Constantinople, the Byzantine Greeks persistently devoted their energies to their longstanding passion for arguing over matters of religious minutiae among themselves rather than attending sufficiently to the catastrophe at hand. Even if by that date the final fate of the Byzantine Empire had already been sealed, it is nevertheless marvelous to behold how the Byzantines could not stop themselves from indulging in their customary habits of bitter religious disputation even as the Turk was poised to engulf them forever.

In a similar vein, the political histories of both Ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy are full of examples of factions in a given city regularly allying themselves with the traditional enemies of that city in order to achieve or maintain their own power in their own city.

The dynamic of the whole process of such internal disintegration resulting from intense domestic political rivalry can be said to revolve around a fatal combination of the principles of "divide and conquer" from without and "a house divided against itself cannot stand" from within, with that inevitably present taskmaster the ego blinding the judgment and driving the actions of the ill-fated players involved. Read More