in the wrong era. Soundly refuting
liberals online since 2000. :)
| Fox News | Here We Go: Texas Republican Sen. Cruz eligible to be president should he decide to run |
1 |
| Jack Shafer | LeakGate: Why the underwear-bomber leak infuriated the Obama administration |
0 |
| Boston Globe | MA Sen: Markey’s aides bridle after Gomez calls him invisible |
0 |
| The Hill | Update: Question that revealed IRS scandal was planted, chief admits |
0 |
| AP | 0 |
Audacity of Truth
Marginalizing Terror:
"Why? Whether it’s al Qaeda Central, or two twisted, perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadists here in Boston. Why do they do what they do?”
VP Biden, speaking at the memorial service for slain MIT police offer Sean Collier - 4/24/2013
Oh, no. This won’t set off conservative and libertarian alarm bells at all.
**Posted by Phineas
“The State watches over you”
I mean, what’s so threatening about a biometric database of all adult Americans being in the immigration bill, citizen?
The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.
Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.
Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.
This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.
Emphasis added.
Nah, there are no 4th Amendment illegal search and privacy concerns here. Nothing to see, carry on. After all, wingnuts, you demanded greater security in the immigration bill and, well, here ya go! The government will make sure only bona fide Americans get jobs by keeping track of each and every one of us. And if they should find other uses for the information, well, that will be for the public good, too.
And you thought Person of Interest was just fiction.
If this Wired story is true, this provision is reason enough to kill the bill.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
Weekend Open Thread
Got some errand running to do, including finishing up my shopping for Mother’s Day. 
Supposed to be gorgeous here tomorrow, sunny and in the low 70s. Let’s hope that holds! Have a great day, y’all.
My Hawaiian Flamingo plant, still going strong after two weeks. : )
Feel Good story of the day: One World Trade Center makes it to 1776 feet (VIDEO)
To cheers from spectators and workers alike, construction crews set a silver spire atop New York City’s One World Trade Center on Friday to bring the structure to its full 1,776 height and cap an emotional 12-year effort to restore a key part of the city skyline shattered by the 9/11 terror attacks.
The 408-foot spire, which weighs 758 tons, includes a broadcast antenna and a light that will be visible from miles away to serve as a both a beacon for aircraft and a permanent signal of triumph over extremists who jolted the city and the country.
“This really is a symbolic moment because this building really represents the resiliency of this country,” Port Authority Vice Chair Scott Rechler told TODAY’s Matt Lauer, who was perched on the 104th floor to witness the process. “These people, the thousand men and women who have worked here tirelessly, really as a tribute for the people that perished on 9/11 right on this site.”
The needle will be held in place by a temporary structure until iron workers finish off the permanent base in the coming weeks.
The 1,776 feet — or 541 meters — is symbolic of the year 1776, when the U.S. declared its independence.
The building is rising at the northwest corner of the site where the twin towers were destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The area is well on its way to reconstruction with the 72-story Four World Trade Center and other buildings.
The tower is scheduled to open for business in 2014. Tenants include the magazine publisher Conde Nast, the government’s General Services Administration and Vantone Holdings China Center, which will provide business space for international companies.
The elegant spire gives the building the extra height needed to claim the status as the tallest structure in the U.S. and the third-tallest in the world, although building experts dispute whether the spire is actually an antenna — a crucial distinction in measuring the building’s height.
Here’s video of the flag-draped spire being hoisted into place:
Never forget.
IRS apology on targeting 75 Tea Party groups is NOT EVEN CLOSE to enough
I wish I could say I was shocked by this disturbing news (via) but I am most certainly not (bolded emphasis by me):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.
The agency — led at the time by a Bush administration appointee [note the AP's attempt at covering for the admin there - ST] — blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But that wasn’t good enough for Republicans in Congress, who are conducting several investigations and asked for more.
“I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
White House spokesman Jay Carney declared it was indeed inappropriate for the IRS to target tea party groups. But he brushed aside questions about whether the White House itself would investigate.
Instead, Carney said the administration expects a thorough investigation by the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration. The inspector general has been looking into the issue since last summer, and his report is expected to come out next week, the IG’s office said Friday.
[...]
Many conservative groups complained during the campaign that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.
The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members’ political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on politics.
“There’s absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people” who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
Absolute, total, and complete BULL SH*T. This was an ELECTION YEAR and groups hostile to the re-election of President Obama were TARGETED BY THE Internal Revenue Service. John Hinderaker at Power Line explains:
The IRS claims that “the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.” That last point is risible. Of course it was motivated by political bias. Ms. Lerner says further that “no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.” That, too, seems extremely doubtful. If I knew the IRS was auditing Tea Party groups, how likely is it that no senior agency officials had heard about it?
Congress should investigate this, obviously. By Congress, I mean the House of Representatives. There is zero chance of the Democratic Senate investigating anything related to the Obama administration. (See David Gelernter’s essay posted immediately below.) Come to think of it, this may be one more reason why Obama is so single-mindedly devoted to winning back the House in 2014: the way his administration’s scandals are multiplying, an all-Democrat Congress provides insurance against having to leave office via helicopter.
Yep. And not to freak y’all out even worse, but there’s also this from Professor William Jacobson:
Remember, the IRS is the Obamacare mandate enforcer. What level of confidence do you have as to fair enforcement, and that “low level” IRS employees will not misuse information gained in connection with assuring compliance with the health insurance requirements? (I’ve been warning about that since August 14, 2009, IRS The New Health Care Enforcer.)
Absolutely chilling.
BTW, thank Mark Levin for this issue getting sunlight to begin with:
Let several other points be noted, though. First, I think our friend Mark Levin merits a lot of the credit for forcing the apology; he was the main one who forced the issue, legally. It was his Landmark Legal Foundation that sent the letter that pressured the IRS into coming clean.
Sunlight is, of course, always the best disinfectant when it comes to lies and corruption – especially in government.
As I noted on Twitter, this has been a bad week for the Obama administration, but a good one for America. Phineas pointed out earlier, the administration’s web of lies on Benghazi is unraveling thanks to more than one or two in the media finally giving a rip, and now comes the forced admission by the IRS that opponents of this President were targeted for audits during a re-election year. More questions will have to be answered on both, and in the case of the IRS, we need to know who ordered the 75 groups to be targeted and why (even though we all know why), and hearings are already in the works. Bottom line: The truth about the corruptocrat liars in the White House – and the Chicago Way types who surround them in a protective cocoon can no longer be contained by the our celebrity President’s allies in the mainstream press.
It’s about damned time.
Shocker: Lying weasel Jay Carney caught lying like a weasel about #Benghazi
**Posted by Phineas
US Consulate, Benghazi
And I think the shocking thing is that it’s the MSM exposing him (emphases added):
When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story.
ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.
White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department. The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.
That would appear to directly contradict* what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points in November.
“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012. “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”
*(MSM-speak for “Jay Carney is a lying weasel.”)
We already know from The Weekly Standard that State and a failed fiction writer now working as an Obama national-security aide were heavily involved in “editing” the initial CIA talking points. This ABC report shows how many iterations they went through before the bowdlerized version was handed to Ambassador Rice for her role as designated mouthpiece the following Sunday. Then, when the talking points were shown to be a fiction, Carney went before the public to lie about their origins. The only question is was he knowingly lying, or was he played for a sap?
But, annoying as it is to have yet another example of the administration’s dishonesty over Benghazi (1) come out, the real story in my opinion here isn’t that a press secretary lied to cover his boss and his top aides. No, the real story here is that the MSM is finally getting interested in Benghazi, finally “uncovering” all these shocking revelations only after Obama has been safely reelected.
They’ve done their job, you see. They pushed Obama over the finish line twice, so now they can go back to pretending they’re objective journalists. There’s no need to “play Pravda” anymore, at least in this case. Now they can break news of things they could easily have discovered back in September, October, and November, except that it might have hurt Obama’s reelection chances.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad they’re finally doing their jobs. Benghazi is a huge scandal and the story has to be told. But don’t expect me to praise them for “holding the powerful accountable,” when their self-serving cynicism (2) is so dazzling.
RELATED: The Right Sphere reaches back in time to remind us that Carney’s boss was telling the same lies on a national stage just before the election.
Footnote:
(1) Remember, the administration knew what happened that night from their people on the ground. The jihadis themselves knew what happened; it was their operation. The only people being deceived here were us.
(2) There are a few exceptions, of course, but the corruption of the MSM as an institution is spread far and wide.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
The mystery of Obama and #Benghazi
**Posted by Phineas
US Consulate, Benghazi
In my last post, I focused on Hillary Clinton’s craven behavior, driven by her lust for the Oval Office. But, as I point out, that doesn’t let Obama off the hook. He is the President, he is the Commander in Chief, and yet when American diplomats were attacked that night, he apparently went to bed.
Andrew Malcolm has a great column at IBD blasting Obama. Here’s an excerpt, but read the whole thing:
Obama has had himself photographed firmly atop other national security events like the whacking of Osama bin Laden. The Democrat held a brief Rose Garden photo op on Benghazi the next morning before rushing off to fundraisers in Las Vegas. We know he and Clinton both blamed the offensive video for weeks after they knew that line was phony.
What we don’t know is where the hell was the commander-in-chief all-night while two former SEALs, a communications specialist and the first U.S. ambassador in three decades were being murdered on-duty six time zones away.
We do know that then Secy. of Defense Leon Panetta claims Obama instructed him in the early evening of 9/11 to do everything necessary to protect Americans and embassies abroad.
We also know now that “everything” wasn’t really anything at all.
But I’m sure he got a good night’s sleep.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
#Benghazi: Hearings show Hillary Clinton really is “Lady Macbeth.”
**Posted by Phineas
“Banquo’s blood”
I’ve joked since the Clintons first came on the national scene that Hillary was a modern-day “Lady Macbeth,” willing to do anything and put up with anything to get power and keep it. Think about it: why else would someone suffer repeated public humiliations from a serial-philanderer husband, one widely reputed to be a rapist? Because she wants power, and needed Bill to have a shot at her ultimate goal — becoming president, herself.
That was the reason for her Senate “career.” Not to serve and represent the people of New York (where, in fact, she was a carpetbagger), but to give her a national stage from which she could launch a presidential bid in 2004 or 2008, widely expected to be an anointing… until a certain young, male, charismatic senator came along and snatched the crown –her crown!– from her. And there she was again, left making a deal with a powerful man to keep open the road to her dreams. I have no proof, of course, just a gut feeling based on watching Hillary over the course of 20 years, but I think the deal went something like this: In return for ending her primary battle against Obama and delivering her supporters’ votes, she received a plum cabinet post with global exposure and the unofficial title of “heir apparent.” (Really, no one other than Joe takes Joe’s own ambitions seriously.) The deal struck, all was set. Just a few more years and her heart’s desire would be hers.
Then came Benghazi, the truth of which had to be covered up, lest it expose her incompetence and ruin her last chance to be president.
But the ghosts of the men who died that night would not stay quiet, and questions of “why” ate at the consciences of three good Americans who would no longer suffer the truth be kept silent, and so came forward yesterday to tell the nation what they knew and saw and did.
And their testimony condemns Hillary Clinton.
Most damning was the testimony of Gregory Hicks, the Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya at the time of the attack, who became our top diplomat there when Ambassador Stephens was killed. Among other things, he attested under oath to the following:
- That there was no demonstration in Benghazi. In two conversations with the Ambassador, demonstrations were never mentioned. In fact, Stephens’ last words to Hicks were “We’re under attack!” The embassy knew that night from Ansar al-Sharia’s Twitter feed that they were taking responsibility for the attack.
- That the YouTube video Clinton and the Obama administration desperately tried to blame for the disaster meant nothing in Libya.
- That he himself briefed Clinton herself over the phone at 2 AM Libyan time (8 PM EST), giving her a full update on the situation. Again, no mention of a video, no mention of a demonstration.
And yet, two hours later, Clinton was blaming the video. Days later, standing over the coffins of the four killed in Benghazi, she told the father of one that they would “get the guy” who made that video. CIA analysis was scrubbed at State Department behest to remove references to terrorism. Our UN ambassador went on five different talk shows the following Sunday, five days later, and blamed the video. The President of the United States, himself, stood before the United Nations General Assembly and proclaimed the video to be the culprit.
Yet Hillary knew the truth the night it all happened. And she lied. She lied not only to the nation, not only to Congress, but to the father of Ty Woods, one of the retired Navy SEALs who died that night while trying to save American lives.
While she was trying to save her political career.
I’m not excusing anyone in the upper reaches of the administration. Not Susan Rice, not Leon Panetta, not Jay Carney, and certainly not Barack Obama. They all had to have known; they all had their own arses to cover, or those of their patrons. (See for example Bryan Preston’s theory.)
But it was Hillary Clinton who knew from the start, and hers were the policies that lead to inadequate security in Benghazi. Those were her personnel in Libya, and hers was the responsibility.
But “The Deal” had been made in 2008, and it had to be preserved. Thus a desperate lie about a video was born and a pathetic little videographer was made the scapegoat, and the First Amendment was crushed.
All to keep clear Hillary Clinton’s path to the throne she knew should be hers:
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’
–Lady Macbeth, “Macbeth,” Act I, scene v
What a pathetic, disgusting creature she is.
Afterthought: This isn’t over. Unanswered are questions about what other actors that night did then and in the days after, especially the President. Also, while Mr. Hicks testified that a stand-down order did come to the second relief team, he does not know who was on the phone with the Lieutenant Colonel in charge. The “chain” of that order needs to be made clear. Clinton herself should be hauled before the committee again, as should Susan Rice, Leon Panetta, and Cheryl Mills, Hillary’s chief of staff and “fixer” at the time. And anyone else in that circle who was in a position to know. Somewhere in that rats’ nest is a new John Dean, waiting to talk.
RELATED:
Roger L. Simon compares Hillary to the Medicis.
“Seven Things We Learned From The Benghazi Whistle-Blower Hearings.” Must reading.
A good ABC News article on the Benghazi hearing.
Eli Lake on “They knew it was terrorism.”
One of the Benghazi whistle-blowers was demoted for asking too many questions.
Why was State’s FEST team not deployed?
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
ST in the Media: ST on The405Radio.com w/ @BiasedGirl and @Cameron_Gray
Meant to post about this in advance earlier tonight but I’m afraid nursing my headache was top priority so I would be in good enough condition to be on the show. 
My friend and Direct Snap show hostess Mickey White aka @BiasedGirl had yours truly on the 405 Radio along with NRA News producer/reporter/host @Cameron_Gray talking about a multitude of hot topics, including today’s Benghazi hearings, the Gosnell trial, War on Women stuff, and Mark Sanford’s election win last night. It was a treat to be on with both of them and I enjoyed the healthy discussion.
Here’s the direct link to the podcast page in case the below embed link doesn’t work.
My part starts at about half an hour in, but I hope you’ll listen to the whole thing. Great show!
#SC01 Open Thread: Mark Sanford / Elizabeth Colbert Busch special election (UPDATE: SANFORD WINS, LEFT FLIPS)
From SC’s “The State” publication comes the most interesting story today I’ve seen on this special election: ‘Sanford: I won’t run for office again if I lose’. As my friend Leslie B. would say, hmm and hmmm:
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Former Gov. Mark Sanford, looking for redemption in a political career that was sidelined by scandal, said Tuesday’s race for the vacant South Carolina congressional seat he once held for three terms will be his last if he loses to Elizabeth Colbert Busch.
“I think you can go back in and you can ask for a second chance in a political sense once,” he said Tuesday after voting in the special election. “I’ve done that, and we’ll see what the voters say.”
He faces Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert, and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt in the race for the 1st District congressional seat.
The former governor, once mentioned as a potential GOP presidential contender, also said Tuesday that he is tired but cautiously optimistic as one of the more unusual campaigns in a state known for rough-and-tumble politics draws to a close.
There’s no direct quote in there on Sanford definitively saying he wouldn’t run again if he lost, but NBC’s Frank Thorp got one that was pretty close:
Mark Sanford asked if this would be his last race if he lost: “Yea, I think so.” #SC01
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorpNBC) May 7, 2013
Meanwhile, tweets of the day on Sanford’s alleged pledge:
@sistertoldjah Maybe he should have waited for the polls to close to offer that statement ….
— EdMorrissey (@EdMorrissey) May 7, 2013
@sistertoldjah will he promise not to run for office again if he wins? #caring
— Dave (@bigdave0908) May 7, 2013
You can view election results as they come in here (alternative link). Interestingly enough, Colbert Busch’s name is on the ballot twice. Anyone out there know why?
Elizabeth Colbert Busch and Marck Sanford at their only debate. Photo credit: Richard Ellis/Getty Images
Update: Here’s a bit of history on this seat (hat tip: @TVAmy).
Wednesday Update: Sanford won last night in a landslide, and the left – predictably – flipped out. LOLOL.
