The Spectacle Blog

The IRS Scandal: It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature

Mark Meckler — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:34:00 -0400

A 74,000-page tax code that no American citizen can possibly know or understand is the basis for our federal system of taxation. The current IRS scandal is not a bug in the system. Rather, this kind of behavior is a feature, long prized by the Ruling Elite in Washington, D.C. After all, what are the IRS and its byzantine set of laws, rules, and regulations if not instruments of political discrimination and thuggery? They are consistently used by the Ruling Elite to hand out favors to its friends, and punishment to its enemies. This is not a failure, glitch or aberration in the system. This is the system.

The historical documentation is deep and wide. According to James Bovard, writing May 14, 2013 in the Wall Street Journal:

Many Republicans are enraged over revelations in recent days that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative nonprofit groups with a campaign of audits and harassment. But of all the troubles now dogging the Obama administration…the IRS episode, however alarming, is also the least surprising. As David Burnham noted in “A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power” (1990), “In almost every administration since the IRS’s inception the information and power of the tax agency have been mobilized for explicitly political purposes.”

And unfortunately, despite our widespread outrage, history does not provide a blueprint for a hopeful outcome of investigation and reform. Bovard continues in the WSJ:

The IRS has usually done an excellent job of stifling investigations of its practices. A 1991 survey of 800 IRS executives and managers by the nonprofit Josephson Institute of Ethics revealed that three out of four respondents felt entitled to deceive or lie when testifying before a congressional committee.

There are those today who are calling for jail time for IRS personnel engaged in the current scandal. Yet I will venture a guess that those front-line employees engaged in the discriminatory activities currently exposed, and those surely yet to be revealed, were acting at the direction of their superiors, and were simply doing their jobs. While the thought may be shocking to us, it shouldn’t surprise us. This is how the IRS operates on a daily basis.

The IRS is the most powerful agency of the federal government, operating outside the bounds of law imposed on the rest of our society. More powerful than the president, they can seize your assets, including the direct withdrawal of money from your bank account, without a court order or any other type of supervision. This is not a mistake. They operate without constraint because Congress has set them up this way. This is virtually absolute power, and you know the truism about absolute power.

The type of abuse we are seeing is the routine business of the IRS—creating misery for innocent people, demanding money, threatening, seizing assets: it’s all in a day’s work for the IRS. Asking ridiculous, intrusive, offensive questions to a group applying for a non-profit status—how is that so terrible compared with the day-to day-fear and abuse imposed by the IRS on a largely defenseless American public?

As for silencing critics, many business people have avoided politics for decades, or simply paid homage to the Ruling Elite via political donations, out of fear of the IRS. It’s a part of our political culture. And it is part of the purpose of the IRS, long supported by a bipartisan consensus of the Ruling Elite.

While I’m all for a full and deep investigation, unfortunately, based on the history of such inquiries, I remain skeptical that we will get it. And I think it may miss the point anyway. I’m in favor of a much deeper look at the IRS.

Really, now is a perfect time for a complete examination of the IRS’s role in America. We ought to have the full discussion, including the idea of eliminating the scourge of the IRS completely, and pushing taxation authority back to the states, where it belong, and where the instruments of enforcement are more easily controlled by the people they are supposed to “serve.” After all, as Daniel Webster said arguing before the Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy,” 17 U.S. 327 (1819).

Isn’t it time we returned to the liberty that was bequeathed to us by the Founders? And isn’t the IRS, as designed, antithetical to that liberty?

Alan O’Day, R.I.P.

Aaron Goldstein — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:26:00 -0400

Singer-songwriter Alan O’Day passed away on Friday of cancer. He was 72.

O’Day is best known for his number one hit “Undercover Angel” which topped the charts in 1977.

Prior to that, O’Day had written songs for other artists most notably “Angie Baby” for Helen Reddy which number one in 1974 as well as co-writing The Righteous Brothers’ final hit “Rock n’ Roll Heaven”.

O’Day never replicated the success of “Undercover Angel” and spent the rest of his career writing music for TV programs such as Muppet Babies and National Geographic’s Really Wild Animals.

Here is O’Day discussing what inspired him towards songwriting and his subsequent career in the music business. I believe this is the last interview he ever did.

Artur Davis Says Scandals Are Real

Quin Hillyer — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:15:00 -0400

As I describe at CFIF, Artur Davis has identified some of the important meanings of the triple-scandals engulfing the Obama administration. He blitzes what he calls “Obama’s Weak ‘I’m No Nixon’ Defense.” He correctly identifies the administration’s lack of accountability — which is actually its defense against accusations that its conduct has been even more nefarious.

Please do read my analysis of his analysis — and of course, read his original analysis, too. This former congressman is, as usual, very astute.

Good New Book: ‘Precipice’

Quin Hillyer — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:07:00 -0400

I would not, could not pretend to do an unbiased job of a full, official review of a new novel by a close cousin. I do, however, feel comfortable doing at least this blog post recommending Precipice, a thriller by my first cousin Leland Davis, who is a well-known extreme kayaker, river guide, and publisher of detailed river descriptions for paddlers. I recommend it not because he’s my cousin, but because it’s a heck of a fun read.

The premise is this: A team of former Navy SEALS engages expert kayaker Chip Wilson to teach them advanced paddling skills, in preparation for a mission to take out a Mexican drug lord. Wilson gets sucked in to something much bigger, and more dangerous, than he imagined — something that takes the story through the halls of Congress and into all sorts of unexpected twists and turns.

Now I can say I didn’t like all the plot developments. But it’s a tale told with verve and excellent pacing — one during which, several times, I just couldn’t put the book down when I had planned to (in other words, staying up to read it into later hours than I intended).

The prose, for a thriller, is excellent — muscular, streamlined without being thin, and descriptive enough to give a very solid sense of scene without obtrusively interfering with the forward momentum of the action.

Example:

Back in his boat, Chip slid into the water and peeled gracefully into the flow. He lined up for the gut of the falls, leaned forward, and savored the exhilarating feeling as the front end of the boat dropped. His view swung wildly until the tip of his kayak lined up like a gun sight on the point where the falling water exploded into the pool below. He moved his paddle off to the side so it wouldn’t break over this chest or crush his nose on impact and turned his head sideways at the last moment to lead with the crown of his helmet, which crashed into the foamy water a fraction of a second behind the tip of his boat.

Precipice left me hoping that Leland will write another novel. Spectator readers: Order it, and see for yourselves.

The Spectator’s Spectacular: Most Read Stories, May 12-May 19

Patrick Ryan — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:41:00 -0400

1. Special Report: The Liberal Union Behind the IRS by Jeffrey Lord

Obama, IG Report refuse to touch powerful Treasury Employees Union headed by ex-IRS agent.

2. The Nation’s Pulse: My Generation’s Disease by Benjamin Brophy

Millennials are going out of their way to deserve their sad fate.

3. Special Report: Not Ready for Primetime Players by Daniel J. Flynn

Why is television canceling its homosexual shows?

4. Special Report: Obamacare Implodes by Peter Ferrara

Health savings accounts are the solution, along with a dose of impeachment.

5. A Further Perspective: What Is It About Benghazi? by Andrew B. Wilson

… that liberals can’t or won’t understand?

Elijah Harper, R.I.P.

Aaron Goldstein — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:07:00 -0400

Former Canadian politician and First Nations band chief Elijah Harper passed away yesterday of heart failure. He was 64.

A Cree Indian, Harper was born on the Red Sucker Lake Reserve in Northern Manitoba. At the age of 29, Harper became the reserve’s chief.

In 1981, Harper became the first Aboriginal elected to the Manitoba legislature under the NDP banner. The NDP under Howard Pawley unseated the Tory government of Sterling Lyon in that election. Pawley elevated Harper to his cabinet after the NDP’s re-election in 1986. Harper left cabinet the following year following a DUI incident but was re-appointed before the end of 1987. The Tories regained power in Manitoba in 1988 relegating Harper to the opposition benches.

But it was as a member of the opposition where Harper would wield his power. That power would be shortlived but for two weeks in June 1990, Harper was the most powerful man in Canada as he singlehandedly blocked the implementation of the Meech Lake Accord.

Three years earlier, Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the ten provincial Premiers drew up a constitutional reform package that would bring Quebec into Canada’s constitution which had been brought into being in 1982 without Quebec’s signature. These reforms were known as the Meech Lake Accord and were to be ratified by the Canada’s Parliament and the ten provincial legislatures. This had to be done by June 23, 1990.

Manitoba was the only province that had not ratified the Meech Lake Accord. Newfoundland had earlier approved the accord but then rescinded their approval. The Liberal government of Clyde Wells thought Meech gave Quebec special status at the expense of the other provinces.

As for Harper, his objection to Meech Lake was that it excluded Aboriginals from the constitutional process altogether. Armed with only a feather, Harper utilized a parliamentary procedural tactic and would not give his consent for the Manitoba legislature to debate the Meech Lake Accord. Debate in the legislature requires unaminous consent. June 23, 1990 came and went. Manitoba did not ratify Meech and Meech Lake was dead.

For his part, Mulroney pinned the blame of Meech’s defeat on Wells because he had promised to hold another vote in the Newfoundland House of Assembly but cancelled the vote at the last minute. It would not have mattered if Wells had held the vote, Meech was dead the moment Harper said no. However, it would not have been politically viable to expend his wrath on the soft spoken Harper.

In 1993, Harper moved from provincial to federal politics winning a seat in the House of Commons as a Liberal, defeating New Democrat Rod Murphy during Jean Chretien’s sweep to power. This alienated Harper’s one time allies in the NDP. Yet the Liberals didn’t embrace Harper either especially the Quebec caucus who reviled him. Harper was relegated to the backbenches and was defeated in the 1997 federal election by Bev Desjarlais of the NDP. Although an admired figure in most of Canada, Harper would never regain the level of influence he had in those two weeks 23 years ago.

A made for TV film aired titled Elijah aired in Canada in 2007.

If Only the Tsar Knew!

F.H. Buckley — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:14:00 -0400

One almost despairs when reading people’s comments about the White House scandals. The obvious take-away is that the state is too powerful, and in particular the Office of the President. But that’s not what people are saying. Instead, they’re saying that the problem is that the president is too weak. He’s Chance the Gardener. He votes present. He lets subordinates run the show.

It’s what they used to say in Tsarist Russia. It’s true that the Governor is a crook. The tax collector is a rogue. The minister is evil. “If only the Tsar knew!”

Low-Level IRS Staffer: No, We Didn’t Mastermind This Entire Thing

Matt Purple — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:48:00 -0400

We already knew the government’s excuse for the IRS scandal—that it was a couple of staffers gone rogue at the Cincinatti office—was absurd. Now one of the those Cincinatti employees, speaking anonymously to the Washington Post, has confirmed it:

“We’re not political,’’ said one determinations staffer in khakis as he left work late Tuesday afternoon. “We people on the local level are doing what we are supposed to do. . . . That’s why there are so many people here who are flustered. Everything comes from the top. We don’t have any authority to make those decisions without someone signing off on them. There has to be a directive.”

The staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that the determinations unit is competent and without bias, and that it grouped together conservative applications “for consistency’s sake” — so one application did not sail through while a similar one was held up in review. This consistency is paramount in the review of all applications, according to Ronald Ran, an estate-tax lawyer who worked for 37 years in the IRS’s Cincinnati office.

“You’re not going to have a bunch of flaming liberals in the exempt-organizations department looking for conservative applications,” he says.

Pretend for a second that you’re an IRS career staffer, and also happen to be a raging socialist who despises the Tea Party. Are you really going to risk your well-being and start a sprawling, surreptitious operation to stall the applications of conservative non-profits? It’s a ludicrous notion, and one that seems impossible when you consider the IRS’s enormous command structure.

This goes higher. Let’s hope we learn how much higher in the weeks ahead.

UPDATED: IRS Acting Chief Apologizes, But Defends His Actions

Kaylin Bugos — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:17:00 -0400

In his opening statement before a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee today, former acting IRS director Steve Miller apologized for the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS, saying: “Partisanship has no place in the IRS.”

After his opening statement, however, it became clear that Miller wasn’t really sorry. Repeatedly, he objected to committee members’ use of the word “targeting” to describe the actions of the IRS, calling it “pejorative.” He frequently defended his own actions, refusing to acknowledge that he did much of anything wrong and calling his agency’s actions “horrible customer service.”

Eventually, when pushed on the matter by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Miller said, “I never said I didn’t do anything wrong” and “I should be held accountable, whether I was personally involved or not.”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) repeatedly asked Miller who was responsible for the targeting of these groups. Miller repeatedly avoided answering, instead focusing on his objection to the word “targeting.”

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) hammered Miller on his past testimony before the committee, saying Miller clearly misled the committee when he said that no targeting occurred when he already knew that it had. Miller vehemently denied misleading the committee, but kept saying variations on “Let’s step back” to avoid explaining how his statement was not misleading.

Miller continued defending the IRS throughout the hearing, saying it is not corrupt and angering Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.). “The subtext of that is that you’re saying ‘We’re just incompetent,’” Roskam said.

Several Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), showed more outrage over their allegation of past targeting of liberal groups under the Bush administration than of the current scandal that the IRS has admitted.

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), blamed the Citizens United ruling for the targeting of conservative groups, saying it opened the floodgates to these groups and led to the IRS looking at them. He also went on to defend the IRS in relation to its access of Obamacare data, saying that it would only have enough information to decide if a person can get a subsidy for his insurance premium.

“It is not a fascist takeover that is going on here,” McDermott said. “A couple of people making problems, that does not damage the organization in my view.”

McDermott’s statements about Obamacare all rely on the trustworthiness of the IRS, which is clearly in question right now. Just because the IRS isn’t supposed to do something doesn’t mean it won’t, as the targeting scandal has shown all too clearly.

UPDATE: Here’s the best video from the hearing today. First Rep. Mike Kelly blasting Miller and receiving cheers and applause, and then Rep. Paul Ryan doing what he does best.

Voter Fraud Affected Election Results in Missouri

Kaylin Bugos — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:31:00 -0400

Opponents of voter ID laws like to say that voter fraud doesn’t matter and never affects election results. But as we learned this week, voter fraud is the reason John Rizzo, a Missouri House representative, won in the state’s 19^th House district

In the Democratic primary for the seat in 2010, Rizzo beat his opponent, Will Royster, by one vote. The district is heavily Democratic, so Rizzo was able to easily win the general election.

This all sounds fine until you look ahead to this week when John C. Moretina pleaded guilty to voting in the district, even though he did not live there. Moretina never said which candidate he voted for, but he is Rizzo’s uncle, so it isn’t too difficult to connect the dots there.

If Moretina hadn’t voted illegally, the race would have been a tie. If allegations that Moretina’s wife also voted illegally prove to be true, it will be safe to say that Royster lost his chance to be a state representative through voter fraud.

As the Kansas City Star is reporting, this local story could have important national ramifications:

The case revived bitter accusations of fraud in a local political primary, but it could have national implications, as well. It may provide supporters of stricter voter laws with a concrete example of fraud that conceivably changed the results of a race.

“It certainly provides something of an answer to people who take the position that we don’t need tougher voter ID or other safeguards,” said Woody Cozad, a former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. “Just because (one-time Jackson County political boss) Tom Pendergast is dead doesn’t mean vote fraud has come to an end.”

This is just one example of how voter fraud can impact election results. Conservatives don’t want voter ID laws because they hate minorities. They want them because voter fraud compromises the integrity of our electoral system and validity of the results.

Purple Privacy Push Persists in House Drone Hearing

Luca Gattoni-Celli — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:28:00 -0400

The bipartisan drumbeat for privacy safeguards regarding domestic drone use continued at a congressional hearing Friday morning. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations was overshadowed in everything but name by the Ways and Means inquiry into the IRS’s political targeting of conservative groups, as reported by my colleague Kaylin Bugos. The proceedings illustrated that members of both parties are wary of drones’ privacy implications but open to their considerable promise. While addressing lingering regulatory questions, expert witnesses added details to the emerging picture of our nation’s buzzing future. The hearing was dominated by two issues: Law enforcement surveillance and the expectation of privacy.

Chris Calabrese of the American Civil Liberties Union said the relatively low cost and compact size of unmanned platforms mitigated the natural limits of traditional helicopter surveillance, noting a large blimp could monitor many square miles or a small helicopter could peer into windows. The advancement of camera technology was a theme: Greg McNeal of the Pepperdine School of Law described reading name tags and facial expressions from two miles away; Boston University School of Law’s Tracey Maclin touched on capabilities such as night vision, biometric facial recognition, and microwave scanners that can see through walls. This goes beyond the plainview standards previously used to examine the reasonableness of searches under the Fourth Amendment, he said.

The ACLU representative laid out four domestic drone policy principles: No mass surveillance, minimal information retention, no weaponization of drones, and the need for oversight, specifically the involvement of communities in any law enforcement decision to acquire a drone and notification of usage. Calabrese specified that law enforcement agencies should only deploy drones with a specific objective in mind under a warrant issued according to a traditional probable cause standard, and any information should be discarded once its specific reason for being gathered is exhausted. “In the 21st century as we get these new technologies we have to make sure our values come with us,” he explained, adding that Congress is well-suited to that role, although the FAA can play an expert function.

Saying the Fourth Amendment offers the most protection, the Brooking Institution’s John Villasenor asserted courts are in the best position to guard against law enforcement abuses. He also pointed to a longstanding body of common law and state civil and criminal statutes regarding invasion of privacy. But the nature of public space has changed, Calabrese argued, because most people do not assume they are being recorded while out and about. Law enforcement cameras mounted on traffic signals and squad cars are already ubiquitous, but drones made further the trend. “A camera trained on someone’s home persistently day after day will be treated the same whether it is on a drone or mounted a different way,” said McNeal. Maclin seemingly confirmed this, asserting there would be no constitutional distinction whether a camera was mounted on a drone or elsewhere.

IRS Director: ‘Some People Call Me Maurice’

Kyle Peterson — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:12:00 -0400

In bizarre testimony on Capitol Hill today, IRS acting director Steve Miller told Congress that agents used secret codenames to identify him, including “space cowboy,” “gangster of love,” and “Maurice.”

“People talk about me, baby. Say I’m doing you wrong, doing you wrong,” Miller reportedly said in his opening remarks. “Well don’t you worry, baby, don’t worry. Cause I’m right here, right here, right here, right here at home.”

Miller repeatedly used the word “pompatus” throughout his testimony in an ambiguous way that caused confusion among members of the House panel. “Can we get a dictionary in here?” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked at one point. “I’m pretty sure he’s just makin’ up words.”

The hearing, which lasted about three minutes and thirty seconds, took several uncomfortable twists. Miller made inappropriate remarks and told female members of the panel: “I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree.” Additionally, Miller spoke unprompted about his tobacco and marijuana use, which may lead to further investigation.

This morning’s events ended abruptly when Miller departed, saying he had to catch a “big ol’ jet airliner” and “fly like an eagle.”

Laughing to Keep From Crying

Ross Kaminsky — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:58:00 -0400

H/T Dan Mitchell

What Does Consequence-Free Sex Cost Us?

Benjamin Brophy — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:00:00 -0400

One of the most convincing arguments against the death penalty that I have heard is that the justice accomplished by an execution isn’t worth the death of an innocent man. Meaning, as DNA evidence and technological advances have proven, occasionally innocent people have been put to death for crimes they didn’t commit. This is not a majority or even a significant minority of cases. But still the question must be posed: Is punishing the guilty worth the blood of innocent men?

Now after Kermit Gosnell, pro-choice advocates face a similar moral dilemma. Gosnell is not alone. As Jordan Gonzalez reported yesterday abortionist Douglas Karpen has a similar history of atrocity. Beyond that, reports have come in from Delaware and other places where horrifying abortion clinics exist. This is what it boils down to: Even if one does not believe a baby in the womb is a life, what is universally recognized as life—newborns—have been sacrificed on the altar of the pro-choice movement and “consequence-free” sex. We as a society have allowed the murder of babies so that we can continue to maintain a pro-choice option. And don’t feed me the allowances for rape and protection of the mother. Those account for a tiny fraction of total abortions and distract from the main reason why people exercise their “choice”: they are selfish and don’t want to be parents.

Is it worth it?

Newtown prompted a national debate and a vote in the Senate on gun control (not even the issue in that instance) but Gosnell hasn’t prompted a single congressional hearing despite decades of abuse.

I know I am preaching to the choir at The American Spectator but I can’t help but cry out to the masses. How many have to die so that you can avoid being a parent? How many? Is it possible to maintain that America has some sort of moral high ground when we allow and tacitly encourage clinics like Gosnell’s and Karpen’s to exist? We have no legitimate claim on morality. End this horror.

IRS Sued for Wrongly Seizing 60 Million Medical Records

Kaylin Bugos — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:41:00 -0400

As if the IRS wasn’t in enough trouble already, its also facing a lawsuit for mishandling medical records.

A medical company in California filed a class-action lawsuit against 15 IRS employees, alleging that they wrongly seized over 60 million medical records of over 10 million Americans.

Courthouse News Service reported the story in March, when the case was filed:

“This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) agents (collectively referred to as ‘defendants’ herein) during a raid of John Doe Company, in the Southern District of California, on March 11, 2011,” the complaint states. “In a case involving solely a tax matter involving a former employee of the company, these agents stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans, including at least 1,000,000 Californians.

“No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no subpoena authorized the seizure of these records; none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS search.”

This suit gives more ammunition to Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), who announced his plan to introduce a bill keeping data on Americans’ healthcare decisions away from the agency in a hearing Wednesday.

Yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) questioned the trustworthiness of the IRS handling Obamacare data in light of its recent admissions concerning Tea Party group targeting.

If the IRS can’t handle data it isn’t even supposed to have access to, what should we expect with data it’s actually given? If it’s given free rein on data on Americans’ healthcare choices, it could have serious implications. The IRS has clearly shown its poor decision-making skills, and there’s no reason to think it would handle things differently in the future.

IRS Official Who Oversaw Tax-Exempt Office Now Runs Obamacare Office

Kaylin Bugos — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:19:00 -0400

The official who ran the IRS office on tax-exempt organizations when the Tea Party was being targeted is now the director of the IRS office on Obamacare.

The IRS confirmed her position to ABC:

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.

Yesterday, I acknowledged Grant as a more logical target than Steve Miller, the acting chief of the IRS who was forced out despite the fact that he was not in the position when the audits happened. Ingram should have been the first one out, but she still holds her position.

Several congressmen, including Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), have expressed concern that the IRS will be given free rein on Obamacare data. If the woman who let the targeting happen oversees the office handling such data, why should we think the results will be any different? They won’t. The American people have lost any trust they might have had in the IRS, and rightly so.

That’s a Lot of Caca in Caracas

Aaron Goldstein — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:26:00 -0400

There is no toilet paper in Venezuela.

Its new president, Nicolas Maduro, is importing 50 million rolls into the South American socialist paradise.

That’s a lot of caca in Caracas.

But this is what happens when the government nationalizes the production, distribution and pricing of material goods.

This is hardly a new phenomenon in socialist countries. Toilet paper shortages and long lines were a way of life in the former Soviet Union. When toilet paper wasn’t available, newspapers would have to do. All things considered, it was the only to put a copy of Pravda to good use. Perhaps this tradition will be revived in Venezuela.

Maduro, like the late Hugo Chavez before him, blames the opposition and the private sector for causing shortages.

Suffice it to say, Maduro is full of crap. Unfortunately for Venezuelans, they have nothing with which to wipe it away.

Canadian PM: Keystone XL Pipeline “Absolutely Needs To Go Ahead.”

Aaron Goldstein — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:55:00 -0400

During a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called upon the Obama Administration to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. Harper said the pipeline “absolutely needs to go ahead.”

The Tory PM went on to say, “I think all the facts are overwhelmingly on the side of approval. I know the administration will do a thorough analysis before arriving at the right decision.”

One could certainly argue that Harper is either being excessively diplomatic or excessively optimistic, possibly both.

But if the IRS, AP and Benghazi scandals don’t go away anytime soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Obama Administration throws conservatives a very big bone. That very big bone could be the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Another Top IRS Official to Resign

Kaylin Bugos — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:05:00 -0400

After IRS acting chief Steve Miller was forced to resign, it was only a matter of time before there was another casualty. It turns out it’s Joseph Grant, comissioner of the IRS’s tax exempt and government entities division.

The AP is reporting:

An internal IRS memo says Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency’s tax exempt and government entities division, will retire June 3. Grant joins Steven Miller, who was forced to resign as acting IRS commissioner on Wednesday.

As part of his duties, Grant oversaw the IRS division that targeted tea party groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Grant is more logical target than Miller, who wasn’t even the acting chief when the targeting occurred. Grant actually oversees those who were responsible for the scandal, so it makes sense that he would be forced out.

Another Gosnell Emerges

Jordan Gonzalez — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:03:00 -0400

Before the shock and stench of Kermit Gosnell’s horrors was even allowed to dissipate, the lieutenant governor of Texas, David Dewhurst, has announced he is asking Harris County officials to investigate claims of abuse at a Houston abortion clinic.

As if horror movie sequels weren’t bad enough, we must endure one in real life: Gosnell 2.

According to Dewhurst’s official press release:

In a week when serial murderer Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of killing babies, I read with disgust about the allegations of Houston-based abortionist Douglas Karpen performing illegal late-term abortions surrounded by appalling sanitary conditions in his clinic. The Harris County authorities should perform a full-scale investigation and take action against those who broke state law.

The claims of abuse are positively Gosnell-esque. Three former employees claim in a video, released on May 3, that Dr. Douglas Karpen of Aaron Women’s Clinic performed illegal late-term abortions (past the 24-week limit), killed babies post-birth, and worked in unsanitary conditions.

The three employees—Deborah Edge, Gigi Aguliar, and Krystal Rodriguez—who could not be independently verified as clinic workers according to the Houston Chronicle, said that Karpen killed babies outside of the womb regularly.

“Most of the time the fetus would come completely out before he either cut the spinal cord or he introduced one of the instruments into the soft spot of the fetus in order to kill the fetus,” said Deborah Edge. “I am pretty sure I was seeing at least three to four fetuses that were completely delivered in some way or another.”

The employees further stated that along with puncturing the soft spot, Karpen would also twist the neck of birthed babies. Photos, which were allegedly taken on the employee’s cell phones, show extremely graphic images of fully formed, mutilated babies.

If he wasn’t able to get the baby out, he would “yank pieces – piece by piece – when they were oversize,” Edge said, which would create a mess.

“I’m talking about the whole floor dirty,” she said. “I’m talking about me drenched in blood.”

The video was created by the pro-life group Life Dynamics per the request of Operation Rescue, another pro-life advocacy group which has been investigating Aaron Women’s Clinic since 2011 for other violations such as sexual harassment and unsanitary conditions.

The original investigation was dismissed by the Texas Medical Board because of “insufficient evidence to prove that a violation of the Medical Practices Act occurred.” The dismissal letter, addressed to Cheryl Sullenger from Operation Rescue, can be read here.

As a side note, aside from pro-life sites, a few blogs, a miniature blog post from the New York Times, and the hidden Houston Chronicle story (try finding it on their site – it is quite a challenge), no major news sources are picking up the story as of today.

Obamacare and Chicago’s Unions

Eileen Norcross — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:19:00 -0400

Much has been said about the trouble with public-sector pensions. Many state and local plans are underfunded and, unless policy and accounting changes are undertaken, some major plans will run out of assets to pay benefits over the coming years. That means these plans will have to operate on a pay-as-you-go-basis, forcing budgetary tradeoffs and tax hikes. Public-sector pensions often come with legal guarantees. For instance, Illinois and New York offer a constitutional guarantee of promised benefits. Many other states offer statutory protections. That’s why economists make the case that pension benefits are like general obligation debt and should be valued and funded on a risk-free basis.

Public employee health care benefits are a different story. These do not enjoy the same legal protections as pensions. And worse for workers, health care is where the real financial pressures are building. First, public employee health care benefits are largely unfunded and currently operate on a pay-go basis. The Pew Center estimates state health care benefits total $381 billion. Half of the states account for 94 percent of the liability, driven by the generosity of some state plans. These are pricey benefits for governments to offer their employees. Josh Barro finds that public employee health care plans offer lower deductibles, lower co-pays, and lower employee contributions for coverage than private sector plans.

The problem may be even more acute in cities. A recent Pew Center report looked at 81 cities’ pension and health care costs. Thirty-two cities have no money set aside for health care benefits. Together these cities face an unfunded liability of $118.2 billion in health care costs.

One of those cities is Chicago which faces retiree health care costs totalling $805 million. Pensions liabilities total $20 billion. (On a market valuation basis this is far higher.)

Chicago’s public-sector workers have a pretty good health care deal and enjoy a 55 percent subsidy. They like their plan, but they may not be keeping it. This week, the mayor’s office announced that change is on the horizon.

City Comptroller Amer Ahmed wanted to reassure the city’s 30,000 workers who “were worried we were gonna dump them onto some Obamacare thing we didn’t know anything about.”

Indeed, that is exactly what the mayor is planning to do. According to the Chicago Tribune, all city employees will be asked to either pay for their own insurance, or seek subsidies under the Affordable Care Act as of January 1, 2014, as part of a three-year transition off of the current benefit. There is an exemption for police and firefighters between the ages of 55 and 64 who are not yet eligible for Medicare and whose health benefits are guaranteed under a union contract. Those who retired before 1989 (about 5,500 retirees) are also exempt.

Spokesmen for the city’s unions expressed outrage and are hoping that he reconsiders the move.

Is the mayor’s action an indication of what other cities may be considering as an exit strategy for the rising costs of employee benefits? Certainly it is going to be on the table.

I’m Melting, Melting!

Ross Kaminsky — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:12:00 -0400

Poor President Obama, getting rained on today. Better call in the Marines.

Reminds me of this:

Obama Says He Has “Complete Confidence” in Holder

Kaylin Bugos — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:11:00 -0400

As Matt reported yesterday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole is being set up as the fall guy for the Department of Justice’s subpoena of AP journalists’ phone records.

In a press conference Thursday, Obama said he had “complete confidence” in Attorney General Eric Holder.

As The Washington Examiner reported, Obama did not apologize for the subpoena.

“I make no apologies,” the president said of his administration’s actions in the name of national security, including the squashing of government leaks.

Obama’s defense combined with Holder’s testimony yesterday shows that this administration will do anything to protect its top guys—including bringing down the lower guys on the totem pole. It’s the same thing that happened with Hillary Clinton and Benghazi. They tried to protect Susan Rice too, but eventually realized that was futile and let her become the scapegoat.

The president fired the acting chief of the IRS yesterday, but the key word there is “acting.” What a great way to protect the top guys: by blaming the person who’s already going to be replaced anyway!

So once again, it looks like Eric Holder will escape unscathed.

Rep. Nunes: DOJ Took Phone Data from House Cloak Room

Kaylin Bugos — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:08:00 -0400

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) made headlines this morning when he said in an interview that the Department of Justice “wiretapped” the phones in the House of Representatives cloakroom, where members and only the most trusted staffers socialize and talk amongst themselves and to the press.

In an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show, Nunes said:

HH: The idea that this might be a Geithner-Axelrod plan, and by that, the sort of intimation, Henry II style, will no one rid me of this turbulent priest, will no one rid me of these turbulent Tea Parties, that might have just been a hint, a shift of an eyebrow, a change in the tone of voice. That’s going to take a long time to get to. I don’t trust the Department of Justice on this. Do you, Congressman Nunes?

DN: No, I absolutely do not, especially after this wiretapping incident, essentially, of the House of Representatives. I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.

HH: Wait a minute, this is news to me.

DN: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.

HH: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

DN: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…

HH: Wow.

DN: …members of Congress talk to the press all the time.

HH: I did not know that, and that is a stunner.

DN: Now that is a separation of powers issue here, Hugh.

Jack Langer, Nunes’ communications director, sent out a clarification on Nunes’ statement, explaining that Nunes only meant that the DOJ seized phone records for the AP in the Capitol, to which the DOJ had already admitted:

What Rep. Nunes meant by “tapped” was that the Department of Justice seized the phone records, as has been widely reported. He did not mean to refer to phone records of the cloakroom, but of the Capitol. This refers to the phone records for the AP from the House press gallery, which the DOJ admitted looking at. He was explaining that those phone records would reveal a lot of conversations between the press and members of Congress, since reporters often speak to Members from the press gallery phones. The notion of the DOJ looking at phone records from the Capitol of conversations between Members of Congress and reporters is something that concerns Rep. Nunes, bringing up issues related to the separation of powers.

So it looks like nobody is accusing the DOJ of tapping members’ phone calls in the cloakroom, but the separation of powers issue remains. This started out as a constitutional issue regarding freedom of the press, but it may develop into several constitutional issues, with separation of powers following right behind. By seizing the AP’s phone records, the DOJ harvested records of the calls between its reporters and members of Congress.

Where is the line on separation of powers? The comparisons with Nixon are obvious. Considering the details coming out on so many scandals recently, Obama might be the new imperial president with an executive branch completely overstepping the boundaries created by the Constitution.

A Long Record of Obamite Thuggery

Quin Hillyer — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:35:00 -0400

At CFIF, my column today details a very, very long list of examples of what columnist Michael Barone first described as the “gangster government” tendencies of Barack Obama and his minions.

I want to add to that list (please do read it), with a caveat: My list included only examples of thuggish tactics; it was hardly a full list of Obamite scandals. If I had included the latter, there would have been prominent mention of the still-unexplained, still-scandalous “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation. I also of course would have included the Solyndra (and similar sweetheart deals) scandal. There also was the official “contempt of court” citation the administration earned via its moratorium/permitorium on Gulf oil drilling. Then there is the New Black Panther voter-intimidation case (mentioned in passing in my piece, but not as a scandal in and of itself, which it was). And EPA’s Lisa Jackson’s misuse of private emails for government business, which was mirrored by DoJ Civil Rights Division’s Tom Perez’ misuse of private emails for government business.

Those scandals, and others, don’t involve direct threats or thuggery — but they show a major culture of corruption. They are inexcusable.

Delaware’s Unclaimed Property Racket: John Gotti Would Be Proud

Ross Kaminsky — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:59:00 -0400

Who would have guessed that the State of Delaware’s third largest revenue source would essentially be a mafia-like combination of extortion and theft?

That’s certainly how it sounds when you read Douglas Lindholm’s article in Forbes magazine entitled “Once A Friendly Locale To Business, The Modern State Of Delaware Is A Bully.”

I commend the entire article to you, but the short version is this:

Under the guise of “unclaimed property” laws, the state forces companies to prove that they are not holding unclaimed property, even from 20 or 30 years ago, then fine the companies if they can’t prove it.

We’re talking big money here, the sort of thing that would make John Gotti proud: “Last year alone, Delaware seized $319.5 million from liquidated property, while returning only $18.9 million of unclaimed property to its rightful owners. The State’s estimated General Fund revenue from unclaimed property for FY 2013 is over a half billion dollars.”

As if this isn’t bad enough, the state pays an auditor on contingency, meaning the auditor has self-serving financial motives to go after the state’s business particularly aggressively. And as Lindholm notes, it’s working out well for the auditor, Kelmar Associates, which earned $30 million in the second half of 2012: “It is astounding to think that the payout to this one auditor for six months of its ‘auditing’ was almost twice the unclaimed property returned to all owners all of last year.”

This is not entirely a new story: In 2009, Delaware assessed McKesson Corporation $4.5 million dollars when a Kelmar audit — which took six years to perform — came up with four vendors (out of 116 questions) who claimed that McKesson owed them a total of $19,337.

McKesson settled out of court for an amount which I believe is not public information. To add insult to McKesson’s injury, roughly at the same time as the settlement, Delaware amended their unclaimed property statute so that the type of “property” which McKesson was fined for is no longer subject to that law.

According to attorney Scott Smith at the law firm of Baker Donelson, Delaware is probably the most aggressive state in this area, they are far from alone, and it’s becoming a bigger revenue source for many states: “They see it as easy money — even if it’s not theirs.”

Smith also believes that third party auditor firms like Kelmar are as much the driving force behind the extortion of companies as the states are: “These outfits are really targeting the companies and then marketing themselves to the states.” Sounds a lot like a mafia boss offering a lower-level thug protection for a cut of the money.

We can only hope that with a Forbes article and perhaps some help from these pages and elsewhere, Delaware, and other states which are behaving similarly or even thinking about it, will be shamed — or competed, such as by Nevada, Texas, or other states which are making major efforts to attract business — into ceasing their mafia-like tactics.

In the meantime, i encourage any state which uses Kelmar Associates for any services to switch to another provider until such time as Kelmar agrees not to be a co-conspirator in Delaware’s extortion. Given that they made $30 million stealing from Delaware corporations in just six months, it’s easy to guess their response: Like a mafioso, once you get it, you never get out.

The IRS Has Read Spectator.org Over 2,000 Times This Year

Patrick Ryan — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:57:00 -0400

Since January 1^st, the Internal Revenue Service has read our website 2,615 times, including 36 visits on February 6 and 34 visits on May 10.

After Watchdog.org broke news that the IRS had viewed their page 456 times since 2009, the Spectator searched for any site visitors with “.gov” in their IP address through Google Analytics.

In terms of visits, the agency is actually sixth out of ten different federal agencies to read the site since January; the Department of Homeland Security stands in first place with over 6,000 visits, while the Department of Justice comes in fourth with over 3,000.

Yesterday, President Obama asked for IRS Acting Commissioner Stephen T. Miller’s resignation after the agency selectively scrutinized Tea Party groups in their applications for tax-exempt status.

The three agencies displayed a heightened interest in certain days, such as Thursday, March 7.

On that day, we blogged multiple times about Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster against CIA Director John Brennan, including publishing Attorney General Holder’s letter to the senator. Simultaneously, we received 103 visits from the Department of Homeland Security, 68 visits from the Department of Justice, and 26 visits from the Internal Revenue Service.

Congress and the FBI are investigating President Obama’s administration for several different scandals this week, including the Department of Justice’s seizure of AP phone records, the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of conservative organizations, and the terrorist attack in Benghazi.

The American Spectator Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, publishes The American Spectator, which may justify some visits from our national tax collector. Other visits may simply be IRS employees who were bored at work. But still, conservative organizations should analyze government visits on their websites.

As these scandals reveal themselves further, we realize that any and every organization is a potential victim of a runaway federal government.

Stronger Men More Likely to be Conservative

Benjamin Brophy — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:53:00 -0400

The Daily Mail ran a piece today that shows research on physical strength being linked to conservative beliefs. No wonder I bench press more than Obama ever could. From the article:

Men who are physically strong are more likely to take a right wing political stance, while weaker men are inclined to support the welfare state, according to a new study.

Researchers discovered political motivations may have evolutionary links to physical strength.

Men’s upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution, according to the research.

The principal investigators - psychological scientists Michael Bang Petersen, of Aarhus University in Denmark, and Daniel Sznycer, of the University of California in the U.S., believe that the link may reflect psychological traits that evolved in response to our early ancestral environments and continue to influence behaviour today.

Professor Petersen said: ‘While many think of politics as a modern phenomenon, it has - in a sense - always been with our species.’

The way forward is clear: we need to get the country’s men on creatine and lifting weights like Arnold.

Rep. Cleaver: GOP Concerns with IRS Due to Obama’s Skin Color

Ross Kaminsky — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:44:00 -0400

H/T NRO

I would ask what planet this guy lives on, but we already know…it’s Planet Democrat, and its small moon, the Congressional Black Caucus, where any objection to the behaviors or policies of people of a certain skin color must be about the “pigmentation” rather than about the behavior or policy in question.

At least Cleaver was honest that it was a mistake for Obama to say he learns of various scandals on the TV news.

The good news is that nobody but Chris Matthews, his few dozen viewers, and residents of that particular moon are really convinced by this tripe…

Morning Round-Up 5-16

Patrick Ryan — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:29:00 -0400

“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Feature of the Day: Are These the First Ever Pictures of Honduras’s Lost Ciudad Blanca?

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Tax Scandal Fells IRS Chief (5/15)
Benghazi Emails Released (5/15)
President Pushes for Shielding Journalists (5/15)

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