June 27-30, 2013
Jun 27 03:18 Juan Williams advocates for imperial president Jun 27 10:20 Acting IRS commissioner lied Jun 28 13:11 Lerner waived Fifth Amendment protection Jun 30 03:47 Kyle Gibson's Saturday in the park
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Juan Williams advocates for imperial president
Wednesday afternoon on America Live with Megyn Kelly, Juan Williams went off the deep end. In fact, he went off the really deep end. Megyn invited him on the show to debate Marc Thiessen about President Obama's war on coal agenda.
First, Thiessen said that this isn't about controlling pollution, citing this administration's report showing that CO2 emissions are the same today as they were in 1992. It's at that point when Megyn asked why President Obama was implementing this agenda without the consent of Congress.
Williams responded, first saying that people had a right to breath, then saying "We can't let politics interfere" with people's right to breath.
That's the definition of an imperial president. The Founding Fathers wanted politics to "interfere" with the president's agenda. That's why they wrote a Constitution filled with checks and balances. That's why they chose a republic, not a democracy. As we saw in Minnesota this year, democracy can be hijacked by mob rule. Mob rule isn't any better than letting a tyrant king issue edicts from his throne.
If the minority doesn't have a say in governing and policymaking, the results head south quickly.
What's particularly stunning is that Williams was foolish enough to admit he, along with other Democrats, love governing through presidential fiat rather than working with Republicans.
That's the worst of it. That isn't the only negative part of this. Williams is okay with President Obama fundamentally changing the US economy without congressional input. President Obama's war on coal will kill the economies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Indiana.
Juan Williams and like-minded Democrats don't have a problem with President Obama killing those states' economies in the name of the environment and public health. In their minds, statistics aren't important. The Democrats' agenda is everything to these imperialists.
The Constitution doesn't allow for that. The people are ill-served by government by executive fiat. In short, there's nothing positive about Williams' worldview.
Posted Thursday, June 27, 2013 3:18 AM
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Acting IRS commissioner lied
Earlier this week, Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told reporters that progressive groups were also targeted and that the IRS hadn't done anything wrong . This article quotes the TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) as disputing Werfel's statement. First, here's what Werfel told reporters:
In a conference call with reporters, Werfel said an internal investigation of the IRS scandal, the findings of which were released Monday afternoon, had unearthed other instances in which "Be On The Look Out" (BOLO) lists were used. He has since ended the use of the tactic, he said, calling the screening criteria used in these other instances "inappropriate."
"When I got to the IRS, we started a more comprehensive review of the operations of this part of the IRS, have been looking at documents and business operations, and we did determine and discover that there are other BOLO lists in place," Werfel said. "And upon discovering that, we also found that we believed there continued to be inappropriate or questionable criteria on these BOLO lists. Once we came to that conclusion, we took immediate action to suspend the use of these lists in the exempt organizations unit within the IRS."
I was skeptical of Werfel's statement at the time. The IG's testimony shows I was justified in that skepticism:
The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) sent a letter Wednesday to congressional Democrats telling them that while several liberal groups may have gotten extra scrutiny, the IRS didn't necessarily target those - but it did do so for conservative groups.
'TIGTA concluded that inappropriate criteria were used to identify potential political cases for extra scrutiny - specifically, the criteria listed in our audit report. From our audit work, we did not find evidence that the criteria you identified, labeled 'Progressives,' were used by the IRS to select potential political cases during the 2010 to 2012 timeframe we audited,' Inspector General J. Russell George said.
In total, 292 organizations with TEA Party in their names were targeted . A paltry 6 organizations with progressive in their names got additional scrutiny.That's only part of the story. The 6 organizations with progressive in their names still got their status approved within the prescribed timeline. More than 50 TEA Party organizations have been waiting for over 3 years for approval as a 501(c)(4) organization.
In short, Commissioner Werfel lied in saying the IRS's conduct wasn't improper or illegal:
Though he acknowledged that his investigation remains incomplete, Werfel said that he had yet to uncover evidence of intentional wrongdoing by IRS officials when applying these BOLOs. Nor had he found instances in which outside actors, mainly the Obama campaign and administration, had pressured the tax agency to target conservative groups.
"The fact that no evidence is surfacing as wrongdoing is an important conclusion to reach as long as it is qualified by the fact that more reviews are underway," Werfel said, when pressed by The Huffington Post as to why he was making statements that could later be contradicted by the findings of additional investigations. "And so, I'll be as clear as I can right now. I'm not providing a definitive conclusion that no intentional wrongdoing occurred. But I'm suggesting that based on the ongoing reviews to date, no evidence has yet surfaced."
If Werfel doesn't think that targeting 292 TEA Party organizations to 6 progressive organizations isn't proof of intentional wrongdoing, then he should be fired ASAP. That's proof he's either incapable of being honest or he's incapable of recognizing reality.
In either case, he isn't the right man to restore integrity to the IRS.
Posted Thursday, June 27, 2013 10:32 AM
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Lerner waived Fifth Amendment protection
This morning, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted that Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment protections by verifying the authenticity of a document :
Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines Friday morning, with 22 Republicans saying she waived the Fifth and 17 Democrats arguing she did not. Lerner remains under subpoena, and the committee believes it could bring the long-time IRS official back and compel her to testify.
The dynamics have definitely shifted in this investigation. Democrats who first expressed outrage at the IRS's criminal activities now are making political statements to rationalize their votes. This statement is a perfect example of the shift:
Democrats, meanwhile, like Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., challenged Gowdy's argument, calling attempts to block Lerner's invoking of the Fifth Amendment "an egregious abuse of power that tramples the Constitution and serves no valid legislative purpose."
Connolly said that "the majority has brought us to a point where we risk allowing this committee to be transformed into a Star Chamber proceeding that establishes future Legislative Branch precedent where any chairman, whether a Democrat or a Republican, is free to compel an American invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination to physically appear before the Committee for no other reason than to be pilloried, delayed, embarrassed, and burdened into unknowingly, unintentionally, and ironically, forfeiting the very sacred constitutional right that is intended to protect every American against forced self-incrimination by the government."
Meanwhile, Republicans like Trey Gowdy are making statements based on the legal system:
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., reiterated Issa's argument, delivering a fiery speech about Lerner's attempt to protect herself under the Fifth.
Gowdy said Lerner made nine separate assertions, with the advice of counsel, and then authenticated a document. "That's not how the Fifth Amendment works," Gowdy said. "You're not allowed to just say your side of the story...She could have sat there and said nothing."
Rep. Connolly is acting like a partisan. Rep. Gowdy is acting like a former U.S. attorney, which is what he is. What's more is that Rep. Gowdy has famed defense attorney and Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz on his side :
"She's in trouble. She can be held in contempt," Dershowitz told "the Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. '"You can't simply make statements about a subject and then plead the Fifth in response to questions about the very same subject," the renowned Harvard Law professor said.
"Once you open the door to an area of inquiry, you have waived your Fifth Amendment right...you've waived your self-incrimination right on that subject matter."
Dershowitz knows what he's talking about on this subject. He's literally written a book on the Fifth Amendment. If Rep. Conolly wants to argue that Dershowitz, a lifelong liberal, is saying this to curry favor with Republicans, I'd love hearing that argument.
Democrats are playing a terrible situation poorly. What Rep. Connolly said is foolish. Republicans didn't put Ms. Lerner in a difficult position. She put herself in this difficult position by testifying. Had she started by saying she was invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, this vote wouldn't have happened. That's what Rep. Gowdy said this morning:
Follow this link for more on this story.
Posted Friday, June 28, 2013 1:11 PM
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Kyle Gibson's Saturday in the park
Saturday afternoon was a special afternoon for Kyle Gibson, the Twins' highly touted rookie righthander. Making his major league debut against Kansas City, Gibson's first pitch was hit by Alex Gordon. The good news for Gibson is that Oswaldo made a nice catch down the left field line. One pitch, one out. Two pitches later, Gibson got another out, this time on a routine grounder to Brian Dozier. After a line drive single by Eric Hosmer, Gibson faced Kansas City's Twin-killer, Billy Butler.
Butler entered the game with 14 hits in 27 at-bats against the Twins this season. Gibson got ahead on 2 breaking pitches away. After another pitch, this time a ball, Gibson struck out Butler on a nasty 94 mph fastball that ran in on Butler's hands.
After getting out of the inning, an inning where he threw 13 pitches, 10 for strikes, Twins hitters staked Gibson to a 5-0 lead. Justin Morneau doubled in Joe Mauer and Brian Dozier, who had walked. Trevor Plouffe, the Twins DH, fouled off several 3-2 pitches before hitting his sixth homer of the season.
Staked to a big first inning lead, Gibson did what he's done his entire career, attack the strike zone. Though he gave up 2 runs in the third, Gibson dominated the Royals, striking out 5 while giving up 8 hits in 6 strong innings.
What Twins fans saw Saturday was a poised power pitcher. They saw a young man whose fastball topped out at 94 mph most of the day. They saw his nasty slider and an effective change-up. At 6-foot-6, they also saw a power pitcher who throws a straight over-the-top 2-seamer.
It's foolish to predict what type of career he'll have with the Twins. That said, it's clear he's got some tools that Twins faithful haven't seen in a pitcher. It's also foolish to think the Twins will catch the Tigers this year. They'll likely be sellers as the trade deadline approaches.
Those in the know think the 2015 Twins will be a very good team. By then, the Twins rotation will be anchored by Alex Meyer, Travis May and Mr. Gibson. By then, Miguel Sano will likely be the Twins third baseman and Byron Buxton will be the Twins starting centerfielder.
Saturday afternoon, Twins fans got a brief glimpse of that future. By next season, they might be looking at more of that future. That works with me.
Posted Sunday, June 30, 2013 3:47 AM
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