May 23-25, 2013
May 23 05:37 DFL can't spin this May 23 09:58 Dershowitz: Lerner "Can Be Held in Contempt" May 23 17:20 Holder signed off on Rosen fishing expedition May 24 05:13 The DFL's overreach May 25 01:46 Catherine Engelbrecht's nightmare
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
DFL can't spin this
The day after the session ended, the GOP and DFL took flight to give people their take on the session. As is tradition, the DFL bragged about all the great things they did while the GOP talked about the destruction that the DFL did. This chart shows how much people will get hurt from the DFL tax increase:
While it's true "the rich" will get hardest initially, the reality is that the tax increased levied at them will be paid by their customers. "The rich", aka small businesses, will pay an additional $1.13 billion. Meanwhile, other employers will pay an additional $424,000,000. The middle class tax increases totals an additional $600,000,000.
At a time when middle class wages are stagnant, the DFL chose to burden the middle class with a significant tax increase. Of course, they'll dispute that but that's reality.
This year's session will be known for its tax increases. Passing gay marriage will be characterized as historic but that isn't what the average Minnesotan was thinking about. They've been hoping that the economy would start growing again. The DFL's tax increase won't help create jobs.
The business owners I've spoken with have said that they're expecting job growth to level off. They aren't expecting a big increase in unemployment, just a sharp decline in job growth.
The other thing they're expecting is to see businesses leaving the state or expanding in other states rather than expanding in Minnesota.
The harsh reality is that the DFL's budget grows government, not the economy. When government grows, economies either shrink or their growth slows significantly. Apparently, the DFL hasn't figured that out.
Posted Thursday, May 23, 2013 5:37 AM
Comment 1 by BarbNWMN at 24-May-13 07:22 AM
Perfect meme. "Government grows, economy slows". Welcome to North/South Dakota.
Dershowitz: Lerner "Can Be Held in Contempt"
According to this Newsmax article , Lois Lerner put herself in danger of being held in contempt of court:
Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service's embattled director of Exempt Organizations, could be held in contempt of court and jailed for refusing to testify before Congress, civil-rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz says. "She's in trouble. She can be held in contempt," Dershowitz told "the Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
If Mr. Dershowitz says she's vulnerable, I won't disagree with him. He's the expert.
"Congress...can actually hold you in contempt and put you in the Congressional jail."
Lerner, grilled Wednesday on the IRS' targeting of conservative organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but not before insisting "I have done nothing wrong." Her brief statement of innocence has opened a legal Pandora's Box, according to Dershowitz.
"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."
Lerner doesn't have much of an option at this point. She'll either have to testify or risk being put in jail, albeit the Congressional jail. Dershowitz said that she isn't the only person who's potentially put themselves in hot water:
He said the fact that Lerner went ahead with her proclamation of could be considered malpractice on the part of her attorney, although it's possible she overruled the advice she received.
At this point, Ms. Lerner's options are limited to either answering the committee's questions in full or being held in contempt of Congress. I can't imagine either option is that appealing to Ms. Lerner.
The only other option for Ms. Lerner is to negotiate a deal with the committee. If she has proof that people higher in the food chain were behind this operation, now's the time to play that chip.
Playing that chip won't put her on the Obamas' Christmas card list but that's a luxury she can't afford right now.
Posted Thursday, May 23, 2013 9:58 AM
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Holder signed off on Rosen fishing expedition
Michael Isikoff's article is a big revelation:
Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a 'possible co-conspirator' in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.
The disclosure of the attorney general's role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.
"I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable," Obama said. "Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs."
That's major news with huge anti-Obama and anti-Holder implications. President Obama's credibility on First Amendment issues is practically nonexistent because his attorney general signed off on search warrants on reporters. AG Holder's credibility is shot now that it's known that he signed off on a search warrant accusing a reporter of committing a crime he didn't commit. This is the type of revelation that gets the attorney general terminated.
The US attorney general is the chief law enforcement office in the nation. He's the chief protector of the Constitution, too. He's useless when he's wildly accusing reporters of breaking laws they didn't break. He's worthless if he isn't fiercely defending the Bill of Rights.
Rosen, who has not been charged in the case, was nonetheless the target of a search warrant that enabled Justice Department investigators to secretly seized his private emails after an FBI agent said he had "asked, solicited and encouraged : (a source) to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information."
This is President Obama's worst nightmare. On the day when he tried convincing the American people that he's defending the nation and the Constitution, his attorney general is proven to have signed off on a search warrant that trampled a reporter's First Amendment rights.
President Obama's difficulties aren't going away anytime soon.
Posted Thursday, May 23, 2013 5:20 PM
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The DFL's overreach
Whether it was Senate Minority Leader David Hann or House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, a common theme emerged from interviewing them: that the DFL overreached in a variety of ways.
Sen. Hann said the prime example of the DFL's overreach was the DFL's tax bill, citing the fact that "the bill raised taxes by $2.1 billion" to eliminate a $627,000,000 deficit. During their St. Cloud press conference, Sen. Hann said that most of the $400,000,000 in "property tax relief" was actually increased LGA to cities and counties.
In the past, big city mayors like Duluth's Don Ness, Minneapolis's R.T. Rybak and St. Paul's Chris Coleman have used their LGA to increase spending rather than lowering property tax rates. There's no reason to think that that habit won't continue.
Rep. Daudt said that the DFL's tax increase will be spent on the DFL's special interest allies. Rep. Daudt said the deficit could've been solved without the DFL's massive tax increase. He further stated that the job creation would slow as a result of the DFL's tax increase. Rep. Daudt said unemployment wouldn't skyrocket as a result of the tax increase. Rather, he said that Minnesota job creation would soon hit a self-imposed ceiling.
Another major DFL initiative that exemplified the DFL's special interest overreach was the childcare unionization push. Rep. Mary Franson cited a law firm's study of the NLRA, aka the National Labor Relations Act, which showed the DFL/AFSCME/SEIU bill to be illegal :
Federal law mandates that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to "...dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it..." 29 U.S.C. 158 (a)(2) Yet the legislation purports to create a framework to form a union of employers and business owners and as such, is directly contrary to Section 8(a)(2)'s prohibition against employer interference financial contribution to a union.
The DFL voted for a bill that's heading for the courts because it violates federal law. The DFL pushed this bill and Gov. Dayton will sign this bill because the DFL is owned, at least in part, by the public employee unions. In fact, Rep. Mike Nelson admitted that the bill is payback to the DFL's special interest allies :
WCCO INTERVIEWER: Is this the governor saying 'thank you' to the unions that helped get him elected?
REP. NELSON: There's probably some of that. You thank the people and you try to work for the issues that the people that support you.
This wasn't a priority for Minnesotans. It isn't even a priority for in-home child care small businesses. This legislation was a high priority for the DFL's public employee union allies. Without the unions' contributions and GOTV operations, the DFL's legislative campaigns would be severely damaged.
Most importantly, the DFL's policies won't strengthen Minnesota's economy. Their policies will weaken Minnesota's economy. The DFL's epitaph will include their oversized tax increase that paid off their special interest allies.
Posted Friday, May 24, 2013 5:13 AM
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Catherine Engelbrecht's nightmare
First, nobody should have to go through what Catherine Engelbrecht went through. Here's her story as told through Peggy Noonan's powerful words :
But the most important IRS story came not from the hearings but from Mike Huckabee's program on Fox News Channel. He interviewed and told the story of Catherine Engelbrecht - a nice woman, a citizen, an American. She and her husband live in Richmond, Texas. They have a small manufacturing business. In the past few years she became interested in public policy and founded two groups, King Street Patriots and True the Vote.
In July 2010 she sent applications to the IRS for tax-exempt status. What followed was not the harassment, intrusiveness and delay we're now used to hearing of. The U.S. government came down on her with full force.
In December 2010 the FBI came to ask about a person who'd attended a King Street Patriots function. In January 2011 the FBI had more questions. The same month the IRS audited her business tax returns. In May 2011 the FBI called again for a general inquiry about King Street Patriots. In June 2011 Engelbrecht's personal tax returns were audited and the FBI called again. In October 2011 a round of questions on True the Vote. In November 2011 another call from the FBI. The next month, more questions from the FBI. In February 2012 a third round of IRS questions on True the Vote. In February 2012 a first round of questions on King Street Patriots. The same month the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did an unscheduled audit of her business. (It had a license to make firearms but didn't make them.) In July 2012 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did an unscheduled audit. In November 2012 more IRS questions on True the Vote. In March 2013, more questions. In April 2013 a second ATF audit.
All this because she requested tax-exempt status for a local conservative group and for one that registers voters and tries to get dead people off the rolls. Her attorney, Cleta Mitchell, who provided the timeline above, told me: "These people, they are just regular Americans. They try to get dead people off the voter rolls, you would think that they are serial killers."
This can't be explained away as anything except intentional intimidation. This flurry of audits isn't coincidental. At this point, it's impossible to determine who put Mrs. Engelbrecht in the crosshairs. That said, this wasn't triggered by a couple of rogue agents in the IRS's Cincinnati office.
In fact, this has corrupt, well-connected political operative written all over it. It isn't a stretch to think someone like a David Axelrod might've unleashed the dogs on Mrs. Engelbrecht. There are other possibilities, too.
The point is that this cries out for a special investigation, someone with the authority to impanel a grand jury, issue subpoenas and prosecute corrupt, well-connected political operatives.
It's imperative that the perpetrator or perpetrators get apprehended, convicted and thrown in prison for a long time for auditing and intimidating Mrs. Engelbrecht.
Posted Saturday, May 25, 2013 1:46 AM
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