IRS Officials In Washington Targeted Conservatives, California Offices Now Involved

IRS Officials In Washington Were Involved In Targeting Of Conservative Groups – Washington Post

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.

.

IRS employees in Cincinnati told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications, according to interviews with the activists.

Lois G. Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, told reporters Friday that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions were undertaken by “front-line people” working in Cincinnati to target groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names.

In one instance, however, Ron Bell, an IRS employee, informed a lawyer representing a conservative group focused on voter fraud that the application was under review in Washington. On several other occasions, IRS officials in Washington and California sent conservative groups detailed questionnaires about their voter outreach and other activities, according to the documents.

“For the IRS to say it was some low-level group in Cincinnati is simply false,” said Cleta Mitchell, a partner in the law firm Foley & Lardner who sought to communicate with IRS headquarters about the delay in granting tax-exempt status to True the Vote.

Moreover, details of the IRS’s efforts to target conservative groups reached the highest levels of the agency in May 2012, far earlier than has been disclosed, according to Republican congressional aides briefed by the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration ­(TIGTA) on the details of their reviews.

Then-Commissioner Douglas Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee who stepped down in November, received a briefing from the TIGTA about what was happening in the Cincinnati office in May 2012, the aides said. His deputy and the agency’s current acting commissioner, Steven T. Miller, also learned about the matter that month, the aides said.

The officials did not share details with Republican lawmakers who had been demanding to know whether the IRS was targeting conservative groups, Republicans said.

“I wrote to the IRS three times last year after hearing concerns that conservative groups were being targeted,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement Monday. “In response to the first letter I sent with some of my colleagues, Steven Miller, the current Acting IRS Commissioner, responded that these groups weren’t being targeted.”

“Knowing what we know now,” he added, “the IRS was at best being far from forth coming, or at worst, being deliberately dishonest with Congress.”

In a news conference Monday, President Obama said he learned of the investigating in media reports on Friday and has “no patience with it.”

“If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on, and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous,” Obama said. “And there’s no place for it. And they have to be held fully accountable.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday that the White House counsel’s office learned of an upcoming IRS inspector general’s report on April 22 as part of a routine notification but had not received access to the report.

On Capitol Hill, two Senate panels – the Finance Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations – announced Monday that they will investigate. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Ways and Means Committee have been looking into reports of IRS attempts to single out organizations on the right for heightened scrutiny. Ways and Means has called IRS officials to testify Friday.

“These actions by the IRS are an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). “The IRS will now be the ones put under additional scrutiny.”

Separately, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) introduced companion bills Monday that would require the IRS to fire any employee found “willfully” violating “the constitutional rights of a taxpayer,” according to statements by both lawmakers. The bills also would make them criminally liable for their actions.

Even as Obama vowed that his administration “will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this,” however, the IRS offered no new information on how it selected which groups to single out for scrutiny.

The White House is legally barred from contacting the IRS about a tax matter, under a prohibition adopted after the Watergate scandal. And although it can contact the Treasury Department about tax issues, neither Treasury nor the IRS can disclose specific taxpayer information. The IRS can release information about a petition for tax-exempt status only after it has been approved.

Obama is not in a position to remove Lerner, a career official who can be terminated for cause only under normal civil service proceedings. The IRS has two political appointees: the commissioner, who serves a five-year term, and the chief counsel.

As the IRS came under broader political attack Monday, more details surfaced on how the exempt-organizations division struggled to determine which nonprofits should receive “social welfare” status after the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. That decision, which allowed corporations and unions to raise and spend un­limited amounts of money on elections, opened the door for groups to accept undisclosed contributions as long as their “primary purpose” was not politics.

In a Jan. 9, 2012, letter to the Richmond Tea Party, IRS specialist Stephen Seok asked questions including “the names of the donors, contributors and grantors,” as well as the size of the contributions and grants, and when they were given.

Richmond Tea Party President Larry Nordvig, whose group applied for tax-exempt status in December 2009 and received it in July 2012, said the extended inquiry had “a very chilling effect” on how much money the group could raise because its donors preferred anonymity.

The Wetumpka Tea Party of Alabama experienced a two-year delay after submitting its initial application.

Becky Gerritson, a 44-year-old stay-at-home mother and the group’s president, said the IRS sent a questionnaire asking for the names of all volunteers, donor identification and contribution amounts, the names of any legislators its members had communicated with directly or indirectly, and the contents of all speeches its members had made, among a long list of other details.

“I was outraged,” Gerritson said. “Being an election year, I felt like it was intimidation.”

The group did not provide the information. Approval came only after the group sought help from the American Center for Law and Justice, which threatened a lawsuit against the IRS, Gerritson said.

Although some of the groups were explicitly labeled “tea party” or “patriot,” others that came under intense scrutiny were focused on challenging the Affordable Care Act – known by many as Obamacare – or the integrity of federal elections.

In a June 3, 2011, letter to the IRS, Mitchell questioned the agency’s motivations for delaying recognition of one of her clients who had filed nearly two years earlier, writing, “Is the [group’s] opposition to Obamacare and the takeover of America’s healthcare system by the government the reason that this application has been held up and not approved?”

Catherine Engelbrecht, president of the Houston-based True the Vote, first filed for tax-exempt status in July 2010. At one point, Engelbrecht – who is still awaiting a determination from the IRS regarding her voting rights organization and a separate tea party group, King Street Patriots – said an IRS employee informed her: “I’m just doing what Washington is telling me to do. I’m just asking what they want me to ask.”

The IRS did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

.
Click HERE For Rest Of Story

.

Once again Democrats sticking their nose in where it does not belong

Via Weasel Zippers

Via WaPo:

A D.C. Council member is preparing to introduce a resolution calling on the Washington Redskins to change its name, perhaps to the Washington Redtails.

Council member David Grosso, an independent elected last year, said he plans to pursue his non-binding resolution because the current name is “a derogatory, racist name.”

“It’s been a long time that we’ve had this name associated with Washington, and I think its time we take a stand and change it,” Grosso said.

Grosso is circulating his resolution to other council members to try to get co-sponsors. So far, he said, council members Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) have agreed to sign on to it.

Just think how much better we would all be if busy body legislators kept their focus on important mattes rather than trying to dictate every move we make.

 

Marco Rubio: Corrupted By Washington In Only Two Years

Marco Rubio: Corrupted By Washington In Only Two Years – Canada Free Press

It’s hard to believe that Marco Rubio has only been in the Senate since January 2011. With the way he has been going on lately, telling conservatives what a bunch of unenlightened rubes we are for objecting to his immigration reform, you would think he’d been a Senator for 20 years.

.

The once Tea Party favorite, whose chances of being elected President are now on par with Mark Sanford, has been at the forefront of jamming the Democrat’s dream of opening the immigration floodgates through Congress, an effort that shares many the hallmarks of the passage of Obamacare:

Put together in the dead of night by Washington insiders with zero transparency. Check.

Rushing the bill through the legislative process as fast as humanly possible before the opposition can get their act together. Check.

Refusing to accept even the barest hint of cooperation with Republicans who aren’t RINOs. Check.

We’ll have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it! Check.

Representing everything the Tea Party movement has dedicated itself against Rubio is blazing a trail of lies and deceit that must make Obama proud.

Despite Rubio’s assurances that legalization efforts won’t go into effect until after the border is secure, a multitude of analysts have shown this to be a complete falsehood. Once DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano says the border is secure, whether it is or not, the bill goes into effect. Trusting someone who is stocking up on hundreds of millions of rounds of ammo, more than enough to conquer all of Asia Minor, isn’t exactly what most conservatives would call a good bet.

Other fun facts that Rubio has neglected to mention during his magical media tour include:

1, The immediate shutdown of the E-verify system.
2. The potential for 33 million newly minted American citizens in only the first 10 years – a “conservative” estimate, the actual total could be much higher.
3. A permanent voting majority for Democrats guaranteed to last a generation.
4. Making it illegal for law enforcement to arrest and deport anyone who “appears eligible” for legalization.
5. Allowing judges the ability to waive what is now mandatory deportation for certain classes of criminal aliens.
6. Free “Obama phones” for immigrants as they cross the border.
7. A gigantic boon for immigration lawyers as countless appeals, court appearances and so on are granted to illegals before they can be deported.

And that’s just what we know so far. With the endless ability for the DHS Secretary to grant exceptions to not only individuals, but entire “classes of aliens” from conforming to the law, things could get much worse.

The question conservatives are asking themselves lately is why would Rubio serve as a patsy for this clearly dangerous legislation? The answer is he is corrupt. Corrupted by a Washington culture where the elites think they are smarter than us, that they have the power to tell us what to do and who we have to accept into our communities, regardless of the cost to our society and pocketbooks. Where attending Georgetown cocktail parties attended by only the very best sort makes them better than the common people they lord over. A symptom of a government that is no longer of the people, by the people, for the people, but now only for the elite.

From Tea Party favorite to corrupt Washington insider in only two years, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Marco Rubio.

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

.

Your Marxist Morons of the Day are……….

Washington State. Yes, the entire state. Why you Ask? Well, for banning words like penmanship, and fisherman among other words deemed “sexist”

The war on the English language from gender-neutrality advocates has reached new lows in Washington state, where the governor signed a new piece of legislation dictating that the terms “fisherman,” “freshman,” and “penmanship” all be replaced because of alleged sexism. “Fisherman” will now be “fisher”; “freshman” will now be “first-year student”; “penmanship” will now be “handwriting.”

The idiot who sponsored this bill, shared her complete lack of common sense

“This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman,” said Democratic state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle.

The new gender-neutral references, for example, include “journey-level plumber” instead of “journeyman plumber,” “handwriting” in place of “penmanship,” and “signal operator” for “signalman.”

“There’s no good reason for keeping our legal terms anachronistic and with words that do not respect our current contemporary times,” Kohl-Welles, the 475-page bill’s sponsor, told Reuters.

Several words, however, aren’t easy to replace, said Kyle Thiessen, the state’s code reviser, who heads up the 40-staff Washington Code Reviser’s Office agency.

The state likely won’t change the words “airmen” and “seaman,” for example, because of objections by the state’s Washington Military Department, he said.

Civil engineering terms such as “man hole” and “man lock,” also will not be changed because no common-sense substitutes could easily be found, Thiessen said.

Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns “she” and “her” to augment the existing “he” and “his,” Thiessen said.

The bill passed the Democrat-controlled state House 70-22 on April 9 and unanimously cleared the state Senate on February 8 before being signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee.

Got that kids? Out of 92 state representatives 70 voted for this excursion into stupidity! Dear Lord how stupid are these people? They actually think this is the proper role of government? I think the Pit of Liberal Stupidity just got a tad deeper

Why are four letters so tough for the GOP leadership?

Come on folks, how hard are the letters B L O and G? Maybe they should get their heads out of their, well, that place their heads should never be, and realize that most of us do this EVERY day, not for cash, or fame, but because we LOVE this nation and are fighting like Hell for it. We do not have whiteboards, or talking point memos. No we are not scripted, programmed talking heads What we do have is original ideas, principles, and a burning desire to help deliver the Conservative message. So, given these facts, why did the RNC report ignore bloggers? Stacy McCain ponders that question

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection spots the omission:

Even when the report does mention “social media,” it’s in the context of getting out the vote or having the party apparatus find a better way to reach voters.
I would not be surprised if the RNC spoke with some of the salaried conservative media class who share the Washington professional circuit.  But did they reach out to the Army of Davids who are the anti-thesis of the consultant model because we mostly don’t get paid or make much money blogging, we do this in our “spare” time, and we are outside D.C.?
Did the RNC get any input from the great unwashed conservative blogosphere? You wouldn’t know it from the report if it did . . .

Read the whole thing. The idea of “citizen-journalism” is quite nearly alien to the consultant class. The teamwork concept of voluntary collaboration mystifies people for whom politics is a paid gig. Take away their consulting fees, and these guys wouldn’t have anything to do with politics.

There is nothing wrong with applying the entrepreneurial spirit to politics — “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn” — so long as the rewards bear some relation to results. As I’ve often said about the hindsight criticisms leveled at the Romney campaign, nobody would have cared what they got paid, if only they had won the election.

The massive stumbling clusterf–k of the Romney campaign’s ”Project ORCA” exposed the fact that greedy incompetents were being paid ginormous fees to do jobs they didn’t actually know how to do. There is a difference between making a living and making a killing, you see.

The GOP ignoring bloggers is akin to a coaching staff leaving motivated, talented players out of his game plan.

CNN regular Robert Zimmerman blames Chicago violence on budget cuts that have not happened yet

The Left’s ability to tell lie after lie is amazing. They really do not even fake attempts at honest debate any more. Take Democratic strategist bull shit artist Robert Zimmerman for example

“[L]et’s be very clear about what’s happening in Washington today, and why it’s undermining the city of Chicago — because there’s a mindset now in our government, in Washington, from the Republican members of Congress, that sequestration is an acceptable way of doing business, that we can in fact engage in these massive irresponsible cuts that no one thinks is a logical approach to budgeting,” Zimmerman said. “And that undermines law enforcement in our cities; it undermines so many education opportunities for our younger people and it does in fact create an impoverished class of our society that leads to abuse, leads to violence and leads to more Chicagos.”

Man you really need hip waders on to listen to such verbal sewage frankly. In the first place, there have been no massive budget cuts, certainly the cuts if we get sequestration, which was Obama’s idea, are very small, despite the Left’s talk of Armageddon. So, to believe this pile of lies, you have to believe that budget cuts that have not happened yet undermined educational opportunities for gang bangers in Chicago, a city run by Democrats for decades, causing them to kill each other, and innocent people. 

WOW! Is that what it is like to be a political strategist now? Basically, you just lie through your teeth? 

 

Ted Cruz dismantles Dianne Feinstein’s gun grab bill

You go Ted!

Feinstein, in introducing the bill, invoked the Sandy Hook tragedy, saying, “If 20 dead children in Newtown wasn’t a wakeup call that these weapons of war don’t belong on our streets, I don’t know what is.”

“Washington politicians shouldn’t be taking advantage of recent tragedy to try to push an aggressive gun control agenda,” Cruz said. “Real assault weapons — machine guns — are already functionally illegal, and they have been since 1934.”

Cruz noted Feinstein’s “proposal would have done nothing to prevent the terrible murders in Newtown, but it would limit the constitutional liberties of law-abiding citizens.”

“And gun control doesn’t work – the empirical data overwhelmingly demonstrate that strict gun-control laws consistently produce more crime and more murders,” Cruz added. “The Second Amendment exists to ensure that law-abiding Americans can protect their homes and families, and I look forward to helping lead the fight to defeat this bill and to protect our constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

Amen Senator!

 

The Other McCain: Monday is over, but these next four years are gonna suck

Why did I not watch the coronation yesterday? Because Monday was only the beginning of the ass kissing the media is going to engage in for Dear Leader. I fear it will get so bad the FCC might deem the media coverage unfit for anything except pay-per-view.

Others who chronicled the event now have stains on their pants from the orgasmic gush. Chris Matthews emitted his usual effusion of idiocy, and over on the Third-Place Cable News Network With Lower Ratings Than MSNBC (The One That People Only Watch When They’re Stuck in Airports), Jim Acosta was trying to out-gush Matthews:

“You know, I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can’t believe I have this vantage point of history in the making . . . It’s good to be the President. It’s almost like being a rock star on every street corner of Washington on this day.”

Our nation is being destroyed, and the press corps is reduced to the role of partisan pom-pom girls for The Great Destroyer. Meanwhile, the alleged leaders of the opposition have no clue of how to rescue themselves from their current condition of helpless impotence. The search for any reason to smile amid this catastrophe — which I blame entirely on the gross ineptitude of the overpaid dimwit fratboys running the Republican Party — turns up precious few nuggets of encouragement:

All I can say is SIGH!

 

When is Joe Biden going to head a task force on Breast Control?

No I am not making light of this man’s death by breasts, but, I am just saying that if new laws on assault breasts could, to use the Liberal line, “save just one life”

A Washington woman is accused of using her breasts to smother and kill her boyfriend after an altercation at their mobile home.

Donna Lange, a 51-year-old woman from Everett, Wash., is believed to have suffocated her boyfriend to death with her breasts on Saturday, Jan. 12, according to Seattle’s KIRO 7 Eyewitness News. Deputies, called to the Airport Inn trailer park at 12:45 a.m. for a disturbance report, found medics performing CPR on Lange’s 51-year-old alleged boyfriend, who was later pronounced dead at Swedish Hospital.

Kiro 7 reports that witnesses claims they saw Lange throw her boyfriend down in the back of the mobile home. She was later found by witnesses with her chest covering the victim’s face. Police noted the size difference between Lange and her boyfriend — she was 5-feet, 6-inches and 192 pounds, he was 5-feet, 7-inches and 175 pounds.

Just as  aside note, how much comedy gold could be mined out of Joe Biden talking about assault breasts? Talk about the 38DD of Gaffes!

 

Oh here we go! Jay Carney gives us the obligatory Liberal line…”

….if it saves the life of just one child”

JAY CARNEY: If these things were easy, they would have been achieved already. If renewal of the assault weapons ban were easily accomplished, it would not need renewing because it would have happened already. The fact of the matter is the president is committed to pushing these proposals. He is not naive about the challenges that exist, but he believes that, as he said yesterday, if even one child’s life can be saved by the actions we take here in Washington, we must take those actions.

Well you can make that argument about pretty much anything can’t you? And the saddest part? There are really people out there that eat this crap up! And yes Kabuki Theater like this too!

 

Carney said that the president will be joined by Vice President Joe Biden as well as children who wrote to the president after the Newtown shootings.

“They will be joined by children around the country expressing their concerns about gun violence and school safety, along with their parents,” Carney confirmed.

The press conference will take place Wednesday at 11:45 a.m.

Using kids as props, typical emotionalism

Just one question for Mr. Pay Their Fair Share

Why not ask for people to donate to charity or to pay down that nasty deficit rather than selling political access?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Planners of President Barack Obama’s second inauguration are making an unprecedented solicitation for high-dollar contributions up to $1 million to help pay for the celebration in exchange for special access.

The changes are part of a continuing erosion of Obama’s pledge to keep donors and special interests at arm’s length of his presidency. He has abandoned the policy from his first inauguration to accept donations up to only $50,000 from individuals, announcing last month that he would take unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations.

Why Mr. President?

*LIVE STREAMING* NFC Wilcard Game – Seattle Vs. Washington (01/06/13 – 4:30pm ET)

–

LIVE STREAM 1

LIVE STREAM 2

.
Click HERE to visit the official NFL GAME CENTER page for this game.

.

Arne Duncan explains Collectivism

Here you go, our Education Secretary, Arne Duncan touts our rights, as secondary to common values, in other words the common good that Marx and Engels espoused

Americans value their children, their safety, and the right to pursue their dreams without fear — and those “common values” trump the rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last Friday in aspeech at a Washington, D.C., elementary school.

In the coming weeks, Duncan said he plans to spend a lot of time visiting schools and communities — to talk about gun violence:

“I want to talk to gun owners and hunters and sport shooters and ask them, what should we do? I want to talk about community and responsibility, and I want to talk about values — because we have common values that go far beyond the constitutional right to bear arms.

There you are, Collectivism defined by a Collectivist. Individual natural rights? Not if our “common values” are offended. Of course, once we as a nation sacrifice our natural rights on the Altar of Collectivism, we will seal our fate, soon no one will have any right that the government does not grant us. Rights that same government will then hold the power to revoke at their whim.

 

Fiscal Cliff update! Speaker Beohner offers up tax hikes on millionaires

Point one. Boehner ought to know better, Obama is seeking to use this issue to cripple the GOP. 

Point two. This added revenue will do nothing to reign in the deficit, because it does nothing to reign in the real  problem SPENDING!

Point three. No matter what Boehner and the party do, the Democrats and media will still blame them for everything.

Point four. Once you abandon your principles the game is over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Signaling new movement in “fiscal cliff” talks, House Speaker John Boehner has proposed raising the top rate for earners making more than $1 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said. President Barack Obama, who wants higher top rates for households earning more than $250,000, has not accepted the offer, this person said.

The proposal, however, indicated progress in talks that had appeared stalled. The person would only discuss the plan on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

As part of a broader budget deal, Boehner is still seeking more spending cuts than Obama has proposed, particularly in mandatory health care spending. Boehner has asked for a long-term increase in eligibility age for Medicare and for lower costs-of-living adjustments for Social Security.

Point five. Who wants to bet that those spending cuts never happen? Who wants to bet the Democrats are calling for more spending by next Summer?

 

Because only CERTAIN political causes are political to the Left

RS McCain looks at how the Left looks at “political” causes

You see, not all “political causes” are created equal:

After her daughter’s eighth grade math teacher wore an anti-gay marriage pin to school, Cynthia Deford, a gay parent in Port Angeles, Washington, started an online campaign to ban teachers from promoting political causes in the classroom.
The Steven’s Middle School teacher, who has remained unnamed, wore a button to class in the days before the Nov. 6 election that stated “No on 74: one man + one woman = marriage,” according to Deford. The political message refers to Washington’s Referendum 74, which legalized gay marriage in the state, passing with 52 percent of the vote.
Although Port Angeles School District Superintendent Jane Pryne told the Peninsula Daily News that the issue has been addressed, and the school district already has policy regarding politics in the classroom in place, Deford wants more to be done; she is calling for an official apology and sensitivity training for teachers.
“It just shocked me that it happened here,” Deford told the Peninsula Daily News.
In her online petition on SignOn.org, Deford wrote that her daughter came home upset after seeing a teacher — who she once thought highly of — wear such a discriminatory button in class.

She wants to “ban teachers from promoting political causes in the classroom,” but tolerance toward homosexuality . . . Well, that’s notpolitical. That’s just the way things are. Unless you question “the way things are,” and then you’re evil.

So the agenda now is compulsory approval. Everyone must pledge allegiance to the Rainbow Flag, and once you are forbidden to disapprove of homosexuality, logically, your refusal to participate in gay sex will be classified as an unacceptable form of “discrimination.”

This isn’t about “equality” or “liberation.” No, it’s about homo hegemony, as the fanatics seek to secure a privileged and superior status for themselves and their preferences. That’s not disco music you hear, it’s the sound of hobnailed boots marching over broken glass.

Tolerance gradually reveals itself as totalitarianism, and it’s amazing that people acquiesce to such bullying. According to a recent Gallup survey, 3.4 percent of Americans identify themselves as “LGBT,” to use the de rigeur acronym. Why should 96.6 percent be compelled to kowtow to the sensibilities of the 3.4 percent?

The most important part, to me anyway, is that last paragraph, especially these words Tolerance gradually reveals itself as totalitarianism. Truer words have never been uttered, tolerance, and its bastard cousins, inclusion and sensitivity are used by the Left not to create a more forgiving atmosphere, or to urge folks to be more polite. Instead these words have been rebranded by the Left, to have completely different meanings than they traditionally have. Tolerance is not tolerance anymore, or acceptance, it is now used as a weapon to silence ideological beliefs the Left finds distasteful. Sensitivity has become a tool to force Liberalism on those that dare holds views that are not Liberal. Inclusion? HA! That is a word used to “include” only certain viewpoints, all others are demonized, ostracized and most certainly excluded from debate. 

For example, take what McCain writes above. there is nothing hateful, or bigoted in his words, but, since he makes solid points that might persuade people he is correct, the Left must either silence his message or assassinate his character. And since The Other McCain will never stop expressing his views, or defending his principles, he must be discredited so that no one listens to anything he says. Further, look at what I wrote here, nothing Homophobic there. In fact I do not have issue with Gay marriage, or with Gay adoption, or with civil unions. But, that will not matter, any Leftist reading my words will attempt to paint me as an evil homophobe, because only certain views are to be tolerated by the “tolerant Left”!

Romney collects food, supplies for hurricane victims, MSNBS outraged!

MSNBS, redefining pathetic

NewsBusters reported:

After introducing his Obama-supporting guests Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Lehigh professor James Peterson, host Martin Bashir played a clip of the President speaking at the Red Cross headquarters in Washington Tuesday.

When the clip concluded, Bashir said, “Mayor Reed, so the Red Cross knows what it’s doing. Did he, did you detect perhaps a subtle dig there on Mr. Romney who spent today going against the guidelines established by the Red Cross and holding a campaign rally in Ohio that was dressed up like a charity drive collecting food and other supplies when the Red Cross expressly asked people not to do that?”

Imagine that. A presidential candidate who gives millions of dollars a year to charity does a storm relief event in Ohio, and an MSNBC anchor is disgusted by it because the Red Cross would prefer people donating cash.

Unbelievable, these are the most ideologically rigid people in the country. Smitty ponders how long before they are calling Romney a RAAAAACIST, ans a SEXXXXXIST for cutting a campaign spot for Mia Love

 

See how a candidate papers over his misogyny and xenophobia with kind words? Don’t believe your lying eyes and ears. Listen to what Uncle Dave Axelrod says: Republicans hate all non-rich, white, suburban people. All this talk of balanced budgets is just thinly-veiledraaaaacism. Just keep calm, carry on smartly, and stay on the plantation.

How dare Romney support a Black woman who dares to be a Conservative?

 

Best sign for a Romney/Ryan victory? The GOP “pros” whoever they are are pissy about Ryan pick

The Lonely Conservative has the details, and thinks, as I do, that this is very positive news.

The top story on memeorandum today is Politico’s piece citing all sorts of unnamed Republican “pros” who are fretting about Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan to be his running mate. What do they think, that the Democrats wouldn’t come out and attack and demonize whoever Romney chose? If so, they have no business being in the business of politics.

And the more pessimistic strategists don’t even feign good cheer: They think the Ryan pick is a disaster for the GOP. Many of these people don’t care that much about Romney — they always felt he faced an improbable path to victory — but are worried that Ryan’s vocal views about overhauling Medicare will be a millstone for other GOP candidates in critical House and Senate races.

Let’s get to the caveats: No one is asserting that Washington operatives in either party are oracles or seers. What’s more, it is not as if there is anything like unanimity in GOP circles about the merits of the Ryan pick, though the mood of anxiety and skepticism is overwhelming.

Most of all, if you are one of those people who thinks if someone has something negative to say, they should have the guts to put their name on it, you won’t find much to impress you in this article. Nearly all the Republican professionals interviewed for this story said they would share their unfiltered views only “on background” rules of attribution. (Read More)

Hmm. I wonder if they are some of the same pros who told us that John McCain was the man to run against Hillary Clinton in 2008. How’d that work out for us?

Then again, it could be plain old fashioned sour grapes.

It would be interesting to know how many of these pros didn’t get hired by Romney or their paymasters weren’t chosen or even considered for VP by him.

And then, the GOP “pros” said we cannot win

Go read the rest folks. These “pros” are often wrong, and often are afraid of the GOP nominating a candidate that is too Conservative. They are sort of like that football coach that ALWAYS punts on 4th and short, ALWAYS plays it safe, and usually loses.

Remember that obnoxious song “Send in the Clowns”?

 

Yes, it is quite possibly the worst song ever, but, this post is about another song. A song sung by unions “Send in the Thugs”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor unions plan to send out more than 300,000 volunteers later this month to canvass voters to support President Barack Obama’s re-election.

The effort begins on Aug. 25, when activists fan out across 27 states during a national “day of action.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says a record 400,000 union-based volunteers will be knocking on doors and talking to voters in all 50 states later this year.

For the first time, unions can use their funds to target non-union households as well as those with family members in a union. That change comes as a result of the Supreme Court’s landmark campaign finance decision in Citizens United.

I cannot wait till they knock on my door

 

What Liberals will never understand about the free market

You might wonder what a story about liquor in Washington state have to do with Liberals and their grasp, or lack thereof, of the free market. Well, this story I found at Weasel Zippers will help fill in the blank

Idaho liquor sales surge near Washington border

Idaho state liquor officials say Washington’s newly privatized liquor market is giving a boost to Idaho’s already-rising liquor sales.

The surge in Idaho border-store sales mirrors a surge in Oregon, where sales near the Washington border rose 35 percent in June, bringing Oregon $870,000 more than usual. That’s just a hair more than Idaho’s border-store sales increase last month. Oregon, like Idaho, has a state-run liquor market.

Washington voters last year approved privatization of the state’s liquor business, opening up liquor sales to grocery stores and other retailers. That came with a new 10 percent distributor fee plus a 17 percent retail fee to replace money the state lost when it shut down its state-run liquor stores. The result was higher prices for consumers at many retail outlets.

Idaho sold about $153.6 million worth of booze in the 2012 fiscal year that ended June 30. That was the equivalent of 968,000 cases of a dozen 750-milliliter bottles and a one-year rise of 6.7 percent, said Jeff Anderson, who heads the State Liquor Division.

The state broke its record for net income on liquor sales, earning $55.5 million or about 10 percent more than in fiscal 2011. That’s partly because people paid more for each bottle, “trading up to premium and super-premium products,” Anderson said.

But it’s also likely because of Washington shoppers driving across the border for lower prices. The eight Idaho-run stores near Washington sold about 33 percent more liquor in June than the same month last year, Anderson said. The state’s overall June sales were 14 percent higher.

Yes, Washington voters moved to privatize the booze business, but the state popped those fees, 10% on distributors and 17% on retailers. Those costs were passed on to consumers. Those consumers sought out their products at cheaper prices, and Washington state is losing revenue. Of course, the state could cut those taxes and more folks would be in state. This is what the Left does not get. As one commentor at Weasel Zippers put it  “if you tax it they will flee”.

Beware those Wal Mart specials

Via The Blaze

LEWISTON, Idaho (The Blaze/AP) — A man says he reached down to pick up a stick lying in the outdoor gardening aisle of a Walmart in eastern Washington state, only to discover that it was a rattlesnake that then bit his hand.

Mica Craig says he was shopping in the outdoor garden department of a Clarkston store when he was bitten Saturday. The 47-year-old man says it latched onto his hand and that he screamed, shook loose the snake and stomped it to death. More specifically, according to the Lewiston Tribune, he said he “did a tap dance on it and got it killed.”

The Tribune in Idaho reports a bystander drove Craig to an emergency room in nearby Lewiston. The Boise Weekly reports he was sent home at first without treatment as it was believed no venom was injected, but when he got home his arm had swelled to the “size of a cantaloupe.” This time at the hospital, he said he received six bags of anti-venom and was told his hand would be permanently disfigured.