http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/ Marriage, birth, divorce, transitions, widowed, career, retirement, transitions, death, moving, rules of life, aging, caregiving, life events, life changes http://www.estatevaults.com/images/bol_banner_thumb.jpg http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/ 92 40 en-us jillfallon@gmail.com Jill Fallon Copyright 2013 Jill Fallon 2013-05-22T00:20:54-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/22/a_respite_for_w.html Jill Fallon Disasters, natural and manmade 2013-05-22T00:20:54-05:00 From Slashdot Cell Phones As a Dirty Bomb Detection Network "The Idaho National Laboratory has built a dirty bomb detection network out of cell phones. Camera phones operate by detecting photons and storing them as a picture. The INL... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/22/a_respite_for_w.html From Slashdot Cell Phones As a Dirty Bomb Detection Network "The Idaho National Laboratory has built a dirty bomb detection network out of cell phones. Camera phones operate by detecting photons and storing them as a picture. The INL discovered that high energy photons from radiological sources distort the image in ways detectable through image processing. KSL TV reports that the INL's mobile app detects radiation sources and then reports positive 'hits' to a central server. Terrorists deploying a dirty bomb will inevitably pass by people carrying cell phones. By crowdsourcing cell phones, the INL has created a potentially very large, inexpensive, and randomly mobile radiation detection grid." First Responders Rescued Over 100 Survivors in Moore, Oklahoma in the Midnight Hours (Video) The faith and resiliency of Oklahomans On Tuesday morning, a helicopter was circling overhead and thunder rumbled from a new storm as 35-year-old Moore resident Juan Dills and his family rummaged through the remains of what was once his mother’s home. The foundation was laid bare, the roof ripped away and only one wall was still standing. They found a few family photo albums, but little else. “We are still in shock,” he said. “But we will come through. We’re from Oklahoma.” The Inspiring Story of What an Arizona Cop Did to a Teen She Found Walking 9 Miles An Arizona teenager working at a fast food restaurant had to walk nine miles home if he missed the last bus of the evening. Christian Felix still had several miles to go when Phoenix Sgt. Natalie Simonick spotted him around 11 p.m. last month. When she pulled over thinking he was breaking curfew, she learned he was 18 years old and thus not in violation, but she also learned a few other things about the young adult, ABC News reported. At a press conference last week she said she saw a strong work ethic in Felix, the local ABC affiliate KNXV reported. She also found Felix had never learned to ride a bike nor had he ever driven a car. “He never had a father in his life, so he had no one to teach him,” Simonick said. That’s when Simonick took it upon herself, asking her husband if they could give the teen their extra bike so he would have a more reliable form of transportation. Last month, she and other officers even gave him a lesson. Helen Mirren takes the Queen's place to grant a dying boy with Down's syndrome his fondest wish to have tea with the Queen of England After the show, Mirren, still dressed as the Queen and in character, invited the 10-year-old backstage to have tea and cakes served by footmen. She also introduced Burton to her corgis. “She stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that’s good enough for us,” the boy’s father, James Browne, said, according to the Daily Mail. Mirren also knighted 10-year-old Oliver, giving him the official title of “Sir.” http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/22/the_other_targe.html Jill Fallon Government 2013-05-22T00:19:20-05:00 Every day, we learn more about the IRS essentially silencing those who oppose the Administration's policies, but we'll learn nothing from Lois Lerner, the top IRS official when all this is going on because she's going to invoke the... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/22/the_other_targe.html Every day, we learn more about the IRS essentially silencing those who oppose the Administration's policies, but we'll learn nothing from Lois Lerner, the top IRS official when all this is going on because she's going to invoke the Fifth Amendment when she testifies before Congress on Wednesday.    But then again, it is unlikely that she even has a passing relationship to the truth.  The Nine Lies of Lois Lerner Because She Hasn’t Suffered Enough… Obama IRS Targeted 83 Year-Old Survivor Of a Japanese Concentration Camp IRS targeted the Conservative Hispanic Society Bill Donohue: IRS Targeted Catholic League Just weeks after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, I was notified by the IRS that the Catholic League was under investigation for violating the IRS Code on political activities as it relates to 501©(3) organizations. What the IRS did not know was that I had proof who contacted them to launch the investigation: Catholics United, a George Soros-funded Catholic organization. -- Korzen was dumb enough to share with CNN the complaint issued by his group to the IRS. The document, which was leaked to me by someone at CNN, matches up extraordinarily well with the IRS complaint of Nov. 24. IRS targeted Anne Hendershott, a Catholic writer and professor  who  writes it's now A Safe Time to Tell Your Story Unlike Mr. Donohue, I have no proof that my audit was politically motivated. I am describing the process not because I want the publicity; rather, I am hoping that now that Bill Donohue has led the way, others from the pro-life community who have been targeted by the IRS will come forward. It seems like a safe time now. Catholic, Pro-Life and Pro-Marriage Groups Also Targeted by IRS Catholic writer and professor Anne Hendershott wanted the public to know that Obamacare funds abortions.  So she wrote a series of articles critical of the Affordable Care Act in March of 2010.In May of that year, the IRS called. Hendershott finds herself among an emerging class of taxpayers who believe they were targets of special scrutiny and intimidation by the Internal Revenue Service for political reasons. -- Sue Martinek told the Register she ran into similar problems with the IRS, which demanded that she and others involved with a pro-life organization pledge to never protest Planned Parenthood — the country’s largest abortion business. -- John Eastman, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) believes one or more IRS employees committed a felony in March 2012 by sharing his organization’s private tax documents with the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that lobbies for same-sex “marriage.” The Human Rights Campaign published the documents on its website, publicly revealing the names of donors to the National Organization for Marriage. “The Human Rights Campaign was headed by Joseph Solmonese, who at the time had just been named national co-chair of the Obama election campaign,” Eastman told the Register. Crisis reports IRS Targets Catholic Critics of Obama Regime, It is not an overreaction to say that these IRS scandals sound like official favoritism of certain organizations and political viewpoints and an attempt to suppress opposition. -- This is the administration that has given us the HHS Mandate, supported the claim in the Hosanna-Tabor case that a religious body could not choose its own ministers, wouldn’t defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, increased federal financial support for Planned Parenthood, and is trying to stop military personnel from sharing their faith. This all indicates an agenda of hostility to traditional Christian morality and a willingness to share in the repressiveness that has come to characterize the political left. Jeffrey Lord writes Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun? President met with anti-Tea Party IRS union chief the day before agency targeted Tea Party. FOR 27 MONTHS the IRS Refused to Approve Tea Party Applications While DOZENS OF LIB GROUPS Were Granted Tax-Exempt Status Richard Epstein et al on The Real Lesson of the IRS Scandal Federal agencies from the FDA to the EPA to the FCC threaten the rule of law. The IRS and the Drive to Stop Free Speech: Such a scandal was bound to happen after the government started trying to rule the expression of political views. Armed DHS Agents Monitored Multiple Tea Party IRS Protests Today http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/22/the_dojs_war_on.html Jill Fallon Government 2013-05-22T00:10:39-05:00 DOJ investigators seized personal emails of Fox reporter When ordinary reporting is seen as criminal activity. The DOJ got the records because they claimed James Rosen, a Fox reporter, was a criminal co-conspirator. Michael Clemente, Fox News' executive vice... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/22/the_dojs_war_on.html DOJ investigators seized personal emails of Fox reporter When ordinary reporting is seen as criminal activity. The DOJ got the records because they claimed James Rosen, a Fox reporter, was a criminal co-conspirator. Michael Clemente, Fox News' executive vice president of news, defended Rosen in a statement issued Monday afternoon. "We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter," Clemente said. "In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press." Yesterday we learned that the DOJ also seized the phone records of Rosen's parents. Tonight we learned that the DOJ seized phone records of Fox News at the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and other operations and phone records of Fox executives.  More Shocking Details about DOJ spying on Fox News. Watchdog report says DOJ official retaliated against ‘Furious’ whistle-blower, lied about it The former U.S. Attorney for Arizona could be disbarred, after an investigation found he lied to the Justice Department about his role in trying to discredit the federal whistle-blower who exposed the botched gun-running scheme known as Fast and Furious. Dennis Burke -- the former chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed as U.S. Attorney for Arizona by President Obama in September 2009 -- lied when asked if he leaked sensitive documents to the press meant to undermine the credibility of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson. --- "We also concluded that Burke's disclosure of the Dodson memorandum was likely motivated by a desire to undermine Dodson's public criticisms of Operation Fast and Furious. Although Burke denied to congressional investigators that he had any retaliatory motive for his actions, we found substantial evidence to the contrary," the IG report, released Monday, said. Sharyl Attkisson's computers compromised Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative reporter, says that her personal and work computers have been compromised and are under investigation. -- Attkisson told WPHT that irregular activity on her computer was first identified in Feb. 2011, when she was reporting on the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal and on the Obama administration's green energy spending, which she said "the administration was very sensitive about." Attkisson has also been a persistent investigator of the events surrounding last year's attack in Benghazi, and its aftermath. Eugene Robinson, longtime Obama supporter, "Obama administration mistakes journalism for espionage"  Kirsten Powers, How Hope and Change Gave Way to Spying on the Press Turns out it’s a fairly swift sojourn from a president pushing to “delegitimize” a news organization to threatening criminal prosecution for journalistic activity by a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, to spying on Associated Press reporters. In between, the Obama administration found time to relentlessly persecute government whistleblowers and publicly harass and condemn a private American citizen for expressing his constitutionally protected speech in the form of an anti-Islam YouTube video. Where were the media when all this began happening? With a few exceptions, they were acting as quiet enablers. -- Yet only one mainstream media reporter—Jake Tapper, then of ABC News—ever raised a serious objection to the White House’s egregious and chilling behavior. --- Now, the Democratic advocacy group Media Matters—which is always mysteriously in sync with the administration despite ostensibly operating independently—has launched a smear campaign against ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl for his reporting on Benghazi. It’s the kind of character assassination that would make Joseph McCarthy blush. -- What all of us in the media need to remember—whatever our politics—is that we need to hold government actions to the same standard, whether they’re aimed at friends or foes. If not, there’s no one but ourselves to blame when the administration takes aim at us. Liberal Juan Williams: ‘Journalism Has Been Criminalized’ by DOJ According to The Washington Post’s original report on the topic, when the DOJ investigated in the leaking of classified information in 2009 about North Korea, it not only obtained Rosen’s phone records, but his personal emails as well. It used security badge records to track Rosen’s visits to the State Department, and the DOJ also traced the timing of his calls to Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, the government adviser suspected of leaking information to Rosen. In the court documents for the warrant to search Rosen’s personal e-mails – the “SUBJECT ACCOUNT” and “the Reporter” --  the FBI is cited as stating “there is probable cause to believe the Reporter has committed or is committing a violation of section 793(d), as an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator, to which the materials relate.” In The New Yorker, The Justice Department and Fox New's Phone Records Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that, as part of the investigation of the Kim leak, Obama’s Department of Justice seized e-mails from Rosen’s personal Gmail account. In the search warrant for that request, the government described Rosen as “an aider, and abettor, and / or co-conspirator” in violating the Espionage Act, noting that the crime can be punished by ten years in prison. Rosen was not indicted in the case, but the suggestion in a government document that a reporter could be guilty of espionage for engaging in routine reporting is unprecedented and has alarmed many journalists and civil libertarians. Suppress the press: The Obama administration’s history of targeting the media Investor's Business Daily: The Obama Objective: To Control The News For awhile, it looked like the White House wanted just to control "the narrative." But its seizure of AP phone records and surveillance of Fox employees now show its real aim: to control the news. The Obama political team at the White House has always prided itself on its media savvy. After all, they got a candidate with an otherwise unsalable socialist past elected on a campaign that sold his personality, not his platform. --- But it turns out their mastery of the press went a lot deeper than just the political arts. The latest news that the Justice Department investigated Fox News reporter James Rosen and two other newsmen in the normal course of their investigative reporting on a national security matter — coming on the heels of their seizure of Associated Press phone records — suggests an administration obsessed with controlling the news itself with a heavy hand reminiscent of totalitarian regimes. In the Guardian, Glenn Greenwald This week, the New Republic's Molly Redden describes what I've heard many times over the past several years: national security reporters have had their ability to engage in journalism severely impeded by the Obama DOJ's unprecedented attacks, and are operating in a climate of fear for both their sources and themselves. Redden quotes one of the nation's best reporters, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, this way: It's a huge impediment to reporting, and so chilling isn't quite strong enough, it's more like freezing the whole process into a standstill." -- That, of course, is precisely the point of the unprecedented Obama war on whistleblowers and press freedoms: to ensure that the only information the public can get is information that the Obama administration wants it to have. That's why Obama's one-side games with secrecy - we'll prolifically leak when it glorifies the president and severely punish all other kinds - is designed to construct the classic propaganda model. And it's good to see journalists finally speaking out in genuine outrage and concern about all of this. Breitbart News, A Culture of Intimidation   it is now more obvious than ever that this administration has, in the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), created a “culture of intimidation” that stretches from the White House down to myriad agencies of the executive branch. Department of Justice: … State Department: …. Internal Revenue Service: …. Department of Health and Human Services: …. Department of the Treasury: ….. Federal Bureau of Investigation: …… Department of the Interior: ……. Department of Homeland Security: …. Environmental Protection Agency: …… The intimidation comes from the top down in the Obama administration. And it is pervasive. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/21/operation_bbq_h.html Jill Fallon Disasters, natural and manmade 2013-05-21T11:57:41-05:00 Unlike hurricanes, floods, blizzards, there is no warning for tornadoes. Which makes them so terrifying.  You have only minutes to find a safe spot It is impossible for me to imagine the scale of the tragedy in Oklahoma.  At... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/21/operation_bbq_h.html Unlike hurricanes, floods, blizzards, there is no warning for tornadoes. Which makes them so terrifying.  You have only minutes to find a safe spot It is impossible for me to imagine the scale of the tragedy in Oklahoma.  At least 24 confirmed dead with 50 reported dead among them 20 children in an elementary school reduced to rubble by the tornado packing winds of up to 200 mph. So many parents searching for their children in desperation with communications down. So many homes destroyed and buildings and businesses. What can we do right now but pray for them all. I could see nothing but tragedy until I read about Operation BBQ Relief via Instapundit. Born in the aftermath of the terrific tornadoes that hit Joplin, Mo, Operation BBQ Relief served and delivered over 120,000 barbecue meals to residents in two weeks.    Headed off now to the ravaged areas of Oklahoma, OPeration BBQ relief is a 501© 3 charitable organization.  From its website: The mission of Operation BBQ Relief is to provide compassion and to offer hope and friendship to those whose lives have been affected by natural disasters across the United States through our expertise in cooking and catering barbecue meals and our ability to quickly mobilize our teams into any area where nature disrupts and tears apart the lives of Americans. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/21/bengahzi_where.html Jill Fallon Government 2013-05-21T09:17:01-05:00 Andrew McCarthy  Huma's Moonlighting? No Problem….Just Don't Mention Her Crescent Lighting Huma Abedin maintained her title as Secretary of State Clinton's deputy chief of staff even though she spent her time in New York taking care of her new... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/21/bengahzi_where.html Andrew McCarthy  Huma's Moonlighting? No Problem….Just Don't Mention Her Crescent Lighting Huma Abedin maintained her title as Secretary of State Clinton's deputy chief of staff even though she spent her time in New York taking care of her new baby and her husband, the disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner who tweeted himself naked to teenage girls.  Huma was permitted to moonlight as a "special government employee" who was paid $135,000/year who didn't have to disclose her other sources of income on the federal financial disclosure forms, income received as a  "strategic consultant" to Teneo, a global consulting firm as well as income received as a consultant to  the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Ms. Abedin began her long professional association with Mrs. Clinton in 1996, as an intern to the first lady in the Clinton White House. In the years that followed, she remained a Clinton staffer from the White House to the Senate, and eventually to the State Department. At the same time, she also served from 1996 through 2008 as assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, a publication founded by Abdullah Omar Naseef, a major financier of al Qaeda whose Islamic “charity,” the Rabita Trust, is a designated terrorist organization (on which Naseef colluded with Wael Hamza Jalaidan, an Osama bin Laden intimate who is one of al Qaeda’s founders). Naseef is a former secretary general of the Muslim World League, which Osama bin Laden described as one of al Qaeda’s primary funding sources. In the late seventies, he retained Abedin’s parents to run his newly formed Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs and edit its journal, which has been an Abedin family affair ever since. For seven years, Naseef overlapped with Huma Abedin at the journal, as a member of its advisory editorial board. He withdrew after 2003 — right around the time he was named as a defendant in the civil case brought by the victims of the 9/11 atrocities (a suit from which he was dropped in 2010 because a court found it lacked jurisdiction over him). The journal is still edited by Ms. Abedin’s mother, Dr. Saleha Abedin, who took over when Ms. Abedin’s father passed away. Both parents have had deep Muslim Brotherhood ties. In fact, Saleha Abedin runs an organization, the International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child, which is a part of the Union of Good — a major Hamas supporter and, yes, a designated terrorist organization run by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the top Muslim Brotherhood sharia jurist. I quote so extensively because Huma Abedin is Hillary's foremost Mideast adviser.  I wonder what role she played in advising Hilary Clinton on the night of the attack.    After all, women played big roles before and after the attack in Libya.  The Benghazi scandal’s female factor So what was discussed in The 10 PM Phone Call between Clinton and Obama?  Andrew McCarthy again. Obama and Clinton had been the architects of American foreign policy. As Election Day 2012 loomed, each of them had a powerful motive to promote the impressions (a) that al-Qaeda had been decimated; (b) that the administration’s deft handling of the Arab Spring — by empowering Islamists — had been a boon for democracy, regional stability, and American national security; and © that our real security problem was “Islamophobia” and the “violent extremism” it allegedly causes — which was why Obama and Clinton had worked for years with Islamists, both overseas and at home, to promote international resolutions that would make it illegal to incite hostility to Islam, the First Amendment be damned. -- There is good reason to believe that while Americans were still fighting for their lives in Benghazi, while no military efforts were being made to rescue them, and while those desperately trying to rescue them were being told to stand down, the president was busy shaping the “blame the video” narrative to which his administration clung in the aftermath. --- We do not have a recording of this call, and neither Clinton nor the White House has described it beyond noting that it happened. But we do know that, just a few minutes after Obama called Clinton, the Washington press began reporting that the State Department had issued a statement by Clinton regarding the Benghazi attack. In it, she asserted: Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. -- CNS News asked Carney whether, in that 10 p.m. phone call, the president and Secretary Clinton discussed the statement that Clinton was about to issue, and, specifically, whether they discussed “the issue of inflammatory material posted on the Internet.” Carney declined to answer. UPDATE: The Difference it Makes: Hillary's Fingerprints on the Benghazi Video Narrative Hillary Clinton was the first senior Obama Administration official to publicly blame the video for the Benghazi attack.  ….We can tell where the video narrative did not come from: the career Foreign Service. __ By September 13, Mrs. Clinton blamed the video for the Benghazi assault explicitly. Speaking at a State Department meeting with the Moroccan President, she pinned not only the Benghazi attack, but the violent outbursts spreading across the Arab Middle East, on Muslim popular outrage triggered by the “disgusting and reprehensible,” “deeply cynical” video.  -- On September 14, Mrs. Clinton went all in. Speaking at Joint Base Andrews, in front of cameras, flag-draped caskets, and the families of four murdered Americans, she said, “[w]e’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with.” According to the parents of the former Navy SEALs at the ceremony, Clinton also privately blamed the video for their sons’ deaths, promising to “make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”  -- the video narrative predates the draft talking points, but was never included in them. This is key to identifying the source of the phony “video” narrative.  http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/21/we_have_lives_h.html Jill Fallon Culture and Society 2013-05-21T09:00:33-05:00 When entire classes of people have been targeted by the most powerful agency in Washington, the system of government has become corrupted.. The Enemies List more sinister that Nixon's or LBJ's Many have compared the recent scandals to past... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/21/we_have_lives_h.html When entire classes of people have been targeted by the most powerful agency in Washington, the system of government has become corrupted.. The Enemies List more sinister that Nixon's or LBJ's Many have compared the recent scandals to past presidential trespasses, such as Richard Nixon’s wiretapping of political “enemies” or Lyndon Johnson’s having the IRS audit them to silence or otherwise intimidate them. Those analogies are important, but mostly because understanding them properly teaches us what is new, and potentially more alarming, about the current IRS scandal. --- The enemies list à la Obama, which targets entire classes of people or organizations, is more dangerous to a free and open society because it paves the way for more systemic and widespread abuses by government. It is spawned by an insidious philosophy that discounts the intrinsic value and uniqueness of individuals. Group traits such as ideology, religious beliefs, occupation, military status, and even gun ownership trump individual qualities and come to define the citizen in the eyes of the increasingly intrusive government. James Tarento writes.  …. the IRS scandal was a subversion of democracy on a massive scale. The most fearsome and coercive arm of the administrative state embarked on a systematic effort to suppress citizen dissent against the party in power. Is the IRS scandal the worst political scandal in American history?  Bookworm says Yes. Why? Because you, the People, became the targets of a comprehensive federal government effort to stifle dissent, one made using the government’s overwhelming and disproportionate policing and taxing powers. All of the other scandals, going back to Andrew Johnson’s post-Civil War scandals, Warren G. Harding’s 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, Nixon’s Watergate, Reagan’s Iran-Contra, and Clinton’s Oval Office sexcapades have actually been narrowly focused acts of cronyism, garden-variety political chicanery, or personal failings. It’s been insider stuff. -- Once a government gets the bit between its teeth and starts targeting special interest groups, that is the end of freedom, not just for those first groups targeted, but for everyone. -- the IRS, an agency that has the power to destroy every person in America, did all of this on its own initiative. What we’re seeing in that case is the fall-out of a complete Leftist takeover of American institutions. We will have become a tyranny by bureaucracy (in no small part due to the fact that federal agencies are heavily unionized, and always with a Leftist slant), with the entire federal government irredeemably corrupt. Just how egregious the conduct of the IRS was is best understood by looking at some of the victims. The True Scandal can be seen in the story of  Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote and was targeted by the IRS, the FBI, the Texas OSHA and the Texas Commissission of Environmental Quality and the ATF. Other Tea Party groups decided not to form nonprofits at all after learning about her experience, she says. “They were scared,” she explains, “and you shouldn’t be scared of your government.” Catherine says the harassment has forced her to seriously reconsider whether her political activity is worth the government harassment she’s faced. “I left a thriving family business with my husband that I loved, to do something I didn’t necessarily love, but [which] I thought had to be done,” she says. “But I really think if we don’t do this, if we don’t stand up and speak now, there might not [always] be that chance.” John Kass writes in the Chicago Tribune that the IRS Scandal is a reminder of how he learned about The Chicago Way This scandal is about more than partisanship. It's bigger than whether the Republicans win or the Democrats lose. It's even bigger than President Barack Obama. Yes, bigger than Obama. It is opening American eyes to the fundamental relationship between free people and those who govern them. This one is about the Republic and whether we can keep it. And it started me thinking of years ago, of my father and my uncle in Chicago and how government muscle really works. ---- I couldn't understand how we could argue about politics over baklava and watermelon and coffee, but not put it into practice. We could support a political candidacy, we could donate or work for one or another politician that we agreed with. This is America, I said. "Are you in your good senses?" said my father. "We have lives here. We have businesses. If we get involved in politics, they will ruin us." And no one, not the Roosevelt Democrats or the Reagan Republicans, disagreed. The socialists, the communists, the royalists, everyone nodded their heads. Of Sarah Ingram, the manager of the IRS office that targeted these organizations, was promoted to head the office of the IRS that is implementing Obamacare.  Deroy Murdock says It is beyond outrageous that this secret policewoman — whose actions were at least execrable, if not illegal — would get within three time zones of any American's health-care data. She should be sacked before lunch and seriously considered for prosecution. The Stasi IRS? Where have we seen this sort of intensive scrutiny and record keeping before? Where have we seen the use of detailed records used to repress opposition to government? We saw it in Eastern Germany before the fall of the infamous Wall in 1989 in the form of the Stasi, the arm of the secret police, which kept voluminous information on every individual and every organization within that hapless and oppressed nation. Congress needs to give the IRS a dose of its own medicine, an audit from top to bottom.  I see no other way to clean up the "IRS rat's nest" than an Independent Special Counsel with subpoena power and so does Larry Kudlow The IRS was taking the Tea Party out of play for the 2012 election, as it looked to avoid a repeat of 2010 and another Tea Party landslide. If the IRS wasn’t politically targeting conservative groups, why did its leading spokespeople lie? This was not even cognitive dissonance. It was outright lying before Congress. Lois Lerner, a key player in the IRS’s tax-exempt division, is being accused by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee of no fewer than four lies. The inspector general’s report shows that she knew about the targeting problem in June 2011, but wouldn’t admit to it in correspondence with Congress over the next two years. -- Of course, Obama charged Treasury secretary Jack Lew with straightening this out. But Lew’s an Obama political operative. By the way, a special counsel will have to do a special investigation, since we’re already learning the inspector-general investigation was a very superficial operation. And an independent special counsel can investigate any possible White House connections with senior Treasury officials, connections that could lead to the Oval Office. -- [The IRS] is a massively important government agency. And now we know that it is fraught with corruption and a liberal-left political agenda. Only an independent special counsel could possibly straighten this mess out. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/daren_jonescu_w.html Jill Fallon 2013-05-17T15:35:52-05:00 Daren Jonescu writes Benghazi Reveals the Heart of Progressivism With what horrifying ease may a man be dispatched from this world -- from the company of his comrades, the home of his family, the embrace of his beloved, and... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/daren_jonescu_w.html Daren Jonescu writes Benghazi Reveals the Heart of Progressivism With what horrifying ease may a man be dispatched from this world -- from the company of his comrades, the home of his family, the embrace of his beloved, and the society of his fellow citizens.  In the end, a man's life is just an invisible wisp of air, barely felt and quickly lost.  We cling to and cherish life because, deep down, we know this of ourselves.  We begin our journey to full humanity, however, when we recognize and respect this truth in others.  To fail in this initial stage of our moral journey is to become something other than human, something lower, something degraded and ugly. Peggy Noonan This Is No Ordinary Scandal The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they're seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration's credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don't look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone. -- As always it comes down to trust. Do you trust the president's answers when he's pressed on an uncomfortable story? Do you trust his people to be sober and fair-minded as they go about their work? Do you trust the IRS and the Justice Department? You do not. -- A president sets a mood, a tone. He establishes an atmosphere. If he is arrogant, arrogance spreads. If he is to too partisan, too disrespecting of political adversaries, that spreads too. Presidents always undo themselves and then blame it on the third guy in the last row in the sleepy agency across town. -- All of these IRS actions took place in the years leading up to the 2012 election. They constitute the use of governmental power to intrude on the privacy and shackle the political freedom of American citizens. The purpose, obviously, was to overwhelm and intimidate—to kill the opposition, question by question and audit by audit. -- This is not about the usual partisan slugfest. This is about the integrity of our system of government and our ability to trust, which is to say our ability to function. Strassel: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top The bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service did exactly what the president said was the right and honorable thing to do. President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies. But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/fabulous_phrase.html Jill Fallon New words for emotions and new words 2013-05-17T10:18:10-05:00 Pope Francis has only been Pope for a couple of months, yet, he's already coined fabulous phrases that Matt Schmitz has inventoried together with their context. "God spray" "Satellite Christians" "identity card Christianity" "Teenagers for life" "Mr. Whiner" "Pickled... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/fabulous_phrase.html Pope Francis has only been Pope for a couple of months, yet, he's already coined fabulous phrases that Matt Schmitz has inventoried together with their context. "God spray" "Satellite Christians" "identity card Christianity" "Teenagers for life" "Mr. Whiner" "Pickled peppers" "Middle class of holiness" "Babysitter Church" "Rosewater faith" "Apostle of Babel" "Charitable NGO" "Odor of sheep" and yesterday, "gentrification of the heart". http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/the_first_taste.html Jill Fallon Just for Fun 2013-05-17T01:58:34-05:00 Charming.  I feel the same thing about Vegemite.... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/the_first_taste.html Charming.  I feel the same thing about Vegemite. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/odds_and_ends.html Jill Fallon Environment 2013-05-17T01:54:38-05:00 These links were saved for posts I never got around to, but they are still worth sharing. How listening to 'sad songs' heals the blues Listening to sad songs is best way to get over a break up as... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2013/05/17/odds_and_ends.html These links were saved for posts I never got around to, but they are still worth sharing. How listening to 'sad songs' heals the blues Listening to sad songs is best way to get over a break up as it has same soothing effect as a sympathetic friend, researchers find Heartbreak is 'worse in the digital age' Heartbreak is worse in the digital age because the history of the relationship lingers in photographs and messages posted on social networking websites, researchers claim…. The pervasiveness of content stored on computers, tablets and mobile phones "creates problems during a break-up" because the reminders of their relationship are ever-present. To Save The Job Market, Reduce The Medicare Eligibility Age To 55 Here we have the older workers, hobbling to the finish line, but unable to end the race. And here we have young workers, itching to get started, and they can't because there are no jobs, or no middle class jobs, for them. And the one thing that would cause the many older workers who have saved for retirement to be able to leave the workforce, and clear the way for those frustrated younger workers, is guaranteed medical care. --- If you really and truly want to make a dent in the persistent employment problem facing younger workers, allow anyone age 55 or above to buy into Medicare. Charge them annual premiums equal to what they would have to pay into Medicare at their same wage or salary until age 65 if they continued to work.  Green Jobs.  U.S. Government spent $11 Million per 'Green Job' Created. reports The Global Warming Policy Foundation The Top 50 Things That Disappear from Stores During an Emergency Pepper's history spiced with dark moments The pepper trade was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, the enslavement of countless others, the establishment of the opium trade in India and the extinction of the dodo…..Columbus didn't sail from Spain looking for Ohio; he was seeking the Far East and its spices, i.e., pepper What to say to a sick friend. For a Sick Friend: First, Do No Harm 1. Rejoice at their good news. Don't minimize their bad news. 2. Treat your sick friends as you always did—but never forget their changed circumstance. 4. Don't assume, verify 9. Let patients who are terminally ill set the conversational agenda. 10. Don't pressure them to practice 'positive thinking.' Nation Creating New STIs Faster Than New Jobs or College Grads The 19.7 million new STIs in 2008 vastly outpaced the new jobs and college graduates created in the United States that year or any other year on record, according to government data. The competition was not close. How America's Credit Reporting System Gets Away With 40 Million Errors According to the FTC, between 20 million and 40 million consumers could have errors on their credit reports that could hurt their credit score. Fish Oil and a Lesson in Happiness From Iceland Microbes manipulate your mind Bacteria in your gut may be influencing your thoughts and moods, raising the possibility that probiotics could be used to treat psychiatric illnesses Study: Reading for Pleasure Make Your Brain Grow, Literally Ross Douhat:  The Man in the Google Glasses might feel like a king of infinite space. But he’d actually be inhabiting a comfortable, full-service cage.