Former military official says poverty and anger in indigenous communities mean conditions for an "insurgency" are ripe.
Living standards for indigenous people on par with "third world" countries, buttressed by a large population of unemployed young men in a "warrior cohort", and easy-to-target economic infrastructure, all mean Canada has conditions for a potential indigenous "insurgency".
That's according to a new report penned by a former Canadian military officer for the MacDonald Laurier Institute, a think-tank supported by corporate executives.
"For many Aboriginal people in Canada, but especially for First Nations women and children, life on-reserve is dreary, dark and dangerous," wrote Douglas Bland in the report, Canada and the first Nations: Cooperation or Conflict? "Social fractionalisation significantly increases the risk of social conflict. The phenomenon provides motives for an insurgency," read the report, issued in May.
Bland refused interview requests from Al Jazeera, but conclusions from the Queen's University professor emeritus and 30-year military veteran have worried the Canadian establishment, especially in light of indigenous-led protests associated with the Idle No More movement, and Canada's increasing dependence on natural resource extraction.
'Ongoing injustice'
"The Canadian right-wing establishment is seizing on this to justify its own agenda of stricter controls and the continued criminalisation of native people who defend their rights," Taiaiake Alfred, chair of the centre for indigenous governance at the University of Victoria, and one of Canada's most influential aboriginal intellectuals, told Al Jazeera. "The positive elements of Canadian society - progressive values and social justice - are founded on the ongoing injustice of land theft and murder of indigenous people."
In November, Paul Martin, Canada's former prime minister and a business tycoon, echoed Alfred's comments, albeit in a softer tone. "We have never admitted to ourselves that we were, and still are, a colonial power," he said.
We have never admitted to ourselves that we were, and still are, a colonial power
Paul Martin, former prime minister
I see the Impoverished Chief has traded in the po' pony for a fancy Harley-Davidson.
ReplyDeleteThis propaganda clip fails miserably. Instead of the suffering, idle masses, we see Chief Complaint on his new $40,000 Harley, a beautiful new school, suffering indigs in fancy art studios, and well dressed kids.
DeleteEven I could make up a better propaganda clip.
This one makes one feel they are asking for the right to hunt buffalo from Harley back.
Chief Much Poverty didn't even have a po' pony before the Europeans showed up. They'd still be digging roots and trying on foot to herd the buffalo over the buffalo jump.
DeleteHave a little balance, please.
Make your donation to the North American Tribe of your choice at any of these sites -
Deletehttp://500nations.com/Indian_Casinos.asp
I doubt it. The "Nations" seem to actually have a significant amount of economic, and political power in Canada.
ReplyDeleteThey're giving the pipeline boyz fits in the Western Provinces.
Rufus is right.
DeleteThe recent slowdown in health care costs matters a lot for the federal government, which buys health benefits for tens of millions of Americans. It also turns out to matter significantly for retirees.
ReplyDeleteA couple retiring this year are projected to need $220,000 to cover their health care costs, a decrease of 8 percent from the $240,000 that Fidelity projected for those leaving the workforce in 2012.
For the past decade, the Wall Street Journal reports, this number has increased by about 6 percent annually. So to see it drop isn’t exactly normal. It’s largely due, Kelly Greene writes, “to lower-than-expected Medicare spending in recent years, as well as a reduction in projected Medicare spending in the near future” and “smaller payment increases to hospitals, doctors and health plans.”
Even with Medicare coverage, American seniors do end spending a significant amount on medical bills. This chart from the Fidelity report shows that retirees over 65 spend more on health care than food:
HC Costs Falling
You must be joking.
DeleteGoogle Heath Care cost rising.
The rate of increase is down to 3.9%.
ReplyDeleteDon't get caught with "Old facts."
Delete>>HC Costs Falling<<
Well, they ain't falling.
The rate of increase may be down somewhat, you may be right about that.
The first sentence read: "The recent slowdown in health care costs matters a lot for . . . ."
DeleteThe leading economies of the industrialized nations may not have a lot in common, but they are all afflicted by this: Inflation is too low.
ReplyDeleteThat was the astoundingly consistent theme out of a range of data released Thursday. Prices rose 1.1 percent over the 12 months that ended in April in Germany, 0.8 percent in France and 1.3 percent in Italy. In the United States, the consumer price index rose 1.1 percent over the last year. Japan reported surprisingly strong first-quarter growth this week as its aggressive new stimulus policies took effect, but that came against a backdrop of continued falling prices; its consumer price index fell 0.9 percent in the year that ended in March.
No Inflation
Social Security increases are not keeping up with the real inflation we already are experiencing.
DeleteAnd we need more?
These are trying times for us all. Some may feel their highest hopes dashed to the earth, their trust in their leaders misplaced, may wonder where to turn now, may be suffering from 'Political Letdown Syndrome' (PLS).
ReplyDeleteWith new revelations of wrong doing by high officials on every news day, it can be depressing.
People in this position should remember, and say to themselves:
"I am a good person."
Rufus certainly is a good person.
I don't know what you're up to, Bob; but, I'm pretty happy with the O'man.
DeleteWe're out of Iraq; he's disengaging from Asscrackistan; a lot of people are going to have decent healthcare for the first time; he's bringing the deficit down some, and doing it in a semi-balanced way, and he's done a pretty good job supporting renewable energy.
I'm very pleased with his administration, so far.
A couple of goofy moves by low/mid-level schmucks in the IRS, and Justice isn't going to change that.
Oh, and as someone so succinctly put it a couple of days ago:
DeleteOsama IS dead, and GM IS alive.
That was me:
DeleteEverybody but you got the sarcasm.
...as expected.
I got it, asshole. I just wanted to tweak you with it a little bit.
DeleteJust trying to be helpful to you in these trying times, Ruf.
DeleteDon't want you to become identified in your own mind with criminals.
>>I'm very pleased with his administration, so far.<<
But I see you are still in denial.
Even Chris Matthews has awoken, partially.
And Jon Stewart.
And, the reporters!!
Whose axe got ground down good.
Boehner Stands Next to printed version of Obamacare
ReplyDeleteRufanol II:
"3,000 pages is not that much."
OK, Genius, record yourself reading it out loud, then send us the mp3 file.
....we're slow readers.
You are one pathetic Mississippi FUCKING MORON.
ReplyDeleteBe kind to Rufus, Doug. Be positive. Be polite. Be helpful. Express concern.
DeleteThese are hard times for Rufus.
Rufus is a good person.
Hitler liked dogs and kids.
DeleteRufie's views fit right in with those of his neighbors:
ReplyDeleteDeath Spiral States
Mississippi Taker ratio: 1.49
The state ranks second to worst on the list of states burdened by a high ratio of takers (welfare recipients and state employees) to makers (private sector workers).
Yep, the prototypical Republican State. Right to work (er, starve,) pitiful level of spending on education, refusal of healthcare to the poor, even when the Federal Government is paying for it, and strongly anti-women's rights.
DeleteYet somehow the state ranks number 2 in spending on govt workers and welfare recipients.
DeleteNobody said it had to be spent efficiently.
The opposite is assured
...by design.
Bush's fault.
"A couple of goofy moves by low/mid-level schmucks in the IRS, and Justice isn't going to change that."
ReplyDelete---
You and BHO should never be compared to Nixon:
He only joked about turning the IRS against his enemies as happened to him.
(a left-wing legend, of course)
Rufie II and BHO are in Putin's league.
...except BHO is a star, Rufie a bat boy.
...by day.
ReplyDeleteBHO Cocksucker by night.
You really know how to impress, pineapple.
DeleteDoug!
DeleteReally!
We could talk about Shillary and Huma Abedin.
DeleteBut we shouldn't.
We should talk about Huma's attachment to the Muslim Brotherhood, this administration's most favored group.
The person in the IRS checking right wing groups was a known Obama contributer.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't have to tell him or her what to do:
It was expected.
...as with Holder, proved under Clinton, a known criminal release perp.
BHO was NOT PRESENT in the Illinois Senate
ReplyDeleteNOT PRESENT in Benghazi.
And NOT PRESENT at the IRS.
Nor Obamacare nor anything else done to bring this country to it's knees.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that this IRS attack on everyone's freedoms was not approved by the White House surpasses my credibility.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteDoesn't everything?
.
He told the truth today when he said he personally did not know the details of that report.
ReplyDelete(which was not the question, incidentally.)
...yet somehow all the groups supporting his campaign got the fast track,
Romneys?
...all derailed or mysteryiously leaked and outed in the press.
Funnies thing.
Rufie believes every word of it.
Genius that he is.
Not
Artfully changed the subject, did Barky.
DeleteAvoiding the direct question altogether.
He is very good at that.
.
DeleteRobert McNamara once said (paraphrase), "I never answer a question that I am asked, I answer the question I wanted to be asked."
.
"Funniest thing."
ReplyDeleteyep.
Very funny.
The funniest thing is probably Karl Rove's group (a 501-C-4 group) spending $70 Billion on campaign ads.
DeleteWant to compare Wall Street's total Donations to Obama vs Romney?
Delete...or total big money donations, period?
70 BILLION is pretty close to a hundred million.
Delete...to a Moron in Mississippi.
--
"A study Wednesday by the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks political spending, concluded that Rove's super PAC, American Crossroads, had a success rate of just 1 percent on $103 million in attack ads -- one of the lowest "returns on investment" (ROIs) of any outside spending group in this year's elections.
American Crossroads spent heavily, not just on Romney, but on attack ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates in eight states -- thanks to mega contributions from conservative donors like metals magnate Harold Simmons ($19.5 million), Texas homebuilder Bob Perry ($7.5 million) and Omni hotel chief Robert Rowling ($5 million.)
Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for American Crossroads, dismissed the Sunlight Foundation report.
"GOP super PACs helped keep the race close and winnable, despite Obama's massive financial advantage," he wrote in an email to NBC News. "On the Senate races, run the numbers. If you don't count the long-shot self-funders in CT and PA, Senate Democrats outraised their GOP opponents by $60 (million) this cycle – and that disparity is greater if you factor out GOP primary fundraising. The DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) outraised the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee) by another $20 (million). Few have reported on this."
See which industries funneled the most cash into the presidential race
"You can’t have an accurate view of the role of super PACs without the context of how Democrats leveraged incumbency to outraise their opponents by literally hundreds of millions of dollars," he added."
Wall St. Donations?
Delete:)
You really want to go there?
The financial sector has donated a whopping $37.1 million to Republican candidate Mitt Romney so far. The Obama administration’s haul? A measly $4.8 million.
Romney Crushing Obama on Wall St.
:) Yeah, I suppose that seventy big'uns was a bit large.
DeleteThe GOP’s most prominent political guru, Karl Rove, has Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) entity that spent $70 million during the 2012 campaign encouraging voters to cast their ballots for Republican candidates.
DeleteCrossroads GPS
>>>>Do not underestimate the psychological shock currently being processed by many members of the mainstream media and the low-to-medium information voters who rely on them for political analysis. To them, the election and re-election of Barack Obama, the first African American to hold the office of President of the United States, was a cause, a fulfillment of heartfelt dreams.....
ReplyDelete....People react with discomfort and hostility when their self-concept, their source of self-esteem, is threatened. It is subconsciously received as a challenge to one's status as a good person.
Three serial shocks (and their continuing aftershocks) are sufficiently grave to produce a form of trauma in those who hitched their hearts to Obama:
1. Facing proof from one of their own that Obama and his administration lied and then continued to lie to the faces of the White House Press Corps through Jay Carney about Benghazi casts serious doubt on other claims of his they have supported and defended;
2. Continuing revelations of the IRS's misbehavior toward the hated tea partiers and conservatives calls into question which side are the good guys (see point 1);
3. And finally the revelation that all their loyalty bought them no consideration at all when it came to secretly grabbing records of their communications in AP, tells them loyalty is one way street with this guy and his crowd.<<<<
May 16, 2013
The Mainstream Media Obama Psychodrama
By Thomas Lifson
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/the_mainstream_media_obama_psychodrama.html
Benghazi is a nothing sandwich. Now that the White House has made public the round of emails (that it released to the Republican Senators, and Congressmen months ago,) it's suddenly gone dead.
DeleteTwo at the IRS have already been fired, and more are sure to come.
The AP deal is troubling, but probably legal. In any case, none of it reaches Obama.
Life is short, guys; you need to find some sunlight.
The Three Scandals are a Witches Brew, Ruf -
Delete>>>>William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
from Macbeth
A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.
Enter the three Witches.
1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.<<<<
"I'm very pleased with his administration, so far."
ReplyDeletePure Genius deserves repetition.
Wait till Obama forces the Republicans to vote against raising the minimum wage right before the election next year.
DeleteIt won't be noticed amidst the coverage of the impeachment hearings.
DeleteI hope so. The last time the Republicans tried the "I" thing, Clinton actually picked up seats in a sixth year election - a virtually unheard of feat.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBenghazi was nothing.
Delete...if you don't give a shit about leaving guys behind.
You disgust me.
You don't sacrifice 40 for 4.
DeleteIt's not the way the job is done.
Of course, two were already dead; and the other two might have survived if they'd followed orders.
DeleteHow do you know 40 would have died? How do you know those that did escape Benghazi might not have been killed?
DeleteYou know no such thing.
You are blowing smoke.
So is everyone else.
DeleteAll I can say is, from what I know, I would have probably made the same decision the Generals made.
A hot urban LZ is a death trap.
As it was, they got in their cars, as ordered, and drove to the airport, and left town.
.
DeleteOf course, two were already dead; and the other two might have survived if they'd followed orders.
Which orders were those, Ruf?
.
I believe he's refering to the "orders from above" to stand down that the ex-SEALS ignored, instead choosing instead to fight to try to save their comrades.
Delete...but even tho they stood them off for hours, 2 against many, General Rufus knows that it woulda been a death trap for a larger force backed up by air-support unmatched in the World, much less in Libya.
None of us guys possess such stupendous insight.
"the same decision the Generals made"
Delete"The Generals" decided to reduce forces in Benghazi after the Brits evacuated because of death threats and deteriorating security, not Hillary, not POTUS.
"The Generals" were the ultimate source for the decisions made when our ambassador pleaded for help/his life not Hillary, not POTUS.
"The Generals" not Hillary talked to number 2 in command, Mr Hicks while our ambassador twisted in the wind.
NOT
"The Generals" not Hillary or POTUS, did not talk to Mr. Hicks again, when he became number 1 following the death of our ambassador, even as his men destroyed computers and fought to escape with their lives.
30 Americans escaped the attack
...even though it woulda been a death-trap for 40 had we sent in reinforcements.
General Rufus says so,
so it's gotta be.
Honest.
.
DeleteNo, you are wrong, Doug, as is the little colonel.
The two guys went to the State facility and helped get the people out. There was the mistaken info early on that 'they' had been ordered to 'stand down'. That info was wrong.
They helped get the people back to the annex somewhere around midnight. They died in the mortar attack on the annex five to six hours later.
.
"Benghazi is a nothing sandwich. Now that the White House has made public the round of emails (that it released to the Republican Senators, and Congressmen months ago,) it's suddenly gone dead."
ReplyDelete---
Who woulda guessed the MSM would cover for The One.
Following release of e-mails from 3 days after the attack which was known to all in real time.
Tell us, Rufie:
Where was your hero, and what was he doing on the night of Behghazi?
All I know is he was not present.
Fill us in, por favor.
He told his subordinates to 'do everything possible for the people at Benghazi', Doug.
DeleteThat is what he has told us he did.
Having fulfilled his duties as Commander - in - Chief, he then went to bed, and to Vegas in the morning.
You no believe?
I hope he told his Generals to do the best they could, and then got a few hours of sleep.
DeleteYou guys might as well relax.
DeleteYou have a black president, and you're going to have a black president for at least four more years
(I say, at least, because there's always Deval Patrick lurking in the background in case Hillary, and a few others, stub their toes.)
Yeah, that's the way it worked.
Delete...in your warped immagination.
Never then nor before in the World as it is, in fact.
Nobody EVER got a stand down order.
DeleteNobody even TRIED to help in SPITE of a stand down order.
in Rufieworld.
Ethanol-Fueled Dreams for him, a nightmare in reality.
He has said he told his underlings to do 'everything possible', so your hopes are vain.
DeleteIt was certainly possible to send some planes and people to at least find out what was happening. But there was a stand down order of some kind. I would really like to know from whom that order came.
Yep, he's BLACK.
DeleteThat's why you like him and we don't.
Rufie Good, Racists bad.
Want to compare ancestor's records?
Ruf is back to playing the racist card. Disregarding the fact we have been as hard on Shillary as Barky. Two peas in a perverse pod.
DeleteYou two have never been shot at in anger, and have absolutely NO Idea what happens in a War Zone.
Deletehint: you won't get a very good idea by watching John Wayne (or Chuck Norris) Movies.
Followed by his Trump Card.
DeleteSince I pay taxes, am I at least fit to comment about Scandal #2, Rufus?
DeleteCan't help it. There was a couple of hundred man-years of military experience behind those calls. And, they're being disparaged by a couple of guys that have never been in a war - and, one who has never even put on a uniform.
Delete#2? absolutely. But, common sense will suggest that there's not much use getting too "het up," in that the chances of it ever getting to the White House, much less the President, are probably about zero.
DeleteWell, I will anyway, better to ask forgiveness than permission.
DeleteI think the son of a bitch was turning the IRS into a type of Storm Trooper organization.
#2? absolutely.
DeleteWhy, thank you.
"You two have never been shot at in anger,"
DeleteNice that he knows our personal histories down to the details.
Probly searched all our local papers for armed robberies, right?
Little does he know that my face was less than two feet away from the muzzle of a .223 fired in anger.
...sorry, I left out attempted homicides.
DeleteWere you ever a Scout or 4 H'er Farmer Bob?
DeleteI served in the Cold War, 20 ought miles south of the DMZ, btw.
DeleteI-Corps Nuklear Artty
.
DeleteAnd there you have it, two for one.
First, our favorite projectionist, once again brings up the race card then, without a pause, the little colonel brings up the "Thank you for your service" card.
Stick around, I feel a trifecta coming on.
.
Rufie's in good company w/Chris and Reverend Al, though:
Delete"Chris Matthews’ toxic anti-conservative vitriol has spread onto other MSNBC shows, infecting them with his slanderous language. It is no secret that Matthews opposes the Tea Party as extremists, often times accusing them of outright racism towards President Obama.
Appearing on PoliticsNation with racist host Al Sharpton, Chris Matthews disgustingly claimed that a full 10-20 percent of this country:"
[w]ant this president to have an asterisk next to his name in the history books that he really wasn't president… They can't stand the idea that he is president. And a piece of it is racism. Not that somebody in one racial group doesn't like somebody in another racial group. So what? It is the sense that the white race must rule.
Matthews’ racist rhetoric didn’t stop there, essentially claiming that 20 percent of the nation are outright racist, although he had no evidence to back up the number he seemed to pull out of thin air:
That's what racism is. And they can't stand the idea that a man who is not white is president. That is real. That sense of racial superiority and rule is in the hearts of some people in this country.
To Matthews, a large percentage of the objection people have to Obama is racially motivated, disguised as dissatisfaction with things such as ObamaCare:
He wasn't really wasn’t the first African-American president. He really didn't do health care. He really didn't kill Bin Laden. There’s an asterisk. And they've been fighting for that, the people like Donald Trump since day 1. They can't stand the idea that he is president.
Unsurprisingly, NewsNation host Sharpton agreed with Matthews’ racist comments, saying that objection to Obama goes beyond garden-variety racism to white supremacy:
And you take away everything. And because that's what white supremacy is. And that's not calling all of them that. But clearly there is an element there.
Read more: Chris Matthews: 10-20 Percent Of America Don’t Support Obama Because They Believe ‘White Race Must Rule’
Good summation of political donors:
ReplyDeleteTop All-Time Donors, 1989-2012
...somehow those Govt Employees and Unionistas have a strong preference for Democrats.
Very Puzzling.
13 of top 16 strongly Democrat.
DeleteNot even close if you total the whole list up.
On this day in 1966, Bob Dylan released the album “Blonde on Blonde.”
ReplyDeleteHumorous interlude -
ReplyDeleteIRS "Cheatahs" cancel soft ball game -
>>BY: Alana Goodman
May 16, 2013 11:49 am
The IRS softball team canceled its previously scheduled game against Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn’s (R., Texas) office on Friday, as tensions between the IRS and conservatives mount in the face of widening scandal.
“Team Cornyn softball team was scheduled to play the IRS team on Friday, ‘the Cheetahs,’” Cornyn wrote on his Facebook page. “Game has been cancelled by IRS, without rescheduling.”
A spokesperson for Cornyn confirmed the last-minute cancellation but was unsure of the reason.<<
Heh
Big Day, Tomorrow. I'm going to turn this one over to My Generals. Oops, I don' have any Genruls. Oh well. Take the fort. I'll have a look at it tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGood night, Rufus. Sleep tight.
ReplyDeleteOne last thing :)
ReplyDeleteOne day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text.
CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday's official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
The GOP version of Rhodes' comment, according to CBS News: "We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation."
The White House email: "We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation."
The GOP version of Nuland's comment, according to CBS News: The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda's presence and activities of al-Qaeda."
The White House email: "The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings."
The news parallels a Tuesday CNN report which initially introduced the contradiction between what was revealed in a White House Benghazi email version, versus what was reported in media outlets. On Monday, Mother Jones noted that the Republicans' interim report included the correct version of the emails, signaling that more malice and less incompetence may have been at play with the alleged alterations.
PUbs altered emails
Hope springs eternal.
DeleteHuffington post, Mother Jones, Rufus, and Obama.
DeleteParagons of honesty, supporters of America as it was founded, first, last, and always.
Jeez, that was the Huffington Post again.
DeleteThings are going seriously wrong for Rufus.
Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.
ReplyDeletePresident 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.
Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. "He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?" asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.
Mr. VanderSloot is the Obama target who in 2011 made a sizable donation to a group supporting Mitt Romney. In April 2012, an Obama campaign website named and slurred eight Romney donors. It tarred Mr. VanderSloot as a "wealthy individual" with a "less-than-reputable record." Other donors were described as having been "on the wrong side of the law."
This was the Obama version of the phone call—put out to every government investigator (and liberal activist) in the land.
Twelve days later, a man working for a political opposition-research firm called an Idaho courthouse for Mr. VanderSloot's divorce records. In June, the IRS informed Mr. VanderSloot and his wife of an audit of two years of their taxes. In July, the Department of Labor informed him of an audit of the guest workers on his Idaho cattle ranch. In September, the IRS informed him of a second audit, of one of his businesses. Mr. VanderSloot, who had never been audited before, was subject to three in the four months after Mr. Obama teed him up for such scrutiny.
DeleteThe last of these audits was only concluded in recent weeks. Not one resulted in a fine or penalty. But Mr. VanderSloot has been waiting more than 20 months for a sizable refund and estimates his legal bills are $80,000. That figure doesn't account for what the president's vilification has done to his business and reputation.
The Obama call for scrutiny wasn't a mistake; it was the president's strategy—one pursued throughout 2012. The way to limit Romney money was to intimidate donors from giving. Donate, and the president would at best tie you to Big Oil or Wall Street, at worst put your name in bold, and flag you as "less than reputable" to everyone who worked for him: the IRS, the SEC, the Justice Department. The president didn't need a telephone; he had a megaphone.
The same threat was made to conservative groups that might dare play in the election. As early as January 2010, Mr. Obama would, in his state of the union address, cast aspersions on the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, claiming that it "reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests" (read conservative groups).
The president derided "tea baggers." Vice President Joe Biden compared them to "terrorists." In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. "Nobody knows who's paying for these ads," he warned. "We don't know where this money is coming from," he intoned.
In case the IRS missed his point, he raised the threat of illegality: "All around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates . . . And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation."
Short of directly asking federal agencies to investigate these groups, this is as close as it gets. Especially as top congressional Democrats were putting in their own versions of phone calls, sending letters to the IRS that accused it of having "failed to address" the "problem" of groups that were "improperly engaged" in campaigns. Because guess who controls that "independent" agency's budget?
The IRS is easy to demonize, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It got its heading from a president, and his party, who did in fact send it orders—openly, for the world to see. In his Tuesday press grilling, no question agitated White House Press Secretary Jay Carney more than the one that got to the heart of the matter: Given the president's "animosity" toward Citizens United, might he have "appreciated or wanted the IRS to be looking and scrutinizing those . . ." Mr. Carney cut off the reporter with "That's a preposterous assertion."
Preposterous because, according to Mr. Obama, he is "outraged" and "angry" that the IRS looked into the very groups and individuals that he spent years claiming were shady, undemocratic, even lawbreaking. After all, he expects the IRS to "operate with absolute integrity." Even when he does not.
Write to kim@wsj.com.
A version of this article appeared May 17, 2013, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top.
This writer doubts Barky gave a direct order, saying it doesn't matter if he did or not, he is still responsible. Maybe he is right. I hope we find out one day.
DeleteJohn Heinz Kerry served in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteHighly decorated, even.
Then he came back and shit on his troops while under oath.
...and's been a professional liar and gigolo since.
You demean this country daily with your discusting, dishonest drivel, Rufus.
"disgusting"
Delete...shoulda stuck with loathesome.
Planned Parenthood's new ad --
ReplyDelete>>Now, it’s insane to claim to “care” when your work is actually killing. (Insanity is defined as “extreme irrationality.”) But to claim that the ones you kill will “thank you”? I honestly can’t imagine more insane or irrational logic.<<
Pro-Abortion Planned Parenthood’s New Ad Campaign: Your Baby Will Thank You
by Kristi Burton Brown | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 5/16/13 11:54 AM
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/16/planned-parenthoods-new-abortion-ad-campaign-your-baby-will-thank-you/
I've had enough for today.
Night, Doug.
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