Did Lois Lerner Waive Her 5th Amendment Right?

Posted on 24 May 2013 by eehines

At the start of her testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS facility that ran the targeting of government-disfavored Americans and groups of Americans, made a brief statement, asserted her 5^th Amendment right not to testify against herself, and then refused to testify further. Lerner said, in her statement,

On May 14th, the Treasury inspector general released a report finding that the Exempt Organizations field office in Cincinnati, Ohio used inappropriate criteria to identify for further review applications from organizations that planned to engage in political activity, which may mean that they did not qualify for tax exemption.

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An Outcome of Big Government

Posted on 23 May 2013 by eehines

The proper lessons of the unfolding IRS scandal are twofold. First, any effort to have the IRS police advocacy activities of social-welfare organizations is bound to be clumsy and prone to degenerate into either selective or broad witch hunts. Second, the remedy is not to further limit political speech by nonprofit entities—which would certainly raise significant constitutional issues—but to encourage such speech by imposing fewer restrictions.

That combines with this:

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Progress

Posted on 20 May 2013 by eehines

Recall that the DC Circuit had struck down President Barack Obama’s “appointment” of three of his folks to the NLRB, ruling in blunt terms that these appointments were unconstitutional since they had been made while the Senate was in session.

Now the 3^rd Appellate Circuit, centering its opinion on the “appointment” of Craig Becker in March 2010, has expanded on that for its area of jurisdiction (Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania), ruling that rulings made by this unconstitutionally constituted board were without effect since the NLRB, lacking a quorum, had no capacity for issuing its rulings. The 3^rd Circuit’s ruling says in part

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Political Corruption, Big Government, and Generational Struggle

Posted on 16 May 2013 by eehines

Government, by its nature, is vulnerable to a broad reach of failure, and that becomes increasingly difficult to correct as government’s size grows and corruption, or even mere arrogance, increases. Ultimately, government becomes large enough that it deems itself no longer responsible to the people who created it, and it engages in activities for its own benefit instead of ours. Finally, these activities become centered simply on preserving and expanding its own power—which fosters corruption, which fosters further self-preservation and growth, which….

Here are some recent and current examples:

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Punishment and Rehabilitation

Posted on 14 May 2013 by eehines

Joseph Muto was an employee working on a Fox News opinion program when he was caught stealing material from the show and using it for personal gain. What he and his lawyer said about the matter is instructive.

Muto:

I wouldn’t have done it had I known I’d end up in this courtroom. To answer your question of “was it worth it?” I wouldn’t have done it.

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Debt, Taxpayers, and Morality

Posted on 13 May 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama wants to forgive another batch of debt, this time owed by America’s youth. This is another of those tidbits buried in his latest pseudo-budget proposal.

Obama wants to

increase the number of borrowers eligible for a program known casually as income-based repayment, which aims to help low-income workers stay current on federal student debt.

Borrowers in the program make monthly payments equivalent to 10% of their income after taxes and basic living expenses, regardless of how much they owe. After 20 years of on-time payments—10 years for those who work in public or nonprofit jobs—the balance is forgiven.

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A Grant of Dominion

Posted on 10 May 2013 by eehines

…of one group of Americans over another, courtesy of President Barack Obama, congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV), and their Obamacare.

Dr Ezekial Emanual, ex-health-care adviser to Obama and presently senior fellow at the Center for American Progress strongly recommended this grant in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

In touting Obamacare’s health “insurance” exchanges, he recommended government add overt pressure on our young to buy health “insurance,” in addition to the existing Individual Mandate requirement, because their participation is a necessary subsidy for others’ purchase.

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A Thought on Wealth Redistribution

Posted on 10 May 2013 by eehines

The Heritage Foundation has released their study on a potential cost to existing US taxpayers of legalizing existing illegal aliens under the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform program. Andrew Stiles, writing for National Review Online, has provided a useful summary of that 100-page document.

Rather than commenting on the implications vis-à-vis immigration reform, though, I want to comment on the implications for us taxpayers with respect to the larger question of wealth redistribution in our country.

Stiles noted that

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The US and Syria

Posted on 7 May 2013 by eehines

[emphasis added] Israel launched its second airstrike in three days in the Syrian capital Sunday targeting a shipment of extremely accurate guided Iranian-made missiles intended for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, according to an intelligence official in the Middle East.

The attack, which signaled a sharp escalation of Israel’s involvement in Syria’s bloody civil war, was confirmed to the Associated Press hours after Syria’s state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a research center near Damascus, setting off explosions and causing casualties.

This also follows another strike against Syrian military targets conducted by Israel in January.

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Yeah, And?

Posted on 6 May 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama, through his State Department, had this to say about al Assad’s massacre of Syrian civilians last Thursday [emphasis in the original]:

Massacre in al-Bayda
Press Statement
Jen Psaki
Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 4, 2013

The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of al-Bayda, Syria. Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy.

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