#IRS Scandal Started at the Top

From Kim Strassel, at the Wall Street Journal:

Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.

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.

RTWT.

The WSJ crew is just hammering this criminal clusterf-k administration.

David Beckham Retires From Soccer

At London's Daily Mail, "End it like Beckham: England legend calls time on glittering career and retires."

Video c/o Los Angeles Times, "Watch some of David Beckham's amazing free kicks."

The video has been viewed more than 8 million times and for good reason. Beckham's free kicks were a sight to behold, with the ball streaking into the net with a speed and right-to-left arc that looked like a Zack Greinke curveball.

Bubble of Unreality: Leslie Marshall Claims #IRS Conspiracies on Sean Hannity's

An utterly jaw-dropping exchange. Dana Loesch just destroy's the idiot Leslie Marshall

Michele Bachmann Talks Obama Impeachment

At CNN, "After IRS targeting, tea party says their fears confirmed."

'We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate...'

This is most urgent, the most morally devastating essay I've yet to read the week's developments, from Peggy Noonan, at WSJ, "This Is No Ordinary Scandal" (via Memeorandum):

We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. 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.

Something big has shifted. The standing of the administration has changed.

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.

he president, as usual, acts as if all of this is totally unconnected to him. He's shocked, it's unacceptable, he'll get to the bottom of it. He read about it in the papers, just like you.

But he is not unconnected, he is not a bystander. This is his administration. Those are his executive agencies. He runs the IRS and the Justice Department.

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.

The IRS scandal has two parts...

Continue reading.

Idiot progressives are just in denial over this. But things are really coming to a head.

Fatal Crash Near Long Beach City College

At the Long Beach Patch, "Woman Killed in Long Beach Hit-and-Run."

I had two students come about a half-hour late to my 11:10am class. I thought nothing of it until a phone starting ringing like it was an alarm or something. I said, "What was that"? And one of the women said, "There's a crash out there," pointing out the window to the intersection at Carson and Clark Streets. Then when I started my 12:45pm class, a young man told me that someone had been killed. I went over to the intersection after class to check it out.

Also at the Long Beach Report, "UPDATE: 47 Year Old Long Beach Woman Dies, 21 Year Old Bellflower Man Arrested, In Alleged Hit and Run, Carson/Clark (LBCC Area); LBPD Says Driver Hit Three Vehicles at High Rate of Speed, Was Allegedly Unlicensed Driver."

Yeah, probably an illegal immigrant.

More photos at the Long Beach Press Telegram, "Long Beach police capture suspect at LBCC in fatal hit-and-run."

Arrogance, Cover-Ups and Blame-Shifting

From Harry Stein, at City Journal, "Not a Crook — Yet":

The comparisons of the Obama and Nixon White Houses are suddenly coming—pardon the expression—fast and furious, and why not? The IRS investigations; the administration’s fixation on leaks and leakers and its obsession with enemies; the cover-ups, the blame-shifting to subordinates, the defiant chief executive, even the sweating, pathetically dissembling press secretary; it all has the odor of that earlier time. Again, it’s all happening early in the second term, following a triumphant reelection. Again, the operative terms are arrogance, contempt for law, and thuggery.

The growing awareness of administration malfeasance is evident in the numbers on Google: more than 59 million hits for “Obama and Nixon” and 24 million–plus for “Obama and Watergate.” For those interested, the 44th president’s face can already be found morphing into the 37th’s. Then there’s the rising tide of commentary. “Obama knee-deep in Nixon-esque scandal” runs the headline of columnist Joe Battenfield’s piece in the Boston Herald, which notes that Obama’s campaign slogan would have been more appropriate if it were not “Forward” but “Backward”—“All the way to, say, 1972.” “Benghazi, IRS—Son of Watergate?” asks Cal Thomas. “In IRS Scandal, Echoes of Watergate,” observes the Washington Post’s George Will.

Such talk is mostly confined to the Right so far, but a handful of principled liberals have also weighed in. “There’s no way in the world I’m going to defend that,” said U.S. Representative Michael Capuano of Massachusetts of the IRS’s going after the Tea Party. “Hell, I spent my youth vilifying the Nixon administration for doing the same thing.” Former Michigan Democratic congresswoman Lynn Rivers echoed him: “For anyone over 50, this news couldn’t help but stir memories of Richard Nixon’s Political Enemies Project. . . . To use Dan Rather’s ‘duck test,’ the IRS probe of ‘hostile’ ideological groups looks like, swims like, and quacks like government dirty tricks.” One of the heroes of Watergate weighed in, too. “This is outrageous, and it is totally inexcusable,” Carl Bernstein raged about the revelation that the Department of Justice had secretly seized the phone records of Associated Press journalists. “There is no reason that a presidency that is interested in a truly free press and its functioning should permit this to happen.” Thus it is that questions that once seemed unfathomable take on unexpected plausibility. Where and how far will it all go?

Continue reading.

Well, it's not going to impeachment anytime soon. There's still way too many questions, rival cover-ups, and a still mostly-compliant media. It's going to take some undeniably huge smoking gun to keep this flurry of bad news alive. As Sean Hannity predicted on air last night, things are likely to blow over in the lapdog press in no time. And to that, Michelle Malkin added that conservatives will never "stand down." Amen.

IMAGE CREDIT: Brad Marston.

Michelle Fields Talks Obama Scandals on Cavuto

Ms. Field is in D.C. for some live appearances on Fox News:

Obama Announces Resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner

At Instapundit, "BOY, I TAKE A FEW HOURS OFF AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENS: IRS ACTING COMMISSIONER RESIGNS.

Lots of links at that link.

And at the video, President Hussein is lying through his teeth:

Michelle Malkin on Lapdog Media Doing Their Jobs: 'I Give Them a Golf Clap...'

An awesome Hannity segment from just a little while ago:

Leftist Meme: Tea Party Had It Coming on IRS Targeting

My jaw almost hit the floor reading today's letters to the editor at the Los Angeles Times, "Re "Report raises more IRS questions," May 12":

There is no question that the IRS violated a code of conduct when targeting conservative groups. I just wish that Republicans would be so outraged by their own partisan conduct.

Republicans have conspired since the moment of President Obama's first inauguration to block his agenda at every turn. Indeed, the Senate minority leader's stated goal was to make Obama a one-term president.

Those who truly suffer from this behavior are the people of this great nation.

Rodney K. Boswell
Thousand Oaks

Right.

Like blaming rape on the victim. The mind boggles.

More at Twitchy, "‘Media Matters just stopped mattering for the media’: Lefty group sides with DOJ against AP," and "Targeted by IRS? Bill Maher, Elayne Boosler suggest conservative groups were asking for it."

Syrian Rebel Cuts Out Soldier's Heart and Eats It

This is one of the more bizarrely grotesque things I've seen in awhile.

At Elder of Ziyon, "Video of Syrian rebel cutting out, eating soldier's heart (graphic videos)."

More at NYT:

Syrian Rebel Reportedly Defends Sinking His Teeth Into Dead Soldier’s Flesh on Camera nyti.ms/16y2uL9

— NYTimes Lede Blog (@thelede) May 14, 2013

Obama's Lawless Presidency

IBD is hammering this criminal clusterf-k administration.

See, "Obama's Scandals Stem from His Lawless Presidency," and "Eight Months Too Late, The Media See the Real Obama."

Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy

An amazing story, at London's Daily Mail, "How heroic Angelina Jolie kept her family life as normal as possible for the sake of her children as she underwent a double mastectomy."

Plus, "Brad says Angelina ‘is absolutely heroic’ and hails ‘happy day for our family’ after she undergoes double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer," and "Angelina Jolie's father Jon Voight only learned about daughter's double mastectomy online... despite seeing her just TWO days ago."

Lurking Tyranny

From A.F. Branco:

Obama insists there is no 'there there...'

At the Looking Spoon, "The Only Part of the Obama Administration Where There Really Is 'No There There'."

Tyranny is Always Lurking Just Around the Corner

At Bearing Drift, "Is Tyranny Around the Corner?"

Yes, tyranny is always just around the corner. That’s why, as Thomas Jefferson reminds us, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

IMAGE CREDIT: Rare.

'This may be one of the most heartbreaking stories I have ever read...'

At I'm41, "Pair of Berkeley Lesbian Lunatics Putting 11-Year-Old Son on Hormone Blocking Treatment to Make Him Their Daughter."

Also at Victory Girls, "Lesbian Parents Put Their Eight-Year-Old Boy Through a Sex Change":

Regardless of whether or not a sex change actually changes your gender (here’s a hint: it doesn’t), if an adult wants to choose to mutilate their genitals and live their life as a member of the opposite sex, then whatever. Go for it. You’re an adult, it’s your decision, I may not agree or understand, but it’s your life and your body. The difference here, however, is that this is a child. A child cannot understand the potential long-term consequences of their actions. A child cannot consent to hormone therapy and understand the health risks they could be taking. A child cannot understand that they are choosing to give up any chance of a normal childhood and adolescence. A child cannot think long-term, they cannot understand consequences of their actions, and therefore cannot make such a huge, life-changing decision as getting a sex change.

This isn’t just an example of poor parenting — it’s parents with an agenda to push, acting it out on their defenseless child who ends up being nothing more than a social experiment to their delusional parents.

Remember, for the leftards, if it feels good do it! (No matter whom you destroy in the process.)

Rapidly Shrinking Market Poses Big Challenges for TV Networks

An interesting piece, from Brian Stelter, at the New York Times, "As TV Ratings and Profits Fall, Networks Face a Cliffhanger":

As the major television networks prepare to unveil their new fall lineups in New York this week, they face threats from seemingly every corner.

Prime-time ratings for the Big Four broadcasters — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — together are dropping more precipitously than ever. Even their biggest hits, like “American Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars,” are fading fast. Advertisers are moving more cash to cable, cutting into the networks’ quarterly profits. New technologies are making it easier to skip those ads, anyway.

That’s not all: there are more outlets for programming cropping up all the time, with Netflix and Amazon and dozens of cable channels competing for actors, producers and, most important, viewers. Government regulators want to take back some of the spectrum allotted to local television stations. And start-ups like Aereo are threatening to deprive the stations of subscription revenue, causing some broadcasters to talk of options that were unthinkable a few short years ago. Some have warned they might go off the air entirely.

The many pressures bearing down on the industry are casting a shadow over this week’s upfronts, an annual tradition in New York in which the new sitcoms, dramas and reality shows are previewed at splashy, open-bar events and the networks try to capture their portion of an estimated $9 billion in advertising commitments.

“The networks are getting picked at from every direction,” said Jessica Reif Cohen, the senior media analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “This year was the tipping point,” she said, “when the television ratings really fell apart.”

The broadcast networks have managed declining viewership for years, but executives by and large said they believed that they had escaped the punishing losses that digital media exacted on the music industry and newspapers.

Now, though, they say they are not sure; even the industry’s biggest boosters concede that the business is under assault, though they express confidence that the networks will adapt. While the challenges before them are numerous, said Gary Carr, who oversees ad-buying at TargetCast, “the networks are far from dead.”

More at the link.

'For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it...'

Yes, when events start going so badly for this administration that even the most hardened shills in the JournoList protectorate can no longer dismiss the avalanche of scandal...

See Robert Stacy McCain, "A Short Lesson in Liberal Media Bias: Has Alex Koppelman Forgotten Fitzmas?"