Psuedo-Social Justice Has Harmed the People It Intended to Help

Draft:

http://eaglerising.com/8439/psuedo-social-justice-harmed-people-intended-help/

Dan Bongino Tells Congress How to be Grown-up Politicians

I'll just repeat this note about how to be a grown-up politician:

Former Secret Service Agent and current candidate for Congress from the state of Maryland, Dan Bongino (R-MD) penned an important and powerful open letter to the corrupt political class in Washington, DC. He posted his observations to his Facebook wall and it’s something that every politician needs to read.

If, during my time as a Secret Service Agent, I had abused my authority as Lois Lerner did, I would be in jail.

If the current class of DC insiders and elitists expect the citizenry who empower them to take them seriously, then large-scale changes are in order.

First, stop talking to us as if we are an unintelligent class of buffoons. Telling us that you "lost" emails, in defiance of both common-sense and common-decency, is an insult to everyday Americans who would be arrested for providing the same excuse to the IRS.

Second, stop blaming the opposing Party, the weather, technology, the winter, prior presidents, and anything else not tied down, for a class of problems that are doing real harm to us right now. Anyone can place blame, but only real leaders take responsibility for problems, regardless of "who started it" (a tactic commonly used by children) and fix them.

And, finally, America is quickly growing hip to your faux aspirations of glory. We are looking for leaders, not political celebrities. Put down the canned talking points and use your heart, instead of the teleprompter, you may be surprised by what comes out.
America is craving statesmen in search of a better tomorrow, not politicians in search of the next DC cocktail party.

-Dan


Originally posted at:   http://eaglerising.com/7085/former-secret-service-agent-writes-open-letter-destroying-dc-political-class/#EAQ82C8YwRp7eul8.99

Scandal: IRS Looses Lois Lerner's Emails - Really?

This new Obama Adiminstration scandal has teh potential to bring down the President, just like teh loss of 18 minutes of Oval Office tapes did in Richard Nixon.

How can John Koskinen state to House Oversight that 7 hard disks crashed, conveniently 10 days after the House asked for more emails about the coverup of the persecution of conservative prospective 501c groups?  Emails exist on originating organization servers, on hard disks (if they are setup to store messages locally), on intermediate email servers, on recipient organization servers, on recipients' computers, and probably in the maw of NSA's Utah data farm.  So it is likely that Koskinen was lying or severely misinformed.

Now comes the revelation that the contract with the IRS' backup storage company, Sonasoft, was ended soon after the emails were "lost."

Can it get any better as a soap opera?   bombshell-irs-fired-back-company-sonasoft-shortly-lois-lerners-computer-crashed/

The question is:  What is so damaging hat is hiding in Lois Lerner's emails?  A direct link to the White House?  Direct instructions to persecute conservative groups?  Or worse?

Government Targets "True the Vote" Group

I first heard about True the Vote a few years ago.  It is a voter fraud watch group founded by a Tea Party leader from Texas.  It seemed like a good idea.  There are similar groups across teh country, some have liberal and some conservative leaning, but a common goal.  Some are claimed by opponents to be partisan or "fake" or otherwise not credible.  You have tpo decide for yourselves on those issues.

However, one issue that is undeniable in the case of True the Vote is that the current Administration is targeting this 501c(3) group in outrageous ways.  Watch this video of the testimopny by Catherine Engelbrecht, teh group's founder, to the House Oversight Committee and see if what you hear is not very disturbing:

See here:  True-the-vote-president-catherine-engelbrecht-slams-irs-abuse-weaponizing-of-government

Grimes 2nd Law - The News Formula

Kyle Wintersteen at Guns & Ammo on October 28, 2013 has a interesting article about why the media covers some violent crimes (13 Navy Yard killings vs. 13 Chicago school yard woundings) and not others.  Is it because they are biased, lazy, or affected by other factors.  In the article he refers to media Prof. Charlotte Grimes, Knight Chair in Political Reporting at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She has developed a formula that relates many factors common to news items and provides "a common sense explanation of what the media considers newsworthy, as well as a sobering look at today’s fragmented information world."

Read more: http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/10/28/shooting-national-tragedy/#ixzz2jKMmUpYO

See Prof. Grimes here:  charlotte-grimes

Grimes' Second Law:  The News Formula

N / Di(prx) x I x Du x T x R x P x Cf/Cr x Ch x Hypcrsy x U x Factor X = News Value

Variables:

N = number of people affected by event, issue, policy

Di = the physical distance those people are from the news organization's home community—Baghdad and Syracuse, for example. Also considered the PRX or PROXIMITY to the news organization’s home community.  Or the emotional or psychological distance between the subject and the reader, say, a welfare mother and an affluent suburbanite. The closer the event or person is, geographically or emotionally, the higher the news value. 

I = the intensity of the effect, such as death being a more intense effect than injury, or injury more intense than damage to property

Du = the duration of the effect, such as the longer-lasting effect of an atomic bomb or tsunami, compared to a temporarily closed bridge

T = the timeliness of the event–today, yesterday, last year

R= the rarity of the event, issue, policy. An atomic bombing is rarer than a hurricane; a hurricane is rarer than a thunderstorm; a "First" – as in "first Hispanic as U. S. Attorney General" or "first woman

or African American as Secretary of State" – has high rarity value

P = the prominence of the people involved, as a plane crash in which one of the passengers is the president compared to a senator

Cf/ Cr = the conflict or controversy surrounding the event

Ch = the change, and its degree, from the usual or normal

Hypcrsy = hypocrisy – people saying one thing/doing another or contradicting their public images – always has high new value, especially for politicians

U = the usefulness to the audience of the information

Factor X = such variables as sex, money, children, pets, human interest, a slow news day when nothing else is going on, or an editor's whim

Syria - Why The Debate is So Simplistic

John Bachelor is a talk host who is different than most.  He is extremely well informed.  And he has guests that you have never heard of before.

In the four segments at the link below, he talks to Amos Guiori, and Israeli who used to make life or death decisions on how to retaliate to Palestinian attacks.  The dialog is fascinating for the perspective is lends to the poor and fragmented debate that has been going on from the White House, the press, and the public.

Listen Here:  Aug 27 2013 fourth-hour

Mr Guiori has a new book out titled:   Legitimate Target: A Criteria-Based Approach to Targeted Killing (Terrorism and Global Justice)

Slippery Slope 2 - Rewriting History on 2nd Amendment

History is changing before our eyes.  And in many cases it is for the cause of progressivism and secularism and against religion and classical social morals.

Here is an example of how to cheat children out of their heritage, as sent to me by a friend:

--------

The propaganda press really hopes to secure itself from harm ..... However, he who gives up a little freedom for a little security soon has neither.

http://godfatherpolitics.com/12555/ap-history-textbook-rewrites-second-amendment/

"An AP (advanced placement) history textbook has rewritten the Second Amendment. 

"Here’s the Constitution’s wording: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” 

"Here’s the AP history textbook’s reworking of the text:  “Second Amendment: The people have a right to keep and bear arms in a state militia” 

"The revision interprets the Second Amendment in a way that concludes that the only way it’s constitutional to “keep and bear arms” is for a person to be part of a “state militia.” 

United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination gets it backwards as the following article points out: “The 2nd Amendment says that a militia is necessary to protect a free State, so in order to be able to have a militia, the citizens have a natural right to keep and bear arms and the government cannot infringe on that right."
----------

Note also, looking at the picture of the textbook page on the link above, you can see that the 1st Amendment has been paraphrased also, to the detriment of its original meaning. 

Added Sept 18:  More revisionist history involving this book:  Publisher-of-ap-history-book-containing-questionable-second-amendment-summary-has-direct-ties-to-common-core-and-theres-more

Added Sept 18:  The sad state of teaching revisionist history continues:  sc-school-teacher-tells-students-constitutional-cops-confiscate-guns 

Global Warming Pie In The Face - IPCC Admit Bad Models

The Daily Mail has an article about a soon-to-be-issued IPPC report that says most of the computer models are wrong by about half compared to reality.

See here:  Global-warming-just-HALF-said-Worlds-climate-scientists-admit-computers-got-effects-greenhouse-gases-wrong

The comedy here is that pointed out by Professor Curry at Georgia Institute of Technology, wherein the IPCC says that they have been wrong, but they now have more confidence in their results. 

And the further black comedy, as speculated on by Freedom Outpost, is that The Obama Administration will likely just ignore the whole issue, so they can continue their economy straggling ways.

See here:  UN-prepares-expose-global-warming-lie

The key chart:

Slippery Slope - Ist Amendment Danger from Congress

Eagle Rising blog has a good article on some impending legislation in the US Senate.  The Media Shield Law could start a further slide down the slope to tyranny by defining who is or is not a reporter.

See here:  Media-shield-law-heralds-death-1st-amendment

See here for how the LA Times seems to argue for the government-in-charge viewpoint.  I am all for protecting journalists, but how to define who is a journalist is probably best left to the public to decide.
Here:  National-shield-law

I think the 1st Amendment covers it.  It is clear and sufficient.

More cogent and simple comment on Feinstien's anti-freedom arguements:
Here:  Feinstein-wants-to-define-journalist

When one looks to Webster's 1828, they will discover a journalist is simply "The writer of a journal or diary." In other words, in the modern era, a blog is nothing more than a journal.

When one looks to Webster's 1828, they will discover a journalist is simply "The writer of a journal or diary." In other words, in the modern era, a blog is nothing more than a journal. Read more: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#ixzz2f5SdsNlQ
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#SfYfRZUp6KtpAT1V.9

When one looks to Webster's 1828, they will discover a journalist is simply "The writer of a journal or diary." In other words, in the modern era, a blog is nothing more than a journal. Read more: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#ixzz2f5SdsNlQ
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#SfYfRZUp6KtpAT1V.99

When one looks to Webster's 1828, they will discover a journalist is simply "The writer of a journal or diary." In other words, in the modern era, a blog is nothing more than a journal. Read more: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#ixzz2f5SdsNlQ
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#SfYfRZUp6KtpAT1V.99

When one looks to Webster's 1828, they will discover a journalist is simply "The writer of a journal or diary." In other words, in the modern era, a blog is nothing more than a journal. Read more: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#ixzz2f5SdsNlQ
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/09/feinstein-wants-define-journalist/#SfYfRZUp6KtpAT1V.99

Scandals: Judge Janine on Eric Holder and NSA

The Judge is warning us all again:  Judge Janine comments on loss of freedom

She has a great point toward the end.  Why does NSA have to know about all of my phone calls?  Isn't it true that I shouldn't care what they know as long as I am innocent?   The trouble with this re4asoniong is that  at some time in the future, if someone, anyone, makes an allegation against me, the NSA can go back and look at all my calls, email, Facebook, etc.  And sure as shootin' they will devise out of all of that data some small reason to make me a suspect in something.

This is not the way a free country is supposed to work.

And now Judge Janine on Eric Holder:  Time for Holder to be Indicted

Aw heck, one more Janine for good measure:  Judge Janine at NRA ILA Houston 

Verizon Scandal: NSA's PRISM Tapping Internet Data

Just what we need, a new scandal.

NSA and FBI have been collecting metadata on ALL Verizon phone users for several months, and maybe years.  But they are also collecting your communications from "Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

See here:  Washington Post: Investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program

See here:  Washington Post: World/national-security/verizon-providing-all-call-records-to-us-under-court-order 

See here:   Blaze: bombshell-report-govt-also-tapping-servers-of-top-internet-companies-to-collect-americans-emails-photos-messages/

And President Obama can't say he didn't know:  "An internal presentation of 41 briefing slides on PRISM, dated April 2013 and intended for senior analysts in the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, described the new tool as the most prolific contributor to the President’s Daily Brief, which cited PRISM data in 1,477 articles last year."According to the slides and other supporting materials obtained by The Post, “NSA reporting increasingly relies on PRISM” as its leading source of raw material, accounting for nearly 1 in 7 intelligence reports."

"That is a remarkable figure in an agency that measures annual intake in the trillions of communications. It is all the more striking because the NSA, whose lawful mission is foreign intelligence, is reaching deep inside the machinery of American companies that host hundreds of millions of American-held accounts on American soil."

"Firsthand experience with these systems, and horror at their capabilities, is what drove a career intelligence officer to provide PowerPoint slides about PRISM and supporting materials to The Washington Post in order to expose what he believes to be a gross intrusion on privacy. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” the officer said."

The Constitution seems to mean nothing to this government.  When the common sense of ordinary people says that the government is over-reaching, then it is over-reaching.  It is obvious to me that the government can't see the Constitutional forest for the eaves-dropping trees.

IRS Scandal: Some Interesting Numbers

I have not commented much on the current crop of scandals affecting the White House and the Administration.  In terms of the health of the country, scandals are not desired.  However, if funny business is going on behind the scenes, where the Constitution and the Law is being subverted, then scandals are necessary.

I commented extensively the past three years on Fast and Furious, the first of the extra-legal endeavors by the DOJ and ATF. I believe it reaches to the White House and certainly to Eric Holder.  It progresses in Oversight Committee hearing and investigations.

Lately we have the Benghazi debacle where the President outright lied about the whole affair.  I can forgive him and his staff of incompetency on the night of September 11, 2012, but not of the lying afterward.

And then there are the secret email accounts of Administrators like Lisa Jackson (Richard Windsor) of the EPA and Kathleen Sibelius (KGS2@hhs.gov.) of HHS.   Sibelius' nom-de-crook even got commendations.  Three years in a row, "he" was awarded a Certificate for Ethical Behavior, and was also given a certificate for completing cyber-security training courses.  So much for the "most transparent administration."  See here:  US-Secret-Emails

Then came the James Rosen of Fox News scandal where DOJ has been reading his emails, listening to his phone calls and accusing him of being a co-conspirator in espionage.  Rightly, this case has had a chilling effect on the nation's press corps, who already are scared to ask tough questions of the Administration.

Now we have the IRS scandal of abusing conservative groups who were seeking 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 status.  This is the most chilling of all, since it deals directly with the practice of tyranny in arguably the most important government department, the IRS.  And worst, it now appears that the impetus for the extra and biased scrutiny was coming from the Administration.  This is my allegation and not proved yet, but the circumstantial evidence is mounting.

So, to the Interesting Numbers:

The Daily Caller has studied the White House visitor logs.  Do they suggest complicity or at least opportunity to influence to you?

157 visits - IRS Director Schulman during entire Obama presidency

118 visits - IRS Director Schulman during years of enhanced IRS scrutiny, 2010 to 2012.  (Includes two election cycles.)

90 visits - Deputy Director IRS during entire Obama presidency

100 visits - VP Joe Biden  during entire Obama presidency

62 visits - AG Eric Holder during entire Obama presidency

<50 visits each - Treasury Sec Geitner and HHS Secretary Sibelius

1 visit - IRS Director during entire Bush presidency

Then it comes to light that not just conservative groups but also religious and educational groups.  Where is the justification for the IRS to request the text of prayers that religious groups say?  See here:  Are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been-a-christian?

Now, let's add to this the amazing coincidence of how some conservative groups and individuals have been audited by the IRS in the past few years.

For instance, Wayne Allen Root won a tax court case against an IRS audit in 2011.  Five days later the IRS started another audit.  Root was a classmate of Obama at Columbia, but never heard of or met the man.  He is an outspoken commentator who appears to be targeted by the Administration.  See here: why-is-the-leftist-media-going-after-the-irs-victims or Root's Story on Radio and especially Root's IRS Story

Through all of this I am reminded of the story of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170.  King George II eventually became exasperated with his bishop because he actually tried to be a bishop and serve the poor, among other transgressions against the King.  George at one point famously said, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"  It wasn't long before four knights took it upon themselves to kill Becket, perceiving a Royal edict.  I am afraid Obama and crew operate similarly - expressions of wishes get carried out without direct orders being issued.  Thus the President can say, "The first I knew of the IRS scandal was from the press reports."  But all along the bureaucracy has been interpreting and executing those desires.

How Could it Be?: No Gun Licenses for Tsarnaev Boys

From Carol Platt Leibau:

"The AP reports that the men who detonated explosives to kill innocents at the Boston Marathons and later engaged in a shoot-out with police (after shooting an MIT security guard execution-style) didn't have gun permits, according to Massachusetts state police.

"But wait a minute.  I thought a rigorous system for regulating gun permits was supposed to prevent gun violence (that's what Massachusetts state officials insisted upon passing the nation's toughest gun laws back in 1998).  

"It's almost as if the Tsarnaev brothers -- terrorists, murderers, carjackers -- had no respect for the (gun) laws . . . "

See here:   No-gun-licenses-for-marathon-bombers

And from AP:  Mass-police-bomb-suspects-didnt-have-gun-permit  

Commentor to last link states the reality:  LastMomStanding   "Only law abiding citizens must have background checks/gun permits. Criminals get a free pass.  Got it?!"

More Gun Facts

An earlier post dealt with some stats around the issue of guns and gun-control.   Some more observations are below:

1. In January, 2013, 40 people were killed in Chicago.  Chicago has the most and tightest gun-control laws in the United States.  In comparison, in all of 2012, only 40 people were killed in all of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.  These states have the fewest and least onerous gun laws.  And Obama and crew can't understand why people in those states can't understand why he thinks more laws will be effective.  There is obviously a huge divide between the cultural and moral understandings of these two demographics.

2. What sport is safer than almost any other?  The shooting sports by far.

3.  Some more good facts and numbers about gun stats from Freedom Outpost.  Perhaps not what you expect:  naked-numbers-on-guns

ABC News' Hidden Bias Against Guns

On ABC News radio this morning was a short blurb about the gun control fight.  It is indicative of the easy-to-miss hidden bias that the media has about guns.

ABC said (paraphrased): “The majority of pro-gun advertising is from NRA and other pro-gun groups.  Now the gun control groups are beginning a $12 Million campaign.”   

That’s it!  A one-liner.  How is it biased?  Because there is NO mention that the NRA is funded by 5 million members in small donations.  And NO mention that the $12 M is all from Bloomberg.  Hardy a fair news headline.  Hardly a fair comparison of the political reality.  One man vs. many, many citizens.

Note that last week Bloomberg was successful in Colorado when Gov. Hickenlooper signed three anti-gun bills.  Bloomberg was in that fight by arm-twisting democrat legislators into voting for controls.  He promised them money for their next campaign.  He promised them that he would protect them from backlash that their anti-gun votes would create.  That is his strategy nation-wide.  I would not be surprised to learn that George Soros is in involved in this play also.