Shocked? You shouldn’t be. Corruption is an inherent characteristic of big government. For instance, consider the soft tyranny of socialism light in Italy. On the record, the Italian economy stinks. It’s in the tank. However, if you visit Italy, the economy looks rather healthy, all things considered. How can that be? The answer is that as much as 20% of the Italian economy is conducted in the so-called Black Market, i.e. sales of goods and services conducted off the books in cash, thus avoiding taxes. In essence, it is this Black Market that mitigates the natural negative impact of socialism on each citizen. The Black Market is, in reality, the free market. While government endeavors to fix and set prices of goods and services as well as wages, the free market always exists. Like water seeping through cracks and crevices to reach the lowest ground, the black/free market seeks the lowest prices of goods and services, and the best quality.
But the negative impact of the soft tyranny of socialism goes far beyond the creation of an illegal Black Market. It corrupts the soul and the character of its citizens. If you need a building permit, you must bribe the building inspector. No bribe, no permit. You want to run a taxi service? You must bribe the local city councilman. You want to get faster medical care? You bribe the bureaucrat in charge. Every bureaucrat and government official has his hand out. Nothing happens without bribery. Everyone knows about it, everyone accepts it.
It’s worse yet. If you are a politician in power, you use every arm of government to destroy your opposition. You use the taxing agency to audit your opponent’s tax returns. You hold up approval on permits he needs to run his business. You make sure he is last in line for medical care. You lie and cheat and steal because you have convinced yourself that the end justifies the means. And, you believe so strongly in your socialist ideology that anything goes. Laws and the constitution are meant to be bent to satisfy your political goals. You appoint judges who ignore the laws and the Constitution. You appoint political operatives who skirt and ignore the law.
There is, as Solomon said, nothing new under the sun. The creation of the Internal Revenue Service here in the US gave unprecedented power to the ruling class. The enactment of a Constitutional Amendment to levy income taxes was the most destructive, most damaging, most dangerous Amendment ever approved. The vast sums of money that became available to the federal government, thanks to the income tax, changed everything. It enabled the US government to grow and expand beyond a size not previously possible. The result was to give almost unlimited power to the bureaucrats and politicians. Without that access to nearly unlimited funding, the welfare state under which we labor could never have been constructed.
The four scandals of the Obama Administration—Fast and Furious, Benghazigate, AP Wiretapping, and IRS Gate—are not unique to this particular administration. They are systemic of leviathan government. When you elect those of the far left who reject traditional moral values, the floodgates will be thrown wide open. They will punish their enemies by using the power of the ATF, EPA, the IRS, and most deliciously, Obamacare. Today, the IRS terrorizes American citizens, treating them as guilty until proven innocent. The IRS even operates its own administrative judicial system that is a far cry from justice. But, if you think having the IRS notify you that you are being audited is terrifying, imagine the power of the Obamacare bureaucrats who will have life and death power over you. You had better not wear that anti-government pin into the waiting room under Obamacare if you want to be treated. You had better not donate to conservative candidates if you want to receive high quality care or any care at all. You had better not oppose any new government program if you want to stay healthy.
Paranoid? Ask the leaders of the patriotic conservative organizations whose legitimate applications for 501(c)(4) status was denied if this can happen. And by the way, don’t think you are safe if you are just a church going Christian. The ideologues on the left have no use for the morals or values of Christians. Moreover, those on the left are just naturally inclined toward government service. They will continue to populate the government, using its power to accomplish their political goals.
Let’s look at the toll of all powerful government run by a thoroughly corrupt administration…
Fast and Furious
Clearly, Fast and Furious was a scheme hatched by the White House political team to advance their anti-gun agenda. The idea was simple…put thousands of high power guns and ammunition into the hands of narco-terrorists on the south side of the border with the hope and intent that mayhem would ensue. Blame the spread of these firearms on legal firearms dealers and make a case for restricting the use of firearms.
Not only did the scheme get exposed, thanks to FOX News, it backfired. But before it was shut down, hundreds of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were sent across the border. As a result, US Border agent, Brian Terry, was killed by one of the weapons sent south. In addition, more than 100 Mexican citizens, many innocent teenagers, were killed with these weapons.
Benghazigate
Not only were calls and warnings from the CIA ignored by Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration, they denied it was a terrorist attack. The order was given to rescue forces to stand down. American citizens died. Why did Benghazi happen? It’s simple. Everything with the Obama Administration has to do with politics. Benghazi happened shortly after the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Speaker after speaker at that convention shouted out, “Osama’s dead, Al Qaida’s on the run!” The Administration had worked hard to call all terrorist attacks, such as the one at Fort Hood, something other than a terrorist attack. The idea was that the War on Terrorism had been won when Osama bin Laden was killed. The White House could not tell the American people, especially voters, that the attack on the US compound in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, so it was blamed on a non-existent spontaneous demonstration caused by a video that no one has ever seen. It was a flat out lie. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama knew the truth from the very beginning, but they lied and directly or indirectly caused the rescue team to stand down in hopes that it would all go away.
As Hillary Clinton screeched during her hearing before the US Senate, in regard to the death of Ambassador Stevens and the other dead Americans “What difference at this point does it make?” The fact is that the Presidential election was looming and the Benghazi attack threatened to derail the false narrative put forward by the President that terrorism was no longer a threat. The story had to be killed in the best interest of the nation, which was the re-election of President Obama. The left’s rejection of traditional Judeo-Christian moral values as embodied in the Ten Commandments sets them free to manipulate people, encourage jealously and envy, and even downplay the deaths of Americans in pursuit of absolute political power.
AP Snooping
Hey, what’s going on here? We are on your side. You are not supposed to secretly subpoena our telephone logs and check on who we have been talking to. That’s about the reaction of the Associated Press when they found out that the telephone logs of their reporters had been secretly collected and reviewed. In this case the subpoena was so broad that it went well beyond any national security concerns. The story that the AP had was about a Yemen terrorist plot foiled by the CIA. The Agency had stopped another underwear bomb attack. The AP had the scoop and they agreed to hold up its release until cleared by the CIA.
But, when the White House learned about the foiled plot, they wanted all the credit. The apparent reason for snooping on the AP was that the White House was afraid that the AP would take credit for the story before they House did. If that’s the case, it had absolutely nothing to do with national security, and everything to do with politics. Remember, this happened right in the middle of the Presidential campaign. The White House wanted all the glory to promote the candidacy of President Obama.
But when the Obama White House feels threatened for any reason, no one is safe. Doesn’t it make you feel better about the drone fleet that the EPA and other civilian government agencies are assembling? Surely, they would never use drones to spy on their political enemies, would they? While the mainstream media totally ignored the Fast and Furious scandal to protect the Obama Administration, they are up in arms in regard to being snooped on themselves. This one is as rotten as are the others, but at least no one died as a result of this one or the IRS scandal, as they did in Benghazi or as a result of Fast and Furious.
IRS Gate
As you may recall, the Obama machine sanctimoniously accused Republicans and conservatives of endeavoring to suppress the minority vote. Conservatives and the GOP sought to protect the integrity of the electoral process through the use of voter ID cards, something supported by every segment of the population, including minorities. But while the White House and Eric Holder was smearing conservatives, they were doing exactly what they were accusing others of. They were using the IRS to suppress the vote of conservatives.
As early as 2010, the IRS was systematically harassing groups who had Tea Party, Patriot, or Constitution in their name if they applied for tax exempt status. This status should not be confused with the tax deductible status of foundations. All this meant was that these groups were not taxable, not that contributions to them were tax deductible. As to where this scheme originated, I have only one question to ask…
When, in the past, the IRS was used to harass political enemies, where did the effort originate?
In the 1930s, the Franklin D. Roosevelt White House directed the IRS to harass William Randolph Hearst and other “enemies.”
In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy used the IRS to go after political opponents.
Again in the 1960s, probably the most corrupt President in the history of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, used the IRS to harass and hinder Republicans and Conservatives.
In the 1970s, President Richard M. Nixon, sic’d the IRS on his leftwing opponents.
And, of course, Bill Clinton illegally ordered the IRS to send the tax returns of his political opponents to the White House so that he could attack and intimidate them.
In each and every one of these cases, using the IRS to attack opponents originated in the White House.
So, I ask you, what are the odds that the harassment of patriotic groups by the White House originated with low level IRS employees? I’d say that they are about as good as me running a four minute mile. And, what are the odds that the IRS swung into action against the Tea Party groups, pro-Israel groups, and pro-family groups without any input from the Obama White House? I’d say those odds are about as good as predicting that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning.
The Alfred E. Newman Presidency
What is President Obama’s reaction to all these scandals? It reminds me of the feckless Alfred E. Newman character of Mad Magazine fame—“Who, me? Why, I didn’t know anything about it. I heard about it when you did. I’m as angry as you are, and I’m as innocent as the wind driven snow.” To hear the President tell it, he’s on the outside looking in. What did he know about Fast and Furious? Nothing, but he invoked Presidential privilege to make sure that no one found out that his political team was behind the entire scandal.
What about Benghazigate? “Shucks, I was in bed. I told the folks to just take care of it.” Now, we don’t really know that he was in bed, the record certainly does not account for his whereabouts.We do know, however, that he left the next day to do a fund raiser in Las Vegas. I guess he figured out that it was time to “get out of Dodge.”
But, he was clearly in the loop in subsequent days as they made up the story about the mysterious video. He knew the facts within 24 hours, but for more than a week thereafter continued the fiction that it was that video that was the cause of the attack.
The question I want answered is—who gave the order to the rescue team to stand down? It came from higher ups in the military, but who told them to issue the order? Was it President Newman?
The truth is that President Barack Obama is not the unknowing, bumbling, goofy Alfred E. Newman. No, he is the calculating, dissembling, untrustworthy man with the joy stick. He refuses to make any decisions that could put him in political jeopardy. He intentionally ignores governing, and concentrates on campaigning. His number one objective is not the well-being of the United States or its citizens, it is politics. He is focused on retaking the House of Representatives in 2014 and then pushing the nation even further to the left during his last two years.
I do not personally dislike the President. I honor him and the office he holds, but he has forgotten his role. In a republic like ours, elected officials, including the President, are public servants. Obama is not a king. In our nation the people are the rulers, and those elected are to be their servants. No one is above the law. When he breaks or bends the law or the Constitution, he dishonors himself.
I pray for the President’s safety and that he be granted Godly wisdom. While I do not dislike him, I do dislike his misguided, dangerous policies. I do dislike the fact that he rejects the values and the principles of the Founders. I do dislike the fact that he does not recognize the United States as an exceptional nation, a beacon of hope and freedom to the world.
God help us if he is successful in re-capturing control of the US House of Representatives and is able to cram his entire far-left, anti-American agenda down our throats. If he succeeds, this nation will never again be that “Shining city on a hill” that John Winthrop envisioned, or Ronald Reagan spoke about. We will become, as Obama desires, just another nation, no more free than any other, offering no more opportunity than any other, and providing no better future than any other.
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