The New York Times reports: “The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was auditing the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year… J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, [testified] that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel of his audit on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin ‘shortly thereafter.’” Both of the Treasury officials notified were appointed by Obama and constitute part of his Administration. [Read more...]
Obama Administration knew and IRS deliberately hid the targeting scandal until after presidential election
May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The ineffectual, inept, excuse-making executive
May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by George Landrith
Barack Obama is the world’s most inept and feckless leader. This is not merely my opinion. Any serious review of the facts reveals inescapably that the official, yet unspoken, position of the Obama White House is that Barack Obama is completely incompetent.
Of course, Barack Obama didn’t hold a press conference and explicitly admit that he is an incapable bungler. But if you believe Obama’s and his Administration’s explanation for everything from the Benghazi attacks, to the related cover-up and whistleblower threats, to the recent IRS scandal, they are implicitly admitting that Obama is the weakest, most ineffectual president ever.
UPDATE: CBS News is now reporting that Obama administration officials say that mistakes made in responding to the Benghazi incident reflect ”incompetence rather than malice or cover up.” ”We’re portrayed … as either being liars or idiots,” an anonymous Obama Administration official said and then admitted, “It’s actually closer to us being idiots.” How bad do things have to be before an Obama official is willing to cop a plea to being “idiots?”
Doubling Down on Absurdity
May 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by George Landrith
While British Prime Minister David Cameron was in town this earlier this week, President Barack Obama held a press conference and was asked about several growing scandals including the Benghazi coverup. At issue were the CIA talking points that Administration officials radically changed – removing all references to warnings before the attack, terrorism, al-Qaeda, and the planned and coordinated nature of the attack. Obama claimed it was all a politically motivated “sideshow.”
Obama made at least three claims that were clearly false. First, he said that from the first day, he was clear that the attack was an “act of terrorism.” False. Second, he claimed that he sent a White House official to Capital Hill to testify that it was terrorism. Again, false. Third, he said that Congress reviewed administration emails and determined several months ago that “there was nothing afoul.” Again, completely and totally false. [Read more...]
Names
May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by Gordon S. Jones 
“How can I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name.”
So says John Proctor in The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch Trials or something. I’ve been acting in a community theater production of the 1953 classic, and it has prompted some thoughts on names, which I will transmute into a proposal for congressional reform before I’m done. [Read more...]
ABC News: White House scrubbed CIA talking points
May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
White House systematically removed all references to al Qaeda and terror from the CIA talking points. 
Then the White House falsely asserted that the talking points that it had radically changed was the work product of the intelligence community and that the White House had made only “a single adjustment changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’. The White House’s position was not plausibly true when it was said. However, we now have proof positive that the White House was engaged in a huge and systematic cover-up.
See the ABC News report below … [Read more...]
Benghazi: The cover-up is unraveling
May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Administration and Mainstream Media caught dissembling again 
by George Landrith
At the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, the president revealed a sad truth – the mainstream media actively works to advance his political career. He quipped that his campaign manager “David Axelrod now works for MSNBC, which is a nice change of pace since MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod.”
In deed, the mainstream media has been diligently advancing Obama’s political career since at least 2008. And the media’s active participation in the Benghazi cover-up is proof positive of the media’s deep and profound dishonesty. [Read more...]
The Iran Enigma
May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by Dr. Miklos K. Radvanyi 
History, in her disposition toward intellectually gifted peoples and nations, appears as fickle as the gods of ancient times were wont to be of their most devout revelers; the more those peoples and nations excelled the less they were shielded from endless tribulations, great catastrophes, and devastating tragedies. Like most of the nation-states of Europe and Asia, present-day Iran had a glorious history, yet unlike them, it has been torn since 1979 between revolutionary adventurism and reactionary self-preservation.
The fatal contradiction in Ayatollah Khomeini’s doctrine of the “guardianship of the jurist” (velayat-e faqih) is that, by definition, it contains the political seeds of its own destruction. [Read more...]
Public Lands States: Promise and… Promise
May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by Gordon S. Jones 
The recent arguments before the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act raised questions about whether some states are not being treated on an “equal footing” with respect to others. These arguments prompted some thought about what equal footing might mean with respect to the so-called “public lands” states.
Assuming that many of my readers (further assuming that I have “many” readers) may not be familiar with the term, let me take time out to explain: “public lands” states are states where much of the real estate is not privately owned, or even owned by the state, but by the federal government. And when I say “much,” I really mean “most.” Champion in this sweepstakes is Nevada, where about 81% of the total land area is owned by Washington. In Alaska, which is number two, north of 60% of the land mass is federally-owned. [Read more...]
Changing the Benghazi Talking Points
May 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
How they were changed to obscure the truth
by Stephen F. Hayes 
Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults. The Weekly Standard has obtained a timeline briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing the heavy substantive revisions made to the CIA’s talking points, just six weeks before the 2012 presidential election, and additional information about why the changes were made and by whom. [Read more...]
“Mainstream” media are not biased. They are propagandists.
April 30, 2013 By 1 Comment
by George Landrith 
For years, media bias has been hotly debated. Let me settle this here and now. The mainstream media is not biased. Bias implies some level of subtly in the prejudice. There is nothing subtle about the media’s blatant partiality which actually reaches the level of dishonest propaganda.
There is an unmistakeable trend in play – some evil and/or demented person kills and injures a large number of innocent people and the extreme Left and the “mainstream” media (but I repeat myself) blame conservatives for the evil-doer’s actions. This is an almost reflexive reaction for the media and the Left. [Read more...]
Missile Defense: projecting strength rather than weakness
April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by George Landrith 
Ronald Reagan coined the phrase, “Peace through strength,” but it was not a new idea and it had not been an historically partisan concept. It dates back to George Washington who said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” Washington and Reagan understood that peace is achieved through strength and conversely that weakness invites attack. This was once a universally accepted truth among American leaders. Current events prove, it should again become American policy regardless of party.
We live in a dangerous world. Kim Jung-un is threatening military invasions and nuclear attacks. We’ve recently learned that the North Koreans are much closer to being able to put a nuclear warhead on a missile than was previously believed. China, already a nuclear power, is rapidly developing a large navy and stealth aircraft. Russia has been sending its military aircraft into American airspace on provocative test missions. [Read more...]
Venezuela in American Perspective
April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by Dr. Miklos K. Radvanyi 
The recent post-Chavez presidential election in Venezuela clearly placed the country on a ruinous political, economic and social quicksand. The questionable razor-thin victory of Chavez’s handpicked successor Nicholas Maduro and the relative strength of his opponent Henrique Capriles show that the electorate was almost evenly split between its determination to uphold the status quo and its desire for essential changes in government. President Maduro faces the difficult task of attempting to maintain a regime that half of the Venezuelan people do not want. [Read more...]
Lady Thatcher taught me self-reliance
April 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment
“Baroness Thatcher’s influence on my development as an entrepreneur goes far deeper than that, to my most fundamental beliefs. . . Baroness Thatcher’s lesson was clear: you get out what you put in, regardless of gender or race.”
by Sahar Hashemi
Often, we only realise the value of things when they’re gone, which is exactly what happened to me when I heard of Baroness Thatcher’s death.
The news made me suddenly aware of the huge impact she has had on my life and how, although I had never consciously acknowledged it before, I am one of Thatcher’s children and her values are deeply entrenched in my psyche. [Read more...]
Lady Thatcher restored self-reliance
April 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment
“Margaret Thatcher transcended identity politics — it was her ideas not her gender that mattered”
by Cal Thomas
There is a story about Margaret Thatcher, which is probably apocryphal, but speaks volumes about the strength of Britain’s first female prime minister, who died Monday at age 87.
Following her election in 1979, the story goes that Thatcher took her all-male cabinet out to dinner. The waiter asked what she would like. “I’ll have the beef,” she said. The waiter asked, “What about the vegetables?” “They’ll have the same,” Thatcher replied. [Read more...]
Dumbing down the political discourse: How do you feel about it?
April 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by George Landrith 
The question Left of center is, “How do you feel about it?” How do you feel about ObamaCare? How do you feel about gun violence? Do you feel that the rich pay their fair share? Feelings are legitimate, but apply to relationships and people, not public policy issues. I love my family. But I think about public policy.
Sadly, too many Americans “feel” about public policy issues which unfortunately “liberates” them from thinking. As a result, more and more people are becoming unaccustomed to rational analysis and thought.
I don’t visit the doctor to hear how he feels about my health, nor a plumber to learn his feelings about my leaky pipes. We want expertise, not feelings. [Read more...]
Tax day reminds Americans that federal spending and taxes are too high
April 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment
George Landrith, president of Frontiers of Freedom, made the following statement on tax day, April 15th: 
Will Rogers once said, “It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.” That may be true, but I think we all wish we were paying for a lot less government and a lot less taxes. Our federal government is at historically high levels of spending — in recent years gobbling up nearly 25% of the total economic output.
Every year, the federal government spends more money than it did the last year. Even this year with the “sequester,” federal government will spend more money this year than it did the year before. [Read more...]
Senate Democrats are blocking an honorary resolution for Lady Thatcher
April 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
With Lady Margaret Thatcher’s recent passing, tributes and praise for her leadership are flowing freely from former allies and adversaries alike. This is entirely fitting as she was not only the first and only female Prime Minister of the U.K., but she reclaimed a declining economy and helped defeat communism. Lady Thatcher was an effective leader, a principled and skilled politician, and she strengthened the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States. Lady Thatcher was one of the world’s most influential and greatest post-World War II leaders.
A resolution honoring Lady Thatcher has been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. A resolution was also supposed to pass in the Senate earlier this week. However, well placed sources on Capitol Hill report that Senate Democrats have placed a hold on the resolution honoring Lady Thatcher, according to Katherine Rosario at HeritageAction.com. [Read more...]
Obama Energy Policy Prevents Economic Growth
April 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment
by U.S. Representative Tom Cole 
If only President Obama would take his approach to energy production and apply it to the national debt, we’d be down to 2007 levels in no time. According to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), his administration’s policies have caused production on federal lands to plummet.
Although the president likes to claim that production of oil and natural gas has increased during his tenure, the growth driving the current energy boom has occurred entirely on non-federal lands. On federal lands subject to government control, it’s a different story. Between 2010 and 2012, oil production on federal lands fell by more than 23 percent to levels lower than those in 2007. [Read more...]
[Flashback Interview] The Iron Lady on Individual Self-Reliance (“There is no such thing as society.”)
April 8, 2013 By 1 Comment
“All too often the ills of this country are passed off as those of society. Similarly, when action is required, society is called upon to act. But society as such does not exist except as a concept. Society is made up of people. It is people who have duties and beliefs and resolve. It is people who get things done. She prefers to think in terms of the acts of individuals and families as the real sinews of society rather than of society as an abstract concept. Her approach to society reflects her fundamental belief in personal responsibility and choice. To leave things to ‘society’ is to run away from the real decisions, practical responsibility and effective action.”
by Scott L. Vanatter
Four score and seven years ago Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire County. Today she belongs to the ages.
Of course, she always has belonged to the ages — at least since her principled leadership helped bring Britain back from the brink of a crippling socialist ruin. For good reason a Soviet journalist labeled her the Iron Lady. With Ronald Reagan she led the free world in the face of a once fearful Soviet Union.
Below are excerpts of an interview she gave as Prime Minister at No. 10 Downing Street, on September, 23, 1987. It was immediately controversial because she made the case that there was “no such thing as Society.” [Read more...]
Tribute to Margaret Thatcher (October 13, 1925 – April 8, 2013)
April 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Margaret Thatcher was a friend to the United States and the principles of liberty. She rescued the U.K. from economic malaise with economic policies that empowered the individual and harnessed the power of the marketplace. She joined with Ronald Reagan to win the Cold War using the “peace through strength” doctrine. She empowered her people, strengthened her nation, and made the world a safer, better place. She will be missed.
