It's No Joke

Lest there be any doubt why I don't find Jon Stewart and the other assholes of his ilk the least bit funny, the one-time head writer and 

co-creator of ‘The Daily Show’ managed to enrage many of her followers after tweeting joke about the Oklahoma tornado’s political motivations.‘This tornado is in Oklahoma so clearly it has been ordered to only target conservatives,’ wrote comedian Lizz Winstead, in a tweet, around 3:30 Monday afternoon. The tweet was an apparent attempt at using the occasion of the May 20 twister to comment on the scandal currently plaguing the IRS and Obama administration. 

She followed up with this,

Boy that's a real knee slapper, isn't it?  What kind of demonic logic drives the left?  It is destructive, evil.  I once thought the left were well meaning people who just didn't get it.  But evidence has accumulated to the point that I realize they are bent on control at any cost and destruction of anyone who doesn't share their agenda.  It's a power and control game.  It can't get any uglier than that.  I, for one, am not going down quietly.

Lying For Barack

If anything the Sunday talk show lying is getting more brazen.  Barack's best State Department pal Susan Rice, on Sunday September 16, 2012 was put forward to say the following concerning Benghazi,

"There's no question, as we've seen in the past with things like 'The Satanic Verses,' with the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, there have been such things that have sparked outrage and anger and this has been the proximate cause of what we've seen," Rice said.

“What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, prompted by the video,” Rice said.

"No question" and "in fact?"  The Benghazi claims were false, known to be false and based on fabricated lies put together by a team involving Obama's White House and Hillary Clinton's State Department.

Yesterday, Obama didn't bother to put multiple organizational layers and a separate organizational stovepipe between him and the prevaricating mouthpiece.   Dan Pfeifer, White House senior adviser, was pressed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday yesterday on the President's role the night of the Benghazi raid,

“What did the President do the rest of that night to pursue Benghazi?” Pfeiffer answered, “Look, the President was kept up to date on this as it was happening the entire night, from the moment it started until the very end …. I recognize that there’s a series of conspiracy theories Republicans have been spinning about it since the time it happened.” He then added, “The question here is not what happened that night.”

Wallace pressed him further: “With due respect, you didn’t answer my question: what did the president do that night?” Pfeiffer said that Obama was in touch with his national security team, but as Wallace pointed out, he didn’t talk to the Secretary of State except for one time after the attack was over, didn’t talk to the Secretary of Defense, didn’t talk with the Joint Chiefs of Staff as it developed.

Finally, Wallace asked whether Obama was in the Situation Room. “I don’t remember what room the President was in on that night,” shot back Pfeiffer, “and that’s a largely irrelevant fact.” Wallace continued to press the point, and Pfeiffer continued to evade.

After days, weeks and months of attention on that bleak, horrible night we can rest assured that Pfeiffer's failure to remember is a lie, pure and simple. The Obamian nose is getting longer every day.

Politidumb of the Week

It's a Trifecta,

1.  AP -- Nothing like ticking off your best buds who happen to be your PR army.

2.  Benghazi -- Splatting your best hope in 2016 against the windshield.

3.  IRS -- Denials and backpedaling will catalyze additional revelations that cry out for coverage -- see Item 1.

Holy Crap!

It turns out the low level IRS "rogue employee" in Cincinnati (no pattern here, don't stop to look) viewed prayer as a disqualifier for nonprofit status.

While applying with the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status in 2009, an Iowa-based anti-abortion group was asked to provide information about its members' prayer meetings, documents sent by an IRS official to the organization reveal.

Private Party Prayer Not Permitted
on the Government's Watch

On June 22, 2009, the Coalition for Life of Iowa received a letter from the IRS office in Cincinnati, Ohio, that oversees tax exemptions requesting details about how often members pray and whether their prayers are "considered educational."

"Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood, are considered educational as defined under 501(c)(3)," reads the letter, made public by the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm that collected evidence about the IRS practices. "Organizations exempt under 501(c)(3) may present opinions with scientific or medical facts. Please explain in detail the activities at these prayer meetings. 

Also, please provide the percentage of time your organizations spends on prayer groups as compared with the other activities of the organization."

My God, the people who support the lefty political machine are mean spirited and intolerant. The lady who was in charge of the Cincinnati mess is now running the IRS's Obamacare compliance operation. I can foresee it now -- next to come is the questioning, regulation and banning of prayer in hospitals. Hospitals are places for medicine and medicine only, deathbed conversions not allowed.

Tangled

The tone is set at the top.  Here is the gig.

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

The "Elections have
consequences" President
in action.

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.

Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. "He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?" asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.

And Obama implicated the IRS as a principal instrument of his lawless politics of destruction by putting tax cheat Tim Geithner in charge. Way to go President of the left!

Three If By Sea

Kim Jong-un is running out of map games.

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

May 18, 2013

(click for full size)

Daffodils

Horses

Elk Herd, Foot of Mt. Ellis, Meadow View

Elk Herd, Foot of Mt. Ellis, Ridge View

Tulips

Swans and Ducks

Breaking News! New IRS Chief to Even Out Audits

Striving to move beyond the political fallout of the IRS’s scandalous treatment of conservative and libertarian organizations that sought nonprofit status, President Barack Obama  appointed senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Thursday. 

In a companion move that appears calculated to reestablish the Internal Revenue Service’s bona fides as an even-handed, neutral arbiter of the law, it is expected that Werfel will launch audits of multiple organizations previously granted nonprofit status.  The new targets of the IRS review will include Netroots Nation, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, the Center for American Progress a 501 (c)(4) organization, and NARAL Pro-Choice America, also registered under Section 501 (c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.  White House officials insist that these organizations have come up for audit under the IRS’s standard management review cycle.  The IRS will investigate political lobbying activity.  It is not lawful for organizations to claim they serve an educational or social welfare purpose, when they are actually organized for the purpose of lobbying members of Congress and influencing officials in the Executive Branch.      

Netroots represents a broad coalition of left leaning and progressive organizations.  The Netroots website describes its influencing role as follows. 

Think of the Netroots as a big political family. We may not agree on everything but common threads connect us—for example, we stand for an America where every person deserves a good job with fair wages and equal opportunity. Our tent may be broad but we all can agree that America has gone off the rails and it’s time to get back on track with policy that is fair and just for everyone. 

The Washington, DC based Center for American Progress is chaired by John Podesta whose political resume and connections to the President include the following.

Prior to founding the Center in 2003, Podesta served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He served in the president’s cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. While in the White House, he also served as both an assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, as well as staff secretary.

Podesta served as co-chair of President Barack Obama’s transition, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees. 

The Center describes its American political operation as follows.

How we work

Through dialogue with leaders, thinkers, and citizens, we explore the vital issues facing America and the world. We develop a point of view and take a stand. We then build on that and develop bold new ideas.

We shape the national debate. We share our point of view with everyone who can put our ideas into practice and effect positive change. That means online, on campus, in the media, on the shop floor, in faith communities, and in the boardroom. Our progressive partners—including the CAP Action Fund—take our ideas to Congress and statehouses. 

The third nonprofit, NARAL Pro-Choice America, pushes its abortion rights agenda by targeting both Congress and the Executive for action.

The President

President Obama can do a lot to affect pro-choice policies.

· President Obama picks the people who oversee services important to women's health. He also nominates women and men to serve as judges on federal courts.

· President Obama can use executive orders to change some policies. Just after entering office, he canceled the anti-choice global gag rule.

· President Obama proposes the federal budget. Choice is part of many programs.

· President Obama has the power to sign into law or veto choice-related laws Congress passes. 

Learn more about the powers of the president (PDF)

Congress

Congress—the House and Senate—creates laws and spends money on many health programs. The Senate also approves people the president picks to serve as judges or in key government positions. Right now, pro-choice lawmakers are outnumbered in both the House and Senate.

Find out how members of Congress voted on choice-related issues in 2012.

If the audits find the organizations have worked outside the scope of nonprofit charters, the entities will be required to file tax returns for the last three years, and will be assessed interest and penalties on their tax liability.  Per standard IRS practice, assets will be seized, as necessary, to pay monies due the U.S. Treasury.  Individuals who made tax deductible contributions to any of these organizations or affiliates may also be assessed for tax deficiencies.  If evidence is adduced of willful violation of the Internal Revenue Code during the audits, officials of the organizations may be referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

Please Do Not Feed the Animals

My old friend, colleague and one-time boss sent me this.

Today's lesson in irony.

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people. 

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves. 

Thus ends today's lesson in irony.

Just think how dependent people would be if we weren't into the fourth year of Obama's economic recovery.  Thank you John!

Stupid Move IRS

I remember in high school we were tested on the U.S. Constitution.  We had to pass.  No pass equaled no diploma.  So here comes a little old lady from Ohio who founded American Patriots against Government Excess (PAGE) in 2010.  Her group "consisted of volunteers who routinely passed out copies of the constitution at parades, and had informational meetings on anything from the health care law to disaster preparedness."  The IRS challenges her organization's status, political not educational they say.   Said organization passes out copies of the constitution, the very document I and millions of other had to study and comprehend in order to graduate high school.  Said organization responds to IRS audit request for reading materials by sending in copy of said Constitution.  Duh!

Criteria IRS Used to Select Groups for Audit -- Audit Process Impeded and/or Prevented Groups from Operating

Straight from the "independent" IG Report are the following which Obama and his Spokesman Jay Carney have disputed to this point.

Criteria for Potential Political Cases (June 2011)

• “Tea Party,” “Patriots” or “9/12 Project” is referenced in the case file
• Issues include government spending, government debt or taxes
• Education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to “make America a better place to live”
• Statement in the case file criticize how the country is being run

Source: EO function briefing dated June 2011

Audit processes result in delays typically of a year of more, disrupting the applicants and causing applications to wither on the vine.

The IRS process was about deferment, delay and denial during the election season -- a heinous abuse of power.  Here are the types of things the IG says happened or may have happened as a result of the unlawful review process,

As a result, the IRS delayed the issuance of letters to organizations approving their tax-exemptstatus. For I.R.C. § 501(c)(3) organizations, this means that potential donors and grantors could be reluctant to provide donations or grants In addition, some organizations withdrew their applications and others may not have begun conducting planned charitable or social welfare work. The delays may have also prevented some organizations from receiving certain benefits of the tax-exempt status. For example, if organizations are approved for tax-exempt status, they may receive exemption from certain State taxes and reduced postal rates. For organizations that may eventually be denied tax-exempt status but have been operating while their applications are pending, the organizations will be required to retroactively file income tax returns and may beliable to pay income taxes for, in some cases, more than two years

IRS Flashback -- Tax Cheat Tim Geithner

Is it any wonder that the IRS illegally targeted political groups and illegally leaked confidential information on groups disfavored by Barack Obama during tax cheat Timothy Geithner's watch as Secretary of the Treasury? When disrespect for the law starts at the top it runs rampant throughout government organizations.

As for the independent agency spinmeistering, let me say this.  I worked for an "independent agency" of the Federal Government for 33 years, and interacted literally thousands of times with other "independent" agencies.  I can attest that agency independence is a legal fiction, with an exclusive emphasis on fiction.  Agencies are led by political people who are nominated, appointed and confirmed by elected politicians.  Agency leaders know who they are beholden to and act accordingly.  I wish I had a buck for every time I heard someone say say "We need to check with the Hill", "The White House says", "The President wants", "What does the Secretary want?", "We need approval from OMB", "How will Congress react", "That won't fly with the House" or some such thing.  The influences and control are myriad and complete.  Don't be fooled by Barack Obama or Jay Carney's invocation of the fiction, not in the least.

Margin Accounts Are Back

Except this isn't the movie.

Obama's print money, borrow money policies are working their magic. Abundant low cost credit and subnormal returns on government bonds are driving increased borrowing and higher stock prices.  Balances in margin accounts maintained by brokerages have bounced back within a fare thee well of their pre-financial crisis levels.

Margin account debt is incurred to buy stocks, secured by the value of the security.  Margin account loans are famously subject to call when stock prices drop, forcing investors to sell shares in a panic, reinforcing downward price spirals and potentially freezing the financial system.   This run up in margin lending is,

[A] warning sign that the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies are creating a bubble mentality among stock investors. 

That is just shy of the record $381.4 billion in margin debt set in July 2007.  As of the end of March, the most recent data available, investors had $379.5 billion of margin debt at New York Stock Exchange member firms, according to the Big Board. 

In March, the level of margin debt stood 28% higher than one year earlier, a time frame that saw the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rise 11.4%. 

The fear is that as more investors rely on money borrowed against stocks, any significant fall in stock prices will be magnified if investors are forced to sell securities to raise cash and meet margin requirements. 

"Borrowing is cheap," said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp

Margin calls on a grand scale are what precipitated the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008 and came within weeks of destroying the entire U.S. financial system.  Easy money policy drove excessive borrowing leading up to 2008 and easy money policy is driving excessive debt now.

Obama's 6 Minute and 44 Second Defense

Barack Obama takes just under 7 minutes to say, when we fabricated the Benghazi talking points, we couldn't have been trying to cover anything up because we did such a lousy job of it. 

It's a continuous parade -- we are incompetent, we are ignorant, we are indifferent and we are unaware.  That's what you get when you can't blame Bush anymore.

The Cost of Green Jobs

Our old friends back in Arlington growled this last week on Obama's green jobs program costing $11.45 million for each permanent job.  By my calculation that's about 50 times the cost of an Ivy League education or one thousand times the cost of an AA degree at a community college.  Any idea which investments have a real payoff?

Van Jones cashes in on his experience
as Barack Obama's original Green Jobs Czar.

Politidumb of the Week

Politidumb or politicorrupt?  I guess it depends on your perspective.

To the President of the United States, abuses of power by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are fodder for humor.

But it is not at all funny to those who are persecuted by the harsh thumb of the IRS, armed with its special powers to summons, seize and prosecute.  It's Nixonian. 

The IRS's tea party targeting is clearly intentional.  Under the Obama administration audits of non-profit organizations soared, almost doubling from an average of 6,205 returns each year from 2001 to 2008, rising to  an average of 11,111 audited returns per year from 2009 to 2011, even as the number of tax exempt organizations filing returns decreased.  From the White House, speaking on behalf of the President, Jay Carney wants us to believe the increase and selection of new audit targets was driven by low-level rogue employees.  It's what I call the Benghazi defense, "We didn't know and no one was in charge."   But to quote Hillary Clinton, "What difference does it make?"  There is virtually no daylight between the disdain and destruction of criminal neglect and the depredations of intentional malfeasance. 


But let's get real about this.  Is there anyone out there dumb enough to think that bureaucratic minions responsible for the targeted nonprofit audit surge would act on their own, without engaging superiors in the process?    Bureaucrats are expert, if at nothing else, in covering their butts.  They don't do anything strong, creative or even different without checking and reporting up the line.

The IRS targeted for audit nonprofit groups that included terms like "tea party", "patriot", "Bill of Rights" and "Constitution" in their title or charter -- words that go to the core of our country's strength, uniqueness and founding principles.  These principles are what the Obama administration and its brain dead, navel gazing supporters love to hate.

By the way, do you know what precipitated the Inspector General investigation into the IRS audits?  It was a request by Darrel Issa, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the very same Darrel Issa who is leading the charge on the investigation into Benghazi. Darrel Issa is a good man, a reasonable man, a competent man and someone who pursues issues with passion and integrity.  There are few like him in Congress these days, Republican or Democrat, and it appears no one like him these days in the Obama administration.

There is emerging evidence that the Commissioner of the IRS lied and or misled about the abuse of power over the last two years. This is a politidumb that has days to go and legs to last.  

Where Have All the Tornadoes Gone?

Beware the Dust Devil

Anyone who has watched the Weather Channel this spring has heard reports that, despite the miracles of Doppler Radar and deployment of a massive technological armada, the WC's Tornado Hunt Team has been having a hell of a time spotting twisters.   Just yesterday, in the absence of anything real to report, they got all worked up about dust stirred up by gusts of wind. Imagine that! Well, the Weather Channelers can come by the Gallitan Valley most any day and get the same effect following a Ford F-150 pickup along our many unpaved roads.

Tornado activity has been one of the scare tools of the climate change alarmists.  Let's look at what the climate changers have been saying about the linkage of the 0.04 percent of the atmosphere that is carbon dioxide and tornadoes.

The White House has sponsored research,

A 2008 report from the U.S. Global Change and Research Program, a federal interagency research program overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, found that more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could lead to an increase in severe storm conditions that make tornadoes possible.

"We can’t say there is a correlation between a specific tornado and global change," said program director Thomas Armstrong. "But the reports do indicate that there is a positive correlation between climate change and the frequency of conditions favorable to the formation" of tornadoes, he said, while stressing that the research is still preliminary.

The loony left progressive press reports climatologists insist on a tornado, climate change link.

The unexpectedly fierce and fast tornado outbreak so early in the season has folks asking again about a possible link to climate change. Climatologist Dr. Kevin Trenberth emailed me that, because of climate change, “there is every expectation that the [tornado] season will move up in time. The warm winter in the US is perhaps an indicator of the nature of the changes to be expected.”

The former head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research stands by his 2011 statement, “It is irresponsible not to mention climate change in stories that presume to say something about why all these storms and tornadoes are happening.”

Al Gore -- Early Adherent of the
Stop Tornado Movement

No less of an authority than big Al Gore speechified "there seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory" in his global warming presentation, before he went on to castigate the evil, profit-addicted oil sheikhs, you know, those fellows who gave Al a $100 million payday for his share of a cable television network -- capitalist cronyism in the extreme. 

And now the Obamanistas are weighing in with their normal bitter, arrogant, name-calling tactics, tagging anyone who disagrees with their spectacular climate change claims as "crazy." Is it no wonder that Barack Obama is despised by so many?   The man and his supporters are unmitigated jerks.   But that is a side issue, let's get to the facts.

Here comes USA Today reporting that tornado activity has hit a new 60 year low, noting that the U.S. in the past 12 months has seen the fewest number of tornadoes since at least 1954." Loss of human life is lower than at any time than in more than a century.

The seven people killed from May 2012 to April 2013 is the fewest in a 12-month period since five people died in September 1899-August 1900, according to Harold Brooks, research meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

The year-to-date count of tornadoes is probably approaching the lower 10% of all years on record, said Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman.

Tornadoes have not only been very few, but incredibly weak.

So far in May — usually the USA's most active month — only three tornadoes have formed. All have been rated EF-0 on the Fujita scale of tornado intensity. EF-0 is the weakest rating for tornadoes, with wind speeds of about 65-85 mph.

Waiting, waiting, waiting, for climate scientists, climatologists and the junk extrapolation crowd to develop global dusting models that link climate change and that slithery, dirty, grimy stuff.  Come on guys, ignore 99.96 percent of the atmosphere.  Attribute everything to 0.04 percent -- you've done it before and you can do it again!

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

May 11, 2013

(click for full size)

Water Tower

Family Shooting Center at the Gallitan County Fairgrounds

Yellow Headed Blackbird (really, it's that simple)

Montana State University "M"

Sacajawea Peak.

Ducks on a pond.

Stay Out of the Creek!

There's not much to the creeks around here, you can walk across them. But that apparently doesn't make them safe.

There has been two deadly incidents this week.,

In Bozeman, a man was found drowned in Sourdough (Bozeman) Creek Tuesday evening. Same deal, same day in Billings,

A transient whose body was pulled from Alkali Creek on Tuesday drowned after a paralyzing fall, the Yellowstone County coroner's office concluded Wednesday.

Body Recovery Billings

Deputy Coroner Chad Fehr said the 39-year-old man fell down a steep embankment and suffered a severe neck injury, which made swimming impossible. Officials believe the victim was sleeping on a narrow ledge high above the creek and just northeast of MetraPark when the accident occurred.

The man's name is being withheld until relatives are notified. It's unclear where the man is from. He had lived in several states.

For now, the death is considered accidental.

A hiker spotted the man's body floating in Alkali Creek just before noon Tuesday and called 911.

Be careful out there people.  I am hoping for more creek stories like this.

A Big Shout Out to a First Responder

Who once again was not an armor clad, heavily armed SWAT team member, but who was an ordinary citizen on an ordinary day who did an extraordinary thing.  I am talking about Charles Ramsey who broke down the door to free Amanda Berry in Cleveland.  Ramsey summed it up in his own special way.

"You've got to put that being a coward and 'I don't want to get in nobody's business,'" he said. "You got to put that away for a minute."

He added, "I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway."

In one of the top tweets about Ramsey, comedian Patton Oswalt wrote, "Dear Charles Ramsey: I am not a little pretty white girl, but I totally want to run into your black arms. #hero."

Here is to you Charles Ramsey!