Once upon a time, Gov’t worked to DESTROY the Mafia. Now, they ARE the Mafia…

“Gee, you’se got a nice place here….  Be a shame if sumthin’ happened to it”.

These words probably conjure up an image of a Mafia goon with an oft-broken nose, replete in an Italian suit. We’ve all seen Protection Racket schemes on TV, movies and/or in real life: bad guys doing bad things to good people.

It’s all part of the basic Mafia shakedown. As a safeguard, the Sicilian Mob’s code of silence (“omerta“) was employed to protect the Capos and Bosses from the criminal activities of those below them in their organizations. No one was to speak of any illicit activities, whether or not they had anything to do with them. In that way, the heads of “The Family” could maintain an air of plausible deniability, since nothing could ever be traced back to them.

Dear Conservatives: if you thought the #IRS was invasive, just wait for Obamacare

Funny and scary, at the same time…

Now Showing! at the Obama Scandal-plex: “The IRS, the AP, the DOJ and #Benghazi…”

At this point, if every separate Obama Administration scandal was a movie, you’d need to rent out a couple of multiplexes to show them all.

Consider:

• The IRS has been targeting & harassing Conservative groups and individuals,
• The DOJ seized phone records from the Associated Press, with as yet no explanation,
• HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has been shaking down companies and organizations for private donations in order to help implement Obamacare, …and courtesy of Allahpundit:
• The EPA has been granting Freedom Of Information Act fee waivers to left-wing groups (who are usually sympathetic to a more powerful EPA), but systematically denies such waivers for Conservative groups.

And that’s just the CURRENT ones.

I’m actually in scandal overload. In U.S. history, I personally can’t recall such an overwhelming display of blatant corruption and abuse of power since possibly Louisiana Governor Huey Long in the 1930s. By comparison, Watergate and Teapot Dome don’t even come close, in scale or breadth.

Obama is shocked, SHOCKED!, that #IRS was harassing/intimidating Conservative groups

**With apologies to Captain Renault….

“Don’t tell me: …you’re ‘shocked’, right?”

Are we really supposed to believe that Obama is dismayed and distraught at revelations of political intimidation within the IRS? That (according to Allahpundit) he “just found out about this on Friday”?

Is our President honestly expecting us to swallow the following tale: that for some inexplicable reason, a rogue band of low-level IRS flunkies took it upon themselves to target the political enemies of this Administration, all without Obama’s imprimatur?

Nothing to see here: #IRS targeted conservative, Tea Party groups…

Many moons ago, an old college professor of mine told me that Bullet Points make it easier for people to remember what you say. And since I think the following is kinda’ important, I’ll give his advice a shot.

Today’s topic is: the I.R.S.:

• Gee, the IRS was used for political purposes, and against Conservatives & Tea Party groups, no less? Hmmm, that’s odd: I seem to recall the NY Times looked into this last year and, after checking into the original complaints from various Tea Party groups, the Times reported roughly along these lines: “Ahhhh, quit  yer’ whining, you crazy patriotic wing nuts!!“

• Predictably, the Administration immediately “blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.” Whoa…, now THERE’s a TOTALLY NEW EXCUSE….

• Also predictably, the IRS is very, very, very, very sorry. Really. They are. Unspecified is exactly what they’re sorry about: the “inappropriate actions” themselves, or being caught….

Most ridiculous statement of the year: “Government is Inherently GOOD…”

We constantly hear various arguments from the Left and scratch our heads, wondering how such lines of reasoning are even possible. Because whether we’re discussing deficits, birth control, guns, national security, health care or education, the Left’s answer always seems to be, “more government!“. 

“I got a fever, ….and the only prescription…., is MORE GOVERNMENT!!”

Such a myopic adherence to an obviously flawed institution would be puzzling, until you consider what their true belief system is. And make no mistake, that’s where this comes from: belief. Which means that far from being a statement of logic, it’s a statement of faith.

The Only Causes Worth Fighting For

Conservatives, libertarians, and other guardians of liberty today remind me a lot of Jefferson Smith from the classic film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Like Smith, conservatives stand in awe of the U.S. Constitution and the wonderful institutions it created to preserve their freedoms. But then reality hits and they realize that their cherished freedoms are being eroded in the name of graft and good intentions.

It might seem hopeless to turn things around when so much damage has been done. But as Smith rightfully points out, “Lost causes… are the only causes worth fighting for.” That’s because if we are on the right side, it doesn’t matter who opposes us: truth must prevail.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington provides a blueprint for today’s battle and it offers hope that we can win. I’d like to compare that film’s events to our day and express optimism for the future.

THE solution to the ‘Obamacare’ problem

Even as we speed towards the complete destruction that is Obamacare (aka ‘the Affordable Health Care for America Act‘), we are lied to repeatedly by various folks saying that this is the best (and really, only) solution to the rapidly rising costs of healthcare.

Which, of course, is ridiculous.

The REAL solution to the spiraling costs of healthcare is, by contrast, pretty darn simple: pay cash for the health-related services which you can afford, and only use insurance to cover the items which you cannot readily afford.

I know that this flies in the face of our current experience, since we are now accustomed to presenting our insurance card for everyday doctor visits, checkups and even pharmaceuticals. But the primary reason that this “insurance” is so expensive is that it covers these uses at all…

Back in the news: “Obamacare and Death Panels”

In the “good-news-&-bad-news” category, there’s a tiny bit of good news…and plenty of bad.

First, the “Good” news, such as it is.

Senator Marco Rubio joined Ted Cruz in support of eliminating funding for this year’s implementation of Obamacare. We’ll need more than Rubio & Cruz on this, but it’s a start.

From CNN.com:

Obamacare “Compromise,” Moral Fiction and Snake-oil Theology

There is a very well-argued piece over at the ADF website on the shell game the Obama Administration is playing with the contraception mandate in  Obamacare. 

We’ve linked Obamacare-related posts from ADF before (here, and here), but this is probably their best yet. In it, they make a number of excellent analogies which highlight just how duplicitous this most recent alleged “compromise” is.

In fact, this is no compromise at all, unless your idea of compromise is “we lose, they win”. 

Taken in conjunction with our post from the other day (“Hey, would YOU like to be my doctor? Thanks to Obamacare, you’ll probably qualify…“), it’s apparent that the Affordable Care Act, as predicted, just keeps getting worse. 

–JTR

——

-By Matt Bowman, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel

 

The Obama administration proposed a new regulation last week in its assault on religious freedom through ObamaCare, but the regulation is the same old story: the government violates religious freedom while imposing its own strange moral theological views on religious groups to tell them they should not complain.

Nice: Dr. Benjamin Carson Decries Political Correctness, Moral Decay and Fiscal Irresponsibility in National Prayer Breakfast Speech (Video)

Reblogged from Nice Deb:

• 

 Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital delivered what is being described as one of the more unique speeches delivered at this morning’s National Prayer Breakfast. Rush Limbaugh raved about it on his show, today, because the good doctor took the opportunity to share his theories about the national debt, deficits, taxation and health care, all in opposition to  Obama's policies.

Read more… 448 more words, 1 more video

Can we make this guy Speaker-of-the-House??

Still more “unintended consequences” of Obamacare

Have you noticed the only time we hear about Obamacare any more is when we find something ELSE wrong with it? And even then, we have to go hunting for the story?

Gee, I wonder why…. (Courtesy of WTOP.com):

“Some families to be priced out of health overhaul”

WASHINGTON (AP) – Some families could get priced out of health insurance due to what’s being called a glitch in President Barack Obama’s overhaul law. IRS regulations issued Wednesday failed to fix the problem as liberal backers of the president’s plan had hoped.

As a result, some families that can’t afford the employer coverage that they are offered on the job will not be able to get financial assistance from the government to buy private health insurance on their own. How many people will be affected is unclear.

The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law. Officials said the administration tried to mitigate the impact.

Whoa, whoa, whoa….  Hold on a second, Sparky. What did that say?

“The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law“….

Incredible: President “Present” strikes again.

This is a joke, right? C’mon: it was Obama’s ‘Historic Accomplishment’! He championed Obamacare through HIS Democrat controlled House and HIS Democrat Senate without so much as a single Republican vote for it during final passage. He crisscrossed the country in support of it, for a year.

But his “hands were tied”? That’s pathetically spineless, even for Obama.