Republicans' Latest Attack on Obamacare Involves IRS

(CNSNews.com) - The effort to derail Obamacare may run through the Internal Revenue Service, House Republican leaders say.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) says, "Republicans are really gearing up for one big week next week," when they plan to introduce a bill -- one of 11 -- that would remove the IRS as the enforcer of Obamacare. 

"We know what's going on at the IRS," Cantor told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night. "We know there (is) a lot of evidence...to demonstrate there is a political witch hunt going on in the tax enforcement agency, and yet that agency now is going to be into your healthcare records and help implement Obamacare. That's not something we want."

The Treasury Department inspector general recently reported that the IRS gave inappropriate scrutiny to conservative groups filing applications for tax-exempt status, delaying many of those applications for months -- in some cases, beyond the 2012 presidential election.

Via: CNS News

Continue Reading.....

Plastic bag ban leads to nationwide increase in shoplifting rates

This was not a good idea after all

On Friday, New Jersey Democratic operative James Devine was arrested for attempting to snatch $22 worth of merchandise from a local ShopRite pharmacy. Devine tried to smuggle lettuce, shampoo and protein powder out of the store, perhaps trying to hide the fact that he was about to make the world’s most disgusting salad.  To avoid detection, he stashed the goods in a reusable grocery bag.

What seems to be just another edition of Democrats doing dumb deeds actually represents a nationwide problem.  Thanks to laws in several major cities banning the use of plastic carryout bags in retail stores, there has been a spike in shoplifting incidents over the past couple years, a trend that business owners, law enforcement officials and customers have duly noted.

In 2011, Washington D.C. enforced a reusable bag tax and officials became steadily more suspicious of shoppers’ activities.

 

Via: The Daily Caller

Continue Reading.....

When Did Obama Decide That The Scandals He Once Thought Were Serious Are Now ‘Phony?’

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama set the tone for the debate surrounding the many controversies that have plagued his administration since the spring. The president called those scandals “phony” and denigrated those who find any worth in their investigation. But, as one prominent conservative opinion writer noted yesterday, it was not long ago that the White House was acknowledging the seriousness of the scandals he now derides as contrived. 

“With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball,” Obama said during a marathon speech in Illinois.

During a panel segment on Fox News Channel’s Special Report, The Weekly Standard editorStephen F. Hayes asked a pointed question about these so-called “phony scandals”: “Which of the scandals is phony?”

“The president has already acknowledged the seriousness of two of them – three of them, in one way or another,” Hayes added.

“This is part of the plan to set up an argument for the fall,” he said, identifying how Democrats will counter Republican charges of malfeasance by administration officials ahead of the 2014 midterms. In essence, Hayes implied, Obama and his supporters will accuse the opponents of his administration of a pathological desire to cling to already discredited conspiracy theories.

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading.....

How Detroit Almost Killed My Business

Of all the depressing facts about the once great City of Detroit, this to me is the most upsetting:  In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.  Today, there are less than 27,000 (Hat tip Zero Hedge Blog).

Government -- federal, state, and local -- made this happen. I know this from experience. Government corrupted the Detroit work force. That corruption drove away my company too.

Until 1984, I was a business owner in the city, employing about 20.  I moved my business 60 miles away.  I didn't want to leave, but I was, in effect, forced to. 

Many think that crime spurred the exodus of business out of Detroit.  Not in my case.  To combat crime we would build a stronger "fort." We called it "fort building" because if my neighbor put heavy wire screen on his windows, the thieves would break into my shop.  If I bricked up my windows in response, my neighbor might be broken into.  This escalated to the point where many businesses eventually put fencing topped with barbed wire around their buildings.  Still, although "fort building" was expensive, it was far cheaper than moving. 

Detroit's abysmal educational system did not drive me away either. As it happens, my particular business did not require highly educated people. So I could hire high school graduates not literate enough to fill out an application form.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading.....

Sex, money and lies: ‘Culture of Corruption’ boomerangs on Democrats as scandals blossom nationwide

The Democratic Party is battling scandals from New York to San Diego and from city hall to Capitol Hill, as the party finds itself on the defensive over embarrassing lapses ranging from sexual misconduct to multiple scandals ensnaring the Obama administration.

President Obama on Wednesday denounced what he called “phony scandals” and “an endless parade of distractions” blocking progress on the economy and other issues, but critics say the controversies underscore the missed opportunities for the president and his party to live up to pledges to clean up politics and break traditional patterns of money, influence and privilege in government.

---

PHOTOS: Eye-popping excuses in American political scandals

---

The scandals have spanned the spectrum from a Democratic mayor in San Diego accused of being unable to keep his hands off his female aides to charges that the administration put the Internal Revenue Service on the trail of its political enemies.

One of Congress‘ most famous Democratic names, the scion of Jesse Jackson in Mr. Obama’s home city of Chicago, was just sent to prison for converting campaign funds to personal use. In Detroit, the ex-mayor and the wife of longtime House Judiciary Committee member John Conyers Jr. have fallen to corruption scandals, while the son of former Democratic Party Chairman Ron Brown admitted last month to bribery charges as a city councilman in the nation’s capital.

Via: Washington Times

Continue Reading..... 

Homeland Security's Future Home: A Former Mental Hospital

Chris Mills frequently gives tours of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a former mental institution where the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is building a $4.5 billion headquarters. It’s the largest construction project in the District of Columbia since the Pentagon was completed in 1943. So there’s a lot of ground to cover. Mills prefers to chauffeur his guests around the place in a golf cart.

A cheerful 55-year-old with a neatly trimmed mustache, Mills, who is managing the project for DHS, tells visitors to look out for animals. There are loads. Herds of deer, a flock of wild turkeys, and a bald eagle reside in the fenced-in facility. They might not last long outside. St. Elizabeths is located in Anacostia, one of D.C.’s toughest neighborhoods. But they have little to fear inside the high-security fences. “It’s like the wild kingdom in here,” Mills says with a chuckle.

Then he’s off in his golf cart with his passengers. His boss, Jeffery Orner, DHS’s chief readiness support officer, who oversees all of the department’s real estate, has come along for the ride. There’s a DHS public-relations person on board, too. She sits in the back, smiling and saying nothing. Everybody is wearing hard hats and DHS safety vests.

Via: Bloomberg Business Week

Continue Reading....