<\/p>\n
News of the Week for May. 19th<\/sup>, 2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now we can dare call the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups a conspiracy<\/a> Tea party groups threaten to sue IRS<\/a> Revealed: The 55 questions the IRS asked one tea party group after more than two years of waiting \u2013 including demands for names of all its donors and volunteers<\/a> Gov’t obtains wide AP phone records in probe<\/a> The IRS admits to \u2018targeting\u2019 conservative groups, but were they also \u2018leaking\u2019?<\/a> The New JournoList spin on the IRS<\/a> IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups<\/a> IRS boss of Tea Party probes targeted anti-Clinton group in 1990s<\/a> Media coalition letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder<\/a> Boehner on IRS: ‘Who’s Going to Jail Over This Scandal?’<\/a><\/p>\n Complete copy of Treasury Report on IRS targeting of Tea Party and conservatives<\/a> The IRS wants YOU \u2014 to share everything<\/a> Double standard? IRS targeted conservatives, despite spike in applications from labor groups<\/a> So How Did Obama\u2019s Organizing for Action Get IRS 501(c)(4) Approval So Quickly?<\/a> IRS Asks for Reading List, Tea Party Group Sends Constitution<\/a> Obama Scandal Scorecard<\/a> Reporter Claims IRS Harassment After Tough Obama Interview *UPDATE: Conners Muzzled<\/a> \u201cThe government has mandated speech codes on all campuses\u201d<\/a> The Administration Says Universities Must Implement Broad Speech Codes<\/a> News of DOJ\/DOE Mandate Spreads<\/a> The ignored DOJ scandal \u2014 anti-free speech codes on campuses<\/a> Sweet Irony: Obama admin obsession with Tea Party comes back to bite it<\/a> IRS To Conservatives: “Provide Details Regarding All Of Your Facebook Or Twitter Activity”<\/a> Did Dem Sen. Max Baucus Urge the IRS to Target Conservatives?<\/a> \u2018Stunner\u2019: Congressman Claims DOJ Seized House of Reps Phone Records<\/a> Holder Justice Department Also Tapped House of Representatives Cloak Room<\/a> IRS denied tax-exempt status to pro-lifers on behalf of Planned Parenthood<\/a> An Open Letter To Speaker Boehner\u2026Shut It Down<\/a> IRS Deliberately Chose Not to Fess Up to Scandal Before Election<\/a> IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office<\/a> The Liberal Union Behind the IRS<\/a> Nunes Clarifies DOJ Phone-Tapping Allegation<\/a> Who wrote the Questionnaire*? (*that the IRS reserved for Tea Party groups)? <\/a> The IRS is deeply political \u2014 and very Democratic<\/a> Conservative Hispanic Groups Targeted In IRS Scandal<\/a> IRS Commissioner: Activity ‘Absolutely Not Illegal’<\/a> Treasury Knew of I.R.S. Inquiry in 2012, Official Says<\/a> Obama Administration Knew of IRS Scandal 5 Months Before Election<\/a> Cover Up<\/a> Rep. Mike Kelly Receives Standing Ovation at Ways & Means Hearing on IRS Scandal<\/a><\/p>\n Legal Insurrection and Judicial Watch file suit to obtain David Gregory gun law violation documents<\/a> Majority of Colorado sheriffs file suit against new gun laws<\/a> Obama administration gives wind farms a pass on eagle deaths, prosecutes oil companies<\/a> Multidecadal Variations and Sea Surface Temperature Reconstructions<\/a> EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups<\/a> IEA Predicts More Trouble for OPEC<\/a> Climate models getting worse than we thought<\/a> The 97% consensus \u2013 a lie of epic proportions<\/a> IRS faces class action lawsuit over theft of 60 million medical records<\/a> A Small Business Owner Explains the Hard Facts of Obamacare to Employees<\/a> CDC: 1 In 5 US Children May Have Mental Disorder<\/a> Anonymous Cincinnati IRS official: \u201cEverything comes from the top.\u201d<\/a> Pfeiffer on IRS Scandal: ‘Law Is Irrelevant’<\/a> Obamacare\u2019s Cadillac Tax Won\u2019t be as Big as Thought<\/a> Your Next IRS Political Audit<\/a> 7 Caught Trespassing At Quabbin Reservoir; Patrols Stepped Up Across State<\/a> Supreme Court rules for Monsanto, says farmer violated genetically modified soybeans\u2019 patent<\/a> Philly Abortion Doctor Guilty in 3 Babies’ Deaths<\/a> Abortion doctor convicted of murder waives appeal, avoids death sentence<\/a> Swarthmore Spinning Out of Control<\/a> Whites-Only Fellowship Sparks Major Conundrum for Columbia University \u2014 Here\u2019s How Officials Want to Fix It<\/a> House unanimously votes for government-free Internet<\/a> Gosnell Gives Up Appeal, Prosecutors Agree to Life in Prison, No Death Penalty<\/a> How the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year was faked with Photoshop<\/a> Lisa Jackson’s Official Portrait: I’m Guessing That’s a Watercolor?<\/a> Elizabeth Warren\u2019s low-information student loan spear<\/a> More than 100 Occupy the Farm protesters return to University of California-owned Gill Tract<\/a> Mia Love announces 2014 congressional candidacy<\/a> Voter Fraud Changed the Outcome of a Missouri Election<\/a> A Second Kermit Gosnell? In Texas?<\/a> Craft Beer\u2019s Overtaxed, Senators Say<\/a> Eating Their Own: Teamsters Acting Like \u2018Parasite\u2019 Stealing Other Unions\u2019 Members<\/a> Argentina\u2019s Deadbeat Special: Buy a 4% Bond or Go to Jail<\/a> Detroit Sinks to New Low<\/a> Google insider exposes \u2018immoral\u2019 tax scam<\/a> Taxes on some wealthy French top 100% of income<\/a> Now Venezuela is running out of toilet paper<\/a> Which EU Economies Are Growing?<\/a> One dead, dozens wounded in sectarian clashes in Egypt<\/a> Council vetoes flag of St George after concerns raised about links to Crusades<\/a> Rand Paul, fusionist<\/a> Gosnell Did What Many Bioethicists Advocate <\/a> The Perils of Toy Shopping With a Feminist Mom<\/a> See no Evil<\/a> In Praise of Paranoia <\/a> Technocratic Folly: Why Men Will Never Become Gods<\/a> What We Lose In Our Child-free Culture<\/a> The Myth of the Scientific Liberal<\/a> Want to Keep Obama\u2019s IRS Scandal in the News? Use Democrat Tactics Against Them<\/a> Republicans and the Long Game<\/a>\n
<\/a>Obama Scandals<\/h1>\n
\nThe notion that a few \u201clow level\u201d local IRS employees went rogue is false.<\/p>\n
\nTea party groups on Monday are threatening to sue the Internal Revenue Service after the agency admitted last week that it wrongly targeted conservative groups applying for nonprofit status.<\/p>\n
\nLengthy questionnaire arrived more than two years after the Richmond Tea Party applied for tax-exempt status
\nIRS demanded ‘names of the donors, contributors, and grantors’ and insisted: ‘Please identify your volunteers’
\nTax collectors began in 2012 to scrutinize conservative nonprofits more closely than others
\nDocuments show senior IRS officials in Washington knew of the practice as early as August 2011, but the White House says it learned last month<\/p>\n
\nThe Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.<\/p>\n
\nA little over a year ago, I reported that, \u201dIt is likely that someone at the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked confidential donor information showing a contribution from Mitt Romney\u2019s political action committee to the National Organization for Marriage, says the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s funny. Two different articles, one in Mother Jones, one in the WaPo, yet they\u2019re running the exact same explanation as to why the IRS targeted conservative groups filing for tax exemptions.<\/p>\n
\nInternal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
\nSteven T. Miller, the acting IRS commissioner who managed the division that has admitted targeting anti-Obama Tea Party groups, was one of several agents who investigated anti-Clinton organizations including Judicial Watch during that Democrat’s administration, according to court documents and interviews.<\/p>\n
\nLetter from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Attorney General Eric Holder, protesting the Justice Department’s subpoena of Associated Press phone records.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019d be interested in what you find that we don\u2019t already know.<\/p>\n
\nThe Internal Revenue Service asked tea party groups to see donor rolls.<\/p>\n
\nWhile IRS officials attributed the agency’s heavy scrutiny on conservative groups to the spike in applications over the past few years, fresh reports and figures are raising questions about whether the agency knowingly applied a double standard.<\/p>\n
\nWith Obama\u2019s IRS scandal mushrooming by the day, we\u2019ve been learning that some applications for 501(c)(4) status have languished for years and while some targeted groups have simply given up since delays were so long. Yet curiously, some groups favorable to Obama or actually run by an Obama have been mysteriously sped up through the process.<\/p>\n
\nWhen Marion Bower decided to start her tea party organization in 2010, she didn\u2019t know that it would take nearly two years for the Internal Revenue Service to approve her request for tax-exempt status.<\/p>\n
\nWell, this all escalated quickly.
\nIn case you\u2019re having trouble keeping up here\u2019s a quick rundown of the scandals engulfing the beleaguered Obama administration. I\u2019ve put them in order of what I think is their seriousness.<\/p>\n
\nSt. Louis Reporter Larry Conners revealed via Facebook yesterday that he has been \u201chammered\u201d by the IRS since his much-discussed interview with President Obama. Conners, a veteran reporter, asked tough, but fair question during the interview which was slammed by progressives in media.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI hoped I would never see this day, but I feared I would.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights is telling universities to institute speech codes.<\/p>\n
\nPressure continues to build in reaction to last week’s mandate from the Departments of Justice and Education regarding sexual harassment on campus.<\/p>\n
\nAmidst all the scandals exposed these past two weeks, one is being ignored by the mainstream media and most of the conservative media as well \u2014 the actions of the Department of Justice and Department of Education to force colleges and universities to impose anti-free speech codes.<\/p>\n
\nHollywood couldn\u2019t have scripted it better: A rebel group of engaged activists, derided and harassed by authorities, becomes the obsession of a powerful political machine, leading to the demise of \u2026 the machine.<\/p>\n
\nIt has become difficult to keep track of all the different “-gates” the Obama administration has suddenly found itself embroiled in: perhaps an appropriate name would be Gate-r-gate? And with the just concluded farce in which Jay Carney passed off all AP-related questions to Eric Holder, who in turn recused himself and told the media to please crucify the Deputy AG instead, it is unlikely that any material new information will be disclosed any time soon.<\/p>\n
\nSen. Max Baucus (D-MT) recently announced his retirement from the Senate. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, though, he would be in charge of investigating the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s years-long effort targeting conservative groups as long as he remains in the Senate. According to the Daily Caller, Baucus need look no further than his own desk for the origins of the targeting scheme.<\/p>\n
\nCongressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said Wednesday during an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show that the Justice Department in its investigation of the Associated Press seized phone records from the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
\nCongressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) went on the Hugh Hewitt Show tonight and dropped this bombshell. The Holder-Obama Justice Department tapped the House of Representatives Cloak Room.<\/p>\n
\nIRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according to a non-profit law firm, which said that one group was pressured not to protest a pro-choice organization that endorsed President Obama during the last election.<\/p>\n
\nSpeaker Boehner, The revelations about the corruption and abuses of power within in the Obama administration has shown one thing very clearly\u2026Obama has not taken care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed.<\/p>\n
\n“[I]f this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different.”<\/p>\n
\nThe Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.<\/p>\n
\nObama, IG Report refuse to touch powerful Treasury Employees Union headed by ex-IRS agent.<\/p>\n
\nYesterday, on High Hewitt\u2019s radio show, Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican, seemed to allege that the Justice Department had also \u201ctapped\u201d phone lines in the cloakroom, a room for lawmakers near the House floor.<\/p>\n
\nLooking at the \u201cIRS letters to Tea Party groups\u201c, J. Christian Adams found that they \u201cread like an opposition researcher\u2019s fantasy: demands for the names of volunteers, money, content of speeches, donors, offices, on and on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nFederal officials used the power of the state to intimidate and harass critics of President Obama and the federal government. When the higher levels of the Internal Revenue Service learned that one office was inappropriately targeting Tea Party groups, these officials nevertheless denied it — until they were forced to fess up.<\/p>\n
\nThe Internal Revenue Service scandal involving the apparently unjustified targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups has also hit home with the Hispanic community.<\/p>\n
\nIRS commissioner Steven Miller said the IRS’s targeting of conservatives “is absolutely not illegal”<\/p>\n
\nThe Treasury Department\u2019s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was auditing the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\nIn no uncertain terms and with no hedging, The New York Times reports that the Obama administration was aware of the fact that the IRS was targeting Tea Party groups as far back as June of 2012. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General confirmed that he told senior Treasury officials in June of 2012, a full five months before Election Day<\/p>\n
\nIRS accused of hiding existence of Tea Party targeting documents<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nJudicial Watch, a leading government open records organization, announced today that it has filed suit on behalf of Legal Insurrection to obtain documents regarding David Gregory\u2019s violation of the District of Columbia gun laws and the investigation which led to the decision of the District of Columbia Attorney General not to prosecute<\/p>\n
\nSheriffs in Colorado filed a federal lawsuit Friday ahead of the implementation of new state gun laws that broaden background checks and limit the size of ammunition magazines, saying that the bills would be nearly impossible to enforce.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nThe Obama administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind farm for killing eagles and other protected bird species, shielding the industry from liability and helping keep the scope of the deaths secret, an Associated Press investigation has found.<\/p>\n
\nThis is a somewhat lengthy blog post. There\u2019s lots of information for newcomers, and there are new presentations of data (new for me) for those who have already examined multidecadal variations in sea surface temperatures.<\/p>\n
\nConservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s only Tuesday, yet it\u2019s already shaping into a rough week for OPEC. Yesterday we heard that the American shale boom was hurting the petrochemicals industries of OPEC\u2019s Middle Eastern members. Today a new International Energy Agency report suggests that the US may soon steal OPEC\u2019s thunder in conventional energy as well. The report predicts that rising production in the US, mixed with falling demand for OPEC energy, could cause oil prices to fall dramatically.<\/p>\n
\nNew paper finds climate models are getting worse rather than better<\/p>\n
\nProving that crap can flow uphill, yesterday, John Cook got what one could consider the ultimate endorsement. A tweet from the Twitter account of the Twitterer in Chief, Barack Obama, about Cook\u2019s 97% consensus lie.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nThe Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.<\/p>\n
\nThere’s been a lot of discussion about the challenges faced by businesses large and small in managing health care costs, especially as those costs escalate and as employers’ options are increasingly limited by the strictures imposed by Obamacare.<\/p>\n
\nNearly 1 in 5 children in the U.S. suffers from a mental disorder, and this number has been rising for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\nA story in the Washington Post yesterday about the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s Cincinnati office, which does most of the agency\u2019s nonprofit auditing, clearly contradicted earlier reports that the agency\u2019s targeting of Tea Party groups was the result of rogue agents.<\/p>\n
\nObama aide Dan Pfeiffer was asked on TV this morning whether he thinks the IRS actions violated the law<\/p>\n
\nCorporate America\u2019s response to the 40%, \u201cCadillac Tax\u201d on employee benefits exceeding $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families is driving up the cost of healthcare for both workers and taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office released a report this week that cuts its estimate of revenue from the tax 42 percent over the next decade, from $137 billion to about $80 billion. The reason is that businesses are doing everything in their power to avoid the tax. In fact, few companies may end up paying the tax at all, further increasing the cost of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n
\nThe tax agency is getting vast new power in health care.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nShortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nFarmers must pay Monsanto each time they plant the company\u2019s genetically modified soybeans, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting an Indiana farmer\u2019s argument that his unorthodox techniques did not violate the company\u2019s patent.<\/p>\n
\nA Philadelphia abortion doctor was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies who authorities say were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his grimy clinic, in a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s debate over abortion.<\/p>\n
\nA Philadelphia abortion provider found guilty of first-degree murder has agreed give up his right to appeal in exchange for avoiding a possible death sentence, Philadelphia’s district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\nWhat happens when Saul Alinsky goes to college? Intimidation, polarization, and an end to the free inquiry and exchange that are the hallmarks of liberal education. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening at Swarthmore, a prestigious liberal-arts college outside of Philadelphia, where fossil-fuel-divestment activists schooled in techniques of \u201cdirect-action protest\u201d have allied with a range of leftist groups to seize control of the college from an administration unwilling to stop them.<\/p>\n
\nColumbia University is seeking to change the terms of a fellowship that can only be awarded to white students from Iowa.<\/p>\n
\nThe House on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation reaffirming U.S. policy as one that supports an Internet that is “free from government control.”<\/p>\n
\nAbortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell has given up his right to appeal the verdict that found him guilty on three of the four first-degree murder charges he faced.<\/p>\n
\nIt turns out that the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year \u2014 the largest and most prestigious press photography award \u2014 was, in actual fact, a fake. The World Press Photo association hasn\u2019t yet stripped the photographer, Paul Hansen, of the title, but presumably it\u2019s just a matter of time.<\/p>\n
\nCourtesy Sean Hackbarth, here is the official portrait of former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.<\/p>\n
\nYou remember Upworthy, the epitome of low-information in support of Obama and progressives, Upworthy \u2014 or, How we are losing the internet to lowest of low information young liberals.<\/p>\n
\nChanting “Whose farm? Our farm!” some 150 people marched from Albany City Hall to a weed-strewn plot of University of California-owned land where they yanked out 3-foot-tall weeds and planted squash and tomato seedlings.<\/p>\n
\nMia Love announced her second candidacy for the 4th Congressional District.<\/p>\n
\nIn the midst of the scandals engulfing the White House this week, an interesting story out of Kansas City, Mo., has gotten lost. Those who insist that (a) there is no voter fraud and (b) it does not affect elections when it occurs are probably happy about that.<\/p>\n
\nWith the conclusion of the trial involving Philly abortionist Kermit Gosnell, another may be in the works. This time we\u2019re in Texas. Sordid details have been documented about an abortionist, who twisted the heads off of babies. Additionally, he allegedly ripped living babies apart during the procedure. As Live Action\u2019s investigation into the late-term abortion industry have exposed, Gosnell is not alone.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy
\n& Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nEighteen senators want to encourage drinking craft beer. They\u2019re touting new legislation to slash the excise tax on beer produced by smaller breweries.<\/p>\n
\nWith nearly $15 million at stake, the Teamsters raid two airlines’ unions<\/p>\n
\nPresident Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner wants tax evaders hiding about $160 billion in dollars to help finance Argentina\u2019s oil-producing ambitions. Her offer: Buy a 4 percent bond or face the prospect of jail time.<\/p>\n
\nWe all knew Detroit had it bad, but we had no idea it was this bad.<\/p>\n
\nA FORMER Google executive has blown the whistle on a massive and \u201cimmoral\u201d tax avoidance scheme that has \u201ccheated\u201d British taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of pounds over the past decade.<\/p>\n
\nMore than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data.<\/p>\n
\nAlready short of some foods, Venezuela is facing a toilet paper crisis, government says<\/p>\n
\nAs Europe ends another week comfortably in the green (near all-time highs) – the short answer – not many…as the region’s longest recession in history rolls on…<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nOne person died and dozens were wounded during clashes between Muslims and Christians late Friday night outside a Coptic church in Egypt’s second city, state newspaper al-Ahram reported, in the latest violent sectarian row in the Muslim-majority country.<\/p>\n
\nA local council decided against flying the flag of St George after concerns were raised that it would offend the town\u2019s 16 Muslim residents.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nEliana Johnson reports on Rand Paul\u2019s visit to Iowa, which soon will be followed by visits to New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. As Eliana\u2019s report makes clear, outreach to social conservatives was a main purpose of Paul\u2019s trip to Iowa. The front page of today\u2019s Washington Post also contains a story, albeit less insightful, about Paul\u2019s outreach efforts.<\/p>\n
\nTo say the least, I am very pleased that Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of three first-degree murders (among other crimes) for the slaughter of three babies born alive after botched abortions. But this clear victory for justice should not blind us to the societal context in which these crimes occurred.<\/p>\n
\nThree generations of women walk into a toy shop. The older woman\u2019s goal is simple: to find a fabulous toy for a little girl. It aligns exactly with the goals of the child, recently turned 3 and freshly aware of the thrill of buying stuff.<\/p>\n
\nSo you and me, imagine that we’re good little liberals, members of the press. All our friends are liberals, and all our co-workers, and the people we work for, and everyone whose opinions we respect, all liberals. Yeah, out there somewhere are those people, those damned conservatives, but they don’t matter. They are an obstruction, buncha racists, stupid, venal, and the sooner they’re sidelined and ignored, the better. In the mean time, good little liberals like us have to work to advance the program, right? Breitbart et al need not apply.<\/p>\n
\nJust because you\u2019re paranoid doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t after you.<\/p>\n
\nFor those who have studied the musings of the global elites, one primary \u201ctheology\u201d rises to the surface, and it is this theology that appears to be the apex motivation in everything that they do. This \u201creligion\u201d, as it were, does not revolve around the worship of any single deity. Though the globalists fancy themselves academics of mythology and secret spiritualisms, in the end, they do not seek to worship a god; rather, they desire to be \u201cworshiped\u201d as \u201cgods\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I was a teen, a funny thing happened: I discovered that I liked babysitting. Not enough that I felt any yearnings to be a teen mom or that I would have forgone my earnings, but enough that I would often realize at one of those times when none of the children were squabbling or attempting some stunt that put them in peril that I was strangely at peace, that the usual turbulence of my teen emotions were temporarily quelled.<\/p>\n
\nThose who tout science should accept its findings.<\/p>\n
\nEventually the media will be sufficiently distracted by Team Obama to go cover other issues, so here\u2019s an idea how the GOP can keep the Obama IRS Scandal in the news: Start parading the victims of the IRS witch-hunt before the cameras. Think about it. Whenever the Democrats want to push an issue, be it gun control, immigration reform, women\u2019s issues or healthcare, what do they do? They find \u201cvictims\u201d to use in tear-jerking fashion in order to advance their agenda.<\/p>\n
\nThe sudden deluge of scandal which dominates the discussion around President Obama\u2019s administration at the moment has handed a golden opportunity to Republicans. Yet if they aren\u2019t careful, they\u2019ll squander this opening completely by allowing their intense dislike of the president to cloud their judgment, missing the broader political lessons for the sake of personal point scoring.<\/p>\n