Skip to main content

A clear and present danger to civil liberties

Destruction of evidence, failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas and giving false testimony before Congress are impeachable offenses.  One thinks of Watergate which resulted in prison time for a few officials and forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon, but I'm actually referring to the IRS scandal I first wrote about over two years ago ("IRS Plot Could Be Worse Than Watergate" June 9, 2013).  

I'm surprised how little fallout has occurred since.

An article for interested readers to examine was published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last month by two Congressmen Ron DeSantis and Jim Jordan.  Anyone who still denies existence of a partisan scandal might want to read this WSJ article:

"The Stonewall at the Top of the IRS" -- July 28, 2015
by Congressman Ron DeSantis and Congressman Jim Jordan

(Also worth reading in WSJ: "How Congress Botched the IRS Probe" -- May 15, 2015 by Foley & Lardner attorney, Ms. Cleta Mitchell.)

Last week, during the Republican Presidential debates, Sen. Rand Paul complained about meta data collected to catch terrorists, but he said nary a word about the IRS issue. 
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
Official photo
The IRS scandal is as tangible than any federal surveillance problems we've seen, yet Sen. Paul prefers to focus on the NSA without evidence of citizen abuse.  I cherish privacy rights and respect the instincts behind Senator Paul's effort, but I'm more troubled by what's occurred recently at the IRS. 
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Blessed with friends on the other side

Wikipedia image This post contains excerpts from an April 10 e-mail response to a dear friend of mine (edited for emphasis and anonymity).  “Dear Mortimer, I’ll say hello to the guys for you and I’ll be thinking about you this evening. As for politics, yes, we tend to gravitate toward sources that share our views.  However, I also read the New York Times Op-ed pages and watch MSNBC (as hard as those tasks are for me).  I suppose you watch Fox on occasion and I know you read the WSJ – so good for both of us.  We try.  The state-sponsored education you cite that we both benefited from, came largely from our parents' sweat equity – translated into tax dollars – that funded the University of Wisconsin system. True, my friend.  But, I'm not arguing for zero taxation, or zero government involvement in our lives.  When Progressives argue in favor of entitlement programs, they'll sometimes cite Social Security (under-...
MORE »

Economics 101 for the rest of us

W arren Buffet and Carl Icahn are famous investors but fewer people may know Ray Dalio.  Mr. Dalio founded an investment firm 40 years ago called Bridgewater Associates.  With $160 billion under management, Bridgewater runs one of the largest hedge funds in the world. Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio, Bridgewater website I recently discovered (among 3 million other people) a thirty minute YouTube video that Mr. Dalio produced to explain fundamentals of what he calls  the economic machine .  This video, which he narrates has been translated into several languages and viewed over 3,200,000 times.  The content begins slowly with basic concepts but progresses to explain the primary levers that policy-makers use to manage and stimulate the economy.  You can find it here .   There are numerous lessons cleverly and clearly explained here.  Example: I hadn't appreciated why economists seem obsessed with Wage Growth until I watched this simp...
MORE »

Because it's not theirs to change

Freepik image This week  there was  controversy  stemming from a publisher's decision to edit versions of children's stories written by the late  Roald Dahl .  The edits, whether inspired by Netflix (who according to Forbes purchased the rights to Dahl's work) or the publisher  Puffin Books , sparked a public outcry and PR nightmare. The publisher curated an alternative version to the original work from Dahl's  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,  (a story later adapted to make the film,  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ), ostensibly to remove insensitive terms. There are several reasons why this ill-conceived, if well-intentioned attempt at inclusiveness --  a term becoming increasingly elastic -- failed miserably.  I'm not discussing the evils of censorship today.  Altering original art work to appeal to others is ill advised for another reason.....it's not theirs to change (and doing so can backfire).   One ...
MORE »