Reform the IRS Now: Help With Writing Your Letters to Congress

These are some of the ideas I came across as I composed my letter to my elected officials in Congress. Feel free to use whatever you like but get your letters out daily!!! Here are the links to finding the contact forms for your U.S. Representatives and Senators online.

The IRS must be completely reformed in the wake of the agency targeting tea party and other conservative groups.

The IRS has violated it’s own regulations and the American Constitution by targeting and unlawfully delaying and obstructing conservative organizations’ applications for a determination of tax-exempt status, and the IRS has continued to bully and intimidate Conservatives.

Additionally, the inspector general found that on many occasions the IRS made inappropriate and intrusive demands for information from conservative groups that applied for exemption under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.

On May 29th, 2014 The American Center for Law and Justice filed a  lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of 25 Tea Party and conservative organizations against the U.S. Attorney General, Treasury Secretary, and Internal Revenue Service - including top IRS officials. (Read more here)

In the lawsuit, the ACLJ cited six counts arguing the federal government violated the Constitution, federal law, and even its own rules and regulations.

The IRS and the Obama Administration must be held accountable for these unlawful actions and reparations must be made on behalf of all Americans. It is not enough that certain parties be found guilty or that injunctive relief and punitive damages eventually be awarded.

The IRS must never again be in a position to target and/or intimidate any American group or individual because of race, religion, or political beliefs. The IRS must be completely reformed by Congress Now.

America no longer has any confidence in the IRS. This overgrown, complex, and corrupt agency has not earned the right to take on additional responsibilities that will effect the daily lives of all Americans. We cannot allow the IRS, as it exists today, to police Obamacare!

Now is the time to completely break this monster apart. Now is the time for comprehensive tax reform!

As FAREED ZAKARIA, wrote in Investor's Business Daily:

The U.S. tax code is at the heart of a system of institutionalized, legal corruption. The code is so vast because companies, industries and lobbying groups receive special preferences in return for campaign contributions, a cash-for-favors scheme that Washington would denounce as crony capitalism in any Third World country.

Technorati Tags: Reform,IRS,tax code,Congress,American Center for Law and Justice,ACLJ,Constitution,conservatives,targeting,federal law,rules,regulations,law suit,lawsuit,Obama,tax-exempt status,Section 501(c)(4),U.S. Attorney General,Treasury Secretary,Internal Revenue Service,comprehensive tax reform

Read More

Ted Cruz Scares The Heck Out Of The GOP ... J. D. Longstreet

Ted Cruz Scares The Heck Out Of The GOPConservative Leader-In-Waiting?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*************** 
 Conservative republicans are focusing on Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.  I sense a collective holding of breath amongst the right wing of the Republican Party.  The same holds true, in my opinion amongst  conservative independents.
Cruz is talking old style conservatism.  It's the kind of conservatism that wins elections because it stirs the blood of conservatives, I mean, TRUE conservatives.

Many conservatives, myself included, are not yet ready to endorse Cruz simply because we have been burnt too many times in recent decades.  

And there is the problem, at least for me, of Cruz having been born outside the US. (Cruz is a Cuban-American from Texas who was born in Canada.)  Obama's eligibility problems for President aside, Cruz is a republican and we all now there is a separate set of rules for republicans.  To understand how that works one must understand this:  It is legal -- when the democrats do it.  Not so much when republicans do it.

The plain and simple truth is, that if Cruz does decide to run for president in 2016, he will be battered beyond belief for not being a "natural born" US citizen.  Understand this, too.  He will be attacked by both the Democratic Party AND the Republican Party.  There are many in the GOP of the country club set, the blue bloods, if you will, who see Cruz as a direct threat to their power -- within the party -- and they will do everything they can to insure failure for any Cruz presidential run.  Then there are those, like myself, who are not ready to climb aboard the Cruz band wagon until we learn whether or not he is a "penny match candidate."  (For you youngsters -- a penny match , back in the day, was famous for flaring up into a huge extremely hot flame for just a moment when struck, then quickly burn out leaving you with a small piece of worthless smoking charcoal in your fingers.)

At the moment, Cruz is hot. 

Conservatives are yearning for a true conservative champion. We are tired of staying home on election day.  We are tired of being told we MUST support the so-called conservative candidates the GOP pushes to the forefront in every campaign. 

Allow me to make something clear today:  Trues conservatives are NOT ready to support another Bush in the Oval Office.  And we are not going to support Rand Paul, a libertarian republican, for President, nor will we support Marco Rubio.  Rubio's immigration reform philosophy sunk any chance he had of getting to the Oval Office anytime in the foreseeable future.

The GOP is leaderless at the moment.  That is because, in my humble opinion, the internal leadership wants it that way.  The hierarchy of the Republican Party is its own worst enemy.  So long as the party remains splintered there is no chance a conservative can ascend to the leadership position. 

With an extremely important election coming up in 2014, the old guard republicans have a death grip on the upper echelons of the party and they will see it die a slow and painful death before they will relinquish power to a representative of the great unwashed conservative masses within the GOP.  Would you care to guess how they view Ted Cruz??

Consider this:  "The bulk of the conservative movement, and thus the base of the Republican Party, recognizes this reality. They have become increasingly alarmed at the fate awaiting the country if these radicals are not purged from the mainstream of American governance in the 2014 and 2016 election cycles. But when they look to the leadership of the Republican Party they see a nauseating deference to the party in power and the media -- in other words business as usual in Washington. Apparently the Republican Establishment believes it will eventually win when it is their turn if they just can find a way to bribe minorities, particularly Hispanics into voting for them."  SOURCE:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3001392/posts So, while the GOP establishment is content to "wait their turn" at the Oval Office, the GOP base, the conservatives, are chomping at the bit, leaning forward, rattling the trace chains, even threatening to overturn the wagon, all in an effort to get back in the fight with a real competitor, an honest to goodness conservative candidate, whom they can really trust  -- AND believe in --  AND support. 

At the moment the fire in the bellies of conservatives has been banked.  That accounts for the lackluster GOP these days.  Senator Cruz COULD be the fuel that will turn that conservative fire in the belly into a human blow torch again.

... or NOT!

The reason so many conservatives are holding back on Cruz today is that we get the feeling he is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!  It has been a long time since someone espoused the conservative platform so completely and, well, it is disconcerting.

So.  We'll watch a while longer "with hope in our hearts," as they say.

Problem with waiting is the crumbling of America as we wait.  The country is being eaten alive, from the inside, by the "marxocrats" of the left.  Their campaign to reinvent America as a police state is well on its way to fruition.  The recent problems with the Department of Justice, and the Internal Revenue Service are just bumps in the road. 

Conservatives can't wait much longer.

America can't wait much longer.

The "progressive overlords" of the Obama Administration, such as those in the  Department of Homeland Security, are growing stronger readying themselves for the day when the half of America that still values freedom and liberty says "ENOUGH" and rises up in righteous indignation to restore constitutional government to this once great land.

All that is lacking is a national leader for the conservative movement.  Is Senator Ted Cruz that leader in waiting?  Well, IS HE?

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Alive And Well In The USA ... J. D. Longstreet

Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Alive And Well In The USA
DHS = KGB
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

It had not crossed my mind until a few days ago, but the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) seems to have just switched nations -- from the Soviet Union to the United States. (Gasp!)

OK.  Hold on a moment.

KGB, or Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, translated into English is:  "Committee for State Security."

So what, you ask?

So ... DHS stands for "Department of Homeland Security." Ummm.

Honestly, the only difference I see is that one is a "department" and the other a "committee."

Many conservative commentators have been warning for years that the US is becoming a police state akin to the old Soviet Union. 

What with the hearings going on in Washington currently on the abuse of power by the IRS and the Justice Department, is it any wonder that more and more Americans are questioning the the government's loyalty to the constitution -- AND to the citizens of the US? 

It has become clear that if you are a friend of the constitution then you are an enemy of the Obama Administration.  At least that now seems to be the position of our current government.

Consider this:  "Agents from the Department of Homeland Security posing as national “police” were deployed across the country this week to monitor and intimidate Tea Party activists, who were peacefully protesting the Obama administration and its abuse of the IRS to target conservative groups. The apparently unlawful spying and bullying has drawn outrage from analysts, experts, and commentators from across the political spectrum worried that the federal government is going off the rails.

From California to Florida and everywhere in between, armed DHS functionaries — part of the so-called “Federal Protective Service” (FPS) — intimidated and spied on peaceful activists, according to protesters in attendance. News reports were filled with pictures and videos of large Homeland Security trucks that said “police” in giant letters, along with armed DHS personnel dressed in “police” outfits. At a rally in Los Angeles, a DHS helicopter was even spotted flying overhead as federal “police” ordered protesters to get off of government property."   SOURCE:  http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/15505-homeland-security-police-monitored-tea-party-irs-protests 

The article at The New American continues:  "Why aren't DHS officers protecting the homeland against foreign enemies armed with explosives and hate? Perhaps because the Obama Administration is more worried about domestic ‘enemies’ armed with the Constitution and love of country,” wrote Sally Zelikovsky about the scandal in the American Thinker. She also said the administration sending out DHS agents to spy on Tea Party protests was “further evidence of the Soviet-style ‘War on Dissent.’ ”

“One would think they would be just a bit more circumspect and maybe even exercise a modicum of restraint before dispersing KGB, I mean, DHS agents to free speech rallies protected under the Constitution,” Zelikovsky continued in her stinging criticism of the department’s latest activities. “The fact that they did this so blatantly despite the scrutiny they are under is symptomatic of a government on the verge of a constitutional breakdown — a government that doesn't hesitate to bully the little guy while giving the Constitution the proverbial political finger.”  Source:   http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/15505-homeland-security-police-monitored-tea-party-irs-protests

Look.  It is clear to anyone with an iota of sense that our government is out of control.  Freedom and liberty are being curtailed.  Personal freedom is in serious peril in America today. 


The Department of Homeland Security should be abolished at once.  In fact, there is serious question whether we ever needed them, in the first place.

"It is clear that the DHS is not in the business of protecting us, it is in the business of protecting criminals and keeping us controlled. The DHS no longer plays any role in protecting of the U.S. citizens. It is time to defund and abolish it, sell all of its assets and ammo and return all the proceeds to the U.S. treasury for partial repayment of our debt or maybe using some of this money to reopen the WH for kids and the national parks to law abiding Americans."  SOURCE:  http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=406253

We couldn't agree more.

If DHS ever inspired confidence in Americans that time is long past.  DHS now inspires fear and loathing among the citizens of America. It is now seen as a thuggish strong arm enforcement agency of the police state, an adversary of the citizens of the country.   We want it gone!

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Malmö's (And Sweden's) Final Solution

Sweden commends itself on its Multiculturalism.  The truth is that there is one group of people in Sweden that will not assimilate into Swedish society and culture.  No it isn't the Jews.  They have embraced Swedish culture, society while maintaining their religious ways.  It is Muslim minority that refuses to embrace Swedish culture.  They are demanding that the native Swedes (and everyone else) follow their faith, their culture barbaric ways.  In fact they have been rioting through out Sweden to force the Swedish Government to do as they say.

They also object to Jews not only living in "their" cities, but in Sweden.  And have embarked on a campaign to eliminate the Jew from "their" land.  And it looks as if they have succeeded in one case:  Malmö.

In the Swedish tourist guides, the city of Malmö is presented as "a paradise for ecologists", full of bicycles, bike paths and green areas. In addition, this third-largest and most prosperous Swedish city is a symbol of the "modern and cosmopolitan" soul of the Scandinavian country of equal opportunities, literacy, integration and welfare state.

In Swedish it is called "Folkhemmet", the home of all the people. Malmö is the symbol of this multicultural utopia on which for decades Sweden has built its model of integration (a country that called herself a "moral superpower").

The illusion was that a prosperous society, indifferent to religion, ideologically welcoming and tolerant, would heal any trauma of integration.

In the industrial area that at one time housed the shipyards of Kockums, now stands the symbol of the city, the famous skyscraper modeled on a human torso, a creation of the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

The dozens of ethnic groups in Malmö are united in one organic body. Yet according to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, while the old industrial city becomes "a international melting pot full of optimism," the Jewish families are leaving it.

Malmö is the city that serves as the symbol of the Swedish Jewish community. The main synagogue of the "Judiska Församlingen i Malmö", founded in 1903, is one of the few temples preserved from that era in Europe. Most similar synagogues in the continent were in fact destroyed under Nazism.

The city of Malmö will soon be Judenrein. Free of Jews. As the Dagens Nyheter notes, a growing number of Jewish families are leaving due to Islamist anti-Semitic attacks.

Malmö, capital of the prosperous province of Scania, had a 2,000-strong Jewish community in the 1970s. However, only 500 remain there today, explains the newspaper. “The majority have moved to Stockholm or abroad.”

Sweden, which was famously neutral during World War II and served as a refuge for Scandinavian Jews, is a prototype of Europe's new anti-Semitism. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and the Jewish centers were bombed, worshippers were abused on their way home from the synagogue, and "Jude S--- destroys Hollviken" and "You shall be gassed" were mockingly chanted in the streets.

Indeed, it is part of a tragic, but unavoidable, process: the New Europe will be a Jews-free continent. It begins with Malmö and it ends with Rome.

It is not just the Swedish Muslims who physically persecute and intimidate the Jews (in Malmö (the most common name for newborn boys is now Mohammed).

Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor of Malmö who had been in power for 15 years till last January, choose to not protect the Jews but to express sympathy with the terrorists. The Swedish governments have also forsaken the Jewish people. In Malmö you see Jews running after leaving the synagogue. Yet the Swedish court system did not convict anyone of hate crimes in Malmö in 2010 and 2011, despite registering 480 complaints.

In Malmö, the Jews who arrived through ferries and fishing boats, after being rescued from the Nazi concentration camps, or who fled to Sweden from communist Poland in the 1960s, are leaving their former sanctuary. In Poland, these were the "f---ing Jews". In Malmö they became the "f---ing Poles". Now they are the "f---ing Jews" once again. Europe's cycle of anti-Semitism is closing in again.

As it is closing in in Brussels, from where many Jews are leaving for Tel Aviv due to anti-Semitism. Immigration to Israel was slightly down worldwide in 2012, but figures from Western Europe were up. CNN recently ran a special "The exodus of Jews from France".

Malmö and Brussels are not Chelmno. There are not gas chambers in the Swedish or Belgian city. But the ultimate goal is the same as that of Reinhardt Heydrich's "Final Solution": a Jew-free continent.

Last year journalist Espen Eidum detailed in a book how Stockholm aided the Nazis during WW2 as their neighbours fought and lost a decisive battle against the German invaders. Particularly, Sweden aided Heydrich's troops through the use of the railways to transfer Jews to death camps.

Are we witnessing the same seeds of that betrayal?

The Israeli government should help Europe's Jews to resettle in Israel as it did with the Mizrachi Jews after 1948. If you look at Sweden as a multicultural kaleidoscope, turning the three mirrors in the tube, what future will the Jews of Europe have? None.

My continent has no room for living Jews.

Source

Congratulations Malmö!  You will be Judenrein soon and then your nation, Sweden will become free of Jews.  You have embraced a people who believe that they (And everybody else.) should live in the 7th Century not the 21st.  A people who will kill the non-believer, force women to cover themselves in heavy black blankets for "modesty" sake, and who wish to rule you under their barbaric Shar'ia Law.

You have thrown out of your Jewish neighbors.  A people who value education, liberty and freedom.  And you are seeing on your street the true nature of the Muslims you have imported and encouraged on your streets each night.

I wish you, the native-born Swede, all the best in your Dhimmitude.  You deserve it!

Read More

The IRS scandal hearing would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearings on Internal Revenue Service malfeasance has produced scenes worthy of a Mel Brooks film, or maybe "Hogan's Heroes" (“I know nussing!”) As of Friday morning, the following had transpired.

Lois Lerner appeared before the committee last Wednesday. She is the IRS director of exempt organizations, which is the office that deliberately targeted organizations with "Tea Party," "Patriot" and other identifiers in their names indicating they were conservative organizations. These organizations not only had their applications for 501(c) tax-exempt status delayed for up to three years, but in many cases were asked for information that is clearly outside the legitimate areas of interest of the IRS, and which crossed the line into unconstitutionality and perhaps illegality.

Ms. Lerner told the Committee in an opening statement that Committee members have already accused her of providing false information to Congress. However, she said, “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

Having thus stated the case for her innocence, she then invoked Fifth Amendment protections against incriminating herself, and refused to answer any questions.

Translation: "I did nothing wrong, but I won't answer any questions that might show that I did something wrong."

Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked her to reconsider, and when she refused he then dismissed her and her attorney from the hearing room. However, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) objected, pointing out that since Ms. Lerner actually testified by making an opening statement, she should have to stay and answer the lawmakers' questions.

"You don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination," Rep. Gowdy said. "That's not the way it works. She waived her right to Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an opening statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions," he said.

Ms. Lerner was ultimately dismissed, but with the caveat that she may be recalled. Better late than never, on Thursday she was suspended from her job. With pay.

This is not the first time the long-time federal employee has been suspected of questionable behavior. When she headed the Enforcement Office at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from 1986 until 2001, there appeared to be politically motivated harassment of conservative groups not unlike what the IRS  did. In the late 1990s, the FEC launched an investigation of the Christian Coalition that ultimately cost the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours of lost work.

However, in addition to failing to prove that the Coalition did anything wrong is the question of whether the FEC even had authority to assert the charges it leveled against the Coalition, which was absolved of any wrongdoing in 1999. Following this suspicious investigation Ms. Lerner was promoted to acting General Counsel at the FEC in 2001.

Next to testify was Douglas Shulman, who was appointed by George W. Bush and headed the IRS during the first Obama term. In 2012 he testified before the Committee, saying, "As you know, we pride ourselves in being a non-political, non-partisan organization." He continued, "There is absolutely no political targeting." We now know that was clearly untrue.

In last week's appearance Mr. Shulman denied that he had discussed targeting conservative groups with anyone at the White House in any of the more than 100 times he visited the White House complex between 2010 and 2011.  “It would not have been appropriate to have a conversation with anyone at the White House about the subject of discriminating against conservative groups,” he said.

When asked if he could recall the nature of any of those visits, Mr. Shulman responded, "The Easter Egg Roll with my kids." Seriously.

In response to questioning from Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mr. Shulman replied: "I accept the fact that this happened on my watch and I am very sorry that this happened while I was at the IRS. I feel horrible about this for the agency, for the people there, for the great public servants. I am not sure what else I can say." He could have overtly taken responsibility for his agency's malfeasance while he headed it, and apologized to the victims, but he didn't.

Ms. Duckworth, a military veteran, said that she was "deeply disappointed" by his response, explaining that soldiers serving their country know "you can never delegate responsibility and that you are always responsible for the performance, the training, the actions of the men and women under you."

Former President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read: "The Buck Stops Here." This is a concept foreign to many in this administration. But it is the law of leadership, whether at the department level, or at the chief executive level: Whatever happens on your watch is your responsibility.

Maybe actually holding people accountable for their mismanagement through firings and prosecution will wake up sleeping bureaucrats like Ms. Lerner and Mr. Shulman, and restore the idea of "service" to public service.

Read More

Boy Scouts Of America Are Finished ... J. D. Longstreet

Boy Scouts Of America Are Finished
Wonderful Opportunity for NEW Group!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

"The Boy Scouts of America threw open its ranks Thursday to gay Scouts but not gay Scout leaders - a fiercely contested compromise that some warned could fracture the organization and lead to mass defections of members and donors.

Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee. The policy change takes effect Jan. 1."  SOURCE:  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BOY_SCOUTS_GAYS?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-23-18-13-07

The Scouts are going to be hurt -- not just the organization but the millions of former and current Scouts.  Either way, sponsorships will be pulled, lots and lots of sponsorships.   Multiple numbers of Christians and members of Christian organizations will abandon the Scouts.

This was a singular moment for the Scouts -- a "High Noon" moment, if you will, for the national leadership of the Scouts.  Seems to me they should have practiced what they have taught all these decades by taking a stand, as men, and doing the "right thing."

But, in my opinion, they did not.

See, there are very, very, few men of sterling character and conviction these days -- in any organization. Doing the right thing because it IS the right thing to do, is seen as quaint, and frankly, a little weird in modern America.  And it has taken a huge toll on American society.  It has hollowed America out.  It has removed our core and left us a limp relic of our former selves.  This latest decision by the BSA simply affirms that.

"On my honor I will do my best

To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight." (The Scout Oath)

I suppose the last phrase of the BSA oath above ( ... and morally straight) will, of necessity, be removed from the Scout Oath.

What a world we have created, eh?  The decline and fall of America certainly is painful to those with enough sense to see it for what it is.  The few Americans who retain situational awareness understand that America "is in an advanced state of cultural decadence." Let's face it:  We have become degenerate in mental and moral qualities.

As evidence (as if MORE evidence was needed) the problem the BSA has been wrestling with should not even be in question.  But we, as a nation have so deluded ourselves and so submerged ourselves in moral relativity (political correctness) and decadence that we are -- finally -- blinded to the truth.  It is all around us, but we can no longer see it.  We are simply too far gone.

"We are deeply saddened," said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee after learning of the result. "Homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout oath and Scout law."

The Assemblies of God, another conservative denomination, said the policy change "will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout program." It also warned that the change would make the BSA vulnerable to lawsuits seeking to end the ban on gay adults.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also expressed dismay.

'While I will always cherish my time as a Scout and the life lessons I learned, I am greatly disappointed with this decision,' he said."  SOURCE:  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BOY_SCOUTS_GAYS?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-23-18-13-07

BSA youth membership has fallen from it's peak membership of a little over 4 million to the current roughly 2 and-a-half million.  According to the article cited above -- "Of the more than 100,000 Scouting units in the U.S., 70 percent are chartered by religious institutions."

And then there is this: "Boy Scouts' Woes Continue With Assault by Atheists"
"On the heels of the news that they caved in to pressure from the homosexual lobby and will allow participation by boys who identify as “gay,” the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are facing a new assault, this time from the nation's organized atheists. On May 24 the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) fired a warning shot over the bow of the BSA concerning the group's requirement that both participants and leaders express faith in God. The godless group applauded the BSA's initial surrender to the demands of homosexual activists, but challenged the scouting organization on its decision to retain a policy that “bars atheist and freethinking members.”  SOURCE:  http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/15526-boy-scouts-woes-continue-with-assault-by-atheists
 
No surprise here!  Weakness emboldens one's adversaries.  The BSA, in demonstrating their weakness last week, simply opened up the door for more assaults, assaults that will ultimately strangle the organization right out of existence.

They say that when one door closes another opens.  Seems to me a door just opened for an entirely new organization for young men and boys who want to be a member of a male youth organization that lives by the the standards espoused in the BSA oath. It can be done and most likely WILL be done -- and soon.

We hope so!

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Memorial Day. A Day Bought With Blood ... J. D. Longstreet

Memorial Day. A Day Bought With Blood
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
****************
I worry about America ... a LOT.   We have become so removed from our heritage, our history, and the core values upon which this country was founded that we have lost our way and we are foundering and in real danger of collapse. 

Our culture is now so crude, so repellent, AND repugnant, that the good people of Sodom and Gomorrah would blush -- were they to see us today.

America has become the sort of country to which WE (America) used to send missionaries!

There IS a struggle in progress for America -- but the soul of the country has long been lost.  Nothing much is left today but a hollowed-out husk of a nation that once led the world from the pinnacle of power and influence.  Like the Roman Empire, America died at its own hand.

All we have left today are memories of a time of grandeur.  And even those pictures from the past are fading into nothingness.

And it was quick. Oh, how swiftly we succumbed to the assault on our foundation.  We thought it was solid -- built on granite of the ages -- only to learn that it wasn't granite, it was, in fact, sand, a house built on sand.  And like that proverbial house, it was swept away by our own avarice, our own covetousness, our own selfishness, laziness, our inability to grasp the obvious, which was simply -- that America had chosen the lap of luxury over the eternal fight for freedom. Added to all the above was the loss of American's will to preserve the most precious gift their ancestors had to give -- freedom and liberty. 

When Americans finally reached a point in the evolution of the country that they no longer VALUED freedom, the fate of the country was sealed.

America's founders knew -- and understood fully -- that freedom is not free.  It exacts a price. It is bought, over, and over again, with blood.  It can be obtained no other way.  Blood is the ONLY acceptable currency when purchasing one's freedom.  A people simply GIVEN freedom do not value it.  They cannot -- for the know nothing of its cost. And they soon lose it.  Freedom once lost is almost never regained. 

Once a people have acquired their freedom -- it must be maintained.   It, too, requires blood payment.  Even more important is the fact that to maintain one's freedom WILL is required.  A people must have the will to do that which is necessary to maintain their freedom -- or they will most certainly lose it.

Americans used to take pride in the expression: "It's a free country."  You don't hear that much anymore.  Because we are not a free country -- anymore.

The state America finds herself in today is the culmination of a process that was begun many decades ago to slowly distance Americans from their birthright.  Yes, freedom is, or at least WAS, a birthright of modern Americans.  It was bought and paid for by the men and women we are supposed to be remembering on this Memorial Day.  

G. K. Chesterton once said:  "The way to love anything is to realize it might be lost."  America has had at least two generations without the realization that "freedom" MIGHT be, or COULD be, lost.  They were the low hanging fruit for the leftist/globalist/multiculturalist agenda that has so successfully stripped America of its liberty.

So, how do you go about separating a people, a nation from its heritage, its history, and its core values?   Consider the following words carefully:  "The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history, Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster ..."  ......- Milan Kundera

Mr. Kundera was spot-on.  Today we use the word "revisionist" to describe the process he lays out above.  And it is absolutely effective.

We have a generation of Americans who haven't a clue WHO they are.  They have been taught that American culture is no better or worse than the culture of any other nation on earth.  "multiculturalism" has been force-fed our young scholars in the government controlled public education system in America.  Their young minds were soaked in leftist propaganda for twelve years before they are delivered up to the masters of socialist and Marxist thought at the thresholds of the nation's colleges and universities we laughingly refer to as "institutions of higher learning."  I submit, they are a lot of things, but institutions of higher learning they are not.

They no longer believe in American Exceptionalism.  Even the American President denies the existence of an exceptional America pushing his own country from a leadership position in the world to just another member of the pack following ... WHOM or WHAT ... exactly?

Our young have been taught that the way to accomplish anything is to compromise.  Even when you are right ... compromise. 

Right never wins in compromise.

One of the greatest politicians ever produced by the state of North Carolina was Senator Jesse Helms.  As far back as 1959, Mr. Helms said:  "Compromise, hell!  If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if were a roll of Bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?"

But that is precisely what America did.  We compromised -- and we traded our freedom away.  We made a Faustian deal and the bill has come due.

What happened to our reason and to our common sense?  Regrettably, we traded and compromised it away, as well. 

Our national memory?  Almost gone.  Does anyone even remember what Memorial Day is all about, anymore?

Memorial Day was a day originally set aside as a day to remember our war dead and to honor those men and women who fought in all the wars of the United States.  Here, in the American South, we celebrate the Confederate dead as well as the US dead.  After all, Memorial Day began as a Southern holiday to honor the Confederate dead by cleaning their grave sites and cemeteries.

No longer.  Today we "celebrate" Memorial Day. 

There is something fundamentally WRONG about that. Where's the quiet contemplation owed America's warrior's for their sacrifice.  After all, Memorial Day, indeed, every day of freedom in America is a day bought and paid for in the blood of America's warriors.  This calls for solemnity -- not celebration.

I'd like to recommend you read an article by Daniel Greenfield entitled:  "The Warrior's Tale" sometime before this day is ended.  You will find it here: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55469?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

No, I don't expect anything to change as a result of my comments here.  Unfortunately, we are too far down that slippery slope to ever climb back up.  But -- it needed saying.  A friend reminded me, a while ago, "someone needs to say these things."   And now-- someone has.

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Obama's dilemma: continue the charade or come clean

Obama’s dilemma: continue the charade or come clean

 

Three scandals, concurrently, are plaguing the Obama Administration: the Benghazi massacre, Internal Revenue Service’s abuse of power and News-gate.

As usual the President has cleverly distanced himself from these horrific abuses by sending subordinates to take the heat from the media and Congressional committees. Benghazi massacre no longer appears to be a sequence of incompetent actions caused by various segments of our government. Evidence emerging from various sources displays that a profound cover up, directed by the White House, is enforce. Deaths of four Americans, which include an Ambassador chosen by the President, still remain a mystery more than 8 months after the tragic incident. Twelve separate explanations, lacking any substantiation, have been expressed by various members of the Administration and the President himself. When the story of an anti-Muslim video didn’t capture the public’s attention, a dozen other variants were introduced in an attempt to explain away this massacre. From the perch of many Obama put the safety of Muslim extremists before those of four Americans. Someone ordered the military not to respond to an ongoing assault in Benghazi, and that person may be in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As the Benghazi tragedy continued to swirl through Congressional corridors, abuse of Internal Revenue resources came to light, in the last few weeks. Groups that lean to the right were targeted for audits or even denials of tax exemptions in a frequency well beyond statistical averages, as noted in an Inspector General’s report. Coincidently, the abuse started in March of 2010 when Obamacare was signed into law. An uptick of IRS harassment of these same groups and individuals occurred as the 2012 election approached. Officials, at this egregious tax service, have denied for over a year these occurrences were taking place, when recent evidence surfaced displaying otherwise. In civil tones, IRS officials lied to Congress and the American people. Many believe the intimidation of the right was purposely initiated to keep Barack Obama in power. These revelations came to light 7 months after the 2012 election, when the facts were known 6 months before Obama won a second term. Obama’s henchmen and women had one goal, manipulate the outcome of a presidential election. There is no other explanation, with the facts presently available. Even more insidious than a manipulated election, is an attempt by the White House and Department of Justice to suppress the free flow of information in the media. Unbeknownst to Fox News, the Associated Press and others news organizations of note was the Department of Justice’s quiet acquisition of reporters’ emails, contacts, phone numbers and other information that could be harmful to President Obama’s reelection bid. With various excuses the DOJ quoted national security or some other hypothetical to obtain this information. Reality speaks in other tones, meaning this was another form of intimidation by an out of control Administration that feels empowered to step on the Constitution. Similar to the other scandals and tragedies Obama and his minions have sudden amnesia when approached to explain any aspect of this Administrations overreach. The time has arrived for the President to drop the charades and come clean concerning these three scandals and others from his prior term. White House machinery to cover the President’s tracks is being peeled away daily. Soon, Congressional investigators will find the path that leads to the back door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When this occurs, it will be too late for Obama to be contrite before a Nation that made a mistake in 2008 and again in 2012. Mark Davis, MD platomd@gmail.com, President of Healthnets Review Services, www.healthnets reviewservices.com, Author of the book, Demons of Democracy and the forthcoming book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. Manager of the group on LinkedIn, Government in Transition.

Read More

Just a Name on a Chart ... J. D. Longstreet

Just a Name on a Chart
A Bar Code on a Wrist Band
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*****************
America's medical community is in a state of severe decline.  The way medicine is practiced and care given to America's medical patients has dropped to a level I have never experienced before in my lifetime and I have been hospitalized at least eighty times since the mid 1960's. 

I blame two things:  Government and computers.  There are other reasons, to be sure, but these are the two most prominent to me, at least.  Combine the two and you have something akin to chaos in a medical facility.

Understand:  When a chain of computers is used in any process, that process is only as fast as the slowest computer user within the chain.  Some people's computer skills are excellent.  Others are not. 

RN's now have those little roll around computers they constantly roll from one patient's room to another.  Everything they do -- to and for the patient -- is entered in the patient's records on that computer. 

In the good ole days, before computers, patient care was a hell of a lot faster and, in this semi-professional patient's opinion,  way more efficient.

Like nearly all businesses, and that's what hospital's really are, these days they are trying to do more with fewer employees. 

The recent recession affirmed something in business's collective mind.  The fewer employees you have the wider your profit margin -- if you can maintain production at a sufficient level. 

Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that.  The staff must be able to do more, to work harder, and in some cases work longer hours.  They will do it because the number of unemployed people waiting for their job is staggering.  (High unemployment is a boon to business.) The employee knows his employer will have no problems replacing him immediately.  So he produces to the maximum for the boss. 

For the company, production goes up, payroll comes down, and the profit margin grows wider -- all good for business. 

I expect the above will be the new normal in American business -- if not in global business.
Hospitals are a service industry.  I know that doesn't sound sexy today. Nevertheless, at bottom, ALL  hospitals are just that. 

Operating any service industry at the bare minimum will, over time, reduce the services and the quality of the services administered by that business.  That's bad for both the consumer of those services and the business, itself.

Many hospitals have cut their staffs just as other industries have done. In my opinion, there is no way a healthcare facility can avoid reducing the quality of care the patient receives when they don't have enough people to keep the operation running smoothly and efficiently.

To all of the above -- add government regulations -- and you have a nightmare. And it will only get worse, much worse, under Obamacare.

You know, one of the great inventions in America was the community or county hospital.  They were a source of pride for the citizens of that community.  Admittedly small with limited resources, they were, however, staffed with people from the community whose families would be receiving care in the institution in which they worked.  These small hospitals did yeoman's work in their communities.

In small communities patients knew the individual members of the staff and vice-versa.  Doctors were referred to by their first names, because the patient went to church with them, attended PTA meetings and Little League ball games with them.  They, too, were an integral part of the community. 

Usually the community hospitals were run by an administrator who answered to a board of trustees, who answered to the county commissioners, who answered to the citizens of the community. 

Across much of America that has now changed -- and change is NOT ALWAYS GOOD!

Many community hospitals have now been leased to large corporations that manage and operate hospitals for profit all over the country. 

Suddenly that community (or county) hospital becomes a regional healthcare facility.  At this point, two steps have been taken away from the community where the hospital was born. It is no longer a community hospital and it is no longer answerable to the citizens who ultimately own it.

Then the company running the facility brings in staff doctors.  Some are known by a relatively new title -- "Hospitalist."  They may be great doctors but they have nothing in common with the community and do not have the bond or the trust of the patients they see.

If you are not familiar with the term hospitalists, you're not alone.  Even my thesaurus didn't have it.  Turns out the term hospitalist was first coined by Robert Wachter and Lee Goldman in a 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article.  Hospitalists' activities may include patient care, teaching, research, and leadership related to hospital care.  SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_medicine 

Many patients attempt to avoid the hospitals employing hospitalists.  I'm one of them.

We have gone from being greeted in the admitting office or the emergency department by our first names to this: "Please give me your full name and date of birth."   During my most recent visit to a medical facility I reckon I was asked to provide my full name and date of birth several times and hour.  It was even required just to receive my food tray from the hospital kitchen.

In my opinion, we are observing a massive make-over of the healthcare delivery system in America and, frankly, I don't like it -- at all.

Patients are now only a name on a chart or a bar code on a wrist band.  It's just one more thing about this new America that I don't like.

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

America Doesn't Need A President ... J. D. Longstreet

America Doesn't Need A President
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***************

By now we all recognize that the current occupant of the Oval Office is definitely NOT a type "A" personality.

For a time, the President -- and his family -- were enjoying, on average, a vacation a month at taxpayer expense. 

In a December, 2011, ABC News interview, Mr. Obama told Barbara Walters, “There is a deep down, underneath all the work I do, I think there’s a laziness in me. It’s probably from, you know, growing up in Hawaii, and it’s sunny outside and sitting on the beach.”  SOURCE:   http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/13/the-true-confessions-of-a-lazy-president/#ixzz2TmHB242p

Obama's work ethic HAS been called into question from time to time.   Of course, the

person having the temerity to mention it is instantly hammered by the President's "Press Phalanx."

But it remains a nagging point of interest what with well over a hundred rounds of golf under his belt and all the vacations and traveling, making campaign speeches -- even when he is not a candidate -- plus all the travel he does to fundraisers, etc..

It all begs the question:  Who's minding the store?

You'd think that with the country in the mess it's in, the Chief Executive would be hard at work making a yeoman's attempt to solve the nation's problems and get the country back on course.

Nope!  Ain't happening.

So -- who IS running things?  Darned if I know! 

When there is good news to report it seems everyone in the West Wing is ready and willing to step forward and take credit.  But -- when something goes wrong, nobody knows anything about anything -- period.  Funny how that works, eh?

I mean, consider the Benghazi mess.  Nobody even knows where the President was!  Well, they won't admit it if they do.  Of course, all this just makes me wonder -- even more -- where the hell WAS the President, anyway?

So far as the mess with the AP telephones and the IRS strong arming conservative groups, nobody at the White House knows anything.  

So what do they do all day, huh?  I mean besides planing menus, and scheduling fund raisers for the President, and speaking engagements, that sort of thing, do they ever get around to running the government?

In an article at The Washington Times written by Eric Golub the point is made thusly:  "Conversations must begin honestly. It is perfectly legitimate to analyze leaders with critical lenses. People fight and die for this freedom.

Times are serious, and Obama may not be. The question of whether Obama is lazy evokes everything from discomfort to rage. Yet asking and answering questions provokes “national conversations” that President Obama cherishes.  SOURCE:  http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2013/jan/7/president-obama-lazy/#ixzz2TmNjMZZh

Mr. Golub goes on in the same article to note the following:  "Not one example exists of anything significant happening specifically because of intense Obama engagement and effort."  Mr. Golub continues:  "Obama loves speaking but appears to loathe governing. Speaking is glamorous. Governing is boring and tedious. He constantly tells everybody else to 'get to work' while he is AWOL. SOURCE:  http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2013/jan/7/president-obama-lazy/#ixzz2TmP086lb

Mr. Golub concludes his column with this:  "It insults millions of hard-working Americans of all races to give him unearned credit. Once the platitudes are removed, supporters will not find a single policy accomplishment in his entire first term that has anything to do with him.

Others did the heavy lifting while he took credit and deflected blame.

This does not make him a bad guy. It just makes him unmotivated, or in simpler terms, lazy."  SOURCE:  http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2013/jan/7/president-obama-lazy/#ixzz2TmR4Iym

Mr. Obama has proven that America really doesn't NEED a President.  Heck, we could have someone sent over from "central casting" to fill the slot for photo ops, and such.   The Press Secretary could handle press conferences -- as he does nearly every day, anyway.  And there are any number of polished public speakers in the cabinet.

Maybe we have reached a point in the evolution of the country at which we ought to reevaluate the importance of the Executive Branch of the government. Maybe we ought to change the office of the Presidency to merely a ceremonial post -- I mean, now that we know we don't really NEED a President -- thanks to Obama. 

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

What scandals? There are no scandals here. Please keep moving.

The broiling controversies of the Benghazi scandal, the IRS wrongdoing, and the questionable seizure of Associated Press telephone records by the Department of Justice have forced those on the left and those that don't pay much attention to what goes on in the political realm to recognize that our government indulges in improper and oppressive behavior. And this tumultuous atmosphere has spawned some wild and crazy things.     

Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program and vociferous gun control advocate, had an epiphany brought on by the federal government's improper behavior. During a roundtable discussion on the show he said, “My argument [for gun control] is less persuasive today because of these scandals.” He went on to explain that “People say, ‘Hey, if they do this with the IRS, asking people what books you read, then how can I trust them with information about my Second Amendment rights?’” There was general agreement among the show’s other participants.

Another unusual thing was former White House senior advisor David Axelrod’s defense of President Barack Obama. He said that the president can't be held responsible for what underlings do. The reason is that our government is so large that no one person can control what all of the two million Executive Branch employees do.

He's right: government is way too big and far too powerful. David Axelrod is a limited government guy. Who knew?

But the fact that government is too big doesn't relieve the President of the United States, whomever that might be at any given time, of the duty to manage the Executive Branch and keep it within its constitutional limits, and to always respect the citizens it serves. Plainly, Mr. Obama has not done that.

In our highly charged political environment, not everything that the president's loyal opposition calls a scandal is truly a scandal. But conversely, everything that Mr. Obama's sycophantic fans wish was not a scandal isn't a scandal, and their efforts to explain them away often border on silliness. Columnist Reg Henry ably demonstrated that with inadequate attempts to downplay a few of them and make them go away.

Of the Fast and Furious debacle Mr. Henry said it "was a crackpot scheme to trace guns to Mexican drug cartels, but it was a hard sell because, as you know, guns don't kill people."

He is obviously correct about it being a crackpot scheme, although that characterization does not do justice to this colossal idiocy. And his sarcastic comment about guns not killing people unintentionally conveyed the truth.

But he's totally wrong about whether Fast and Furious is a scandal. Not only did the the Justice Department fail to achieve the fundamental goal of this misadventure — to trace the guns they provided to the Mexican cartels — but an American Border Patrol officer was murdered with one of them. That indeed is a scandal.

Next, in trying to wish away the Green Energy fiasco, he states, "The Solyndra scandal involved a big waste of public money, but the real offense seemed to be that the administration was promoting solar power. Oh, the horror."

So-called "public money" is money taxed away from taxpayers ostensibly to be used responsibly and for beneficial purposes, not so that billions can be wasted on the personal whim of the president to prop up a preferred industry, one that is so unstable that it cannot succeed even after being propped up. Mr. Henry is apparently unaware that it is neither within the president's nor the federal government's authority to decide which industries succeed and which do not.

In reference to what he called "Benghazi-gate," he cautions us that "it's far from clear what the president knew and when he knew it." But again he misses the point. What makes Benghazi a scandal is not what Mr. Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew and when they knew it, although that certainly deserves an explanation, it's the fact that his administration and/or her department disgracefully failed to provide requested and needed security upgrades before the attack began. Had they acted properly it just might have prevented all four of the murders that resulted from the attack on the Benghazi consulate. And then, there’s the video smoke screen to explain.

Some believe the Obama administration overtly engineered the effort by the IRS to target conservatives, Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations. But others blame this oppressive behavior on a "culture of suspicion" of conservative organizations created by President Obama's near-continuous public criticism of those individuals and organizations. After all, if the president repeatedly makes public statements saying these people are up to no good, shouldn't good bureaucrats try to please the boss and go after the bad guys?                                  

President Obama told graduates of The Ohio State University earlier this month that “you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems. ... They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.” But the swirling controversies that demonstrate actual government tyranny render that advice dangerous and unworthy.

Read More