May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

The politics of the IRS scandal

Featured image For me, the IRS scandal, though certainly a big deal, currently ranks behind two bigger deal stories — immigration reform and Benghazi. I view the Schumer-Rubio bill as a long-term political game-changer and, indeed, nation-changer. And Benghazigate implicates the president, high ranking administration officials, and the president’s likely successor as standard bearer of the Democratic Party. By contrast, we do not know that the president had anything to with the »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Latest on the IRS Scandal

Featured imageThe Treasury Department Inspector General’s report on the IRS’s discriminatory treatment of applicants for 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) status has been released; you can read it here. In general, the report doesn’t add much to what has already been reported about its contents. This graphic shows the criteria that were being used to identify “potential political cases” as of June 2011: The report says, as has been reported, that the IRS »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Is Anyone Home in the White House?

Featured imageOne striking feature of the multiple scandals in which the Obama administration is now enmeshed is how little responsibility President Obama takes for any of them. None, actually. Not only that, he professes to be entirely in the dark, to know only what he reads in the newspapers, and to have no control over his own cabinet officers and their departments. This was a major theme of Jay Carney’s press »
May 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward

A New Wine for Our Times

Featured imageAs I mentioned here once before, the fad in California wines for more than a decade now has been the heavy emphasis on what I call MSG wines.  No, that’s not a designation of something to order in your favorite Chinese restaurant; rather, it refers to Rhone-style blends featuring Mourvedre-Syrah-Grenache.   Many of these blends are knockouts, and adjusting the blend allows winemakers to bob and weave depending on the weather »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Associated Press Phone Records: Is It a Scandal?

Featured imageScandals are besetting the Obama administration so rapidly that it is hard to keep track of them. So far, I don’t believe we have said anything about the revelation that the Department of Justice secretly accessed several months worth of Associated Press telephone records. The AP is on the warpath: Reporters across The Associated Press are outraged over the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of staff phone records — and they »
May 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Viognier Does Not Rhyme with Wagner

Featured imageAnd thank goodness it doesn’t.  Time for our monthly installment from the Paso Wine Guy, this month extolling the virtue of Viognier.  I heartily approve.  Can’t get enough good Viognier.  Just picked up the new 2012 Viognier from Denner Vineyards, but it needs a couple more months in the bottle before it’s ready to drink.  So I’ll be thirsty for a couple of months I guess. Anyway, here it is, »
May 14, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Fools and knaves: Obama edition

Featured imagePresident Obama put on a good show on the subject of Benghazi in his joint press conference with David Cameron yesterday. He expressed something like righteous indignation regarding coverage of the story and his alleged his lack of candor regarding the attack. Employing the famous Gertrude Stein quotation, he alleged that there is no there there. Maybe. As Bill Clinton might explain, it depends on the meaning of “there.” It »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Why the Freedom Club?

Featured imageI wrote here about the Freedom Club’s annual spring dinner, featuring Steve Forbes. At the dinner, a few of us were steered in front of a camera to free associate about the club. That led to this short video, “Why the Freedom Club?”, which I think you will enjoy: The Freedom Club is a model, I think, for what can be done in other states. (There are, of course, some »
May 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker

IRS Scandal About to Blow Wide Open?

Featured imageTo no one’s surprise, it is already evident that the Obama administration has been lying about the scope of the IRS’s harassment of conservative-leaning non-profits. The »
May 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Obama Bobs and Weaves on Benghazi

Featured imagePresident Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron held a brief joint press conference this morning. After the introductory comments, the first questions related to Benghazi and the IRS. Here is some of what Obama had to say about Benghazi: With respect to Benghazi, we’ve now seen this argument that’s been made by some folks primarily up on Capitol Hill for months now. And I’ve just got to say — here’s »
May 13, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Innervisions

Featured imageWhen Ronnie White (of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles) brought Steveland Morris over to the Motown offices in Detroit in 1961, Berry Gordy was at first unimpressed. After Morris sang the Miracles’ “Lonely Guy” and performed on piano, harmonica and bongo, Gordy signed the 11-year-old boy to his label. According to Nelson George’s Where Did Our Love Go?, “Berry, in one of his more inspired name changes, decided [Morris] would »
May 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Mid-Week in Pictures: IRS Scandal Edition

Featured imageWith the Obama Administration having moved fully into the “limited modified hangout” stage of its multiple scandals (Jay Carney: Ron Ziegler is on line two for you right now), some of the cartoons and memes are piling up too fast to wait for Power Line’s weekend photo wrap.  So here we go. You know you’re in trouble when this headline appears in the Puffington Host, as it does right now: »
May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

IRS scrutiny of pro-Israel group called into question

Featured imageJosh Gerstein at Politico reports that the same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for tax-exempt status. The group in question is called Z Street. It alleges that one of its attorneys was told that its application for tax exemption was delayed and sent to »
May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

L’Affaire Richwine, My Take

Featured imageI agree with Steve Hayward that the Heritage Foundation was wrong to sack Jason Richwine because he wrote a PhD thesis examining the relationship between IQ and immigration. In fact, I find it appalling that Heritage did so. The relationship between IQ and immigration isn’t a burning question for me. The answer, if it can be determined, wouldn’t affect my view on immigration policy. But the question isn’t illegitimate. And »
May 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Who Cares About Unemployment When We’ve Got Gay Marriage?

Featured imageToday the Minnesota Senate passed a bill authorizing gay marriage which will be signed into law by our governor, Mark Dayton. That is the context for this text, which my oldest daughter sent me a few minutes ago: If I had a dollar for every #time4marriage hashtag on my feed I’d be rich. Someone should start a #time4jobs trend, seeing as there are approx. twice as many unemployed Americans as »
May 13, 2013 — Steven Hayward

L’Affaire Richwine

Featured imageI didn’t know Jason Richwine very well during his post-doc fellowship at AEI, but in my rare interactions I was favorably impressed.  But as background to pondering his shameful dismissal from Heritage last week, I want to recall the time in the late 1980s when I first met James Q. Wilson, arguably America’s greatest social scientist at the time, shortly after he left Harvard for UCLA.  In the course of »
May 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Lessons from the IRS scandal

Featured imagePresident Obama tried today to catch up with the IRS scandal, condemning the IRS officials who targeted conservatives. Obama clearly perceives the threat this scandal poses to trust in government, and hence to his project of vast expansion of governmental power. It’s possible too that he feels genuine outrage about the IRS’s targeting of conservatives. But neither presidential outrage nor condemnation can mitigate the central concern that this scandal reinforces »