VIDEO: Mike Kelly Tirade Generates Applause at IRS Hearing

You don't often hear applause out of Ways and Means Committee hearings, but it happened today when Congressman Mike Kelly blasted the IRS for their harassment of conservative groups with an impassioned and reasoned complaint about the inherent hypocrisy in their behavior.

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Friday Musical Interlude - Rhiannon (Rosebud version)

Last week in the Friday Musical Interlude, I implied that musical talent has declined with the passing years.  In days gone by people crafted their music and practiced and worked hard and they believed in what they were singing about - it wasn't about the fast money. Yeah, there were drug problems and a lot of terrible self-indulgent music was made as well.  But the music when done well was incredible.

A stunning example of someone living their music is Stevie Nicks' incredible performance of Rhiannon from the Rosebud documentary.  Rhiannon is an ethereal song but with the live version, this one in particular there's another higher gear.  Watch Stevie pour herself into the song from about the 5 minute mark onward. You don't see Lady Gaga doing that.

Enjoy.

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I agree with Frank but not this time.

The always delightful-to-read Frank Hill over at LeftCoastRebel makes a reasoned and sound point about how none of these scandals rocking the Obama administration are as important as the national debt.  He's right when he says this:

They are all important issues of governance or malfeasance, however you want to call it...

But none of them can do the damage to our future that out-of-control spending can cause because our debt gets too high and then, when interest rates return to 'normal'? It either crowds out other essential functions of government or inflation rears its ugly, ugly head and everyone suffers. Especially the elderly, poor and infirm.

He makes perfect sense and speaking as someone who believes national solvency trumps all other issues, I disagree.

I respectfully disagree with Frank for two basic reasons.  Firstly Frank is talking at a strategic level. But the root of the overspending problem is the mindset of the liberal spenders. Tactically it's a good idea to dislodge that mindset is to remove their power to influence the public.  One way to do so effectively is to ride these scandals until the president is truly a lame duck. His message of spending and growing government can be deeply if not mortally wounded if people lose faith in his message and also see what his ideology has wrought- an IRS not afraid to bully the citizens of America.

The other reason I disagree with Frank is that while economic concerns are paramount, the nation must be guided by principled leaders with courage and integrity.  This leadership has none of those qualities. They will be an obstacle to economic sanity at every turn because it suits their agenda. If they cannot be overcome (in the short term) then they must be exposed.   Exposing them is part and parcel to emasculating their grow-government agenda.

Frank is correct. The debt crisis is indeed the most important issue facing America today.  I only disagree on the approach to fighting that battle at the present time.  You have to play the cards that you are dealt and right now the right is holding a flush.  It would be a shame to fold this hand hoping that in the next game the cards we get dealt are an American Epiphany on economic fundamentals.  Not gonna happen.

Just saying.

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Omnipotence as impotence

The infrastructure's fixed now, right?

The IRS scandal seems to be the top headline today. While the distraction from Benghazi has traction, the IRS scandal does merit a full accounting.  Here are some thoughts on the Obama defense.

The current liberal defense of this incompetent, self-serving and dishonest administration (from no less than David Axelrod himself, for example) is that the government is so big, it is impossible to self-police every corner of it.  If you are conservative and hear that argument used you think "of course it is!". If you are liberal you hear it and think"we need more laws and more people in government to police the government. "

Liberal folly is evident only to those not caught up in its circular logic.  Big government that doesn't work should not lead to bigger government.  When the government has grown to have near omnipotent power to act at will, it becomes impotent to be able to act cohesively or correctly. Local interpretation of directives is subject to a myriad of staff. And that's just one problem with big government.

And yet this is the liberal defense of Obama in some quarters in a nutshell.  Yep, blame. Again.  Blame the lack of government synergy.  Blame local potentates within the bureaucracy. Just be sure the president is untouched.  The media and liberal pundits are the president's secret service.  The irony is that those defenders of Obama are making an argument against his objective of bigger government in order to keep him in power to continue to grow government.

They are making our case for us but they will fail to see it that way. They see it as an end (bigger government) that the means (blaming big government)  justifies. In fact, they may not even realize the irony. They just want to ride out this storm.

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What Obama would have you believe

The president is about to speak about the IRS scandal.  After releasing a bunch of email documents on the Benghazi scandal.  The president will focus in prime news time on the IRS scandal.

Classic misdirection.

There's likely no major smoking gun in the Benghazi declassified emails.  But if the president wants eyes on the IRS - a scandal brought to light by the IRS in the midst of a Benghazi whistle blower probe - TV still trumps an email dump.

He will likely pump up the importance of the IRS scandal and then deflate the issue by announcing firings.  He would have you believe he's above board on this and therefore also the Benghazi stuff, which he will play later as a witch hunt.

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IRS scandal grows, threatens to derail Benghazi scandal

Breitbart has a startling new twist on the IRS scandal - the IRS has been sharing it's dirt on conservative groups with a progressive group.  No kidding

The progressive-leaning investigative journalism group ProPublica says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office that targeted and harassed conservative tax-exempt groups during the 2012 election cycle gave the progressive group nine confidential applications of conservative groups whose tax-exempt status was pending. 

The commendable admission lends further evidence to the lengths the IRS went during an election cycle to silence tea party and limited government voices.

So the scandal grows. Unexpectedly.

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