Phony, Phact or Phairy Tale? Part Two

Last week we talked about Fast and Furious, Seal Team 6 and Benghazi. Probably the most important issue with these three “Phony” scandals is that people died. No one can ever bring the people back and nothing the government can do will ever replace the hurt, mistrust and division created by the lies and cover-ups to families of the lost. But it’s not only the families, it’s all of us who had a faith in the constitution and the people we choose to execute the laws.

I was one of those people like so many that spent all my time working, raising a family, going to church and helping people in every way I could. I trusted the government to implement our laws in a fair way. Needless to say I soon realized that fair is for fairy tales. The law is not fair, it is not just and it depends more on who you are and less about truth. I have a feeling that our Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves.

The three “Phony” scandals I’d like to discuss today were exposed so closely in time that the order doesn’t really matter; however, I will do my best.

IRS VS. TEA PARTY:  on May 10, 2013 a news story broke that the Tea Party and other similar organizations applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status was being targeted by the Internal Revenue Service. As early as May, 2010 employees of the IRS Determinations Unit began to develop a list known as a BOLO, or “Be on the Look Out” for applications that had names with words such as Tea Party, 912 Project, religious affiliations or anything that sounded conservative.

What seems to have happened most often; the applications were placed in a hold file. Some investigation was done and a few were denied, some approved, but mostly, the files just sat in limbo. Some of these groups have been waiting and are still waiting for up to two years or more.  This meant that most of these groups were not able to participate in the 2012 election at the level desired. There is no way of knowing what effect this may have had on the outcome of the election.

Now to be fair and you know how I feel about being fair, oh yeah, it appears that the IRS also targeted some progressive groups as well. I believe the numbers are something like 300 conservative groups to one or two progressive groups. Thus we can not claim that it was only conservative groups being attacked.

As I said last week there is far too much information to include here so I hope you will look into it, but that is entirely up to you. Although I must add that today a video clip has appeared of Lois Lerner IRS executive stating in early 2010 that the IRS is very confused by the Supreme Courts ruling on the Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission on January 21, 2010. Ms. Lerner proclaims that she’s getting a lot of heat about this and what can the IRS do to counter act this ruling before the election. It seems as if the IRS found a way.

DOJ/ JOURNALISTS: Sometime around May 13, 2013 the Associated Press released the story of how the Department of Justice had seized phone records for as many as 20 reporters and had also charged Fox News reporter James Rosen as a criminal co-conspirator under the 1917 Espionage Act. Much to my surprise, (sarcasm intentional), now that the Justice Department was spying on journalist, the reporters started to pay attention, for awhile. The DOJ went so far as to tap into the phones, email, texting etc. of Mr. Rosen’s parents and other close relationships.

I don’t know about you but that scares the ‘you-know-what’ out of me. Does anyone remember the 4^th Amendment??

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” 

It should be noted at this point that only one warrant was aquired for the seisure of records and that Attorney General Eric Holder had to go to three judges before he could get one to sign off on it.  But I guess when you are the head of the DOJ, well, justice is what you say it is.

NSA: About the same time the DOJ story broke, Edward Snowden leaked the information about the National Security Agency surveillance program that is not only targeting terrorist suspects, but ALL Americans. Oh yes that’s what I said, ALL Americans; cell phones, emails, texts, twitter and any other type of electronic communication available. Now the NSA claims that they are only looking for connections to terrorist and that they are not really looking at any of our information, they are just storing it incase we become terrorist. Ok, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who is planning on becoming a terrorist. Maybe you have different friends than me, although I’m pretty average.

Just refer back to DOJ paragraph 3 the 4^th Amendment. As I mentioned before there is an incredible amount of information on all of these ‘Phony’ scandals, I hope this encourages you to do some more homework so you can make the decisions for yourself.

Also last week I told you I’d explain the Snake Oil poster. Well I’m sure most of you have thought about the Snake Oil salesman as an old con man. I would also think some of you see the comparisons to this administration, but the real story is, as with most writers, the Thesaurus is our best friend. Well when I started this two weeks ago I was curious about synonyms for ‘Phony’ and to my surprise, the last one listed was snake oil.

After all this ‘Phony’ scandal business we find that another word for ‘Phony’ is Snake Oil. Very interesting, this comparison may not be ‘Phair’ but it sure is ‘Phunny’.