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This article will be updated as more proposed legislation surfaces. What appears to be clear, however, is that the Democrats are not quite as concerned about IRS overreach as the Republicans seem to be. But then again, when most of your constituents don’t pay income tax, why even bother, right???

Demand Congress Investigate the IRS Scandal!! And keep demanding until the IRS understands who they really work for!

Write to your elected officials every day until they have memorized your name just from their nightmares. Let Your Voice be Heard

Here’s the proposed legislation so far:

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Tom Price, M.D (R-GA) issued the following statement after introducing the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013 (H.R. 2009) – legislation that would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from implementing or enforcing any provisions of the president’s health care law.

According to Dana Loesch on Red State “This is the action we need to see, and need to see quickly. We can’t trust them to regulate tax exemptions without prejudice, so how can we entrust them to do the same with out health care?”

Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04) announced today that he is introducing legislation that would prohibit a massive expansion of the Internal Revenue Service at a time when many Americans are calling into question the integrity of what should be a non-partisan, non-political government agency. The Prevent IRS Overreach Act would prohibit the IRS from hiring any personnel for the purpose of implementing the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill introduction comes on the heels of confirmation that the IRS has purposely targeted applicants for tax-exempt status for having “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names — demanding confidential donor lists and delaying applications in many cases for years.

Explanation of these two bills (above) from GOP FILES BILLS LIMITING IRS OVERSIGHT OF OBAMACARE

Legislation introduced by GA Rep. Tom Price would block the IRS from implementing or enforcing any part of the ObamaCare law. ”When it comes to an individual’s personal health care decisions, no American should be required to answer to the IRS — an agency that just forfeited its claim to a reputation of impartiality,” Price told The Hill. “It has always been an untenable and unacceptable scenario, and we ought to take this common sense step to take the IRS out of healthcare.

Separate legislation filed by VA Rep. Randy Forbes would prevent the IRS from hiring the estimated 18,000 new agents it needs to enforce the health care law. ”The IRS would be better to police its own than to police the millions of Americans who believe this healthcare law to be bad for their families and bad for our businesses,” Forbes said. NV Sen. Dean Heller is working on similar legislation in the Senate.

Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013

Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) introduced the Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013 on Tuesday that would amend Title 18 of the U.S. code, making it a crime for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to discriminate against anyone (individual or group) based on their constitutionally protected rights of political speech and expression.  . .

IRS employees are already prohibited from discriminating against individuals and groups based on protected speech, but this bill would increase the penalty IRS employees could receive. If signed into law, employees, would face a fine of up to $5,000, five years in prison.

Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013, a bill introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that would add criminal penalties for IRS employees who target political organizations, and the Project Against Ideology-Based Targeting Act, introduced by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), that would prohibit the IRS from targeting organizations based on ideology.both.

 

BILL BLOCKS IRS FROM ENFORCING OBAMACARE

According to this article,

Not surprisingly, many House Republicans are enthusiastically backing Price's bill and the congressman said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, intends to introduce the bill on the Senate side. Democrats are not lining up behind the legislation yet, but Price believes some of them might.

Click to enlarge.

At 5:00am I thought I'd practice Rocksmith's Scale Runner and call it a night. 5 hours and 15 minutes later I hobbled off to the couch and collapsed, lol.

I averaged 271.9 notes per scale on 11 scales (3 scales were 273 notes). Averaging 272.2 notes per scale would get the top score. A speed improvement of just 0.1% will get me there.

Rhetorical OCD question of the day...


See Also:
Four
Five
Nine

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

CBS - Obama administration officials who were in key positions on Sept. 11, 2012, acknowledge that a range of mistakes were made the night of the attacks on the U.S. missions in Benghazi, and in messaging to Congress and the public in the aftermath.

The officials spoke to CBS News in a series of interviews and communications under the condition of anonymity so that they could be more frank in their assessments. They do not all agree on the list of mistakes and it's important to note that they universally claim that any errors or missteps did not cost lives and reflect "incompetence rather than malice or cover up." Nonetheless, in the eight months since the attacks, this is the most sweeping and detailed discussion by key players of what might have been done differently.

"We're portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots," said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. "It's actually closer to us being idiots."

The Obama administration's chief critics on Benghazi, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., remain skeptical. They see a pattern, even a conspiracy, to deflect attention from the idea that four Americans had been killed by al Qaeda-linked attackers, on the president's watch. "There is no conclusion a reasonable person could reach other than that for a couple of weeks after the attack, [the Obama administration was] trying to push a narrative that was politically beneficial to the president's re-election," Graham told CBS News.

The list of mea culpas by Obama administration officials involved in the Benghazi response and aftermath include: standing down the counterterrorism Foreign Emergency Support Team, failing to convene the Counterterrorism Security Group, failing to release the disputed Benghazi "talking points" when Congress asked for them, and using the word "spontaneous" while avoiding the word "terrorism."

The Foreign Emergency Support Team known as "FEST" is described as "the US Government's only interagency, on-call, short-notice team poised to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide." It even boasts hostage-negotiating expertise. With U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens reported missing shortly after the Benghazi attacks began, Washington officials were operating under a possible hostage scenario at the outset. Yet deployment of the counterterrorism experts on the FEST was ruled out from the start. That decision became a source of great internal dissent and the cause of puzzlement to some outsiders.

Thursday, an administration official who was part of the Benghazi response told CBS News: "I wish we'd sent it."

The official said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deputy, Patrick Kennedy, quickly dispensed with the idea. A senior State Department official Thursday told CBS News, "Under Secretary Kennedy is not in the decision chain on FEST deployment" but would not directly confirm whether Kennedy or somebody else dismissed the FEST.

Whoever made the decision, it came amid sharp disagreement over the FEST's true capabilities. Kennedy and others at the State Department view the team as one that primarily restores communications at besieged embassies. However, the FEST's own mission statement describes a seasoned team of counterterrorism professionals who can respond "quickly and effectively to terrorist attacks... providing the fastest assistance possible" including "hostage negotiating expertise" and "time-sensitive information and intelligence." In fact, FEST leader Mark Thompson says Benghazi was precisely the sort of crisis to which his team is trained to respond.

While it was the State Department that's said to have taken FEST off the table, the team is directed by the White House National Security Council. Those officials expressed the same limited view of FEST's capabilities when CBS News asked on Nov. 1, 2012, why FEST hadn't deployed. The officials argued that FEST teams were "used in the past to re-establish infrastructure, communications, etc. after a devastating attack...That wasn't the need here." {Read More}

Hm, is the controversy gaining steam? I report, you be the judge...

Via: Memeorandum

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

What I find so interesting in regards to the following Facebook post is that Sara Palin would have everyone believe the Obama administration is somehow different than prior administrations with respect to integrity, or as it is perhaps more appropriately labeled "the spin factor."

Scandalous Hat Trick

Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. Today in the Rose Garden you dismissed the idea of a Special Counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. With that, your galling political hubris shined bright in the midst of today’s dark clouds.

Mr. President, how can we trust your Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation when there is a systemic violation of the Hatch Act throughout your administration?

Surely you are aware that the Hatch Act prevents certain federal employees from engaging in political activity. Specifically, it’s illegal for these federal employees to engage in action in support of or in opposition to a political party, a candidate for partisan political office, or a partisan political group.

Yet that is exactly what’s happened within the IRS, the Justice Department, and in the Benghazi cover-up. This scandalous hat trick is on your watch. It is not believable that you knew nothing about Obama administration actions in dealing with these scandals. And in regards to Benghazi, when you should have taken appropriate action to save American lives – for instance by calling in the Marines – you were AWOL. Just weeks before the election your team scrubbed the Benghazi talking points in 12 different versions, lied to the American people about some YouTube video being to blame for the deaths of brave Americans who put our country first, and you prove Michael Barone right when he writes, “What actually happened in Benghazi was out of sync with the Obama campaign line.” That’s why you all did what you did. Pure raw politics were at play during a horrific time of loss.

For more evidence of Hatch Act violations right under your nose, simply consider DOJ’s “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the free press. Do you think they picked up some political talk when tapping the phones in the House press gallery?

Your team is out of control. Those who cannot remember the past and learn from it are doomed to repeat it, and that is exactly what is happening. Look back exactly 40 years ago this week and apply that disheartening chapter of American history to the team you’ve chosen and lead today.

Some of us warned America; we cautioned voters in 2008 that a community organizer with no executive experience and no sense of accountability would be a very poor choice for the nation’s top management position.

Mr. President, you said today that you have “complete confidence” in the Attorney General. America doesn’t. Eric Holder needs to appoint an unbiased Special Counsel to investigate the illegal political action of this administration. And then Eric Holder needs to resign.

Most Americans see ominous dark clouds looming beyond the White House Rose Garden, Mr. President. They’ll roll away only when light is shined on the Obama administration’s antics, and America will only recover when you cease avoiding responsibility in this mission of yours to fundamentally transform America. For that to happen, the press had better learn from their experiences of being duped and provide a deserving public fairer, more intelligent coverage.

Speaking of coverage, glad you finally called in the Marines... shame it was just to hold your umbrella.

- Sarah Palin

Short memories and limited curiosity or understanding of history methinks.

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."

--George Washington, letter to Edmund Randolph, 1795

Via: Memeorandum

 I enjoy each opportunity to visit New York, but this time was more than one reason to return to the Big Apple. I was invited by Polyvore to be a community corespondent  for PUNK: Chaos to Couture along with a few other great ladies. Also I was invited to come and choose a few outfits from a wonderful showroom.
So, in my first few hours in New York I was playing dress up and chose a few great pieces that you'll see soon on my blog.
More from New York trip soon!





                                                                       Blazer: Aryn K/similar Here  
                                                                       Shirt: vintage
                                                                       Jeans: c/o Lulu's.com/ option Here   
                                                                       Shoes: Zara/ option Here
                                                                       Sunglasses: c/o zeroUV/ similar Here  
                                                                       Bag: Cynthia Rowley/ option Here
                                                                       Bracelets: c/o Lulu's.com/ Here and Poshlocket/ Here
                                                                       Ring: c/o Lulu's.com/ Here

I'm in love with trim. I want it everywhere and I can't get enough of it. It might border on addiction, but since it is so awesome, I'm happy to call myself an addict.

We all know how amazing it looks on drapes, pillows and even walls, but how about your furniture? Particularly to finish off the bottom of furniture. I think it can be like a great pair of shoes - it 'makes' the piece.

Let's take a look shall we?

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Nick Olsen for Lee Jofa

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So what do you think? Amazing right? It's pretty major. Now I've got to go and trim something.


And don't forget, it's Friday which means another great week of the Simply Baby Nursery blog party. This week's party is hosted by the lovely Katherine of Rhymes with Smile. Check it out!

When YOUR Ox Is Gored ...
Attack of the Lapdogs!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*****************

WOW!  What a turn around!  I refer of course, to the repentance of the Mainstream Media. Repentance here is meant in the classic definition:  turn around and go the other way.  That's what the press has done the past few days.  And , yes, it IS remarkable!

It is nigh on to laughable to observe the MSM in high angst going after the Obama administration after learning about the "monitoring" of AP reporters phone calls, both personal and business.  It really does depend, I suppose, upon whose ox is being gored.

As long as the Obama White House was persecuting conservatives, and backing and filling the Benghazi cover-up, everything was hunky-dory with the Mainstream Media. 

But the moment they (the MsM) become the target of the Obama administration the MsM went ballistic! 

You may recall the Fox News Channel was out there, all by itself, on the Benghazi affair for months and months.  The MsM just yawned and looked the other way.  The IRS harassment of the Tea Party and other conservative groups received only cursory and lukewarm interest amongst the denizens of the press.

But WAIT!  The inviolate MsM has been violated by none other than their messiah! Suddenly they feel betrayed -- and with good reason.  They HAVE been betrayed.

But -- HEY! Countless times we have warned the leftist press that under a tyrannical government the press would be among the very first targets for censoring, and for ultimate control by the government.  Now they have had a taste, just a taste, mind you, of what we have been warning them about for years now.  And they seem blind-sided by it all.  It is just unbelievable.

As of this writing vast holes have appeared in the circle of wagons around Mr. Obama. And Obama is -- suddenly -- vulnerable.

Hours before this writing the dems were scrambling to find a way -- some way, ANYWAY, to bribe the MsM back into their corner.  They began by suggesting that now might be a good time to revisit the proposed reporter/press shield law that made its way ignominiously into the "round file" the last time it reared its head on Capitol Hill.

Judging by the reception of Obama's suggestion, the shield law bribe is not working.

It is gratifying to actually witness the MsM rediscover their purpose.  They were to be the people's watchdog over the government.  Instead they became the Obama Administration lapdogs.  Suddenly they were transformed from reporters to stenographers reporting the White House's -- AND -- the Democratic Party's "talking points" as news.

This loss of their mission not only affected the national media it reached all the way down to community news organizations, as well. As a result, Americans have only seen a white wash of the Obama Administration -- and the Democratic Party -- for the past four and a half years.

What little esteem for the MsM held by those few Americans who actually derived their news from those sources must now feel themselves betrayed, as well. Unarguably they have been deluged by a tsunami of left wing propaganda employed by the west wing f the White House, and various executive departments under the direct or indirect control of the Obama Administration.

Now "the chickens have come home to roost" as a famous religious leader said a number of years ago. 

I have no idea where all these scandals will lead, eventually.  But understand -- even if an impeachment proceeding is begun, and Obama is impeached in the House of Representatives, it will take a vote by the Democratic Party controlled US Senate to convict Obama and that is about as likely to be successful, as rolling a snowball clear across Hell in the middle of August. It ain't gonna happen.

We're asking ourselves today, if Obama's protective bubble has finally burst, if his Teflon coating as developed a scratch, will we actually get to see Obama for what he truly is before some sort of makeshift barrier is erected to insure that the real Obama is never exposed to the scrutiny of the "low info voters" who put him in office -- not once-- but twice.

This could be a pivotal  moment in American history.

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely"  -- The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

We Americans must continually guard against the encroachment of tyranny. 


© J.D. Longstreet

Click to enlarge.

My new personal best is 273 notes in a row in 100 seconds. I've done it twice in the last week. That speed was good enough to help inch my way up into 4th place. And when I say inch, I really mean it. As seen in the picture above, I'm just 1,200 points ahead of the person in 5th place (out of 161+ million). Whew!

I need to play roughly 0.5% faster overall (on 11 different scales) in order to get to #1. That definitely seems doable given enough practice and patience.



I've latched myself onto this mini-game like a honey badger would. Giving up is not an option! :)

See Also:
Five
Nine

A North American Union? Really?
Why the government won't seal the southern border
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

**************
Recently, I heard more false claims that the US stole much of the land that is now the southwestern states from Mexico.  It’s TOTAL BUNK!

The mainstream media continues to publish those claims without counterbalancing them with the truth.  That does two things.  It emboldens those perpetrating those false claims against the US – and -- it is accepted as truth by our woefully undereducated citizenry. 

Over three years ago we attempted to bring truth to the discussion by explaining that the US did, in fact, purchase that land. It is a matter of historical fact.

As the months have gone by, I have seen no attempt to set the record straight.  This, dear reader, is how revisionist history becomes so successful.  No one refutes it.  It is the first rule of propaganda: tell the lie long enough and loud enough and it will eventually be accepted as truth.

It would seem that is what those groups in the United States, whose aim it is to push AMNESTY for Illegal Aliens legislation through the Congress and onto Obama’s desk for his signature, are endeavoring to do.  We refer, of course, to the new Immigration Reform Bill.   I mean, how can we insist that those people abide by the law and apply for citizenship in the US legally, because, after all, IT IS THEIR LAND.   

OK, let’s take another shot at setting the record straight and look at some facts.

First, The Mexican War:

The Mexican War between the United States and Mexico began with a Mexican attack on American troops along the southern border of Texas on Apr. 25, 1846. Fighting ended when U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott occupied Mexico City on Sept. 14, 1847; a few months later a peace treaty was signed (Feb. 2, 1848) at Guadalupe Hidalgo. In addition to recognizing the U.S. annexation of Texas defeated Mexico ceded California and, New Mexico (including all the present-day states of the Southwest) to the United States.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed on February 2, 1848, by Nicholas P. Trist, for the United States, and by a special commission representing the collapsed government of Mexico.

Under the treaty, Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico (including Arizona) and recognized U.S. claims over Texas, with the Rio Grande as its southern boundary. The United States in turn paid Mexico $15,000,000, assumed the claims of American citizens against Mexico, ($3.25 Million) recognized prior land grants in the Southwest, and offered citizenship to any Mexicans residing in the area.  Then a few years later, the US bought the land that is now Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for another 6 million dollars. 

Why did we need that additional land?

After the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, border disputes between the United States and Mexico remained unsettled. Land that now comprises lower Arizona and New Mexico was part of a proposed southern route for a transcontinental railroad. US President Franklin Pierce was convinced by Jefferson Davis, (Later the First President of the Confederate States of America)  then the US Secretary of War, to send James Gadsden (who had personal interests in the rail route) to negotiate the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico. Under the resulting agreement, the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million.  There was a problem with the money, however: Even though the agreement specified $10 million, the US Congress only agreed to pay $7 million. When the money finally arrived, in Mexico City, $1 million was found to be lost, thus making $6 million the amount Mexico actually got for the sale of that land.  Hey, they set the price… we paid it!

Run the numbers and you will find that the US paid Mexico $24,250,000.00 (24 million, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand) US dollars for the land in the Southwest US which many claim, today, we (The US) stole! 

You know,  I get a bit tired, and even short-tempered, with folks who attempt to perpetuate an untruth by the act of sheer omission.  As  a Southerner, I know how that can hurt.  To say the US stole all that land in the Southwest is a flat-out lie.  So, 24 and-a-quarter-million isn’t much money?  Not by today’s standards perhaps, but back in the mid 1800’s we’re talking about somewhere in the area of $600,000,000.00!  Now that IS big bucks!

So, next time you hear someone prattling on about how the US stole all the southwestern United States from Mexico, set them straight.  Tell them we bought it and paid for it.  If they refuse to believe you refer them to the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty and the Gadsden’s Purchase a few years later.  It’s all there.  It’s a part of history -- a part of history students in the American government schools apparently never hear about.

Of course, the claims that we stole the land from Mexico is all a part of the propaganda being employed to saddle Americans with more undeserved guilt.  People who feel guilty will ofttimes respond in the way those prodding them wish them to respond.  That is what is hoped for with all the unmitigated garbage heaped on America today. 

Actually, as I view the relationship between the US and Mexico today, I have to wonder if there really is a move afoot to combine the three nations of the North American Continent into one nation, or one entity as in, say, the European Union.  

Some form of union of America, Mexico, and Canada has been discussed or proposed in academic, business, and political circles for decades now.  The NAU (North American Union) is a theoretical economic and political union of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The concept is loosely based, as we said, on the European Union, occasionally including a common currency called the "Amero" or the North American Dollar. You may read more about this NAU at:  SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union   

Before you brush this aside (As I did years ago!), ask yourself why, exactly, is the US government refusing to seal the southern border with Mexico?  Why?

I'm tired of supporting the country of Mexico with the billions of US dollars a year pouring into Mexico from Mexican citizens who have burglarized the US.  The total amount is staggering.

The US has a huge number of problems these days that must be dealt with.  But we must not let our guard down for one minute else an amnesty bill for illegal aliens (The New Immigration Reform Bill) will be passed by the Congress and signed by the President into law.  

Eternal vigilance truly is the price of freedom.

© J. D. Longstreet

There once was a girl who wanted to switch her living room and dining room. She worked hard and made herself a swanky new dining room, but the living room needed a pick me up. So, she asked her friend for some help. Luckily this girl can DIY with the best of them, and also luckily her friend is me.

My very great friend and her family wanted a cozy space where they could read, do homework, practice the violen and spend hours on Pinterest. And although she knew she wanted to invest in grasscloth, the goal was to work with what she already had, just adding a few things here and there to spruce up the room.
Here is the space before. (cute children not included)


And here is the after.

My girl is hardcore. She put up the grasscloth all on her own. Right after she painted that mirror orange and before she put together those IKEA shelves. Unstoppable I tell you.


I love that we talk about the gallery wall and play with some pictures one day, and the next time I talk to her she says, "oh yeah I hung the gallery wall". All I do is plant the seed and she runs with it and makes it look great.


All of the artwork was created by her, in addition to a few pieces by her dad and her kids. They are basically the Partridge family of art.


I love a new tray on an old coffee table. It's almost totally better than a pair of new shoes. That's right, I will always pick a tray over a pair of shoes.


That grasscloth makes all the difference. It makes all of the moldings pop (which she put in during a previous project) and it makes the room so warm. It's like a big huge hug.


The lamp was originally orange but she gave it the gold touch with a can of spray paint.


A collection of gold animals has begun and the gold K looks great against the wallpaper.


The milk glass acquired by the two of us at the single most uncomfortable and slightly bigoted garage sale ever. I'll have to share that story one day.


Yes, this book is upside down. I'm quirky.




And because I hate it when magazines talk about a space and don't show a picture of it, here is her wonderful dining room. Good, right?

So that is the story of the girl who switched her living room and dining room and ended up with a great family space.

How about you? Have you switched rooms in your house before? Made some changes to a room that wasn't working for you?