Thirteen years have passed since jihadists rammed jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Doubtless the images of the Twin Towers collapsing are indelible, and the toll in human life was achingly massive. In time, though, memory fades. By themselves, our impressions of the past are insufficient to guide our thinking and action. We need consciously to identify lessons from our experience.
What should we learn? Here are three crucial lessons, still unlearned.
Writing days after the attacks, Leonard Peikoff explained that: “Fifty years of increasing American appeasement in the Mideast have led to fifty years of increasing contempt in the Muslim world for the U.S. The climax was September 11, 2001.” My talk, “The Road to 9/11,” looks at several episodes of pre-9/11 Islamist aggression and the self-effacing responses of the Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton Administrations. Standing apart from conventional thinking, ARI advocates for a foreign policy guided by the moral ideal of rational egoism, a policy that resolutely protects the lives and freedom of Americans.
What does that look like? Peter Schwartz’s monograph, The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America lays out what an egoist approach looks like in theory and practice (purchase Kindle ebook or paperback). My book, Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism, analyses the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and applies Ayn Rand’s ethics to foreign policy, defining a path to victory against the enemy. (Read the introduction.)
Lesson #2. The enemy is not just Bin Laden, or Al Qaeda, but the Islamist movement.
“Know your enemy” is a necessary condition for figuring out how to defeat the threat. Tragically, neither before nor after 9/11 did American policymakers understand the enemy. It is hopelessly superficial to think of the enemy as “terrorists” (many groups use that tactic) or “haters” or “hijackers of a great religion,” or Al Qaeda, etc. Bin Laden has been dead three-plus years, and Al Qaeda has been damaged — but clearly the threat persists.
Friday, July 17, 2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Senator Bob Menendez held a press conference at the Ridgewood Train station yesterday under heavy security and pushed for more transit funding and union jobs. While it was an interesting choice of venue , a venue that had undergone a controversial $40 million renovation several years ago , which include and elevator to nowhere.
Menendez put forth his 9 Principles for a Public Transportation Reauthorization Bill, with no mention of how this stuff would be paid for or what happened to all the money in the Transportation Trust Fund or what the happened to all the shovel ready jobs from the stimulus package .
The senator was joined by our Mayor Paul Aronsohn for what many would call a union love fest .
“I categorically reject the idea that we can’t afford to fix our transportation system; we can’t afford not to fix it,” said Sen. Menendez, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, which has jurisdiction over transit. “Let’s stop pretending the transportation problem is going to resolve itself if we just wait long enough. Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey families and millions of Americans rely on a safe, reliable, affordable transit system, and Congress must finally accelerate on real investments and stop putting the brakes on upgrades, innovations and protections.”
“We need a transportation system that drives economic growth and helps communities thrive. Strategically investing in public transit can save families money in the long run, and it reduces congestion on our roads. It also increases economic mobility and job growth, giving people more personal flexibility and freedom to get to work, school, or wherever they need to go. Building tomorrow’s transportation system begins with hard work, careful planning, and smart investments today and these key principles offer a roadmap for making needed infrastructure improvements,” said Sen. Reed, who also serves as the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD).
“Robust funding and smart policy that ensures that our transit systems remain efficient, safe, and reliable must be a key component of any transportation funding bill,” said Sen. Schumer. “As the Senate Banking Committee works toward a bipartisan bill these principles lay out some basic tenets that the bill should strive to achieve. Without additional investment transit systems across the country will continue to deteriorate, increasing the backlog of critical maintenance projects and jeopardizing the safety of transit riders.”
“By making smart investments in our transit infrastructure, we can create jobs today and build long-term economic growth in the future,” said Senator Merkley. “Oregon has been a longtime leader in innovative development projects, it’s time we incorporate more of these ideas in our national policy. Improving the reliability and efficiency of our public transportation systems is a win-win for workers, businesses, and the environment. At the same time, it makes our cities and towns better places to live, work, and raise a family.”
“A strong public transportation system is good for families, good for business and good for this country,” said Senator Warren. “A 21st Century economy requires a 21st Century transportation system.”
Sen. Menendez made the announcement at a news conference outside the New Jersey Transit rail station in Ridgewood, N.J., where residents rely on public transportation to commute to work.
“For Ridgewood commuters, having access to safe, efficient and reliable mass transit is not just important; it is a way of life,” said Mayor Paul Aronsohn. “We are therefore grateful to all that Senator Menendez is doing to promote these principles for a public transportation reauthorization bill.”
Sen. Menendez argued that transit systems have the potential to spur economic development, revitalize communities, and create new jobs. His policy framework today also received support from the leaders of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Laborer’s International Union of North America (LiUNA), Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), Bergen County Central Labor Council, International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) and SMART-Transportation.
“We need a strong multi-year transportation funding bill signed into law to improve our economy and strengthen our communities,” said Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, which represents one million workers and their families. “Long-term funding allows proper planning and prioritization of our transportation needs, and creates permanent, sustainable jobs that make New Jersey a desirable location for employers and workers alike.”
“The Amalgamated Transit Union proudly stands with Senator Menendez, who recognizes the important role public transportation plays in communities across New Jersey and our country,” ATU State Council Chairman Ray Greaves said. “A long term transportation re-authorization bill will allow us to invest in and strengthen our transportation infrastructure, our mass transit system, and our workforce. It’s no secret that investment in mass transit is good for our economy and it creates jobs.”
“Once again, I commend Senator Menendez for his leadership in promoting the importance of making needed capital investments in our nation’s transportation infrastructure,” said Raymond M. Pocino, VP and Eastern Regional Mgr., Laborer’s International Union of North America. “The Senator’s policy priorities will help fund capital improvements to our region’s transit systems and enhance operational efficiencies. It is critical that we find a solution at the national and local level to fund our extensive transportation network. Without an efficient, mutli-modal transportation system we cannot grow our economy and create jobs, not only for the construction industry but all sectors of industry.”
“The passage of this bill will help New Jersey rebuild its failing infrastructure and create more opportunities for our residents to go to work,” said Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters Executive Secretary-Treasurer Michael Capelli.
“Senator Menendez is a true champion for the commuters of NJ Transit,” said Steve Burkert, General Chairman of SMART-Transportation Division Local 60, which is a member of the NJ Transit Rail Labor Coalition. “We applaud the Senator’s efforts to gain long term funding for NJ Transit. This funding will promote future growth and properly maintain current infrastructure. The safety of the passengers who ride our trains on a daily basis should never be compromised due to budgetary restraints. We stand here today in full support of Senator Menendez and his pursuit of funding the Public Transportation Reauthorization Bill.”
Principles for a Public Transportation Reauthorization Bill
Principle 1: Make sound investments by funding our nation’s transit programs at $115 billion over six years, the level recommended by the President.
Principle 2: Provide predictability and stability through a six-year authorization bill.
Principle 3: Address state of good repair challenges by growing programs including State of Good Repair and Bus and Bus Facilities.
Principle 4: Meet rising demand through increased investment in formula programs and Capital Investment Grants.
Principle 5: Strengthen America’s transit workforce through professional development, training, and robust worker protections.
Principle 6: Create sustainable communities through increased incentives for transit-oriented development
Principle 7: Build big, nationally and regionally significant projects in rural, suburban, and urban communities.
Principle 8: Invest in innovations that support safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally-friendly transit systems.
Principle 9: Improve disaster response by funding the Public Transportation Emergency Relief program.
more of Boyd Lovings photos will be posted durring the day and on the Ridgewood blogs Facebook page
WASHINGTON — Furious American Federation of Teachers members are demanding the union withdraw its endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton, calling it premature and undemocratic.
“There was no internal discussion. Zero. Zip,” said Steve Conn, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. “This is wrong and something needs to be done.”
The 45-member AFT executive board voted Saturday to back Clinton despite an AFL-CIO request to wait until July when the presidential field is more set.
There’s a new poll out on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-=Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) approval ratings. Hint: Things are not going well.
Boehner has a 36 percent approval rating while McConnell sits at an all-time low of 35 percent.
It’s easy to see why: these two men are responsible for one GOP failure after another to deliver on its promises.
Conservatives have long argued that Boehner and McConnell needed to lead on conservative issues. But both have led—in Democrats’ direction.
So much so, in fact, that one wonders whether the country’s top two GOP leaders have been in cahoots with President Obama the entire time.
It’s time to stop trying to salvage these two. It’s time for them to go.
Let’s look at just the last few weeks.
It is well established that Boehner and McConnell spent 2014 promising they would do everything they could to get rid of Obamacare, if voters returned both chambers of Congress to the GOP.
Now that Republicans control Congress, each time an opportunity has risen for GOP leadership to stop Obamacare they have backed down. Worse, Boehner and McConnell’s preferred strategy of punting Obamacare to the Supreme Court backfired, again, in spectacular fashion.
When the 5-4 decision declaring gay marriage a right across the country came down, conservatives everywhere blasted the court’s overreach. Even Chief Justice John Roberts, who has been of little use to conservatives, made it explicitly clear that the decision was not constitutional.
But Boehner and McConnell made it perfectly clear that they wouldn’t do anything to challenge the decision and it would not be a priority for the Republican Congress.
The Left has already announced its intentions to challenge religious institutions’ tax status, including Catholic schools and Catholic hospitals. You might think Boehner, who is a Catholic, might show a little concern for religious liberty.
On one of the most important court decisions of our time where religious liberty could be threatened—where are our Republican leaders?
Filling the leadership void are Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Ida.), who have introduced religious liberty bills that would protect Christians, Jews, Muslims and other Americans of faith who reject the court’s decision.
Why isn’t McConnell out front with Lee’s bill? Why isn’t Boehner promoting Labrador’s legislation? Both of these bills should’ve been on the floor of each chamber on Friday, June 26, at 10:01 a.m., one minute after the Supreme Court announced its decision.
The White House gave Boehner and the GOP the middle finger when it was announced that Lois Lerner’s hard drive was destroyed. The only way to get the IRS to jump to attention now is for Congress to levy its power of the purse to close the bank window to that office. That is the role of the U.S. House of Representatives and Boehner is abdicating it.
The Benghazi drama continued in the Senate last month where there are still far too many questions and little to no satisfactory answers. Where is the leadership from McConnell in making sure the Obama Administration is held accountable for this massive intelligence failure? Imagine how Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would be acting if this kind of tragedy had occurred under a Republican president?
Hillary Clinton stands to lose the most from Americans finding out the entire truth about what went down in this tragedy. You might expect a Republican to think this was important.
When Trade Promotion Authority was passed, Republican leadership could have at least tried to get something for conservatives out of the deal from the White House—but Boehner and McConnell never asked, or thought to ask, and predictably got nothing.
With these two in charge, conservatives never get anything.
No fool like and old fool: John McCain needs to do as he is so fond of telling others to “shutup” apologize and retire
COLIN CAMPBELL IN 6 HOURS
Real-estate developer Donald Trump is furious at Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) for dismissing the supporters of his presidential campaign.
McCain, the Republican Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, was quotedin a Thursday article in The New Yorker criticising Trump’s heated rhetoric against illegal immigration.
The senator also said Trump’s big rally last weekend in Phoenix, Arizona, was supported by the “crazies” in his state.
“This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me,” McCain said. “Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”
Trump responded on Twitter by blasting McCain and demanding an apology:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in calling on President Obama to demand that Cuban officials extradite New Jersey cop-killer Joanne Chesimard and New York City terrorist William Morales as the United States announces the reopening of embassies in both countries. Chesimard and Morales are convicted felons who escaped to Cuba and were granted political asylum by the Castro regime. Cuban officials have publicly announced they will not negotiate any extradition as a condition for normalized relations between the United States and Cuba.
“It is imperative that your administration ensures that justice is served by making the extradition of Joanne Chesimard’s and William Morales’ a top priority,” said the group of lawmakers in the letter to President Obama. “In recent months Bernadette Meehan, a National Security Council spokeswoman said “the return from Cuba of fugitives from U.S. justice is an issue of long-standing concern to the United States that will be addressed in the broader context of normalizing relations.” However, there has been no evidence of progress in securing the return of these fugitives.”
Reps. Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02), Tom MacArthur (NJ-03), Leonard Lance (NJ-07), Bill Pascrell (NJ-09), and Peter King (NY-02) also signed Garrett’s letter.
Click here to read the entire letter to President Obama.
About Chesimard and Morales:
Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1977. In 1973, New Jersey State Troopers Werner Foerster and James Harper made a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. When the troopers asked the vehicle’s driver to exit the car, one of the passengers, Joanne Chesimard, pulled out a gun and began shooting. During the ensuing firefight, Foerster was hit twice in the chest and Harper once in the shoulder. The injured Foerster was then shot twice in the head—execution style—with his own sidearm.
William Morales was sentenced to 99 years in prison for his participation with the terrorist organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena (FALN). William Morales was a chief bomb maker for FALN, and he has been linked to the 1979 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New York City, an attack that injured 60 and killed four.
the staff of the Ridgewood blogMenendez will reportedly be making a speech at the Ridgewood train station today Friday at 11 AM. If you stop by you might get a glimpse of him and our mayor standing next to one another. The speech is reportedly about NJ Transit.Our guess , US Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) will most likely call for increases in long-term, dedicated Federal funding to repair and upgrade the nation’s crumbling infrastructure . Menendez will refer to the economic and environmental reasons why increased investments are necessary, as well as the lesser-talked-about national security imperatives”Menendez may also mentioned New Jersey’s Gateway Project his first question to Therese McMillan, Acting Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. The project includes the replacement of the Hudson River tunnels and the Portal Bridge – both of which are over 100 years old and in serious danger of failing in the near future. Menendez has stressed in the past he wants the U.S. to be well-positioned to undertake big, visionary transit projects.
If we get lucky he might bash the Presidents Iran deal or chat on the juicy of his federal indictment .
Ridgewood NJ, Three years after New Jersey’s tenure-reform law was signed, the Christie administration has publicly released the first results of the new teacher-evaluation system, district by district, school by school.The state Department of Education yesterday released data for every school on the number of teachers falling into each category – they were ranked from “ineffective” to “highly effective” — of the new system for 2013-14.We pulled the numbers from the Ridgewood Schools district and this is what we found :
JULY 16, 2015, 8:46 AM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015, 5:46 PM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating incidents of lasers being pointed at 11 airplanes flying over New Jersey on Wednesday night, a spokesman said.
The incidents occurred between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., spokesman Jim Peters said in a statement. No injuries were reported.
Three of the planes were at 3,000 feet of altitude, within 20 miles of Newark Airport: Porter 141, American Airlines 1472 and American Airlines 966.
The Newark-bound planes all landed safely, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. The lasers were being shined into the cockpits, which can have a blinding effect on pilots and is “extremely dangerous,” Coleman said.
Delta Air Lines 504, Shuttle America 3489, JetBlue 2779 and JetBlue 828 planes were four miles south of the Outerbridge Crossing, also at an altitude of 3,000 feet, Peters said.
American Airlines 348, Republic Airlines 4643 and GoJet 6201 — all bound for LaGuardia — were flashed at 9,000 feet, 10 miles north of Robbinsville, the spokesman said
JULY 15, 2015, 7:52 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015, 11:01 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Most teachers across North Jersey got high marks under the state’s evaluation system, although officials cautioned that the system, which is in its first year, is too new to draw conclusions.
Overall, about two dozen districts in Bergen and Passaic counties rated all of their teachers as “effective” or “highly effective,” which are the top ratings out of four categories. Most other districts had a few in the bottom categories of “partially effective” or “ineffective” – ratings that state officials say will prompt intervention and added support for those teachers.
Only Paterson, the region’s lone state-controlled district, had a sizable number of teachers who were rated less than effective, with 16 percent of its nearly 2,000 instructors falling behind, according to state data.
The state released teacher evaluation data Wednesday for the 2013-14 school year, but information for individual schools was mostly absent because of privacy rules designed to hide the identity of teachers. A few small districts also had no data. The ratings were based largely on observations by administrators, but also on student performance on tests and on student improvement.
Peter Shulman, assistant education commissioner and chief talent officer, has said the results from the first year of the new system, called AchieveNJ, were not enough to identify trends or make sweeping conclusions about the state’s teachers. The information, he said, would be used to help the 2,900 teachers who were found to be struggling.
Teacher-Evaluation ratings released for schools around the state
Three years after New Jersey’s tenure-reform law was signed, the Christie administration has publicly released the first results of the new teacher-evaluation system, district by district, school by school. (Mooney/NJ Spotlight)
Tedesco unveils a very expensive initiative to bring Internet to low-income high schoolers in Bergen County
JULY 15, 2015, 7:29 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015, 9:18 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Bergen County Executive James Tedesco on Wednesday unveiled an initiative aimed at providing basic broadband Internet service to low-income families with children who are starting high school this fall.
Tedesco announced he will provide a $50,000 grant from a discretionary fund in his budget to Jersey On, a non-profit that aims to connect more low-income families to the Internet.
A wireless router is the hub of your home or business network, delivering a single Internet connection to other devices on the network, through either wired Ethernet or a wireless connection. Some routers, targeted at novice users, are easy to set up, while others take a little more know-how. Routers also vary in the throughput they can manage, depending on the antenna configuration and the hardware inside.https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398080,00.asp
The organization is headed by Josh Gottheimer, a Microsoft executive who is a Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional District seat now held by Republican Scott Garrett.
The $50,000 will provide a pocket-sized Wi-Fi hotspot device good for up to five wireless devices at no cost to 531 freshmen within the county whose families are eligible for the free or reduced-cost lunch program, starting this fall.
Those families also will receive free wi-fi for the four years that their student is in high school.
The board also adopted a fare and service plan which includes an average 9% increase in fares
NJ TRANSIT ADOPTS FISCAL YEAR 2016 OPERATING AND CAPITAL BUDGETS
NEWARK, NJ — The NJ TRANSIT Board of Directors today adopted a Fiscal Year 2016 (FY 2016) operating budget and capital program that supports continued investments in infrastructure and equipment to maintain the system in a state of good repair and enhance the overall customer experience.
The board also adopted a fare and service plan which includes an average 9% increase in fares, with no customer paying more than 9.4% after rounding, and modest changes for rail and bus service.
“NJ TRANSIT is moving forward with a balanced budget that reflects a laser-like look at individual business lines in order to maximize efficiencies and maintain a safe transportation system,” NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim, said. “As transit professionals, we owed our customers and stakeholders a good-faith effort to present them a solid plan that had the least impact on our riders. After much hard work, I am confident we delivered on that.”
The Board adopted a $2.116 billion operating budget and a $2.099 billion capital program for the fiscal year that started July 1, 2015.
Nearly half of the revenue in the FY 2016 operating budget comes from fares ($1.005 billion), supported by a comparable amount from state and federal program reimbursements ($961.8 million) with the balance from a combination of commercial revenues ($115.2 million) and state operating assistance ($33.2 million).
The capital program funds continued state-of-good-repair investments in transit stations and infrastructure supports an ongoing fleet modernization program and advances service reliability, safety and technology initiatives.
Operating Budget
The FY 2016 operating budget reflects an increase of state funding along with a stable level of federal and other reimbursements, which will enable NJ TRANSIT to meet the agency’s projected expenses this fiscal year. Approximately 59 percent of the operating budget is dedicated to labor and fringe benefits costs. Other significant expenses include contracted transportation services, fuel and power and materials, which together comprise approximately 27 percent of the operating budget.
This year’s operating budget reflects a $76.7 million (8.3 percent) growth in passenger revenue, based on the fare adjustment and ridership trends. Overall passenger revenue and commercial revenue represents approximately 53 percent of the total FY 2016 operating program.
Capital Program
The FY 2016 capital program continues to prioritize investment in infrastructure to maintain an overall state of good repair, enhance safety and reliability, and improve the overall customer experience on the system.
The program continues to invest in upgrades to the Northeast Corridor (NEC),
the agency’s most utilized rail line. The NEC is allocated $61 million in FY 2016 as part of NJ TRANSIT’s ten-year, $1 billion Northeast Corridor investment program.
Highlights of the program include $82 million in rail station improvements: $27 million for Summit Station improvements, $14 million for Elizabeth Station enhancements, $6 million for Perth Amboy Station improvements and high-level platform construction, $4 million for Newark Penn Station upgrades, $4 million to reconstruct Lyndhurst Station to make it accessible to persons with disabilities and $2 million for New Brunswick Station improvements.
The program also supports continued investment in rolling stock renewal, with $87 million invested in rail rolling stock improvements and $40 million toward the purchase of new buses.
In addition, the program is undertaking approximately $913 million in major capital projects that will help advance NJ TRANSIT’s resiliency to extreme weather events.
NJ TRANSITGRID, which will serve as an electrical micro-grid capable of supplying highly reliable power when the centralized power grid is compromised, is being funded through this effort as well as other projects including Delco Lead Train Safe Haven Storage and Service Restoration, Hoboken Long Slip Fill and Rail Enhancement, Train Controls Resiliency, and Raritan River Drawbridge Replacement.
Funding is also provided for technology and security upgrades, local programs, and rail, bus and light rail infrastructure improvements.
Approximately 42 percent of the capital budget comes from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Sandy Resiliency funds, with the balance coming from federal and other sources including 22% from the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).
Fare and Service Adjustments
Throughout the past five years, NJ TRANSIT held the line on fare increases while maintaining high quality services and implementing new customer amenities including MyTix, Departurevision, and MyBus Now.
However, costs such as contract services – Access Link, the organization’s paratransit service, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and private carriers – and workers’ compensation, general liability insurance, healthcare and benefits, and pensions have steadily risen. As a result, NJ TRANSIT was left with a significant budget gap.
Although NJ TRANSIT identified more than $40 million in reductions in overtime, fuel savings, energy and vehicle parts efficiencies, the agency still faced an approximate $56 million budget gap for the 2016 fiscal year. To close the gap, fare and service adjustments were proposed and now approved. The fare adjustment will go into effect on October 1st.
Hans von Spakovsky / @HvonSpakovsky / Rachel S. Landsman / July 13, 2015
COMMENTARY BY
Hans von Spakovsky@HvonSpakovsky
Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative.
Rachel S. Landsman
Rachel S. Landsman is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.
Obama’s Department of Justice may have been involved in the IRS scheme to target conservative non-profit organizations, according to newly-released documents obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.
The documents reveal that Lois Lerner met with attorneys from the Public Integrity Section (including its chief) of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and a representative from the FBI in 2010 to discuss using campaign-finance laws to bring criminal charges against conservative non-profit organizations.
A memo prepared by Siri Buller, a tax law specialist who worked for Lerner, summarizing the meeting talks about the possibility of “a three-way partnership among the DOJ [Department of Justice], the FEC [Federal Election Commission], and the IRS” to “prevent prohibited activity by these [conservative] organizations.” Of course, the problem is that the activities that Lerner thought were “prohibited,” like expressing opinions about Obamacare, were not prohibited.
Emails between Justice Department and IRS employees also expose an attempt by the Justice Department to obtain unredacted versions of the documents IRS employees provided to Congress. One July 2013 email from a Justice Department employee to a lawyer for the IRS (the names have been redacted) says “If any of your clients have documents they are providing to Congress that you can (or would like to) provide to us before their testimony … we would like the unredacted documents.” It goes further, stating “I just know that some employees have assembled their own set [of documents], in which instance it is helpful to obtain them.”
Emails between IRS officials confirm that the IRS transmitted 21 disks containing 1.25 million pages of highly confidential tax information to the FBI. These pages included information from 2007-2010 regarding 113,000 tax returns of non-profit organizations.
The House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform was “astonished to learn…that these 21 disks contained confidential taxpayer information protected by federal law” that could not lawfully be turned over to the FBI without meeting very specific requirements for opening a criminal investigation of a particular taxpayer as outlined in 26 U.S.C. §6103. Those requirements were clearly not met by the FBI.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton notes “[t]hese new documents show that the Obama IRS scandal is also an Obama DOJ and FBI scandal … The FBI and Justice Department worked with Lois Lerner and the IRS to concoct some reason to put President Obama’s opponents in jail before his reelection. And this abuse resulted in the FBI’s illegally obtaining confidential taxpayer information.”
Not only did Lerner have friends in the Justice Department, it also seems she had allies in Wisconsin, where conservative non-profit groups were similarlytargeted in a secret “John Doe” investigation for publicly supporting Gov. Scott Walker’s union reforms.
Recently obtained emails show that Lerner was in contact with Kevin Kennedy, director of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, who was one of the government officials behind the investigations of conservative organizations in Wisconsin such as the League of American Voters, Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and several others. Those emails show them “sharing articles on topics including greater donor disclosure,” which, as The Wall Street Journal points out, is significant “because those were the years when the IRS increased in harassment of conservative groups and Wisconsin prosecutors gathered information” that led to the John Doe “Star Chamber.”
Wisconsin Watchdog describes the state’s John Doe procedure as “a grand jury investigation, without a jury.” These investigations allowed law enforcement to conduct abusive, paramilitary-type raids on the leaders of a number of nonprofits and their families, most of which were conducted before dawn.
In one case, a 16-year-old boy was home alone very early one morning when armed law enforcement officers raided his home as if they were closing in on a dangerous drug cartel or mob operation. Though he was terrified, the officers would not allow him to call his parents.
Several other victims of these nighttime raids came forward, even though they were ordered not to speak about the investigations. The targets of these raids were not criminals—they were Wisconsin conservatives who had supported Act 10, the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” and whose reputations and livelihoods have been severely damaged as a result of these unwarranted, heavy-handed raids.
In January, a judge blocked subpoenas against the conservative targets of the John Doe investigations. In May, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Randaordered that the investigations be shut down in their entirety because it was “unlawful” for the state to “target the plaintiffs for engaging in vigorous advocacy.”
These recent revelations suggest that the targeting of conservative non-profit organizations was a scheme that went far beyond the IRS and Lois Lerner alone. It was an effort that involved the coordination of several Obama administration executive agencies and supposedly non-partisan public servants.
With the discovery of the connection to the seemingly-unjustified, retaliatory investigations in Wisconsin, it seems Lerner’s efforts even extended beyond the federal government and into at least one state, threatening conservatives and chilling conservative speech at both the federal and state level.
Republicans seize on Planned Parenthood video
July 14, 2015, 03:10 pm
By Jesse Byrnes
“This latest news is tragic and outrageous,” GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said in a Facebook post linking to the video.
“This isn’t about ‘choice.’ It’s about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it’s about empowerment,” Fiorina said.
“This video is beyond disturbing,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) tweeted.
The undercover video, which surfaced Tuesday morning, shows a woman identified as Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s senior director of medical services, describing in detail procedures to retrieve body parts.
“A lot of people want intact hearts these days, because they’re looking for specific nodes,” the woman says in the video released by The Center for Medical Progress, a self-described group of citizen journalists monitoring medical ethics. The video was reportedly recorded in July, 2014 by people posing as representatives from a fetal tissue procurement company.
“Yesterday was the first time she said people wanted lungs,” the woman continues. “Some people want lower extremities too, which, that’s simple. I mean that’s easy.”
“I don’t know what they’re doing with it. I guess they want muscle,” the woman adds. “[W]e’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that.”
In a statement, Planned Parenthood described the video as “heavily edited” and said it “falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research.”
“The White House and President Obama himself were more than willing to comment on the particular, local cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, even before all of the facts were known. Apparently, Kathryn Steinle doesn’t look enough like one of his daughters for Obama to give a damn.”
Katie Pavlich: Barack Obama’s sanctuary country for criminal aliens
By Katie Pavlich – 07/13/15 05:22 PM EDT
The debate over illegal immigration erupted again recently after 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was shot and killed allegedly by seven-time felon and five-time deportee criminal alien Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez in San Francisco. During a jailhouse interview, Lopez-Sanchez said he chose San Francisco to take advantage of sanctuary city policies in order to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Before Steinle’s killing, ICE issued an arrest detainer for Lopez-Sanchez to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. That detainer was refused and Lopez-Sanchez was released.
The White House is refusing to comment on the case, despite the national debate surrounding the issue and the federal implications of Steinle’s death.
“For this particular case I’d refer you to [the Department of Homeland Security]. I can’t speak to the particulars of this specific case,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at a press briefing last week.
The White House and President Obama himself were more than willing to comment on the particular, local cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, even before all of the facts were known. Apparently, Kathryn Steinle doesn’t look enough like one of his daughters for Obama to give a damn.
Instead, the White House is focused on blaming Republicans for failing to comply with the president’s open-border, lawless illegal immigration agenda.
