Response Action Network Newsletter
Here is your weekly update on the politics and policies affecting our liberties.
ARE REPUBLICANS GOING SOFT ON OBAMACARE?
Yes. Yes they are:
"In Washington, several chairmen of House committees told GOP leaders at a meeting last week that they would prefer to wait until next year to vote on a comprehensive health-care alternative, according to Republicans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
"House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said deliberations will continue and a vote on a GOP plan remains a priority. Many GOP lawmakers are unsure whether the party should unveil their plans now or wait for a possible Senate takeover."
There are also indications that Republican leaders, and quite a few rank-and-file GOP candidates, no longer believe full repeal is worthwhile. Instead, they want to "tweak" Obamacare, keeping some things people like and fiddling with the rest.
In other words, they've decided to get a head start on irritating their base.
FEDERAL JUDGE SLAPS IRS FOR USING POLITICAL LITMUS TESTS
The Internal Revenue Service has gone back to the drawing board on what sort of rules will apply to groups applying for tax exempt status. This is the good news.
The bad news is that a federal court case has exposed how the IRS targeting operation was more widespread, and even more politically motivated, than previously thought:
". . . Federal Judge Ketanje Brown Jackson issued the first substantive ruling in any suit that challenged the IRS's pose of political neutrality under the Obama administration. The case concerns Z Street, a Philadelphia area-based pro-Israel organization that filed for tax-exempt status in December 2009 because of its role in educating the public about Israel and the Middle East conflict."
The IRS admitted it, too:
"On July 19, 2010, when counsel for Z STREET spoke with the IRS agent to whom the organization's application had been assigned, that agent said that a determination on Z STREET's application may be further delayed because the IRS gave 'special scrutiny' to organizations connected to Israel and especially to those whose views 'contradict those of the administration's.'"
The judge's ruling will force the IRS to come clean on what criteria and procedures it used in reviewing tax-exempt applications from all groups - including liberty and tea party organizations.
"OPERATION CHOKEPOINT" TARGETS POLITICALLY INCORRECT BUSINESSES
The
Department of Justice's "Operation Chokepoint" is supposedly aimed at
rooting out fraudulent activities in the banking business. But this
program has a very dark side:
"The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee published more than 850 pages of internal documents on the Justice Department's probe of alleged fraud in the financial industry. The release of the documents comes amid a battle between the Justice Department and congressional Republicans, who argue the government is trying to intimidate legal businesses, including short-term lenders that operate online.
"Republicans say the government has pressured banks to stop handling payments for merchants deemed as high risk - including gun dealers, short-term lenders and credit-repair programs - punishing good actors along with bad ones."
Let's see . . . the IRS went after groups who challenged official Obama administration policy. Now we learn that the Department of Justice is targeting private businesses the administration doesn't like.
It seems like a pattern . . .
JUDGES BUST THE BATF FOR UNCONSTITUTIONAL STING OPERATIONS
While we're on the topic of rogue federal agencies and departments, consider the recent legal setbacks inflicted on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms:
"Two federal judges have ruled that widely used sting operations designed to ensnare suspects with the promise of a huge payday for robbing an imaginary drug stash house are so "outrageous" that they are also unconstitutional. One judge said the charges were so unfair that he threw them out after three suspects already pleaded guilty.
"Each of the men admitted to charges that would put them in prison for seven years or more. But instead of sending them there, U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real declared that federal agents had 'created the fictitious crime from whole cloth' and that their conduct was unconstitutional. Then he dismissed the charges and ordered that all three be set free.
"Real's unusual decision this month is the latest and most pointed indication yet of a growing backlash against undercover operations that have become a central part of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' efforts to target violent crime. Until now, federal courts have largely signed off on the practice, if not always enthusiastically. As the stings proliferate across the United States, an increasing number of judges are offering new resistance to the government's tactics."
More of this, please.
WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN
Yes, our government has its problems, and they are very real. But
compared with what is happening elsewhere in the world, we have it
pretty good. Just consider what's happening in the former Soviet Republic of Belarus:
"Alexander Lukashenko is living up to his reputation as Europe's last remaining dictator. The president of Belarus has decided to bring back serfdom on farms in a bid to stop urban migration.
"Lukashenko has announced plans to introduce legislation prohibiting farm labourers from quitting their jobs and moving to the cities. 'Yesterday, a decree was put on my table concerning - we are speaking bluntly - serfdom,' the Belarus leader told a meeting on Tuesday to discuss improvements to livestock farming, gazeta.ru reported.
"The serfdom decree would beef up the power of regional governors and 'teach the peasants to work more efficiently,' Lukashenko said. Governors who failed to ensure timely and efficient harvests in their regions would get the sack, he added."
Serfdom is a polite term for "slavery." And now it's back, at least in Belarus. And yes, Comrade Lukashenko is good friends with that other Russian throwback, Vladimir Putin. But even this may be too much for Vlad to swallow.
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