First they came for the piano teachers, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a piano teacher

OH, FOR PETE'S SAKE.  Doesn't this profoundly unserious government have anything better to do than harass piano teachers?

"Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart: The effect doth operate another way."

The line from Shakespeare seems fitting for this.  Do recall this too.

Quote of the Day: Government PR

Here's a thought: 

It is a great irony, and history will marvel at it, that the president most committed to expanding the centrality, power, prerogatives and controls of the federal government is also the president who, through lack of care, arrogance, and an absence of any sense of prudential political boundaries, has done the most in our time to damage trust in government.

Well, it's definitely change.  

A Cartoonist Vs. the AP and James Rosen Scandal

Indeed.  Click to enlarge for more detail.

All the President's Men

Quote of the Day: Eric Holder's "Off the Record" Meeting

Here's an understatement:

"There is an uncomfortable irony in the fact that an attorney general investigating his policy for spying on the media is asking the media to keep his words secret."

Y'THINK?  Besides, when you find that media outlets from the New York Times to Fox News are refusing to go to your meeting, you're doing it wrong.  As for the few outlets who are going to the Holder meeting, they should probably leak everything immediately.  

The Washington Post Jumps the Shark

You all know that I appreciate beautiful shoes as much as the next girl, but really, Washington Post?  When we have Scandal-a-palooza blowing up all around us on multiple fronts, with ramifications for everything from press freedom to foreign policy, this is what you print?  

I personally don't give a good gorram if this person, as the news story drools, "wears Manolo Blahniks and Christian Louboutins into the Oval Office."   She is not Carrie Bradshaw, and this is not Sex and the City: White House Edition.

I am pleased to note, though, that when I read the story, the very first reader comment on the bottom was this:

6:55 PM EDT
Without a doubt, the stupidest piece I've ever read in the Washington Post.

Stupid with a side of sexism.  All together now to the WaPo: PFFFFFFFTTTTTTT!!!!!

Ask Not For Whom the IRS Trolls. It Trolls For Thee.

While everybody in a justified uproar about the IRS scandal (and the hearings this week only made its wretched "leadership" look worse), there's a new response/"defense" making the rounds on social media, and I just have to shake my head.  Some lefty people are actually defending the IRS.  They do this despite the fact that the IRS confessed to purposefully going after particular organizations based specifically on their political (and now apparently even religious) convictions.  And you don't think this sort of behavior is wrong?  Really?  Really?

Apparently these folks are fine with the capricious abuse of power as long as it's their team doing the abusing.  The overarching principle that "abuse of power is bad" seems to go right past them.  Partisan ideology makes people blind, blind, blind.  Guys, the government beast that today bites the neighbor whom you hate can tomorrow just as easily bite you.

I've give you this as the quote of the day:

The IRS targeting citizens for political reasons is not simply another Washington scandal. At issue is something that strikes at the very heart of who we are as a people, what we believe as Americans and what this country has always stood for. 

The First Amendment was written to protect many different types of expression. But the Founding Fathers' primary concern -- and a first principle for every generation of Americans that followed -- was the protection of political speech. Apparently, the IRS was even targeting people who criticized how the country was being run. 

Protecting citizens' right to speak out against their government has always been an integral part of what separates us from tyrannical regimes. What the IRS did is how the KGB used to target dissidents. It is how they deal with troublemakers in China. 

It is not how we treat American citizens. Our Constitution guarantees it. 

... This is not about Republican vs. Democrat or conservative vs. liberal. It is about arrogant and unrestrained government vs. the rule of law. 

Preach!

Scandal-a-Palooza As Animated Gifs

"How the Obama Administration Is Having the Worst Week Ever."  Sure, but seeing as it's self-inflicted and, especially in the case of the IRS scandal, born of a total abuse of power, I am utterly unsympathetic.  Karma's a b*tch ... and so am I.

UPDATE: Check out this video from Reason.

Scandal-a-Palooza!

It's getting to the point where it's hard to keep track of all these exploding government scandals (wow, the snarky guys at Ace of Spades totally called it today).  There's too much fresh hell going on (need a scorecard?).  Here's your quote of the day, complete with awesome Arrested Development reference:

pissing off the tea party, natsec hawks, the press AND russia in a week's time is a Gob Bluth level of difficulty feat.
— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) May 14, 2013