By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D.
LA JOLLA, California — On May 13, 2013, the miracle occurred: all media exploded , denouncing another”avalanche of scandals” in the Obama administration.
It was a triple whammy, affecting three cabinet departments, (State, Treasury, and Justice), a perfect trifecta. The media which, shamelessly, kept silent for eight months after the Benghazi massacre, and ignored the complaints from the Tea Party against the IRS for two and a half years, are now crying foul; their ox has been gored.
Benghazi new revelations:
Three brave whistleblowers told the truth about the concatenation of events that led to the murder of four brave Americans. It contradicts the official version of the government and uncovers the lies and the coverups of its agents, including the US ambassador to the UN, the Secretary of State, the president’s spokesman, and the president himself.
To cite two examples: Greg Hicks, Deputy Chief of misssion, was very emotional when he said to the Congress committee: “…I spoke to Secretary Hillary Clinton the night of the attack and her chief of staff tried to intimidate me to silence.”
And the pathetic Jay Carney, the president’s spokesman, lied flagrantly when he assured the press that “there was only one stylistic change in the talking points,i.e. the word “consulate” was replaced with” diplomatic facility.” (How innocent!) We now know that the “talking points” were edited 11 times, thus producing 12 versions from which the original “AL QAEDA, jihad, terrorists …” were purged ,and the text substantially reduced, to conform to the stupid and false narrative of the You Tube video “insulting Islam and causing spontaneous demonstrations”
The IRS abuse of power:
The IRS has for years discriminated against conservative individuals and groups because of their political views, their criticism of the Obama government or their contributions to Republican candidates. They specifically targeted conservatives who applied for tax-exempt status, and they so admitted and were denounced by Republicans and Democrats, including the president.
The Acting Commissioner Miller resigned but the Director of the “tax-exempt” division , Sarah Graham, was promoted, yes promoted to lead the new division in the IRS that will implement the complicated and onerous Obamacare, where she will have an overwhelming power over the health care of all Americans against whom she could discriminate at will. With her “promotion,” came a bonus of $ 103,000 on top of her salary of $ 203,000. Call that chutzpah plus defiance. A third high official,Lois Lerner, chose to take the Fifth in Congress. She is accused of giving personal files of individuals to the co-chair of the Obama campaign. It was reported that Lerner made $ 750,000 in the last four years; the taxpayers have the right to know what she knows which she apparently wishes to hide.
We just heard that the political right was not the only victim of the abuse of power of the powerful and feared IRS. Pro-Israel Jewish organizations had also been targeted because, someone explained , ” there is terrorism in the region,” i.e. in the Middle-East –never mind that Israel is the victim of terrorism . A “special unit” has been assigned to “determine if the Jewish Organization activities contradict the Administration policies.”
It was recently reported that Z Street, a pro-Israel organization, has been denied , to date, non-profit status; Commentary magazine received a letter from the IRS that revoked its non-profit status because it had published in 2008 a letter from then Senator Joseph Lieberman endorsing John Mc Cain for president against Obama; And David Horowitz Freedom Center was recently subjected to an IRS audit for challenging the official truth.
Muslim organizations fared much better. It was reported that Obama’s half-brother , Malik, has obtained from the IRS tax-exempt status for his IDO (Islamic Da’wa Organization) in one month.
DOJ snoopings:
The Department of Justice, headed by Eric Holder, an unrepentant WITHholder of information from the Congress and the people, has secretly seized 22 phone records and emails of the Associated Press. They also admitted spying on a Fox News reporter, and investigating his parents, thus subverting American liberties and violating the Constitution. They even dared, in this case, to name the reporter as co-conspirator in a criminal investigation. This action was strongly criticized by David Axelrod, the famous political crony in the service of Obama, who found it “very disturbing.” As for the president himself, facing heavy criticism, he asked Holder to investigate the matter…with himself , since the A.G. personally signed off on the affidavit or the search warrant, and even discussed it with his attorneys.
The Attorney general is “recusing” himself on other matters, letting his subalterns take the fall. His cup runneth over with past misdeeds like deciding NOT to pursue the indictment of the New Black Panthers, the Fast and Furious scandal when he was found in contempt of Congress and was rescued by an inappropriate “executive privilege” claimed by his boss, the president.
True, scandals occurred in other administrations, Democrat and Republican, but never in such a profusion and simultaneity as in the Obama administration.
The president and his acolytes are at bay. They were not ready for the “treacherous” about-face of the media which had been hitherto in their pockets. So they could not put their act together and find a cogent “explanation” for this tsunami.
Their defense ,this time, was in pleading “total ignorance” that stretches the bounds of credulity. The president, his attorney general, his spokesman,his secretary of state, and others, repeated ad nauseam the risibly dumb disclaimers ” I don’t know, I am not aware, I was not involved, I am not familiar,it’s beyond my knowledge, we can’t comment because it is under investigation, we are not sure,” or the most stunning of all, coming from the president himself, “I heard about it from news reports.’ We know the expression “a know-nothing Congress;” we should now add “a know-nothing president, a know-nothing administration…” If so, who is minding the store? Who knows anything?
Needless to say, nobody believes or accepts the president’s and his agents’ plea of ignorance. Faced with the choice between intentional malevolence or total ineptitude, they chose the latter: “We are not corrupt, claimed one functionary, we are just incompetent.” Thank you very much. Every day, new revelations show that they are both. We now know that the three high officials closest to the president –his Chief of Staff, his National Security adviser, and his legal counsel–had known for a long time. Did they conspire to let the president in the dark? To let him down? If so, where is his fury, and the swift punishment against his aides who had failed him and shamed him in public?”
The truth lies in the arrogance of power that has characterized this administration and which we have repeatedly denounced.
They act that way “because they can,” and they can because the media kept mum–no more, hopefully.The president who promised that “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of my presidency” failed on both counts.
As Lincoln once said, ” If you want to test the character of a man, give him power.” Obama became the prisoner of that inebriating power, and only the truth will set him free.
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Yetiv is a freelance writer and lecturer based in La Jolla. He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com