Obama: “I won”

So many people are sad about America and cynical about its government. They don’t expect anything good to happen. They think certain poisons have entered the system and nothing can be done about it. Leviathan will not be cut back or tamed, Leviathan will go on abusing the citizen. People are all too willing to believe the Internal Revenue Service is hopelessly political in its judgments and actions. They are not shocked. They don’t think anything can be done, that the system cannot be corrected. They just grip the arms of the seat and wait for the weather to get worse.

But cynicism aids and abets deterioration. You’ve got to stay shocked. It’s disrespectful not to.

It actually is shocking that the IRS appears to have become political and ideological in a way that is systemic. It is shocking that the president claimed he read about the targeting of conservatives just last Friday, in the newspapers, and today the New York Times reports the leadership of the Treasury Department was told the charges were being investigated a year ago.

And it has to be remembered that this is not your ordinary scandal. Your ordinary scandal is an embarrassment. Somebody did something bad and there’s an investigation or hearings. People are made to suffer for their missteps, if only in terms of notoriety and legal expense. Sometimes the innocent or mostly innocent are dragged in, too. But in the end it passes. Some new laws are passed or rules instituted. And we move on to the next scandal. In a government populated by humans there will never be a lack of them.

But the IRS scandal is different because it speaks of the political corruption of a major and crucial governmental agency to whose rules and regulations every American—everyone who has a job or a bank account, or who engages in a financial transaction—is subject.

[Read it all]

See Also:

#1 — Conservative Hispanic Groups Targeted In IRS Scandal

#2 — Denial Flows Like a River at the IRS

#3 — Evidence emerges that Obama administration official knew of IRS targeting during 2012 campaign

#4 — Pin the fail on the donkey

#5 — House Hearing On IRS Targetting Conservative Groups

#6 — Brief history of slimy snoops

#7 — Richard Milhous Obama

#8 — IRS scandal a reminder of how I learned about The Chicago Way

#9 — Obama’s worst week

#10 — Big Government Loses Control

#1 — Sun | Python found near Super 8 hotel in Sault Ste. Marie

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — A three-foot python mysteriously turned up at the rear of the Super 8 hotel on Saturday.

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#2 — CTV | Nursing home workers suspended after son turns over hidden camera video

Four employees of an Ontario long-term care facility have been suspended and two investigations have been launched, after a concerned man installed a hidden camera in his mother’s room and captured shocking video of neglect and abuse.

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#3 — Globe | New chief of staff Ray Novak has long ties to Harper

With every departure from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ray Novak cements his status as the longest-serving aide to Stephen Harper. Only this time, the 36-year-old not only has the most seniority, he also has the top job after moving into the position of chief of staff on Sunday.

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#4 — Canada | Harper to be on hot seat at Tuesday caucus after chief of staff quits

OTTAWA – Emerging from a dramatic week that has seen him lose two senators and his chief of staff, Stephen Harper will focus now on calming down his anxious caucus and righting a listing Conservative ship.

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#5 — Star | Canadian to head 13 million-member International Council of Nurses

OTTAWA—A Canadian has been elected president of the International Council of Nurses.

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WORLD

#6 — BBC | Multiple car bomb attacks hit Iraq

At least 26 people have been killed and many others injured in a series of car bomb attacks in central and southern Iraq, officials say.

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#7 — CNN | Tornadoes strike several states, devouring homes and killing 1 man

(CNN) — A rash of tornadoes wreaked havoc in Oklahoma and the Midwest on Sunday and Monday, destroying homes and tossing trees around like toothpicks.

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#8 — Fox | Governor warns Conn. commuters traffic mess may last at least a week after train derailment

Traffic in southwest Connecticut could be a mess for as much as a week until service is restored to the commuter rail line affected by a derailment that injured scores of passengers, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned Sunday.

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#9 — DM | Teenager invents revolutionary device which has the potential to charge a cell phone within just 20 SECONDS

A California teen has attracted the attention of tech giants Google for her potentially revolutionary invention which charges a phone in 20 seconds flat.

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#10 — WT | Republicans weigh risks, benefits of select committee on Benghazi

The Benghazi terrorist attack has stormed back onto the front pages, and as the attention grows, so do calls from House Republicans who want their party leaders to name a special investigative committee to take control of the inquiry.

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The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government imposed the tax surcharge last year, shortly after taking office, to offset the impact of a rebate scheme created by its conservative predecessor to cap an individual’s overall taxation at 50 percent of income.

The government has been forced to redraft a proposed bill to levy a temporary 75 percent tax on earnings over 1 million euros, which had been one of Hollande’s campaign pledges.

The Constitutional Council has judged such a high rate of taxation to be unfair, leaving the government to rehash it to hit companies rather than individuals.

[More]

See Also:

#1 — Is This Another Bubble? We Can’t Know Without Better Data

#2 — David Cameron is so relaxed I want to slap him

#3 — Worlds apart on question of union

#4 — ‘Swivel-gate’: David Cameron at war with press over ‘swivel-eyed loons’ slur

#5 — IMF predicts Cyprus to return to growth in 2015

Afternoon Update:

#6 — Bundestag debates nuclear waste “disposal”

#7 — Supreme Court appoints two new financial prosecutors

#8 — Resolution mechanism for banking union can be created without treaty change, says EU’s Barnier

#9 — Unemployment casts long shadow over EU summit

#10 — Britain’s Cameron makes personal plea to tax havens

That is just one of the scenarios envisaged in a ‘gamechanging’ report on global drugs policy released by the Organisation of American States.

Commissioned at last year’s Cartagena Summit of the Americas the report calls for a discussion in decriminalization of drug use and for greater coordination between nations in tackling the scourge.

Many in Latin America feel a new approach is needed to the drug war – and a shift away from hard-line policies – after decades of violence in producer and trafficking nations such as Colombia, Peru and Mexico.

Some regional leaders are pressuring the United States for an overhaul of anti-drug policies and have suggested they might be open to legalisation of some narcotics if that helped reduce violence.

The 200 page review references a number of South American countries would break with the prohibition line and decide that they will no longer deploy law enforcement and the army against drug cartels after deeming the human cost of life too high.

‘The report presented by the OAS today is a vital piece in the construction of a common way to fight this problem,’ Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said during the presentation.

[More]

Cosmologists studying a map of the universe from data gathered by the Planck spacecraft have concluded that it shows anomalies that can only have been caused by the gravitational pull of other universes.

The map shows radiation from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago that is still detectable in the universe – known as cosmic microwave radiation.

Scientists had predicted that it should be evenly distributed, but the map shows a stronger concentration in the south half of the sky and a ‘cold spot’ that cannot be explained by current understanding of physics.

Laura Mersini-Houghton, theoretical physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Richard Holman, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, predicted that anomalies in radiation existed and were caused by the pull from other universes in 2005.

Now that she has studied the Planck data, Dr Mersini-Houghton believes her hypothesis has been proven.

Her findings imply there could be an infinite number of universes outside of our own.

[More]

This leaves us with two questions: 1) What do GE seeds have to do with neonicotinoids and bees? and 2) How can an Iowa corn farmer find himself feeling unable to farm without poisoning pollinators? In other words, where did U.S. corn cultivation go wrong?

The short answer to both questions starts with a slow motion train wreck that began in the mid-1990s: corn integrated pest management (IPM) fell apart at the seams. Rather, it was intentionally unraveled by Bayer and Monsanto.

[More]

The Sawridge Plaza Corporation owns the Sawridge Plaza Shopping Centre that was among more than 500 homes and buildings damaged or destroyed when wildfires ripped through the northern Alberta town on May 15, 2011.

During efforts to fight the flames, the Lesser Slave Regional Fire Services drove heavy machinery through a “large steel and glass atrium” at the shopping centre, says the statement of claim filed this week. Firefighting efforts also somehow severed a sprinkler line at the mall. The ensuing flood caused such severe water damage to the mall’s support columns that the structural integrity was compromised, the lawsuit says.

“The plaza suffered extreme and severe structural damage, business losses as well as damage to its contents.”

[More]

As part of this hostile takeover of global entrepreneurs, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will kick off a four-day trip to Silicon Valley Friday to promote Canada’s new start-up visa among Canadian ex-pats who’ll be encouraged to spread the word, as well as foreign entrepreneurs attending TiEcon 2013, the world’s largest conference for entrepreneurs. He’ll also be meeting with students at Stanford University, some of America’s top immigration experts and local media to promote the new program.

To coincide with his visit, the government also took out a four-metre by 14-metre billboard on Hwy. 101 connecting San Fransisco airport and Silicon Valley, urging those struggling to obtain a foreign worker visa to “pivot to Canada” where they can benefit from the new start-up visa as well as “low taxes.” It’s not clear how much the ad cost.

With a bill similar to Canada’s start-up visa now stalled in Congress as the United States wrangles over immigration reform, Kenney is hoping some of Silicon Valley’s top tech prospects from around the world will consider setting up shop north of the border instead of waiting around for an elusive green card, or worse, having to go home.

[More]

Americans are throwing out nearly every other bite of food, wasting up to 40% of the country’s supply each year – a mass of uneaten provisions worth $165 billion, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

An average family of four squanders $2,275 in food each year, or 20 pounds per person per month, according to the nonprofit and nonpartisan environmental advocacy group.

Among the study’s prescriptions is a call for government “to set a target for food-waste reduction” as the European Parliament has. After resolving to reduce food waste, the body stated:

The most important problem in the future will be to tackle increased demand for food, as it will outstrip supply. We can no longer afford to stand idly by while perfectly edible food is being wasted. This is an ethical but also an economic and social problem, with huge implications for the environment.

The obvious alternative to any government “standing idly by” is its taking action. Whenever government takes action, it applies force. That is the NRDC’s ultimate prescription, to force Americans to reduce food waste. This is ironic since government action already plays a substantial role in the amount of food produced and consumed. The Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards explains:

[More]

Notes:

This column is an excellent read. Don’t miss it.

In other words, he will be conveniently out of Dodge.

Long before the latest scandals over fiddling with housing allowances — currently focused on former Tory senators Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau, along with former Liberal appointee Mac Harb — the Senate was already broken.

Harper knew it was a pigs’ poke back when he was a policy advisor to former Reform Leader Preston Manning who persistently pressed for a Triple-E senate — equal, elected and effective — and promised when he became PM to bring about change.

Well, Harper was elected prime minister in 2006. It is now 2013.

[More]

See Also:

#1 — Editorial: Stephen Harper’s failure to address Senate scandal is hurting his party

“If Harper hopes to salvage some shred of credibility from this fiasco, he should use his Senate majority to bring an end to the Senate’s cosy habit of policing its members’ spending from behind closed doors, with a minimum of public accountability and a maximum of self-indulgence. Henceforth, senators’ expenses should be public and itemized. The Senate has long since forfeited the taxpayers’ trust.”

Afternoon Update:

#2 — The real problem with the Senate

#1 — CNews | Man held vulerable girl in ‘invisible chains,’ teen pimp trial told

OTTAWA – The girl who says Jamie Byron beat her and pimped her out to more than 100 men when she was just 17 couldn’t flee because he held her with “invisible chains,” the Crown argued Friday.

[...]

#2 — CTV | Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright resigns amid Duffy scandal

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright has resigned.

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Globe | PM’s chief of staff Nigel Wright resigns in wake of Duffy controversy

Star | Nigel Wright, Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, resigns

#3 — Globe | Premier Kathleen Wynne, Paul Godfrey had different visions

Paul Godfrey is putting the blame for his messy ouster as chairman of Ontario’s lottery corporation squarely at Premier Kathleen Wynne’s feet, saying he would have participated in a “seamless transition” if she had only talked to him.

[...]

#4 — NP | Cynthia Vanier began plotting Saadi Gaddafi’s escape in early 2011: SNC-Lavalin

MONTREAL – A court document filed by SNC-Lavalin alleges that a Canadian mediator and the bodyguard to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son began planning the son’s escape from Libya as early as February 2011. And Canada was their first choice of destination in the early days of the uprising against the Gaddafi regime.

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#5 — Star | Rob Ford: Will his latest trouble crack Ford Nation?

Two questions were likely chewed over at a lot of cottage-openings, urban farmers’ markets and fun-runs or cycle-a-thons this Victoria Day weekend.

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WORLD

#6 — BBC | Syria army ‘storms’ rebel town Qusair

Syrian government forces are storming the rebel stronghold of Qusair, with state TV saying troops now control the town centre.

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#7 — CNN | Report: North Korea launches fourth short-range missile

(CNN) — North Korea fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, according to South Korea’s semiofficial news agency Yonhap, citing a South Korean military official.

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#8 — Fox | Lawmakers eye regulating domestic surveillance drones

Amid growing concern over the use of drones by police and government officials for surveillance, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to limit the use of unmanned surveillance “eyes in the sky” aircraft.

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#9 — DM | UKIP poll surge as one in five voters say they’d back Farage amid anger over Europe

Support for the UK Independence Party has grown with two opinion polls giving the party record levels of support.

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#10 — WT | White House aide: ‘Nothing that suggests’ IRS official at center of scandal ‘did anything wrong’

The White House is standing behind the woman who led the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt division while it targeted conservative groups — the same official who now runs the part of the agency charged with implementing “Obamacare.”

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