FBI Hassles Pregnancy Center That Offers Alternatives To Abortion

The harassing of the right continues. The IRS has been stymied but the FBI's domestic terrorism unit, the same unit that harassed True The Vote's founder Catherine Engelbrecht has set its sights on a pregnancy center in New York City that offers pregnant women an alternative to abortion. It has prevented 42,000 abortions but...

Based in New York City, the Expectant Mother Care-EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers has helped more than 42,000 women find abortion alternatives.
Apparently that is enough lives saved from abortion to make EMC a target for the FBI. Chris Slattery, National Director of the pregnancy center chain, tells LifeNews that, consistent with the recently discovered IRS attacks on pro-life groups, the FBI is now targeting EMC.
“President Obama has put the FBI on me, and they have politely invited me to headquarters to “talk” this week,” he said. “Domestic terrorism agents have called me in to answer their questions this week, as they launch an absurd case to intimidate us.”
It isn’t just the FBI. The state of New York has been gunning for this pregnancy center for years.
The targeting comes as the New York Attorney General has charged EMC with supposedly practicing medicine without a license.
“The Attorney General has just charged EMC with “practicing medicine without a license” for performing free ultrasounds despite us using certified technicians and doctors, and failing to inform clients that we don’t provide or promote abortion and contraception. This is the third AG to attack us since 1987,” Slattery says. (Read More)

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The IRS Star Trek Video

Look what the fun loving people at the IRS have been up to. They produced this parody of Star Trek at the IRS's own studio in New Carrollton, MD. CBS obtained the video through a FOIA request after the IRS had refused to comply with a subpoena for the video issued by the House Ways and Means Committee. A separate skit based on the television show "Gilligan's Island" was also recorded. The IRS told Congress the cost of producing the two videos was thought to be about $60,000 dollars. Not bad for an agency that claims to be under funded.

Meh. No special prosecutor.

I've been thinking about this a great deal. A friend said to me the other day that she couldn't believe I wasn't "all over this" with regard to the many and varied Obama scandals.
  Well, I HAVE been all over this only I haven't really blogged about it.
  Why?
  Well, I believe I mentioned that I am so utterly and completely disgusted with the Obamabots that I can hardly stand expressing any opinion about them. (I know. I know. Unbelievable, right.)
  I heard some woman call Mark Steyn the other day and claim in the snootiest, most nasal and condescending voice imaginable, "The Tea Parties aren't being harassed. I mean, have you ever heard of EMERGE? It's a LIBERAL group that was denied 501c4 status. The IRS hasn't targeted TEA PARTIES. They only used words like 'patriot' and 'tea party' to group categories."
  Um.
  Yeah.
  I'm sorry, lady, but you're a moron. (I regret, even now, using such descriptors but I am completely unable to be civil at this point.)
  See, that's all these people need. ONE denied group (probably planted) to claim there's no discrimination, regardless the IRS confession, the long trail of letters and bizarre "what do you pray for" commands...it's like when infiltrators wear racist shirts to Tea Party rallies and then act like, whoa, Tea Partiers are racist. See? I Someone wore a racist t-shirt and that proves it.
   It's obvious that the media isn't going to do much regarding telling the truth about the commies currently running our country, notwithstanding their pursed lips sanctimonious refusal to attend Eric Holder's "off the record" shmoozing afternoon klatsch.
  Are we to believe that the MSM HASN'T previously attended such shmoozing events? 
  They're whores and we know it. They just want to hang on to a shred of cloth covering, what, their navels and nothing else.
  So I'm thinking this.
  There's all this squealing about having a special prosecutor to investigate Holder.
  Of course, the special prosecutor will be appointed by Obama or maybe even Holder himself. The whole thing will go underground and we won't hear anything for a year. Oh, probably the day after the 2014 elections. 
  We know how THAT works.
  So I'm thinking this.
  Let it fester.
  All of it. There's Atkisson, Tapper and a few other "journalists" (not to mention Fox) who remember what it's like to actually practice journalism.
  The information will continue to drip out, bit by bit.
  The uneasiness in the country will continue. Inevitably the Obama policies will come to fruition (one shudders to think of this) and the truth (or some form of it) will dribble out.
  It isn't good for the country but neither is Obama and what he's doing to it.
  The only way we can change anything--or even block anything--is to let history take its course. Obviously the Stupid Party isn't go to do anything to help win 2014 elections.
  But maybe, just maybe, the truth will out through dribs and drabs, through dissatisfaction of average American citizens and through the (shudder) installation of Obamacare.
  And once those twenty somethings, as vacuous and self-absorbed as they are, have to start paying the bills for everyone else, maybe they'll get the hint and understand that there is supposed to be a BALANCE OF POWERS in this country and NOT A KING.
  So, meh. 
  That's my view of a special prosecutor. This is much better, watching Obama's numbers fall and Leftists jump ship as Obamacare takes effect.

NYT, AP Decline To Meet With Holder

Eric Holder planned an off-the-record meeting this week with Washington bureau chiefs at major media outlets to brief them on how the Justice Department deals with journalists who work with leakers. It looked like the beginning of an apology tour or at best a stroking session where ruffled feathers would be smoothed, probably good scotch would be served, bygones would be bygones and they would live happily ever after. Not so fast, shrieked New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson.

“We will not be attending the session at DOJ. It isn’t appropriate for us to attend an off the record meeting with the attorney general. Our Washington bureau is aggressively covering the department’s handling of leak investigations at this time."

Psst, Eric, tell her she can recuse herself and still drop by for a drink.
The latest no show to announce was Associated Press.

"We believe the meeting should be on the record and we have said that to the Attorney General’s office. If it is on the record, AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll will attend. If it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter," AP spokesperson Erin Madigan said in a statement sent to POLITICO. "We would expect AP attorneys to be included in any planned meetings between the Attorney General’s office and media lawyers on the legal specifics."

In other words, we won't be there but our lawyers will.
AP and the Times are two big players and no one knows how many other news organizations will follow suit. Let's hope it's just Holder and MSNBC.

 Update: CNN and the Huffington Post will not attend. Politico will suck up.

Presidential Arrogance and Papal Humility

Whoever said a picture was worth a thousand words under estimated its worth.

Obama's IRS: Crucify them

  Why is this government, particularly the IRS, conducting illegal, aggressive paramilitary raids around the country, confiscating private property and threatening property owners?
  Not only have Tea Partiers suffered under this administration but so have small business owners.
  Early on, Gibson Guitar was raided several times on a ridiculous premise, only to recently disclose that the raids appear to have been motivated because Gibson's owner is a Republican donor. His Democrat competitor was not raided.
  It works like this: numerous armed IRS agents arrive unannounced in a paramilitary raid, "designed to create confusion...and disruption." They herd employees into one room, deny legal representation or even explanations, employ intimidating tactics, seizing materials and, in the case of Duncan Outdoors, hundreds of thousands of dollars from personal bank accounts.
  These businesses, many of whom are never told of their offense, are cowed into compliance, fearful even to speak out about the tactics employed by the feds.
  IRS audits of small to medium size businesses have increased 32%.
  The IRS also raided, in conjunction with the FBI and/or DOJ, using violent, aggressive tactics, while taunting the workers at the businesses, in several cases shouting, "We're the federal government and we can do whatever we want:"

• a Beacon Hill church
• the Pilot Corporation whose founder, oddly, is a major Republican fundraiser
• an unnamed health company, seizing 60 million health records including all the records of all the judiciary in California
• Carrillos Tax in Idaho Falls
• Eagle Rock Convalescent Center
• Twin Liquors
• Mountain Pure Water, the primary subject of the documentary included in this blog post

Jan Morgan, the producer of this documentary says this:

Jan said that these are white collar crime investigations where heavily armed, hostile government raids by 40 to 50 agents are being utilized as opposed to a few agents entering the businesses with proper search warrants to acquire the financial records sought.

“Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the tactics, the constitutional rights of citizens who work in these businesses, yet have nothing to do with the financial transactions of the owners, have been undeserved victims of these frightening raids…unlawfully detained for hours, intimidated, interrogated without the presence of a lawyer and their personal property confiscated,” Morgan said.

  Morgan insists that the guilt or insistence of the raided parties is not the issue. The issue is the tactics and unconstitutionality of the tactics employed by the federal government.
  The CEO of Gibson Guitars, who has spent over $5 million in fighting the IRS actions against his company, is pursuing legal action against the IRS, but companies are only allowed a 12 month window to sue, while in the case of the IRS, they have 5 years "just to think about" auditing your tax returns.
  An official at Duncan Outdoors was told, "We're the IRS. We can do anything we want." Mountain Pure Water employees were told, "We're the federal government. We can do anything we want."
  Again, I reference the EPA official Armendariz who said his method of making citizens compliant was to "Crucify them" in front of the town so that the rest of the town will be submissive, like sheep:

 “It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and they would crucify them, and that town was really easy to manage (control) for the next few years.”

  Though Armendariz resigned, are not his words proving to be prophetic?
  Is "Crucify them" not the method Obama is employing to "fundamentally transform" America? 
  We aren't going quietly, that's for sure. Numerous courageous individuals are suing.
  And the bloggers keep blogging. 
  And, once in a while, reporters who don't work for Fox News pursue the story because it's their job.

Logic be damned!

Gee, I'm glad they cleared that up for us. Why are the Koch brothers so interested in Wisconsin? You'll never guess but thanks to Mike Ivey of Cap Times you won't have too. Ivey has put together a hard hitting expose' that would do the 9/11 truthers proud. He sums it up in one word, "sand". Yes, sand as in Why Koch and sand go hand in hand. It trips nicely off the tongue, doesn't it? Some readers, especially those who have advanced beyond the sixth grade, may quibble that it would be nice if the writer would introduce a wee bit of background demonstrating the Koch brothers interest in the Dairy State rather than just make the a priori assumption that they are but I suppose life is too short.
In this post Ivey's readers get a twofer. They are treated to an asinine attack on the left's two favorite villains, fracking and the Koch brothers. It's hard to do but putting aside horse sense Ivey pulls it off. According to Ivey, in the sole factual statement of this otherwise fictional cloak and dagger chronicle, the sand in Wisconsin and Minnesota is uniquely suitable for use in fracking. Ideally fracking sand should be extremely hard and perfectly round.
Now Ivey gets down to the nitty-gritty:

Republic Report notes that many of the pro-fracking think tanks like the Heartland Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council are funded by Koch Industries, the Kansas-based company involved in everything from refining and minerals to commodity trading and pipelines.
Koch's Wisconsin operations include Flint Hills Resources, which produces gasoline and asphalt; the C. Reiss Coal Co., which supplies coal throughout the Great Lakes region; and Georgia-Pacific, the packaging and paper firm. Georgia-Pacific’s chemical division is also now stepping up production of proppant resin, a coating for small particles used in hydraulic fracturing.
Of course, Wisconsin doesn’t have any oil or gas deposits of its own. Most fracking is going on in Pennsylvania and western states, along with Texas and Louisiana.
But from Koch Industries’ perspective, the more frac sand that comes on the market, the cheaper it becomes. That’s why the company has an interest in Wisconsin sand.

If the Koch brothers want to monopolize the supply of fracking sand, as Ivey seems to suggest, does it make any difference which political party controls the Wisconsin state house? Would a Democratic governor and legislature shut down sand pits? Does the entire country depend on Scott Walker for energy production? Did Ivey spend more that 15 minutes on his post?
Oh please, go back to George Bush and Iraqi oil.

Ohio Energy Production Surges; The Best is Yet to Come

In 2010 there were only 7 rotary drilling rigs working in Ohio. That number increased slightly in 2011 to 11 and inched up to 18 by 2012. Today that number has almost doubled to 34. Looking eastward, the rig count in Pennsylvania has gone from 85 in 2010 to 110 in 2011 to 84 in 2012. Currently there are 58 rigs working in the keystone state. It's not that the Marcellus Shale is tapped out. Hardly. There is enough gas there to support drilling for another 50 years but the decline in natural gas prices has curtailed drilling. Ohio's Utica Shale, as I have noted in the past, contains both natural gas and oil and all but 4 rigs working in the state are drilling for oil. While optimism must always be tempered with caution there are some pretty impressive data already generated in the Utica.
From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources;

A total of 87 Utica wells -- representing less than 1 percent of all oil and gas wells in the state -- produced 12 percent of Ohio's total oil production and 16 percent of the total gas production for 2012, the state agency said.
Data from the 87 wells drilled by 11 companies showed they produced 12.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas and natural-gas liquids and 635,896 barrels of oil last year.
The department says it expects Utica shale well production to exceed the yearly output of all of Ohio's nearly 51,000 existing conventional wells by as early as 2015.

and

Eleven drillers reported production from 87 Utica wells last year, but only two wells flowed for more than 300 days, and none for an entire year, according to the report.
Those wells churned out more than 600,000 barrels of oil and 12.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas. They also generated more than 600,000 barrels of wastewater, most of it from the hydraulic fracturing process, or fracking, in which pressurized water, sand and chemicals are used to crack the shale and free the oil and natural gas.
By comparison, in 2011, nine Utica wells, all drilled by Chesapeake Energy, produced 46,000 barrels of oil and about 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas.

Put another way, oil production increased 13 fold and gas increased 5 fold from 2011 to 2012. Presently the biggest impediment to more rapid development of the Utica a lack of infrastructure. Pipelines have to be built as do natural gas processing facilities that separate the natural gas from the sundry and valuable natural gas liquids such as propane and butane. This takes time and money but the money is available and it translates into more jobs added to the already 38,000 job created since the inception of Utica drilling. Ohio's future is getting brighter by the day!

 
 

Chico California Reduces Fine for Possession of Nuclear Bomb

The anti-nuke movement, which reached its zenith just as the cold war was ending, appears to still be losing steam albeit incrementally. Chico, California, judging by this editorial, is getting soft on nuclear proliferation. From the Chico Enterprise-Record.

MISS — The city of Chico is talking about raising all sorts of fees and fines in an effort to plug an enormous hole in its budget.
The council has for years approved spending millions of dollars it didn't have, shifting money around to hide the problem. Now it's out in the open, and citizens will pay dearly if they dare break city laws.
But there's good news out there for nuclear bomb owners. The current fine for a first-time violation of the city's nuclear-free ordinance is $1,064. Under a proposal to revise certain fines, a first-time offense will be reduced to $1,000.
For those of you new to town, this is not a joke.

Memorial Day

As I was contemplating where to take the wife for lunch on this Memorial Day, I decided to head into Adrian and have a burger at the new Steak and Shake there.

Nothing special in that. Except by the time I left, I was somewhat renewed in the fact that there is another America out here. One that is good, caring, and still adheres to a principal too often forgotten by our politicians.

As we were seated, I noticed an older gentleman and his wife. He was probably in his late seventies or possibly early eighties. He talked a little too loud but the one thing that set him apart from the crowd was that he was wearing an American Legion hat.

 I've seen that black with gold striped headwear for as long as I can remember. From the time I was a little boy marching with my grandfather in the annual Memorial Day Parade on Central Avenue to just recently when I took my father (who is a WWII vet) to the last reunion of the Doolittle survivors in Florida. It was a hat that distinguishes all who wear it as veterans.

Today, as we were waiting for our order, I was listening to the gentleman talk about a local parade and how he had ridden for the first time since he didn't think he could walk the route anymore. He made small talk with his wife when his order arrived.

As they were sitting there, the manager walked up to their table and told the veteran that someone in the restaurant had paid for their meal and that they wanted to thank him for his service. I was surprised. I was thinking of doing the same thing, but hadn't talked with our waitress yet.

As his meal progressed, a young man and his girlfriend approached the older gentleman and thanked him for his service and shook his hand. The old man looked up and quietly started to thank the younger patron for buying his meal when the young man stopped him and said to him, "It wasn't me...they told me I was the 4th person who asked to pay for your meal..."

I would have been the fifth.

Lately, with all the scandal coming out of Washington and the dysfunction of our government, it seems that America has changed. But at least in Adrian, Michigan, fly-over country to our nation's leaders, America, MY America is alive and well.

"Everything I Loved About Teaching Is Extinct"

This teacher, like the one I posted about on another blog has put principles first. She is quitting. Let someone with a supple spine and an ignorance literature pass out the printed forms so dear to the hearts of the philistine administrators who giggle in their conceits about their knowledge of their sacred methodology. Notice this video has gone viral which should prove that there are still a few intelligent souls out there.

 

Morning roundup Memorial Day Weekend

  There've been many excellent articles posted this week which I haven't had time to discuss. Here's a roundup:

• Tea Partiers weren't the first to be strangely and snoopily queried by the IRS. So was Ollie North many years ago. See the questions here. I mean, what do you pray about?
• Did you know DHS--now sporting new POLICE banners rather than just DHS banners--monitored several Tea Party rallies last Tuesday? Talk about being in your face! Here, here and here.
• A top CBS News official is a brother of a particularly rabid White House official, which may explain why Sheryl Atkisson's Benghazi stories have been dragged slowly in front of the public?
• Even Eugene Robinson wonders what the White House is up to in tapping Rosen's phone lines.
• Apparently standards for recruiting persons of faith have fallen. Why is it so hard for universities to understand true spirituality when hiring someone for a "multi faith" job. Thus, Chelsea Clinton gets hired at NYU as faith director.
• New Benghazi whistleblowers are about to come forward. Was the State Department gun running in Libya?
• Where WAS Obama the night Ambassador Stevens was tortured and murdered? And why are White House operatives so carefully sidestepping that information?
• Even Peggy Noonan, who we've mocked in the past for her worshipful respect of the Obama parties, has turned on The One in an icy warning.
• But it appears that conservatives have been targeted earlier than the last election. In fact, Obama officials began working in tandem with government officials to disenfranchise conservatives back in 2008. A must read over at WSJ.

Not terror related...

  So let me get this straight.
  A Muslim guy shouts Allahu Ahkbar at Fort Hood, shoots (wounds and kills) dozens of soldiers and it's called "workplace violence," "not terror related."
  At least two Muslim guys blow up a race in Boston, killing several and severing limbs of many, and the incident is "not terror related." (There may be more guys involved, but how would we know since Michelle Obama went to see one Saudi national suspect who was then carefully removed from the hospital and escorted home?)
  A couple Muslim guys behead a British soldier in the street, explain their motivations coolly to a cell camera while waving bloody hands, and the incident is "not terror related." In fact, the London mayor goes to great efforts to explain that it certainly had nothing to do with terror or Islam.
  Muslim "youths" who've immigrated and live on the public dole riot for 5 nights in Sweden but the police there have decided "There was a widespread assertion that the violence was not motivated by Islamist ideology" and instead they'll "liaise" with Mosque leaders to "calm" things down.
  In fact, Muslim, er, immigrant youths have chosen to riot in countries across the world for unknown reasons.
  Two men "joke" on a Pakistani plane which is then landed and the incident is not "terror related."
  So we're going to close Guantanamo because it's not in keeping with "who we are" and then send those terrorists home to Yemen where they'll be set free to kill again.
  And our POTUS goes on tv and claims the Global War on Terror is.....over?
  What am I missing here?
  My lyin' eyes?

Outrage! Lerner gives statement, answers no questions?

  What the HECK is going on with the leaders of the Republican party? Why was the perpetrator of the IRS crimes against the citizens of this country allowed to march in, give a sanctimonious, contemptuous, self serving speech and then leave without answering ANY QUESTIONS, claiming the "fifth amendment."
  WHAT THE HECK?
UPDATE: Well, now. It looks like she opened herself up for more questioning by having that opening statement. Hm. Back in front of committee? YES!

And so we fight on

  I started this blog years ago because I was so fed up and angry with the direction this country has been taking, particularly with the arrogant disconnect of lawmakers of all parties from the actual working part of the country. You know, people like us out here in what they condescendingly call flyover country because all they ever do is fly over it when they need votes. 
  The attitude of the political elite was captured perfectly when Harry Reid pointed out that he had to be near the people in the Capitol building and it bothered him because they smell:

"And the people who work here joke about you can always tell when it's summertime because you can smell the visitors. And what we mean by that Mr. President – they stand out there in the high humidity, heat, sweating, and it’s really – there’s no place for them to go.”

  As one of those working, sweating flyover people, I decided for the first time in my life to really speak up, so when I heard through the grapevine that there was going to be a gathering at Hood Park in Perrysburg, I hightailed it down there, only to find hundreds and hundreds of other people who felt exactly the way I did.
  Many of us have become good friends over these years; I must say I was demoralized by the last election, as they have been. 
  What could be happening to this country we love so much that others could look at you and say, "I want what's yours--material and spiritual--and I don't want to have to work for it." 
  What could be happening  to this beloved country that others could so hatefully spit out words like "racist" or "homophobe" just because we do not share the same moral values? 
  What could be happening to this country that so many people could not see through the invisible flibbertigibbet of a human being who so easily demonizes those he chooses to destroy?
  The vicious attitude Obama and his people displayed toward others after the election accelerated, even as he traveled around the world denouncing our country, accepting unearned prizes and talking of the ways he intends to "fundamentally transform" this nation.
  Increasingly marginalized, many of us turned toward our new friends around the nation, most of who we had never met anywhere other than cyberspace.
  It was here, in cyberspace, that we vented our frustrations, envisaged our dreams and formed goals for re-establishing some kind of order in this country. 
  But even at this little blog, we noticed that the feds were watching.
  Who?
  Well, many times when we wrote about something touchy in DC and, yes, the Office of the President of the United States checked in to read our articles.
  Impossible? 
  Apparently not only NOT impossible, but likely, considering all that we've seen exposed in the last two weeks.
  Oddly, in this time of outrage when so much commenting should be inspired, I have had little to say.
  Utterly disgusted with politics, Obama and the Democrats, as a voter I could not be angrier and for once, find myself speechless with absolute contempt and revulsion for the people running our country, both "right" and left.
  While we see voices on the left beginning to emerge dissenting with the Obama KGB policies of wiretapping, harassment and prejudice, we still don't really see anyone disagreeing with the absolute HATE exhibited by Leftists toward anyone who disagrees with their revisionist history and policies.
  An old friend stopped by my house the other day; in the past he had been easy to talk to, joking about various world and local events and tolerant of our disagreements. 
  During our conversation about political events, he queried me about someone I supported in an election, asking if I had "seen his birth certificate" or realized the politician was "probably from Kenya," as if a person's skin color was a reason to qualify or disqualify him or her for office. 
  The implication was clear. I must be a racist since I did not like Obama so how could I be interested in supporting someone "like that." 
  I don't know if this "friend" meant to imply this but he certainly did and there we come to the conundrum.
  I am tired of people like this. I am tired of being viewed through the HATE LENS that the Left has used so successfully against people like me. I am sickened by the bilge emerging from the very head of this country so when people say they "support" this man, I know I really don't want to be around them because HATE is the operative word of this administration.
  Looking back, now, however, it's so easy to see that much of what this administration has done from DAY ONE is operate on fear and intimidation. 
  Scare off the little folks from meeting together by not allowing them to form the same organizations the Left has formed so easily, one by Obama's brother which was backdated to make his donations legal.
  Scare off people from voting by subjecting the head of True the Vote to SEVENTEEN interrogations by various government agencies.
  Scour the web to watch for dissent and turn in those who protest Obama's policies. Might I remind that a well known newswoman became the face of the Obama campaign for peeping in others' cyber windows.
  Pass regulations--more and more and more--that encourage the absolute enslavement of people to free stuff, taken from the productivity of others, to put us on an unsustainable path like France where this last year over 8,000 families paid more than 100% of their incomes to the slugs who want to retire by 50 without working a 40 hour week until they're eligible.
  On and on it goes.
  Now, this blog post may sound despairing but I do not mean it to.
  What's clear at this point is the modus operandi and the purpose of these policies and patterns of behavior.
  Fear is the way this man and his automatons have chose to control the masses. Sure, "freedom" is offered in the context of what the government will give YOU if you go along if you're stupid enough not to remember that what they give, they can take away.
  I didn't understand why Andrew Breitbart had to die. He was such an inspiration to so many of us, pulling the hard weight of calling out celebrities, Leftists and politicians of all stripes.
  But now I believe the House of Cards is falling down. Yes, they've won their second term.
  But I often wonder what we would have been like if Romney had won. Would we slip back into the same sleep we were in before?
  I've said before that I believe our generation---I refer now to the baby boomers--seemed to go two ways.
  Our parents had emerged from a terrible war; they wanted the quiet peace of the little white house with the picket fence and just a family gathered together to live and work modestly.
  We--the baby boomers--had not suffered as the WW2 generation and we did not like being subjected to the commitments of the Vietnam war. We wanted more out of our lives. More of everything. More food. More stuff. More easy living.
  If you go to a Tea Party rally, you'll most likely see the group made up of many older folks like the Baby Boomers. You'll see moms in their late 30s worried about the future for their kids. You'll see, yes, people of color who love this country passionately for its opportunities and its diversity.
  And, though I am not a Republican, if you look at the wider picture you'll see that the Republican party has a far deeper and diverse bench of upcoming leaders than the Democrat party, who has, yes, the Anthony Weiners and Harry Reids and Nancy Pelosis, rich fatcats who are connected to the "right" people.
  Now is not the time to falter. So the DHS shows up to intimidate Tea Party rallies around the country?
  Well, it's pretty obvious what is happening here.
  We realize and remember THIS, above all else.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

  For freedom is the basis of Christianity. God has given us life and choice. 
  And freedom, whether we realize it or not, is the basis for the Tea Party movement in this country.
  So on we strive for freedom.
  Never give up.

Opportunist Leftists use tornado tragedy for advantage

  Daily Show writer thinks it's really funny to joke about the dead in Oklahoma by tweeting:

This tornado is in Oklahoma so clearly it has been ordered to only target conservatives.

  Later she tweeted that she had probably made the "joke" too soon, before the "devastation" was revealed. 
  I'm just wondering when a tornado ISN'T devastating.
  And then there's the Rhode Island "Senator" who used the tornados to accuse the Republicans of not really working on global warming, even though there's been an inexplicable slowdown of warming. The Daily Caller:

“So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.” 

Whitehouse went on to condemn the current Republican position on global warming, citing economic, environmental and diplomatic damages.

  Yes, Republicans, conservatives and capitalists are positively despicable, aren't they? 
  Surely those tornados wouldn't have occurred if we had a global warming TAX to fix the wind, the rain and those danged weather systems.

A 4th Obama scandal?

  It's not like we can limit it to THREE, anyway. 
  Between the cowardly craven behavior of White House political operatives toward the 4 murdered Americans in Benghazi, the illegal and extensive harassment of Romney/Republican/Tea Party supporters by the IRS & the EPA and other government agencies, and the DOJ snooping on reporters by covertly monitoring their private cell phones and email messages, you'd think we've had enough scandal.
  As if THAT isn't enough, we discover today that two Fox reporters--James Rosen and William LaJeunesse- and a FNC producer have also been monitored by the DOJ. The Democrat press is now defining "criminalizing reporting" as "dangerous" territory.
  Obama knows nothing--NOTHING--of all this.
  But now we learn from a CIA source that somewhere out in the atmosphere another fourth scandal lurks, and that White House aides are very nervous because it's a big one.
  We'll see, since nothing seems to shake the public's confidence in the Master of Disaster that is Barack Hussein Obama.
  Rush has been down on all this stuff. If YOU'RE down, you might want to catch a little Red Eye Radio. They have a different take on what's going down. They blog a bit and the podcasts are priceless.

Planned Parenthod's Happily Abets Felony Rape

Suppose you are in the country illegally and impregnate a 14 year old girl. It's a felony and if you are caught you will surely be deported. Who can help? Planned Parenthood, of course. Life News has the story from the Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Washington)

A Washington State man who impregnated a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion must serve a six-year prison sentence, then leave the country
Luis Gonzalez-Jose, 31, raped the girl at a home in rural Whatcom County while her mother was in the shower, according to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court.
He brought the girl to a Planned Parenthood clinic in August 2012. She told staff members that her 14-year-old boyfriend impregnated her, but she couldn’t give the boy’s name or address.
Six weeks after the abortion, the girl told a detective how she had really become pregnant. Gonzalez-Jose had insisted “it would be best for her” to not have the baby, according to the documents.
Gonzalez-Jose pleaded guilty to second-degree rape of a child in April.

He's not Milton but...

One of the fall guys of the Benghazi attack is an avid poet. Raymond Maxwell is one of 4 middle echelon State Dept employees chosen by the farcical Accountability Review Board to take the blame for Hillary Clinton's dereliction of duty. A viewing of Maxwell's blog yields this pearl.

I ran into a neighbor outside the building.
She said, “I read your poem today.”
We made some small talk, politics
chit-chat that only Washingtonians
care about. I steered the small talk back.
“So how did you like my poem?”
She said, “It sounded bitter, but I understood.”
I smiled and thought to myself: perhaps
twelve revisions would have made it sweeter.

and

Trapped in a purgatory
of their own conceit…
The web of lies they weave
gets tighter and tighter
in its deceit
until it bottoms out -
at a very low frequency -
and implodes.
It may be just a matter of perception –
they can’t undo their wrongs
for fear it’d undermine their
perceived authority –
an authority they think they require
to stay in charge.
Yet all the while,
the more they talk,
the more they lie,
and the deeper down the hole they go.
There’s nothing I need to go back to -
nothing to re-litigate -
nothing to defend -
and certainly nothing to prove
to the unworthy.
Just wait…
just wait and feed them rope.

SNL hits Sharpton

And it's actually pretty good. The comic portrayal of the Tea Partier is fair, considering how many costumes we saw in the early days. Actually SNL takes some pretty impressive jabs at the ignoramus Al Sharpton.

Marine umbrella photo a big mistake

  Hey, low information voters don't get Benghazi, nor do they care.
  Low information voters don't get QE3, the vast printing of $85 billion monthly the Fed has been undertaking. (When Obama took office, $870 billion were in circulation. Now it's somewhere over a trillion dollars with more every month.)
  But low information voters get the IRS threats, mistreatment and "We are your overlords" behavior (not to mention being the "cheetahs").
  They also get what's wrong with this:

 

Daily Caller:

The commander in chief of the American armed forces today forced a violation of Marine Corps regulations, so he wouldn’t get wet.

According to Marine Corps regulation MCO P1020.34F of the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations chapter 3, a male Marine is not allowed to carry an umbrella while in uniform. There is no provision in the Marine Corps uniform regulation guidelines that allows a male Marine to carry an umbrella.

  Huh. Wonder if Big Ears Howdy Doody could hold his arm up that long.
  As I said, who's to stop Obama? He doesn't care about silly things like protocol, tradition, patriotism or even social mores.
  Obama has let it be known that he wants to "go Bullworth," an idea Leftists salivate for. This would mean Obama would actually tell the truth about who and what he really is.
  You're already 90% there.
  I say go for it, Bozo.

Obama: fear is how I win. CRUCIFY 'em.

  The past week has been very interesting to political gadflies. 
  Of course, we Tea Partiers have known for years that Obama is not only a disaster, but an evil selfish disaster who considers himself the POTUS of Leftists, not conservatives.
  In fact, we conservatives are anathema to the Obamabots, so much so that he and his people have been working steadily and maliciously to disenfranchise those of us who disagree with their politics.
  To a degree, they've been successful, as numerous patriot groups tried unsuccessfully to organize against IRS harassment. Surely some have dropped out of the movement from fear and exhaustion; the truth is that what's happened to Tea Party groups has followed the Obama philosophy, so well expressed by one of his hires over at the EPA, which is also guilty of using taxpayer funds and power to punish conservatives.
  In fact, the EPA drags their feet and charges patriot groups for the same thing they waive for Leftist groups. 

“Their practice is to take care of their friends and impose ridiculous obstacles to deny problematic parties’ requests for information,” Horner said.

  Again, this is just Obama's philosphy, stated here: "We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ another incident seen here.
  Remember Al Armendariz of the EPA, explaining that his philosophy of getting companies to "obey the law" of the EPA?
  Here's what the EPA does; they pass onerous laws, so vast, expensive and regulating that companies have difficulty even knowing what the laws are, much less following them. To build public support for low-info voters, EPA runs sad and pathetic commercials with children coughing, complaining about air and life quality, accompanied by violins.
  Then the feds move in, claiming the company is in violation of [fill in the blank]. Fine the company and make unreasonable demands, affirming that our government overlords have the power to do anything they want.
  IOW, fillet 'em and string 'em up high on the outskirts of the town to make the rest of the town compliant.
  Is this not the Obama philosophy in a nutshell?
  Back to CNS's coverage of the EPA administrator, who smirks through explaining his hang 'em high philosophy:

“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean.  They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.

“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

“It’s a deterrent factor,” Armendariz said, explaining that the EPA is following the Romans’ philosophy for subjugating conquered villages.

Soon after Armendariz touted the EPA’s “philosophy,” the EPA began smear campaigns against natural gas producers, Inhofe’s office noted in advance of today’s Senate speech:

“Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010, EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

“In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best – and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find any sound scientific evidence to make this link.”

    I saw an old friend at Lowe's the other day; naturally we turned to politics. He said, "But Obama wouldn't do THAT, would he?" referring to some outrageous Obama executive order. I realized at the time and replied, "Who's to stop him? Who is there to stop this man from doing whatever he wants?"
  Indeed, fear has been the primary motivating factor of the Obama administration, who takes pride in appearing "cool," (cruel) "detached," (unfeeling), "no drama," (heartless).
  I realize many of us backed off after the disappointment of the last election; the country is spiraling out of control, with news reports of monstrous abortionists, atheists' lawsuits, and a massive and mounting financial burden for today's children.
  Let us remember what we would have been and done if Romney had won: would we have slid back into the same squirrel! mentality of only paying attention to the latest scandal or immediate events in our personal lives?
  This should be a time of great prayer as we approach the 2014 elections and before we go into battle again.
  A few words for the day:

"Pay attention, now! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.

And:

8Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.

19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

20When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

21Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Another, BIGGER IRS scandal looms

  In 2011, FIFTEEN IRS agents entered a [John Doe] California company with a warrant requesting the employment information of a former employee of the company.
  Rather than simply request the warranted information on one individual, the agents acted bizarrely during the incident, seizing millions of medical records for which they had no warrant and against HIPPA laws. 
  The sixty million records of ten million Americans include extremely sensitive information, including psychological profiles, drug and alcohol dependency information, gynecological exams. 
  In short, anything and everything about ten million Americans, including possibly every California judge and court employee.
  (The implications of such information being in the hands of the IRS regarding court employees are many. We might remind readers at this point that there was much speculation about Chief Justice John Roberts' adoption situation and some problem about their Latin American origins. Initially against Obamacare, Roberts eventually cast the deciding vote, twisting the law enough to be able to support it, leading to concern that Roberts had a personal reason for ruling the way he did. 
  Concern regarding the objectivity of our judicial system tracks back to the founding of the country. The Declaration of Independence warned that : "[King George III] has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.")
  During the raid in 2011, the IRS agents seized cell phones and private information of other employees, threatened to rip the servers out if the employees did not comply and, when they had finished illegally confiscating these records (which were in digital format-- Obamacare, anyone?) the 15 decided--in an abuse of power--they needed to use the company quarters to watch a little b-ball, order pizza out and generally make swine of themselves, insulting and offending the company's employees and making sure the company understood the hierarchy. Government first. Citizens last and least.
  In the meantime,the IRS "Peeping Toms" have refused to return the records, the company has filed a lawsuit against the IRS and the attorney for the company has revealed that at least one of the IRS agents has a history of abuse, lying and threats.
  Why is this bigger than the harassment of Tea Party groups?
  Because those cases seem to be only small part of a larger picture, and the seizure of medical records--with no record of chain of command--is foreshadowing for the nightmare to come of Obamacare. 
  Rather than simply demanding Americans perform like monkeys in filling out onerous reports, this incident involves the illegal seizure of private health documents. Who would know if a court officer was being blackmailed to rule a certain way? 
  The behavior also fits the behavior of the DOJ in seizing phone records of journalists.
  What else don't we know?
  The court case can be found here.
  H/T Post Obotomy Syndrome
  More here, here and here and here.
UPDATE: And there ya go. Even a Dem admits there's more to come.

Obama: It's fixed so shut up!

  Well, it looks like Obama's following Charlie Rangel's advice about getting out front on the IRS scandal. Naturally, he'll have a fall guy (who will somehow land on his/her feet in some Leftist think tank) to blame all the crap on.
  His eyebrows will go up and down dramatically to show his emotion, unlike the no-drama Obama Neil Cavuto was complaining about on his show at 4:00 on FNC. Please.
  Now everyone can rest at ease because Obama to the rescue! It's all fixed! Republicans should just STFU!
  What the heck did he mean that the "laws must be clear" fair and impartial and that there isn't "ambiguity" around the laws?
  What's ambiguous about "it's illegal to do this."

Waters: Obama has a database on everyone

From LiveLeak, we learn that Obama has an organization (OFA) that has a database on everyone. Maxine Waters specifies that Democrat candidates will have to deal with that, but the prospect of any president creating an extensive, snooping database on every American citizen is, well, frightening.

So where do Leftists go from here?

  Very interesting read over at Politico, who say that the press corps is turning on the Beloved One. Is it true? Is it lasting? Hard to know at this point but here are some highlights.

• On MSNBC, Leftist Jonathan Alter complains to Chris Matthews that the BO "infantilizes" the people around him, who have an "unhealthy love" for BO, something we've been complaining about for many years.

  [Well, duh. You can see through BO's selections of idiots people like Biden and Kerry that he wants to be perceived as the king, surrounded by court jesters whose only purpose in life is to glorify the king.]

•   Sycophant Dana Milbank at the WaPo: Obama, the Uninterested President
•   Doug Schoen: Will buck ever stop with Obama?
•   Politico (must read): DC turns on Obama
•   NBC News compares Obama to Nixon
•   Dems may not be so willing to back Obama
•   Dem Elijah Cummings: "chilling" and "alarming"
•   Robert Gibbs, former Obama spokesman: Obama sounds childish
•   ACLU: Unacceptable

  At this point, this self flagellation may just be a moment of clarity and expiation until the Leftists move on to their next conservative target.
  OTOH, this could also be a self-reflective moment (after their candidate is safely reelected) in which they realize the ultimate destruction Obama has inflicted on his wing of the party in the long run, or at least for 2014.
  AND realize there's a concern that he won't be letting go once he's out of office, given that he's morphed his social action OFA into yet another arm of Obama worship/thuggery/bullying.

Obama's community is organized....against American citizens

  So I'm carefully monitoring the developments in the latest scandals of the President of the United States, who has excelled in Chicago Thuggery since he was elected by the naifs/weak/moochers of this country.
  It's interesting that this week, the 40th anniversary of Watergate (which seems so infantile in comparison, does it not?), the foul scandals have blossomed so significantly that even the press notices and is offended because, stupidly, they realize that the stench extends to even them.
  At the risk of rehashing what the well-informed already know, the scandals just now are:
  1.  Benghazi has finally entered the MSM consciousness. Benghazi has been a thorn in the side of Tea Partiers for over 8 months. What is the offense? Men representing the United States of America were murdered by Libyan terrorists, contrary to the claims of the State Department and the POTUS at the time who blamed a stupid video. 
  Of the four men murdered, two courageous men voluntarily went to the aid of the first two, thinking the USA would provide the requested backup. The attack lasted 7 hours. 
  Such aid did not come, with the explanation being that the military didn't know what the cost of providing aid would be (as if the result of any battle is known beforehand) or that they were too far away (400 miles was too much for jets, apparently).
  Rumors swirled into conspiracy; why was the American embassy under attack? Was it to kidnap Ambassador Stevens as a trade for the vile blind Sheikh? Or was it because our State Department was gun running in Libya?
  One thing's for sure. Lots of lies have been told about what was really going on there. 
 2.  The greatest uproar has been over the IRS scandal. Why are people surprised that Chicago Thugs would be adept at using the IRS to threaten the safety and security of Tea Partiers, who've been mocked and ridiculed since they collectively and telepathically decided they weren't going to take any more of the DC corruption of either party. It was like everyone just showed up at street corners for Tea Party rallies after the Rick Santelli rant. Duh.
  Horrific tales have been floating around the web for years about IRS harassment of Tea Parties, nascent and unfunded groups who are committed to the welfare of this country.
  Sunday I posted some of the open ended questions the IRS has demanded of citizens with links to a letter sent to the Ohio Liberty Township Tea Party; the Waco Tea Party also has been verbal in protesting the attacks of the IRS. The harassment was meant, of course, to ward off both donors and Tea Partiers from gathering together for the good of the country.
  Business Insider:

Toby Marie Walker, the president of the Waco Tea Party, said the group then received a 20-question form requesting additional information. This form was sent to many different conservative groups.

In the form was a request to provide copies of blog posts, articles, and other media distributed to members. That included copies of tweets, Facebook posts, and other social networking platforms.

"Last week, we were mentioned 389 times in news stories," Walker told Business Insider. "Now imagine gathering that for two years. I mean, it would've taken a U-Haul truck."

In a follow-up, Walker also said that the IRS asked for a roster of the group's board of directors and whether it could see any of those members ever pursuing higher office. 

"How are you supposed to answer that question for the future?" Walker said. "They don't issue crystal balls when you sign up for the Waco Tea Party.

  You might be familiar with what's happening: it's the reason the Declaration of Independence was written. Something about "eating out our substance" and erecting "a multitude of new offices." 
  In addition, some Romney donors were personally targeted and lied about as lawbreakers and shady characters.
  ADDITIONALLY, information about conservative groups was illegally leaked to Leftist groups by the IRS. Leftist groups were hurried through for IRS approval, while conservative groups were harassed.
  Huh.
  This behavior is typical of this administration; one administrator defined the philosophy of, like the Romans, crucifying and making examples of a few so that the group will learn how to behave, which is pretty much the prevailing philosophy of the Obama administration. 
  3. The most recent scandal is the revelation that the Obama administration targeted the press, too, by sneaking into personal and business cell phone information. Tapping the personal cell phones of reporters to find out who leaked info about a DOJ target. Citing national defense, the administration claims they did nothing "inappropriate" or "insensitive," the fairly innocuous terms used to describe harassing Tea Partiers. 
  Naturally reporters are most outraged by the latter offense.
  Everyone knows that Obama sets up reporters before a press conference. The questions are scripted; reporters refuse to ask difficult questions or even follow up with a line of thought.
  Everyone knows the press has been sympathetic to Obama because of his race and his politics.
  The chickens coming home to roost for Obama are a result of both neglectful and malicious leadership. When the leader of the country personally maligns and targets individual citizens---way back to the Cambridge cops--the pack that follows him will do the same to please him, only worse. 
  It is understood that these people are fair game; like any community organizer, Obama has organized his community to attack those with whom he disagrees.

Want to see questions the IRS was demanding groups answer?

  I wrote a post yesterday about the IRS harassment of Tea Party groups (and perhaps pro-Israel groups?) yesterday; having listened today to the various Leftist operatives making the rounds today making excuses for this behavior, claiming that the groups who dropped out when harassed probably "weren't legitimate anyway."
  Imagine working a full time job--40 or more hours a week--and wanting to be part of creating a civic organization that you feel will help your country and then being hit with this kind of bullying just to form the organization.
  Uh  no. This makes me so angry I am simply reposting some of the questions the IRS demanded of these groups. 
  Here are SOME of them from the Liberty Township Tea Party group in Ohio. Complete questions can be found here.
  Uh, no. This is deliberate harassment. These are BS questions meant to disturb and scare off people.

4. Submit the following information relating to your past and present directors, officers, and key employees:

1. a. provide a resume for each.
2. b. Indicate the number of hours per month each individual has provided or is providing services to you.
3. c. Provide a description of all the services each individual provides and has provided for you.
4. d. Indicate the total compensation to each individual.
5. e. Describe how each compensation package was determined.
6. f. Indicate if any of your current and former officers, directors and key employees are related to each other (include family and business relationships) and describe the nature of the relationship.

5. List each past or present board member, officer, key employee and members of their families who:

1. a. has served on the board of another organization.
2. b. Was, is or plans to be a candidate for public office. Indicate the nature of each candidacy.
3. c. Has previously conducted similar actives for another entity.
4. d. Has previously submitted an application for tax exempt status.

7. Regarding your fundraising:

1. a. Provide copies of all solicitations the organization has made regarding fundraising.
2. b. Provide copies of all documents related to the organizations fundraising events, including pamphlets, flyers, brochures, webpage solicitations.
3. c. Provide a listing and details regarding all fundraising expenses.

8. Please provide the following regarding your merchandise sales:

1. a. A vendor list. Indicate if the vendor is a related party.
2. b. A list of items sold.
3. c. Your cost for each item.
4. d. The selling price of each item.

9. Provide actual financial information for 2011 and a budget for 2012. Provide details regarding each item listed.

10. Regarding your current and planned employees:

1. a. How many employees do you have?
2. b. Indicate the total of full time, part time and seasonal employees.
3. c. If employees are part time, when did/do they work?
4. d. If employees are seasonal, during what season (months) did/do they work?
5. e. How many employees are/were devoted to each activity of the organization throughout the year?

11. Regarding your current and planned volunteers:

1. a. How many volunteers do you have?
2. b. How many volunteers are/were devoted to each activity of the organization throughout the year?
3. c. How many and what sort of resources re devoted to volunteer activities?

12. You will educate the public and work in concert with other citizens to bring about public policy changes. You will have monthly meetings, operate a website, conduct candidate forums, organize your community, operate on social network sites, conduct a youth program and operate other programs. To help us gain a better understanding of your organization, please provide the following estimates:

1. a. Provide a listing of all of your past activities. Indicate the percentage of your time spent conducting the activity (total of all activities should equal 100:) and the percentage of your funds spent conducting the activity (total of all activities should equal 100%)
2. b. Provide a listing of all of you rplanned activities. Indicate the percentage of your time spend conducting the activity (total of all activities should equal 100%) and the percentage of your funds you will spend conducting the activity (total of all activities should equal 100%)

13. Fully describe your youth outreach program with the local school district.

14.  Provide information regarding the Butler County Teen Age Republicans and your relationship.

15. You are a membership organization. Provide details regarding all members' fees and benefits.

16. Provide a list of all issues that are important to your organization. Indicate your position regarding each issue.

17. Do you publish or distribute materials or conduct other communications that are prepared by or reviewed by another organization? If yes, explain and provide a copy of such materials or communications.

[SNIP]

20. You have conducted polls of your membership to determine which candidates and issues they are supporting. Provide details this process ([sic]. Indicate how many such polls you have conducted and what you have done with the poll results.

21. An attachment to the Form 1023 indicated you will not endorse candidates or issues. Is this still accurate? If not, explain and answer the following:

1. a. Provide your endorsement criteria.
2. b. Once a candidate is endorsed, how does your organization handle the endorsement?
3. c. Provide a list of all candidates you have endorsed.
4. d. Does your organization notify the candidate of the endorsement? If yes, explain.
5. e. Do you provide any materials to candidates, which they may use to promote their candidacy? If so, please describe and provide copies of those materials.

[SNIP]

34. Has your organization engaged in any activities with the news media? If so, please describe those activities in further details and, if available, provide copies of articles printed or transcripts of items aired because of that activity. News media activity may include the following:

1. a. Newspaper advertisements
2. b. Press releases
3. c. Interviews with news media
4. d. Letters to the editor
5. e. Op-ed pieces