Watching the rats jump ship

  Well, well, well.
  The rats are jumping ship, it would appear. Whether the ship goes down or not we've yet to see.
  Issa has revealed the first real squealing today.
  But the damage that's been done to the IRS--not to mention the FBI and other government entities who've targeted American citizens--is extensive.
  Not a big fan of Peggy Noonan, but she put it well in the WSJ article I bookmarked before my computer crashed this week:

What does it mean when half the country—literally half the country—understands that the revenue-gathering arm of its federal government is politically corrupt, sees them as targets, and will shoot at them if they try to raise their heads? That is the kind of thing that can kill a country, letting half its citizens believe that they no longer have full political rights.

  Noonan explains how so many Leftists can justify Obama's abuse of power: 

Those who aren't deeply distressed about the IRS suffer from a reluctance or inability to make distinctions, and a lack of civic imagination. 

  So far we know 88 IRS agents possess problematic documents but it doesn't stop there.
  Of course, we have the ludicrous "movies" that even 3rd graders could have improved on. Geez, I've seen a lot of high schoolers' bad video productions but nothing as bad as the Gilligan's Island "remake" or whatever that Star Trek thing was. Those videos were all EGO and pretty pathetically inflated ones at that.
  Add in absurd expenditures of taxpayer dollars.
  But this weekend we learned that the orders came from on high; in fact, specific requests for specific groups came down from D.C.
  These are rather bitter reports from folks who resent being "thrown under the bus": here's an example of testimony from Breitbart:

Q: So what do you think about this, that allegation has been made, I think as you have seen in lots of press reports, that there were two rogue agents in Cincinnati that are sort of responsible for all of the issues that we have been talking about today.  What do you think about those allegations?
[…]
A:  It's impossible.  As an agent we are controlled by many, many people.  We have to submit many, many reports.  So the chance of two agents being rogue and doing things like that could never happen

  And in fact one agent was so incensed at the political methods employed that he/she applied for a transfer, describing the Washington involvement as so extensive that it was "micromanagement."

Q: Earlier I believe you informed us that the primary reason for applying for another job in July [2010] was because of the micromanagement from [Washington, DC, IRS Attorney], is that correct? 

A: Right.  It was the whole Tea Party.  It was the whole picture.  I mean, it was the micromanagement.  The fact that the subject area was extremely sensitive and it was something that I didn't want to be associated with. 

Q: Why didn't you want to be associated with it? 

A: For what happened now.  I mean, rogue agent?  Even though I was taking all my direction from EO Technical [Washington, D.C], I didn't want my name in the paper for being this rogue agent for a project I had no control over. 

Q: Did you think there was something inappropriate about what was happening in 2010? 

A: Yes.  The inappropriateness was not processing these applications fairly and timely.

  In addition, we know that the IRS demanded name after name after name, as McClintock reminds us, of citizens who had any connection with patriot groups or anyone who opposes Obama's policies.
  As I've mentioned, even this little blog had personal visits from the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
  Why?
  Lerner has a reputation for a vindictive meanness that goes back years, so why should it surprise anyone that people like her are running loose in an administration where Obama has no idea what's going on, or so they all claim?
  Gateway Pundit reminds us over 500 groups were targeted, while David Pflouffe, Obama appointee now claims there was "nothing political" at all about the targeting.
  Other IRS employees have been promoted, and/or have social and/or personal connections to Leftist players who have personal stakes in destroying the Tea Parties across the country. 
  All this is complicated by a complicit media.
  One of the problems with the current political environment is the complete subservience of Leftist citizens; they unrepentedly illegally tap Republicans' phones, cheerfully brag about committing voter fraud and use every political tool--illegal or not--to target the opposition.
  As I've written before, however, I'm not sure the whole special prosecutor path is the one to take. 
  Greg Gutfield says government is grounding itself:

Nevermind the appeasers--the IRS scandal IS a big deal. It’s such a big deal, it could ruin the agency forever, and take a few others down with it. And sure, it’s a lot of fun on the right to be clamoring for scalps--like, who should be fired and how many. But pink slips are small potatoes.

The end game is way, way bigger than that stuff. What we are witnessing is a collapse of trust in big government, which ultimately--to our benefit as small-government types--leads to a permanent undermining of the whole system. 

Until now, this administration produced loads of soaring rhetoric that made many forgive its lack of substance. But now, to everyone who pays taxes, the wolf is suddenly at the doorstep, and it’s looking for food. This new era, for some, sounded great in the abstract--but with the IRS scandal, we're starting to see our first home front casualties. The IRS just gave small-government America--which is most of America--a wake-up call like no other.

    This "reward our friends punish our enemies" attitude is nothing new but it's certainly gotten worse in recent times, even as our culture becomes increasingly polarized.
  A conservative writer at the Guardian wonders why Leftists are "so rude to Republicans"; their behavior is incontrovertible. As Thomas Sowell has written, they think they're anointed.
  And thus they have become their own gods.
  What we wait for then, is apparently a few honest Democrats to come forward, which might be tough because the honest ones seem to be switching parties these days.
  Oh, this is as big as Watergate, alright, bigger because it exposes the underbelly of a party so corrupt it will not or even cannot see the truth anymore, much less denounce it.
  There've been dark days many times in this country; we know we fight not against flesh and blood but principalities.
  And the merry warrior Greg Gutfield says (as I predicted, I might add) that the Obamabots embodied in the IRS have overplayed their hands.

When I talked about grounding government, this is how it’s done. The IRS, through its actions, has grounded itself--disqualifying the joint from effectively coercing you to do anything without that being perceived as targeting. When President Obama said cynicism is a threat to democracy, he was looking through the kaleidoscope from the wrong end. It’s corruption that threatens big government. When, during that speech on drones, he defended his use of targeted lethal attacks on enemies, he could have just as easily been describing the IRS attacks on the right. This strategy is part of who they are. If you’re a big government lover, you are programmed to hate us and any person who threatens that cushy livelihood. 

Which is why you should become that person. Doing so creates a force field against attack. When Elijah Cummings fretted that the IRS scandal could endanger future audits against citizens, it was a selfish, bizarre reaction to government overreach (siding with the attacker, not the victim)--but he was also right. 

The IRS just dug big government’s grave. America now has the opportunity to look at the greedy monster that is expansive, progressive government and say, “We are done with you. Go away.”

  We've had little to cheer the past years. We ought to at least enjoy a little schadenfreude as we watch the dirty deeds revealed, along with more embarrassing videos and how the dolts spent $50 million on team building exercises so they could work as a team to destroy Republicans.
  So far they haven't shown any shame for their lawless behavior;  we'll be lookin' for that.
  Uh huh.
  We'll be lookin.'