IRS GETS HAMMERED BY THE D.C. CIRCUIT:

In this case it took the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS” or “the Service”) aggressive interpretation of the tax code to part millions of Americans with billions of dollars in excise tax collections. Even this remarkable feat did not end the IRS’s creativity. When it finally conceded defeat on the legal front, the IRS got really inventive and developed a refund scheme under which almost half the funds remained unclaimed.

In sum, the IRS unlawfully expropriated billions of dollars from taxpayers, conceded the illegitimacy of its actions, and developed a mandatory process as the sole avenue by which the agency would consider refunding its ill-gotten gains.

Michael Silence asks, “And these people want to run more of our lives?”

Much more at TaxProf.

BOB OWENS says the Marines’ social-media ban may not go far enough.

SPORTS OMERTA: Jack Lail: Blogging has its limits in the SEC. “The Southeastern Conference is seeking to control how many blog posts or, presumably, even Twitter updates, can be done during a football game as well as control even video from press conferences.”

DAVID BOAZ: The boys who cried “racist.”

Paul Krugman can’t understand why people would oppose government control of health care — or skyrocketing deficits, or a federal takeover of education, energy, and finance along with health care — unless they’re driven by racism. But he’s not the only one who sees racists under every bed. . . . It cannot be the case that every parody of a president who happens to be black is racist. And it is not good for democracy to try to counter every opposing argument with such a blood libel. The good news for advocates of limited government is that our opponents are displaying a striking lack of confidence in the actual arguments for their proposals. If they thought they could win a debate on nationalizing health care, or running trillion-dollar deficits, they wouldn’t need to reach for such smears.

Read the whole thing.

SHUT UP, HE EXPLAINED:

Yesterday, at a rally for R. Creigh Deeds in Virginia, President Obama said: “I don’t want the folks who created the mess do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

For Barack Obama, democracy appears to be a distraction. He really does seem to view himself as a Caesar.

Shortly after taking office, Obama held a meeting with governors. At the time, one person in the room relayed Obama’s request that critics and skeptics of the stimulus plan keep their concerns to themselves. Just let me do it, was his attitude. He got pushback and he wasn’t happy. He wanted democratically elected state governors to shut up so he could do as he pleased. He knows better and we should respect that, seems to be the attitude.

Thug-in-chief? What would the reaction be if a Republican President said this?

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: He and Kent Conrad have been cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee. But there’s this: “Oh and by the way, it’s been 378 days since Chris Dodd promised to release all his mortgage paperwork to the public for examination. He still hasn’t made good on that promise. Regardless of whether the Ethics Committee has cleared him, if Dodd really had nothing to hide he’d release the mortgage documents already.”

KEITH HENNESSEY: Will Health Care Reform Cause Lower Wages?

AGAIN: Tempers flare in South Florida over healthcare overhaul. “A raucous group of about 100 protesters confronted staffers of U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, expressing their displeasure with the healthcare overhaul bills being considered in Congress.”

UPDATE: And in Boulder: “U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, was swarmed by people Friday morning when he dropped by the Vic’s coffee shop in north Boulder, expecting a friendly chat with a couple dozen constituents. But the event, the first of a series of meetings dubbed ‘Congress on Your Corner,’ drew hundreds of people, many with health care issues on their minds.”

FROM JIM HOFT, a first-person account of SEIU violence at the Russ Carnahan town meeting. Racial epithets and a beating from union members? Incredible. “Tomorrow, Saturday, the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition is holding a rally at the local SEIU headquarters. We are going to demand justice for Kenneth Gladney, who was brutally beaten on Thursday night. The St. Louis Coalition will request that the NAACP and the ACLU come out in support of Kenneth Gladney’s rights which were trampled by the union hooligans.”

UPDATE: More here, and a Mary Katharine Ham interview. “SEIU Representative Punched Him In the Face.”

THE NEW PJTV Healthcare page is up. And they’re soliciting citizen-reporters to cover townhalls and other healthcare-related events around the nation.

A BIG SALE on Indie DVDs.

A NEW PLUG-IN HYBRID coming from Buick in 2011. “Soon after the Chevy Volt debuts late next year, Buick will release its own plug-in hybrid. This yet unnamed model will be a small SUV and will use the two-mode hybrid system from the recently canceled Saturn Vue Green Line. The non-hybrid version of the new Buick will debut in 2010 with GM’s 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and 3.0-liter V6. Both employ a six-speed automatic transmission.”

JOHN STOSSEL: “Obama says his health care plan will cut costs and increase patient choice. It won’t.”

PELOSI’S VISIT TO DENVER A LIGHTNING ROD. Photo caption: “A supporter of health care reform, left, who did not want to give her name, pushes forward to rip a sign out of Kris McLay’s hands outside the Stout Street Clintic visited by Nancy Pelosi.”

Good thing we elected a “post-partisan” President.

ASHEVILLE TEA PARTY FOLKS MET WITH HEATH SHULER: Before we closed the meeting, Congressman Shuler told us he will vote no on HR3200. “We ended our time by telling him we would relay the news that he is not ‘in hiding’ if he will tell his colleagues in Washington that we are not a pitchfork wielding ‘angry mob.'”

WHAT EVERY AMERICAN GIRL NEEDS: A breastfeeding baby doll.

THE EXAMINER: Mr. President, Americans are not an ‘angry mob’. “They aren’t carrying swastikas, either, contrary to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rant about the legions of worried citizens who have been standing up in multiple town halls and congressional forums to demand straight answers from their congressmen about what they are doing under the guise of ‘health-care reform.’ Pelosi’s attempt to smear honest citizens as Nazis is only the most reprehensible manifestation of a White House-directed propaganda campaign to discredit anyone who disagrees with President Obama’s health-care proposal.”

VIDEO: Obama’s Brooks Brothers Brigade. I saw one guy in camo shorts, though. He’s probably a dangerous right-wing terrorist.

UPDATE: Breaking: Carnahan staffer admits to causing trouble?

Plus, hate crime video?

DOUG BANDOW: AARP Members Not Buying Obama Health Care Plan.

These people obviously were having trouble with the line, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” And they were quite vocal in stating their concerns. But they were acting well within the American political tradition, which seems to be what has spooked advocates of a government medical takeover speaking breathlessly of “mobs”–presumably like the one in Dallas–opposing “reform.”

Protest is extremely dangerous unless it’s engaged in by Officially Sanctioned Aggrieved Groups.

MEET THE SCARY MOB.

SO IF “URBAN” IS A SYNONYM FOR “BLACK,” then does that mean that people who say gun control is particularly appropriate for “urban” areas are . . . racist?

CELEBRITYPAYCUT.COM: Encouraging celebrities to take a pay cut to fight global warming.

IN THE MAIL: From Robert Anthony Waters, Jr., the Historical Dictionary of United States-Africa Relations. Looks quite interesting, but I wonder if they didn’t mean to send this to my brother the Africanist. Oh, well.

DEAN KAMEN: Health Care Debate is “Backward-Looking.” ” Dean Kamen, one of the world’s most prolific inventors of healthcare technologies, challenges the notion that the U.S. has a healthcare crisis. Rather than slowing the pace of medical progress in order to cut healthcare costs, he argues, America should be encouraging more innovation in life-saving drugs and technologies.”

I agree.

THE NEW rules for radicals.