IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Tea Party groups tell Congress IRS harassment continues.
Archive for 2014
February 7, 2014
JAMES TARANTO: ‘Desert’ Aisles: If you build it, they may not come to the produce section.
Poverty used to mean going hungry. These days–at least in the developed West, and especially in America–it means getting hungry, consuming loads of inexpensive carbohydrates, and becoming fat and unhealthy. It’s progress of a sort, but those concerned with social uplift aren’t wrong to see a problem here. But their assumptions about its cause and solution have been tested and found wanting. . . .
It’s not that most “food desert” denizens eat unhealthy food because grocers refuse to supply them with fruits and vegetables. Instead, grocers don’t supply them with fruits and vegetables because the demand is insufficient. Which, come to think of it, was also among the cognitive errors that gave us ObamaCare. The assumption is that if people don’t have insurance, it must be for exogenous reasons–because insurance companies either refuse to do business with them or charge too much.
To be sure, ObamaCare’s architects didn’t completely believe that, or they would not have imposed a “mandate” in the form of a tax on the uninsured. Applying the same logic to the obesity problem would point in the direction of a broccoli mandate.
As far as we know, no one is willing to go quite that far, though The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg did opine in 2012 that a broccoli mandate “doesn’t sound that scary.” Ritger blandly suggests “that access to healthy food needs to be paired with education about consumption.” No more hot chocolate for you, Pajama Boy. #GetDrinking celery juice.
In at least one food desert, Palash Ghosh reports in the International Business Times, the prospect of an oasis was met with not just indifference but suspicion.
Read the whole thing.
MORE OF THAT SMART DIPLOMACY WE’RE ALWAYS HEARING ABOUT:
The top U.S. diplomat for Europe apologized Thursday for comments about the European Union that were — to put it lightly — undiplomatic.
“F— the E.U.,” Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said in a private telephone call that was intercepted and leaked online. . . . State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged that the recording was authentic and said Nuland had apologized to E.U. officials.
Well, I have to say that her analysis seems pretty spot-on.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Don’t expect 2014 to be much better for retail sales, trade group warns.
IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Trey Gowdy: Why would Obama prejudge the IRS investigation?
MICKEY KAUS: Falling Through ObamaCare’s Floor? A Mess At The Bottom Of ObamaCare. “The President may decry the lack of economic mobility in America–but he better hope there’s not much mobility up and down around the $20,000-$25,000 level, or else lots of people will be discovering that they’ve been signed up for the wrong health care program. Obamacare’s designers seem to have assumed we really are a corporatist society, with different classes assigned to stable economic levels for life.” Well, that’s the dream.
ROLL CALL: ‘Gang of 8′ Mixed Over Boehner Immigration Comments. “The bipartisan group of eight senators who led the charge to pass a Senate immigration overhaul were mixed over whether reservations on moving a plan voiced by Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, spells the end of the effort this year.” It does if they’re smart.
“SMART DIPLOMACY” UPDATE: Obama bundler nominated as ambassador to Argentina has never been to the country.
THE HILL: Democratic-controlled Senate rejects jobless benefits. Okay, that’s my headline, but it’s fair, considering. . . .
JON LOVITZ HELPS A GAWKER REPORTER make a name for himself.
IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Wall St. Journal: Obama’s IRS ‘Confusion:’ New evidence undercuts White House claims about IRS motivation.
The IRS hyper-scrutiny of conservative groups only began in 2010 amid the Obama Administration’s larger political attack on political donors like the Koch brothers, and emails show that IRS officials were acutely aware of this political environment. In February 2010, for example, an IRS screener in Cincinnati flagged an application to his superiors noting: “Recent media attention to this type of organization indicates to me that this is a ‘high profile’ case.”
From then on applications were routed through the offices of Mrs. Lerner and Obama-appointed IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, and long approval delays ensued. Extensive interviews and emails show that neither the initial Cincinnati interest, nor the subsequent Washington delay, was in any way driven by “confusion.”
Mr. Koskinen promised in December to restore public trust in the IRS, but he didn’t do much of that on Wednesday. He toed the Administration line on the new 501(c)(4) rules, promising to address concerns only “to the extent I have any control” over the process. He refused to say if he’d comply with Mr. Camp’s request for IRS and Treasury documents pertaining to the rule-making, fretting instead about low IRS “morale” and lack of funding.
The quickest way Mr. Koskinen could restore public trust in the IRS would be to halt the new politically toxic 501(c)(4) rules until investigations into the original targeting are complete. Meantime, the House should sharply reduce IRS funding until the agency is more responsive.
Zero out their conference budget. That seems quite important to them. . . .
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why I Did Not Go To Jail. Is a business legal environment like this good for the country?
ROSS DOUTHAT CRITICIZES RON FOURNIER’S LAZY STEREOTYPING. “So Fournier is both attacking conservatives for being wrong about an emerging issue where they aren’t actually wrong, and seeking to bolster his case by invoking an earlier debate on related issues where conservatives also probably weren’t wrong. And his entire argument, in both cases, is that the conservative perspective is mean-spirited.”
I find Fournier considerably better than the average journalist, but this latest affair just serves to remind how low that bar can be.
LAW: Man Charged With Killing Burleson County Deputy No Billed by Grand Jury.
McGee admitted to shooting Sowders before sunrise on December 19th while the deputy and other investigators were serving a no knock search warrant for drugs at McGee’s mobile home near Snook.
Magee’s Defense Attorney Dick DeGuerin says his client thought someone was breaking into his home and fired to protect his pregnant girlfriend and himself.
“Well we feel that the grand jury acted fairly and reasonably and had all of the information that it needed to make the decision that it did. That is that this was a justified shooting and, but we need to say that this is a tragedy,” Dick DeGuerin said.
The dangers of no-knock raids. One of the reasons for the knock-and-announce rule is so that homeowners can assure themselves that their home isn’t being invaded. Sounds like this grand jury did the right thing, but if the sheriff’s department had been more sensible, the deputy would be alive now.
AS JERRY BOWYER QUIPS ON FACEBOOK, A SELF-CRITICAL YEAR WOULD DO THEM MORE GOOD: As Ad Revenue Slips Again, New York Times CEO Calls This ‘A Critical Year.’
Related: The ‘Times,’ They Aren’t Changing.
ROGER SIMON: Sochi, Mon Amour.
PUSHBACK: Eric Cantor’s Big Business Agenda Sparks Primary Challenge. “Dave Brat is challenging Rep. Eric Cantor in a Republican primary — and giving the House majority leader a verbal thrashing on immigration.”
IN WASHINGTON, the most painful speech ever. Which is setting the bar pretty high.
PIERS MORGAN MEETS the Karmic News Network.
WELL, THAT’S A SLOGAN I COULD GET BEHIND: Gov. Terry McAuliffe has added a potent weapon to his bipartisan charm offensive: better booze.
AT AMAZON, deals on Top Valentine’s Day Gifts.
Also, the Kindle Fire HDX.
LIVING WITH “Stiff Person Syndrome.”
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE ONLY sorta “public.” By the way, I’ll be on Stossel on Fox Business talking about education shortly.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Administrator Hiring Drove 28% Boom in Higher-Ed Work Force, Report Says. “What’s more, the report says, the number of full-time faculty and staff members per professional or managerial administrator has declined 40 percent, to around 2.5 to 1. . . . And the kicker: You can’t blame faculty salaries for the rise in tuition. Faculty salaries were ‘essentially flat’ from 2000 to 2012, the report says. And ‘we didn’t see the savings that we would have expected from the shift to part-time faculty,’ said Donna M. Desrochers, an author of the report.”