"A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial and uninformed.” Nelson Mandela
January 28, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
It will happen to you if you do something this government doesn’t like. You’ll get a swift kick in your life.
They’ll huff and they’ll puff and they’ll blow your house down. And they won’t leave fingerprints.
Target them, humiliate them, and neutralize them. That’s how it’s done.
A brave few have told what it’s like.
Reporter Sharyl Attkisson investigated Fast and Furious and Benghazi. Unfortunately for her, her facts did not please the White House.
She was bullied, computer-hacked and threatened by both the White House and her bosses at CBS so she finally quit.
So this week as she testified at the confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, the former CBS investigative reporter told the committee:
"If you cross this administration with perfectly accurate reporting they don’t like, you will be attacked and punished. You and your sources may be subjected to the kind of surveillance devised for enemies of the state.”
All Catherine Engelbrecht wanted to do was register her "protection of election integrity organization,” True the Vote, as a non-profit, but instead she was stonewalled by the agency in charge, the Internal Revenue Service.
Then the IRS plus another half dozen government agencies harassed her non-profit and her family business in every way they could.
When Engelbrecht filed a lawsuit against the IRS, it was dismissed by a federal court because, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton explained, he was persuaded the IRS isn’t targeting conservative tax-exempt groups anymore.
Proof? We’re not sure. Maybe the judge heard there wasn’t a "smidgen” of corruption at the IRS.
Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative political commentator and author, made two movies and wrote two books critical of the president. He ended up being prosecuted by the federal government and facing criminal charges for something that is usually a civil offence: violating federal campaign finance laws.
D’Souza admitted he did it and was sentenced to a hefty five years probation, a $30,000 fine and eight months in a community confinement center to undergo "therapeutic counseling.”
As a convicted felon, he can no longer vote. Writing about the 2016 presidential election will be more difficult.
Nothing like that happened to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards. Involved in a messy scandal, Edwards was prosecuted for using $1 million in campaign funds to cover up an illicit love affair.
But he was found not guilty of one of six counts, with mistrials for the rest. Feds said they didn’t have enough evidence, but Americans who followed the story in the news for months knew there was plenty of it.
But does evidence matter? Al Sharpton is an example that for some, it doesn’t.
This One-Percenter has avoided paying more than $4.5 million in personal and non-profit business taxes while comin’ and goin’ to the White House, but was never arrested by the IRS, which is just down the street!
So on and on it goes. And now it’s Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s turn.
After snubbing and insulting the prime minister for years, President Obama has finally had enough of Netanyahu. And why shouldn’t he?
Speaker of the House John Boehner had the nerve to invite Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress without first asking Obama’s permission! So Obama upped the ante.
He deployed his crack campaign team, headed by his 2012 Field Director Jeremy Bird, to Israel to marginalize Netanyahu in the upcoming election, all bought and paid for by American taxpayers.
It wasn’t enough that the Israeli prime minister had rockets hailing down around him in his home town, now he had Obama’s cronies skulking around Israel trying to rig an election!
The good news is that those who are targeted are made of sterner stuff than the man targeting them.
Dinesh D’Souza says he will write his next book while he’s in prison.
Sharyl Attkisson just published her book, "Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation and Harassment in Obama’s Washington.”
Catherine Engelbrecht testified at the Loretta Lynch confirmation hearing and referenced Lynch’s speeches wherein Lynch voiced her opposition voter I.D. laws as racist tools.
Engelbrecht, with her intelligent and no-nonsense comments indicate she has emerged as a strong voice for Americans. Her testimony will ensure that a new attorney general would not just be Eric Holder in a skirt.
And Netanyahu? He’s higher in the polls than ever.
Because they wouldn’t back down.
Remember Gibson Guitars?
In 2011 the company’s workshop was invaded by FBI agents, in SWAT gear, brandishing machine guns. They came to enforce a regulatory violation.
The claim was Gibson had violated a 100-year-old law, the Lacey Act, by purchasing wood illegally, so the feds hauled off $500,000 worth of the stuff.
Interestingly, C.F. Martin and Co., one of Gibson’s biggest competitors, reportedly used the same wood, but did not suffer the same treatment, interruption of business nor legal bills which cost a pretty penny.
And C.F. Martin’s CEO is reportedly a big Democratic fundraiser. Gibson’s CEO, Henry E. Juszkeiwicz is a known supporter of conservative causes.
Probably just a coincidence.
Anyhoo, after the dust settled, Gibson had a cool comeback.
The company made a commemorative guitar from "government confiscated wood” and called it the "Government Series II.”
Gibson described the instrument as "vintage gloss Government Tan finish…topped by a pickguard that’s hot-stamped in gold with the Government Series graphic -- a bald eagle hoisting a Gibson guitar neck.”
In its Press Release, the company said the following:
"Great Gibson electric guitars have long been a means of fighting the establishment, so when the powers that be confiscated stocks of tonewoods from the Gibson factory in Nashville – only to return them once there was a resolution and the investigation ended – it was an event worth celebrating.
"Introducing the Government Series II Les Paul, a striking new guitar from Gibson USA for 2013 that suitably marks this infamous time in Gibson’s history.”
Predictably it sold out.
To whom? People who make it a point not to back down.
Abuse of power to punish political adversaries doesn’t fly here in America. But "The Powers That Be?” Well, they can keep on trying. And we’ll just keep on fighting.
Hold the line, America.