Wisconsin’s Shame: ‘Every Aspect of My Life Is in Their Hands — and They Hate Me’

‘They came with a battering ram.”
Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full view of the police. Some yelled at her to grab some clothes, others yelled for her to open the door.

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BREAKING: 100% of 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative

Today Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, confirmed that 100% of the established 501(c)(4) groups the IRS selected for audit were conservative. But Obama says their was not a smidgen of corruption in the IRS. The Wall Street Journal reported:   A Republican House committee chairman said the Internal Revenue Service targeted tax-exempt conservative groups for audits, widening the scope of GOP ire over the agency’s oversight of political activities.

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The audacious power creep of the Executive Branch

The expansion of the power of the Executive Branch of our federal government, during the last decade, is both unprecedented and troubling. All of the Presidents that served our nation between 1945 and 2001 appointed a total of only about forty four czars, on average, less than one appointee per year. Nearly half of those appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The last two Presidents have appointed a total of about ninety two czars during the past thirteen years. On average, that is about eight appointments each year. Fully two thirds of those appointments were made without confirmation by the Senate. The rapid increase in the number of appointments, as well as the move away from the requirement for Senate confirmation, represents a significant shift away from the checks and balances established in the U.S. Constitution.

Moreover, the last two Presidents have issued a total of 455 Executive Orders. Presidential Executive Orders have the full force of federal law, until and unless, they are countermanded by a subsequent Executive Order, or by an act of Congress.

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Absurd Government Law Enforcement: The Great Organic Blackberry Raid

Government officials do some really crazy things in the name of law enforcement.

I recently wrote about an armed raid on an animal shelter in order to execute a baby deer.

That was paramilitary overkill (pun intended), though it probably didn’t waste as many tax dollars as the regulatory overkill of the year-long sting operation by the Food and Drug Administration against an Amish farm for the horrible crime of selling unpasteurized milk to consenting adults who prefer unpasteurized milk.

And let’s not forget Robert Norlander, the thuggish, dumpster-diving IRS agent, who sought to ruin the life of an innocent man because…well, for no reason.

Well, we now have something that may be even more absurd.

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The Demise of Legitimate Political Authority

Some forty years ago, in his groundbreaking study, Twilight of Authority, sociologist Robert Nisbet observed a disturbing trend in American culture. As respect for authority had declined among the population, he wrote, members of that population became increasingly willing to accept and actually applaud an increasingly powerful, albeit less legitimate, government

 The notion of true authority, Nisbet wrote, assumes the strength of two essential social qualities—hierarchy, and privacy. Yet both are fading before our eyes. For Nisbet, the egalitarian agenda of the elites—especially the liberal intelligentsia—is a driving engine of social collapse. It crushes a rich, varied, and multidimensional culture featuring an ­array of localities, organizations, institutions, and voluntary associations. The collapse produces a paltry pancake of “equality of result”—a result both fed and enforced by an ever more powerful government.

Read more at Crisis Magazine

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