The Good, The Bad And The Banana Republic

Barack Obama, Democrats, Government, Taxation, The State

Befitting the banana republic he is fashioning, President Camacho “thinks” (and even John Stewart disagrees) that there is not a “smidgen” of corruption in the fact that Catherine Engelbrecht was visited fifteen times by four federal agencies “in a span of two years after her [conservative] group applied for tax-exempt status with the IRS in 2010.”

Reports Breitbart:

Engelbrecht’s business had never been visited by the federal government before:

The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) began a series of inquiries about her and her group; the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) began demanding to see her family’s firearms in surprise audits of her and her husband’s small gun dealership – which had done less than $200 in sales; OSHA (Occupational Safety Hazards Administration) began a surprise audit of their small family manufacturing business; and the EPA-affiliated TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environment Quality) did a surprise visit and audit due to “a complaint being called in.”

Of course, these agencies can be used in legally permissible ways to harass and sabotage any of us.

The vision of everything that’s good about America, Engelbrecht has also endured a personal assault from Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the embodiment of all that is rotten about this country.

Just imagine: As a taxpayer, Catherine Engelbrecht pays Cummings’ way. Using her money, this bit of drek has embarks on a public campaign to smear her name and that of her organization.

UPDATE II: Influenza (Glacial Recovery)

Healthcare, Ilana Mercer

I’ve been waylaid by the nastiest flu I’ve ever had. I’m still incapacitated and largely voiceless. Not since the 1980s, when there was a deadly influenza outbreak in Johannesburg, have I been this ill with flu.

The thing had me beached in bed for days burning up, shaking, drenched in sweat, forced to change bedclothes twice a night; ribs, throat and upper chest on fire because wracked by a persistent, tubercular cough.

This is the first time I’ve been able to sit upright at my PC, other than to crawl here yesterday to tell my editor at WND I’d not be filing this week.

My husband brought this virulent flu strain back from work. I unequivocally hate whoever passed it on to him since it is often the case of “not washing your hands often, not covering your cough and not staying home when you’re sick.” Come to think of it, he passed it on to me …

He was not affected as severely. It’s not that he was not pretty ill, it’s just that it has affected me way worse.

Posting on the blog as well as the weekly WND column will resume as soon as I’m on the mend.

UPDATE I (2/8): Thanks to Wyatt and all others on Facebook for their encouragement. I need to hear that this too will pass. Currently I still fear going to bed at night b/c of the coughing. My ribs feel broken. My voice is gone. Recovery is still a long way off.

UPDATE II (2/12): I’m into my second week of this debilitating flu. Thanks to those who keep asking. Yes, it’s hard to believe it but I’m still pretty ill. Recovery is glacial. I’m at the end of my tether. I suppose improvement is measured in my changing bedclothes only once a night (because drenched in sweat), and coughing for only 2 hours each night. The days are more bearable than the nights.

I’m exhausted.

Bill O And Barack O’s Zero-Info ‘Sparring’

Barack Obama, English, Media, Republicans

During his interview with Barack Obama, which he had advertized non-stop for weeks, Bill O’Reilly acted his trademark abrupt. Nobody much minded given who was sitting opposite him.

Also trademark Fox News was the heavy focus not on the infractions of the healthcare law and the law-makers who midwifed it, but on the technical glitches.

When Obama began bandying about bogus numbers of people who’ve signed up for healthcare, O’Relly might have nabbed him but … didn’t. Instead, on the broadcaster noodled about the need to fire Kathleen Sebelius.

O’Relly did get to the, “If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance” lie, but let it slide without resolution.

For the rest, the interview is vintage Bill O’Reilly bluster. A lot of bravado and noise from O’Reilly; but not much more.

Thanks to Fox News for finally offering a transcript. I usually leave the page when I see one of the network’s big fat pictures of a video clip I’m supposed to watch. Some of us still prefer the written word.