Month: August 2013

I think I could like Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi

I think I could like Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi

I think I could like Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi. I will likely never meet him as he is in prison in Iran and being tortured and relatives fear he is close to death.

Mr. Boroujerdi supports the traditional Shiite view that religious leaders should stay out of politics and preach their messages to the faithful in mosques (maybe a few Christian preachers in the US could learn that lesson). In his words, protesting in 2006, “the regime is adamant that either people adhere to political Islam or be jailed, exiled or killed. Its behavior is no different from that of Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar.”

Mr. Boroujerdi has also preached tolerance of all religious beliefs, including atheism, on the grounds that faith must be freely chosen. Perhaps nothing bothers the Iranian regime more than religious pluralism: In recent years, the country has been swept by the arrests and executions of members of minority groups like the Bahais and Sufi dervishes.

In 2010, a message from Mr. Boroujerdi was smuggled out of Evin prison, delivering a message to the world’s Jews in celebration of Hanukkah. “Any religious belief that brings us closer to (God) is the truth,” he wrote. “This force will lead humanity towards enlightenment. On this great day, we celebrate the unity among the believers of God’s light.”

Yes, I think I could learn from this man. Too bad Iran will make sure he is dead soon.

Article from the Wall Street Journal talking about Mr. Boroujerdi.

Attorney General Holder – please call a special prosecutor

Attorney General Holder – please call a special prosecutor

This is getting bad. We really need a special investigator to be named on the issue of the IRS targeting certain groups. It now “appears” that there was coordination between the IRS and FEC (Federal Election Commission). It seems like every week there is another “Oh by the way, we found another potential abuse of power” story. If you like to read the NY Times, Washington Post, or CNN you may not be seeing these stories but they make the largest paper in the US, The Wall Street Journal.

So it now “appears” that the FEC did an illegal investigation of a couple of groups at the request of the Obama administration. The FEC went outside of its charter and coordinated this investigation with the IRS and the IRS fed them information that “appears” to be illegally shared.

Why is this so important? Simple. Is there anything that is more precious in the US than our right to select our leaders? Some may argue our freedom of religion or freedom of speech (both very important) but each of those only exists because we select our leaders. When people in leadership can “tip the scales in their favor” all of our rights start to diminish. When our leaders can say “That group doesn’t have the right to speak and influence others” then we are in trouble.

I put appears in quotes above because I really don’t know. Neither due the reporters that are trying to dig in. Neither do the Congressmen that are investigating the issue. Neither do you. However, IMO there is enough smoke here to say there is a fire. Without a special investigator, we really won’t know what is going on. I am not throwing stones at the Obama Administration. All I am saying is that there are enough concerns that a special investigator is required and leaving it up to Congressional committees is probably a mistake.

There is an old story that you have likely heard. I will shorten it here:

They came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I didn’t speak out – now there are no Jews. They came for the Muslims, but I was not a Muslim so I didn’t speak out – now there are no Muslims. They came for the gun owners, but I didn’t own a gun so I didn’t speak out – now there are no guns. They are coming for me now and there is no one else to speak out – what am I to do?

RANT:  WHY WON’T ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER NAME A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO LOOK INTO THESE ISSUES? I guess that is a rhetorical question.

If you are so compelled, I suggest that you check out two articles on WSJ.com. If you don’t have a subscription, you can probably Google the topics and someone has probably reposted the entire article somewhere. I don’t like to repost entire content that is secured behind a subscription wall and so will only include a snippet that is allowed under Fair Use.

Another Agency Goes IRS: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323681904578642190875395974.html?mod=trending_now_3

One big question raised by IRS political targeting is whether Obama officials or their bureaucratic allies unleashed the power of the administrative state for partisan ends. Now evidence is emerging that officials at another agency, the Federal Election Commission, used their enforcement power as an anti-conservative sword.

The House Ways and Means Committee this week released emails showing that, in 2008 and 2009, the FEC’s general counsel staff sought tax information about conservative political groups from Lois Lerner of the IRS. Ms. Lerner is the IRS official who took the Fifth before Congress rather than tell her side of the story. She had previously worked at . . . the FEC’s general counsel office.

New Links Emerge in the IRS Scandal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323681904578642180886421040.html

Congressional investigators this week released emails suggesting that staff at the Federal Election Commission have been engaged in their own conservative targeting, with help from the IRS’s infamous Lois Lerner. This means more than just an expansion of the probe to the FEC. It’s a new link to the Obama team.

In May this column noted that the targeting of conservatives started in 2008, when liberals began a coordinated campaign of siccing the federal government on political opponents. The Obama campaign helped pioneer this tactic.

In late summer of 2008, Obama lawyer Bob Bauer took issue with ads run against his boss by a 501(c)(4) conservative outfit called American Issues Project. Mr. Bauer filed a complaint with the FEC, called on the criminal division of the Justice Department to prosecute AIP, and demanded to see documents the group had filed with the IRS.