Phony Scandals Are the Product of the Triumvirate of Hypocrisy

On Friday, Governor Palin hammered President Obama for characterizing his lapses of leadership, his administration's corruption, and his neglect of the Constitution  as merely "phony scandals":

 

 On her "redneck whiteboard", Governor Palin noted several real scandals of the Obama White House: 1) IRS targeting of Tea Party groups 2) Benghazi 3) Accessing Fox News journalist, James Rosen's email 4) NSA spying 5) Holder's perjury 6) Fast and Furious 7) Obamacare lies...and the list continues. Governor Palin is the perfect person to distinguish between real and phone scandals. When she took the reins as Governor, she did so on the heels of a massive vote buying scandal that indicted members of the Alaska legislature and Governor Murkowski's staff. Prior to that, she had called out the real scandal of the head of the Alaska GOP, Randy Ruedrich, doing party business on state time. She recognizes scandal because she has often had to clean it up.

 When it comes to Governor Palin herself, the media, the Left, and establishment Republicans have all tried to spin faux scandals as legitimate scandals and have tried to turn lies and half truths into scandals. During the 2008 presidential campaign, the media claimed that Palin, as mayor, tried to ban books before they were even written. Some in the media, and people like Andrew Sullivan to this day, questioned that she was the mother of her son, Trig. The Left once tried to claim that  during Palin's childhood, the Heath family, received socialized medicine in Canada (before Canada even had universal health care).  At one point in 2010, the media tried to turn the language in her speaking contracts into a giant scandal over, gasp, bottles of water and bendable straws. The media and the Left have searched her emails looking for scandal only to find that she was a hard working dedicated governor. Recently, the media, the Left and the Establishment GOP have all tried to paint her as a consultant-laden, hypocritical politico because she dared to have her PAC spend money on things like postage.   The list could go on and on of examples of phony scandals drudged up by the triumvirate of hypocrisy--of the media, the Left, and the Establishment GOP.

If the Obama administration is trying to find phony scandal, look no further than all the garbage that has been thrown at Governor Palin over the years. Real scandal lies in the fact that the American people have been the targets of intense, gratuitous IRS scrutiny, that the 4th amendment has been desecrated by the NSA, and that four brave, patriotic men died in Benghazi because of a lack of true leadership. Those are real scandals, and it is an insult to the American people to assume we are in capable of recognizing the truth about the lies of the Obama administration.

H/T to "Woot6" for the inspiration for this post.

Crossposted here and here. 

How Violations of Privacy and Broad Brush Strokes Diminish Human Dignity

Between the seemingly daily revelation of the federal (and even local) government's violations of Americans' privacy and the media and political reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict, the constant disregard for the human dignity has become tiresome.

Over the past couple months, we have learned that the federal government is collecting metadata on our phone calls (e.g. who we've called and how long we talked with them) and that local police departments are able to take photos of our licence plates, sometimes keeping such photos (and a snapshot of our location at a given time) indefinitely. Obamacare includes numerous ways in which the IRS will collect information regarding not only our income, but our health insurance, and often share this with other agencies. Immigration reform proposals have included national biometric databases, and gun control proposals have included changes to HIPAA regulations to allow doctors to disclose mental health information about patients.  Common core educational policy includes massive data tracking of American children.

The federal government collects all of this data on our lives (often "accidentally" disclosing it) often without our consent. Essentially, we become naked before the government, in an informational sense-- our private data laid bare. This diminishes human dignity...and our liberty. The government knows (or has in place the potential to know) the intricate details of our comings and goings, and this makes us less free. It also means that the government knows our uniqueness, but only in the terms of categorical or continuous variables in some massive database that would put Karl Rove to shame.

While the surveillance state and a "big brother" government seek to know the unique details of our lives, the paternalism of such ideology also seeks to paint us with broad brush strokes of generalities. When a horrific shooting occurs in Aurora, Colorado or Newtown, Connecticut or when a  FBI investigation or trial verdict violates preconceptions, the President calls for soul searching. In doing so he paints Americans with a broad brush--all Americans have the meditations in our heart to kill or to act in a racist manner.  We're a nation of cowards, according to Eric Holder. Somehow the government that seeks the unique details of our lives, also paints us as violent and racist across the board--even while they rightfully call out those who paint African Americans with broad brush strokes. This violates our dignity. We are not seen as unique individuals judged by the content of character through our words and actions. We are prejudged as needing to soul search because of the actions of others, not ourselves.

Again, the government seeks to become god. However, the true God both knows the number of hairs on our heads ( Matthew 10:30), and He does so without having to keep a massive database. He has discerned the words on our lips before we speak them (Psalm 139:4).  He knows the motivations of our hearts. The true "prism" is not a data mining surveillance government surveillance program, nor the "soul searching" prism through which the President often patronizing instructs us to view the world. The true prism by which we must see those around us is by through the prism of everyone being created in the image of God. This is the only way to ensure we are treating others with the dignity they deserve. God is the only one who truly knows such intricate details of our lives, and He is the only one who knows our motivations.

Crossposted here and here.

President Obama Touts Reverse ATM Plan to Create Jobs and Smarter Government

Today, President Obama gave a speech to tout his new plan for smarter government. Part of this plan includes opening up government data and use technology to create jobs.

President Obama stated, " ATMs have proven to be a form of technology that has taken away the jobs of hard-working Americans. Let me be clear, under our plan, we will create a reverse ATM system that creates jobs and provides more government data, increased transparency, and stronger revenues. After all, the government is something we all belong to. The American people's data are the government's data".

The Obama administration has touted itself as being the most transparent administration in America's history. They hope that their reverse ATM system will provide an easier way to transfer funds and information from the American people to their government in addition to creating jobs. The Obama administration has recently proven that it can be transparent with Americans' credit card account information and social security numbers. This is the kind of transparency that they have been seeking and hope that the development of the reverse ATM will provide high tech jobs and even more efficient ways to collect information.

The Obama administration is hoping to tap Jon Corzine to lead this initiative. Corzine was recently absolved of criminal wrongdoing in the disappearance of more than a billion dollars of clients' investments, yet has been currently under review from the CFTC. Such a record makes him a perfect fit for the Obama administration. *Please note: This is only satire.* Crossposted here.