What other current issues can we attribute to liberalism you may wonder? Take Benghazi – here is a ME outpost that sits in a chaotic country void of any leadership, specifically because of the recent actions of our military, and one that is rife with rogue and radical elements. The current liberal brain trust, which included Ambassador Stevens, thought that reinforced security measures were not important, and would send the wrong message, primarily because liberalism believes that the US military is part of what’s wrong with this world, not what is right. Therefore, their cavalier attitude towards radical elements resulted in four American deaths, and their attempt to obfuscate that fact has resulted in the recent scandal.

The IRS – liberalism believes that any opposition towards their high-minded policies is tantamount to malicious obstructionism and borderline treason (see Michael Moore), therefore, the intense scrutiny the IRS applied towards groups opposed to the administration was in line with the culture that liberalism creates.

The debt – Every dollar taxed and sent to Washington DC, is another dollar stripped from the private market, rendering it less powerful and more dependent on the government. It’s really that simple. By creating crisis’s that require additional spending and running up the debt, the Federal Government can convince their loyal base that taxes need to increase and the problems they face are not because of any actions of their own or the government, but because those with the money refuse to pay their “fair share”. Take for example Oklahoma – the Democrats are claming that they need to borrow more money to pay for the storm, are demonizing conservatives for wanting off sets, and not reminding anyone of the fact that Obama just sent $200 million to Syrian refugees that could have been used for the storm, or that there is $11 billion currently in the FEMA account. They are simply exploiting a crisis to rile up their base, demonize an opponent, and take more money away from the private sector.

These are just a few examples of what the disease of progressivism has wrought, and if we continue down this path, these and other problems will only persist and expand. As David Axlerod recently admitted, the Federal Government is too vast, our debt is too big, our problems are too pronounced, and our labor force is too small, but our country is too important. We currently have a President that does nothing, and knows nothing so it is incumbent upon us to be diligent and engaged if we are to ever repeal the progressive efforts, policies and mindsets that brought us to this point.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan.  Axelrod tweeted that he hopes the bridge collapse will induce us mean, evil Republicans to pass more spending for infrastructure.  This is the kind of nonsense I think all of us on the right are sick of.  Axelrod’s President has been in office for more than four years; trillions of extra money has been spent since Obama took office, a great deal of it justified as money to rebuild infrastructure and here’s comes one of the dunces who put Obama in office to demand that we GOPers agree to spend even more money!  Tell you what, Axelrod, maybe if you and your buddy Barry hadn’t use the last pile of money just to keep your union buddies employed then that bridge would have been fixed!  I hold Obama and Axelrod personally responsible for this – they didn’t do their jobs and a bridge collapsed.  They’ve had more than four years to ensure that all bridges are inspected and necessary repairs done.  That is more than enough time – though I guess what with all the vacations, golf outings and neglect of embassy security, fixing bridges escaped our President’s notice.

As some of you know, my daughter is a liberal and voted for Obama in the last two elections. In 2008, she and I were at odds, and the dialogue was heated on occasion, but being that she is my daughter, I made a point to converse on a range of topics outside of politics and when the conversation did circle back around to politics, I was tempered as was she. Consequently, we have had some very good conversations. A while back I sent Mitch a personal email at his request, and in the beginning we did battle each other on political issues, which of course we were at odds over, but slowly the conversation turned to other issues and common ground was struck. In my opinion, life is simply too short to personally attack each other on line. This doesn’t mean that I have stopped contributing, campaigning, writing on, and voting for the demise of liberalism, as that is a passion of mine that will not abate anytime soon, but I also realize that at my age, heated rhetoric is something I choose to largely ignore and wish everyone on this blog, conservatives and liberals, would also adhere to. Simply voice your opinion on the issue du jour, or comment on your over arching ideology, be prepared to defend it civilly, and don’t be offended by those who try to drag you down into the swamp. I also ask of Matt and Mark to delete posts that do insult and harangue, and if it doesn’t stop, to ban the commentator, and that includes me. I would like to see a new direction at B4V, one that actually provokes thought, converses on a range of topics, and one that welcomes civil and insightful input from a diverse group. What do you think the chances of that are?

In keeping with the spirit of the blog, my issue du jour is – The Fifth! Hard to believe that Lois Lerner plead the Fifth. I think it does more harm to the regime than good. It just reeks of malicious intent. Furthermore, why is Sarah Hall Ingram not testifying? And why is she being promoted to oversee the ACA enforcement? This whole IRS scandal doesn’t pass the smell test.

The final straw has been the story of the Obama Administration’s pursuit of Fox News correspondent James Rosen – when coupled with the investigation of the Associated Press and the rampant abuse of power by the IRS, what we have here is an Administration which (a) does not care about the law, (b) is willing to act routinely in an un-American manner and (c) views its political opponents as worthy targets for criminal investigations.  Furthermore, even slavish devotion to Obama (as routinely carried out by the Associated Press) is no defense: as in tyrannies past, all you need do to destroy years of being a toady is just once step out of line.

Of course, to set the record entirely straight, this isn’t all just Obama.  For more than a century, now, we’ve had Presidents willing to cut constitutional corners.  Indeed, the first Chief Executive to introduce extra-constitutional acts in to the Administration was Republican Theodore Roosevelt, honored to this day both on the left and the right as a great and good President – but it was Roosevelt who first asserted that unless the Constitution specifically forbade a government act, it was legitimate.  This stands in stark contrast to, say, Grover Cleveland, Andrew Jackson and other, earlier Presidents who had, at times, vetoed legislation not because they thought the law wrong, but because they found no warrant for it in the Constitution.  From Teddy Roosevelt through Wilson to FDR to Nixon to Obama is a straight line – with plenty of others along the way since 1901 also playing fast and loose with the law (really, only Coolidge in the 20′s put a brake on such actions).  But there is a difference, now, in what Obama has done.

And once again setting the record entirely straight, there is a lot of similarity between Obama’s actions and Nixon’s in the early 70′s – especially in using the IRS as a bludgeon against opponents (there are also some strong indicators that Clinton used the IRS in a similar manner, though no where near the brazenness of Nixon and Obama).  But, still, even with the record of Nixon before us, Obama stands in a world apart – taking steps which are not just corrupt or illegal or corner-cutting, but in direct contravention of all that Americans have fought and bled for over more than two centuries.  The stories of IRS agents demanding what amounts of loyalty oaths from pro-lifers not to picket Planned Parenthood and demanding to know how conservatives pray are just disgusting – so horrific and un-American that I never imagined that someone sharing my citizenship could ever ask such things.  These attacks against freedom of speech and religion are joined with attacks on freedom of the press – with the Administration seeking to intimidate reporters in to silence (doubly strange given that 90% of reporters are devoted to Obama).  We have here an Administration which not only doesn’t like opposition (no Administration actually does, of course), but which is determined to stamp out dissent – determined, that is, that only Administration propaganda be allowed in America, all other voices silenced.

This is not – or, at least, should not be – a left/right issue.  This is about basic, American freedoms.  It is no business of government how I pray, whom I decide to picket or what news I choose to report or read.  There is no legitimate reason for government to even query me on such subjects as no such actions can in any way, shape or form risk the liberty and safety of the American people which our government was created to secure.  A thorough investigation needs to be conducted.  All those involved – whether as actual law-breakers or those who knew of it but didn’t report it – must be dismissed from further government employment.  Strict laws must be enacted prohibiting any such action in the future.  Permanent, non-partisan oversight must be established over all federal law enforcement agencies – over any agency which can take an American’s life, liberty or property, that is.

As a final thought – shame on us, fellow Americans.  We have sunk very low and our ancestors must be ashamed of us.  Those who died fighting for our liberty must be turning in their graves.  That it took such shocking actions to even partially wake us up is sad commentary on how used to government power we’ve become.  Our ancestors would have been outraged over all this a long time ago.  It is time to call a halt to this abuse of power – this tyrannical use of the federal government against dissenters.  It is time to restore the balance – with the scales massively weighted in favor of the liberty of the American people.

Discuss these and other topics amongst yourselves – be civil and pithy.

As far as the Special Prosecutor goes, because it is appears that quite a lot of law-breaking has been going on in the Obama Administration and we simply cannot trust Attorney General to enforce the law.  Heck, we can’t be certain Holder even knows what a law is (no indications that Obama knows what a law is, either).  When people break laws – and especially when they break laws in positions of public trust – then just must be done.  It is the only way to ensure that the American people have confidence that their government, on the whole, is honestly run.  If rampant criminality is allowed to flourish, then the remaining shreds and tatters of respect for the government will fall – and just about anything can happen, at that point.  Tyrants rise upon the ruins of corrupt governments, my friends – a Special Prosecutor empowered to investigate all of the Obama scandals (especially the IRS, Fast and Furious and voter intimidation issues) will go a long way towards convincing people that crime is punished, even among the powerful.

For the Select Committee, the task is to figure out just how Obama and Co have managed to subvert our government institutions and then to propose legislation to fix the problem.  Clearly, the President has far too much latitude in carrying out the duties of his office and it is time the Imperial Presidency is reigned in and brought firmly back under the rule of law.  Severe criminal penalties must be enacted for even the lowest-level government officials who engage in partisan political activity – this to prevent the bosses from getting the troops to do things, then claiming that it was just low level staffers out of control.  But a 25 year jail term on doing things like the IRS agents did and they’ll pause before following orders.  These days, Congress writes vague laws and leaves it up to the Judiciary and Executive to sort them out – that must stop.  Very specific laws need to be written clearly defining the responsibilities of personnel all up and down the federal chain of command and clearly stating what they may or may not do, especially as regards partisan political activity.  A Select Committee would be able to find out who is doing what, why and how it may be stopped.

Of course, we also need to reign in the power of Congress, and the Courts, as well – but right now it is the Executive (greedy, corrupt and incompetent) which is threatening the liberties of the American people and it must be brought to heel.

And don’t forget, if you really want to know what has happened in the past four years, pick up your copy of 150 Reasons Why Barack Obama is the Worst President in History, today.

UPDATE:  Seems that the White House, getting at a loss, has decided to go with a “we’re idiots” defense regarding Benghazi.  No, you didn’t read that wrong:

“We’re portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots,” said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. “It’s actually closer to us being idiots.”

I still think they are liars, too.

I have a feeling that Obama might actually be pleased that the IRS and AP scandals surfaced this week as it does distract from his deplorable absence on the Benghazi issue. What President is absent during a raid on an embassy in the ME? What Secretary of State doesn’t even call the second in charge back (Hicks), in Libya for two days following his plea to evacuate?  These actions by Obama and Clinton are indefensible. Obama claims he wants to bring those responsible to justice? Well he had the chance to get those responsible the night of the attack, but chose to disappear. And furthermore, he has yet to bring any of those people responsible to justice.

The IRS issue gets deeper by the day. The number of targeted groups swells to nearly 500, the discovery that liberal groups were receiving IRS approvals within days, including Obama’s brother, while conservative groups were being held up, and the possibility that some leaked IRS reports on Romney were used against him. Nixon was impeached for this kind of activity, so it doesn’t surprise me that Obama is being held to account, and surprisingly by the mainstream media as well. I was shocked when Joe Scarborough lit Axlerod up this morning on MSNBC. If Obama loses his sycophantic media support, he could be in a real bind. The next few weeks will be fun to watch.

UPDATE:  We want to thank Robert Jetter for giving us the opportunity to discuss the book on his show; we had a great time in a free-ranging discussion of the book and its implications and we hope that you’ll take the opportunity to listen at your leisure.

Since we cannot ban the savage practice of elective abortion at the moment, the lesson here is to start strictly regulating the abortion industry.  Time to start applying a little bit of liberalism’s onerous regulations to this one area of the economy liberals have demanded a free market in (except for they also demand that the taxpayer’s subsidize it).  Independent inspections must be part of this – at least quarterly all records of an abortuary must be examined by competent, outside medical, legal and accounting experts who are not in any way connected to the abortion industry.  This will at least reduce the number of Gosnell-like horrors…and it will be firmly pro-life in effect because I’ll bet money that strict supervision will drive a significant number of abortionists out of business.

Aside from that, we have to make sure that “pro-choice” owns this.  This is what pro-choice, in practice, leads to.  You want to say that no one can in any way, shape or form interfere with the ability of a woman to kill her unborn child?  Then this is what you get – because under the cover of “pro-choice” the abortion industry has ensured that Gosnell can happen.  Pro-choice now equals Kermit Gosnell.

But it occurs to me that  maybe a lot of people are not understanding the purpose of the book.  Its not just a hit piece of Obama – it is not designed merely to feed right wing anger, nor serve as a provocation of the left.  The purpose of the book is, quite simply, to ensure that the full truth of Obama is available.  Matt came up with the idea a few days after the election – both of us were flabbergasted that Obama had been re-elected.  As fairly well-informed observers – and seconded by many expert electoral forecasters – we were both of the opinion that Obama was done.  His horrifically bad record and the terrible state of the nation indicated that any reasonably credible alternative would be chosen – and Romney was certainly at least that.  But, in the event, Obama managed to win – with a gigantic reduction in votes over 2008, but still a win.  How to account for it?  Lots of people have put out reasons for this and there is plenty of blame to go around – and much work to do on the GOP/Conservative side of the aisle to refurbish our message and our electoral tactics:  but for Matt and I, a large part of the problem seemed to be that a majority of voters were unaware of just how bad Obama has been.

And this view was borne out as we wrote the book and repeatedly came across absolutely terrible Obama actions which neither of us were aware of prior to writing the book.  In its initial genesis, we were going to write “50 Reasons”.  Then it grew to “100 Reasons”; eventually we flew right past 150 and realized that we could keep going but we’d better cut it off at 150, to ensure that the book was published before Obama left office.  I am quite certain that even the most informed person out there will be several score things in the book which he had not heard of.  Just to take one, small example – answer to yourself honestly:  how many of you know that Obama let out a no-bid contract for a smallpox vaccine which (a) cannot be tested on humans and (b) cost $255 per dose when regular smallpox vaccines cost $3 a dose?  The boss of the vaccine maker is, of course, a big Democrat donor.  And this is really rather small beans compared to other things – it was included in the book because it illustrates the larger pattern of Obama:  which is that everything done is to serve his political needs and there is no law which won’t be broken, at need, in order to serve Obama’s political needs.

Now, as to just why Obama would subordinate everything to his personal, political needs is open for debate – none of us can peer in to his soul and see exactly why he’s doing this.  Maybe it is to impose a socialist dictatorship on us – on the other hand, maybe it just to set up all his friends and cronies in vast wealth so that they can all be fat and happy after Obama leaves office.  I don’t know – and don’t actually care, because the result of a President subordinating all to himself is the same whether he’s a tyrant or a grafter:  the breakdown of government and the end of liberty are the sure results of either action.  And that is why Obama is the worst President in history – because whether from accident or design, Obama’s policies, carried through long enough, could prove fatal to the ability of Americans to successfully govern themselves.  If everything is for sale and everything at the service of the Ruling Class, then even if Obama doesn’t want to be a tyrant, he’ll ensure we eventually get one because a nation will not remain ungoverned – and if we can’t govern ourselves because of government corruption, then someone will govern us…if for no other reason than just to keep the wheels moving and people fed.

This does not have to be put in historical perspective – this is not a debate about whether or not ObamaCare will be as good or bad as Social Security.  Once you take each Obama action and put it in to relation to all, you see what is happening – and it is horrible for our nation.  And it is terribly sad that people didn’t see it in 2012…though, of course, the media hiding things for Obama helped Obama carry it out.  Everything we state in the book is sourced – it was all reported.  But it was reported on page A-32 of the newspaper, or in the last 30 seconds of the Sunday night newscast, or some such.  And it wasn’t at all relentlessly reported, as it all would have been had Obama had an (R) after his name.  We have gathered it together; it is now available for anyone to see, if they want.  I strongly urge everyone to buy it – especially if you are an Obama supporter.  If you are, then you’ve been taken for a ride – a con-artist has bamboozled you in to betraying even your liberalism and its time you found it out.  Meanwhile, fellow conservatives, it is also time for you to see the whole story – because we won’t be able to defeat Obama until we see all of what he’s doing and thus fight against all his efforts.