Category Archives: Media Criticism

The IRS General Counsel

July 24, 2013 Rand Simberg 45 Comments

There is no innocent explanation for him to meet with the president:

I can’t for the life of me come up with any kind of innocent explanation for why Obama would have met with the Chief Counsel of the IRS. That meeting shouldn’t ever happen, and especially not without the Commissioner of the IRS being there. Presidents just don’t go to agency chief counsels with legal questions. Presidents don’t go to anyone with legal questions. Their staff does. The idea that the President would sit down with some random agency chief counsel and discuss some pressing legal issue is just bizarre to anyone who has worked in the legal field at that level. I am not sure the reporters covering this story understand how legal advice is actually delivered to the President and just how out of the ordinary that meeting was.

What should really concern the media, and would if they weren’t in the tank, is the number of things that they need to seek innocent explanations for in this administration.

Related: Does this scandal reach into the White House? We should hope so:

…the higher this scandal goes, the better it is for the country. We say that not because we don’t care for Barack Obama–let’s be honest, a President Biden would be no bargain either–but because the president can be held accountable if it turns out he or his top aides essentially instructed the IRS to steal the 2012 election. A corrupt administration can be dealt with, as Richard Nixon’s was 40 years ago.

By contrast, if career IRS employees acted on their own, it means the integrity of American democracy itself is threatened by an out-of-control administrative state. In that case, how to solve the problem is not at all clear.

It would require a complete overhaul and housecleaning of the federal establishment. In fact, I would propose not allowing federal employees to vote. They have too much power as it is, and a huge conflict of interest.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Tax Code

July 23, 2013 Rand Simberg 5 Comments

It needs a blank slate.

Actually, the federal budget does, too. We need to institute zero-based budgeting. But neither is likely to happen, given the nature of the interests involved, and their ability to donate to campaign coffers.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

The Frightening Frontier

July 23, 2013 Rand Simberg 24 Comments

Linda Billings (whom I’ve known for thirty years or so) seems to have a problem with space development and settlement. I’d argue with her, if I could figure out just what her objection is. Perhaps there’s a clue in that she thinks that Howard Zinn’s tracts are just great.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary

The Supreme-Court Shut Outs

July 23, 2013 Rand Simberg 1 Comment

Thoughts on the constitutional recklessness of this administration:

When a president pursues policies that require such expansive federal power that he can’t get a single justice to agree, something is probably amiss.

Such overreach, though, has become a part of our political culture. Administrations of both parties are often unwilling to accept constitutional limits on their authority.

This administration, though, more than most, finds that pesky Constitution to be an impediment to its goals to “transform society.”

History, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary

The Reverse-Mussolini Fallacy