The Rise of the Fourth Branch of Government

Washington Post ^ | May 24th, 2013 | Jonathan Turley

[teeman8r]

we need to ignite the first branch of government... WE THE PEOPLE.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

The Rise of the Fourth Branch of Government:

"The Ministry of Denial"?

"Liars-R-Us"?

Many will talk, but few will be truthful.

[Liz]

....it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. Pres Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Dept, at DOJ, or the IRS. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand......

Holder said "I don't know" so many times at the Congressional hearing----I was beginning to think he had had a lobotomy....that, or he's got incipient Alzheimer's'. And now know-nothing Dems exhibit the same symptons.(somebody oughta check the Walter Reed Hospital records).

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REALITY CHECK I’m afraid America is stuck with these surly malcontents and the gang of Chi/mobsters (that includes the slimy wife). These haters finally got their hands on power——they have total control over the white Christians they despise and they don’t intend to let go-—no matter what slime oozes up over the WH. They're not going to quit-—even though the wrongdoing and abuse of power is mounting, as we type. The more dirt that’s uncovererd, the more determined he is to stay the course.

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THERE ARE BETTER OPTIONS TO NAIL THESE CON ARTISTS Let's not exhaust ourselves w/ special prosecutors, impeachment, and so forth. Here's several ways to move forward....that effectively thwart cunning, slippery con artists like the know-nothing Dems, Holder, Obama, the IRS' Shulman and Lerner, and so on.

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EXHIBIT ONE---A "PATTERN" OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR under RICO laws is considered "racketeering" and is eminently prosecutable. Note: Anyone can file a RICO suit (how-to's online)

PAPER TRAIL PATTERN OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR At the IRS, the FEC, the ATF, at Justice, at DOE, at the FBI, at Boston and Benghazi, at the Federal Reserve Bank, at Solyndra, the govt factotum's answer always the same: “Oops. We made a mistake.” And they don’t just make one mistake; they make a series of mistakes, they obfuscate, then they lie, they then lie about the lie.......

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EXHIBIT TWO----(a) DOJ went after journos, (b) the IRS and FEC targeted and harrassed conservative/Christian groups, and it appears that (c) Obama has ordered "hands-off." Taxpayers are being extorted---having to pay Lerner while she steps down. No one at IRS has been formally reprimanded and a spokesperson for their powerful federal union said it hasn’t been called in, as yet. Most IRS employees involved in the targeting program are given federal protections that could drag out the termination process.

FReeper showme_the_Glory reminds us of the practice of "pencil whipping."

DEFINITION To complete an official form, record, or document without having performed the implied work or without supporting data or evidence. Pencil-whipping an official document incurs jailtime. As well, faslsifying official documents incurs 4-5 felonies and could involve criminal forgery.

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EXHIBIT THREE----FREEPER DIOGENESIS WISELY SUGGESTS local grand juries should begin indicting Congresspeople and Senators for FAILING TO UPHOLD THE LAW AGAINST FELONIES.A few felony convictions and imprisonment oughta wake up the treasonous Congress (that supports al Qaeda and Communism).

KEEP IN MIND---those elected to office are supposed to adhere to a higher standard of law than we peons....but have never been held to account.....til now.

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EXHIBIT FOUR----Dump impeachment----in favor of our taking over Congress. When conservatives are running things---we screw up his agenda---and wont need to waste our time and resources impeaching this guy.

AS FREEPER GRAMPADAVE INSIGHTFULLY POSTED: Take over both the house and $inate and keep Obozo in office as a living reason for sane Americans to get rid of Rats in Congress and across the country. Tell the rats we want to keep Herr Obozo in office while we remove his fellow rats. If they/the rats want him out of office because he is killing their party, they can do it.

[nikos1121]

Worse yet... absolutely the worst is the fact that thes bastar*ds work for us, the people, yet they’re unionized!!!!!

They collect dues... that in turn go to the democrats...

The only way it changes if conservatives across the board are elected to office.

[nikos1121]

Yes...These two bit senators have ruined this country....both sides... They don’t represent the people.

[andy58-in-nh]

A great deal changed in America, especially around 1913.

[Bob]

I’d suggest reading a few more of Turley’s article. He’s not you typical WaPo barking moonbat leftist.

[Lancey Howard]

It sounds like Turley is trying to absolve the African communist of any blame for all the corruption swirling around him. “He didn’t know anything. Government is too big. It’s not his fault.”

[Jacquerie]

I think the importance of party interests would diminish a lot upon 17th repeal.

Party interests would compete once again with States’ interests.

Even Senators from CA, IL, NY would have to look over their shoulders at their State Assemblymen who would not view kindly at the dozens of unfunded mandates forced on the States since FDR.

Senators liberated from the whims of the people could flip Presidents like 'Bam the middle finger and not suffer loss of office.

[Political Junkie Too]

Agreed.

-PJ

[Jacquerie]

I don't think Congress understands how dissolution of the republic is staring straight at them.

I've never missed a federal election since I cast my first vote for Nixon in 1972.

Last year, I gave a hard time to some Freepers who sat out the election.

There is a developing chance I'll sit out, rather than participate any further in the growing charade, this farce of what is supposed to be self government.

[Beagle8U]

A whole article on the ‘hidden in plain sight’ 4th branch of Government and it still fails to identify it.

The Problem is the ‘public sector’ unions that really are running things.

Even if you appoint/hire/elect a department head that does things right it won't change if they don't have the power to fire those that screw things up.

Dig into any Gov scandal and peal away the outer layer and you will find a rotten Commie Union at it's core.

[KeyLargo]

Republican lawmakers hear complaints about wider abuses from IRS
By Daniel Strauss - 05/25/13 06:00 AM ET

Several Republicans say their constituents have come to them with examples of Internal Revenue Service intimidation that goes beyond the agency’s targeting of conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate say they’ve been told of other examples of bullying since the IRS apologized for targeting Tea Party groups.

“Oh, there’s a slew of them,” said Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. He said several lawmakers on the panel had been given tips about over-aggressive actions by the IRS.

Tiberi is one of several lawmakers who went public this week with allegations of wider abuses by the IRS. He and the other officials acknowledged the complaints from their constituents could be true or false, and said that they intended to look into the matters.

“I’m certainly going to spend a lot of time looking into it,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, who heard complaints from constituents who claimed they were audited by the IRS after making substantial donations to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

The complaints come amid a wide-ranging scandal at the IRS, where a government watchdog report found some conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status were subjected to broader scrutiny because of their politics. IRS officials subjected groups with the words “Tea Party,” for example, to heavier scrutiny.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/301911-gop-lawmakers-hear-complaints-about-wider-abuses-from-irs#ixzz2UPN30wDq
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

[where's_the_Outrage?]

OK, what am I missing here?

In 1962, there were 2,515,000 federal employees.

Today, we have 2,840,000 federal workers in 15 departments, 69 agencies and 383 nonmilitary sub-agencies.

So in 40 years we had increased 325,000 employees. How is that important?

[Starboard]

Every agency you can think of has been infiltrated and is now controlled by the agenda-laden left.
*******
Absolutely true. Government work has a unique appeal to liberals.

You say “infiltrated”; I say a more accureate word would be infested.

[livius]

Yes, even the Romans knew about giving free stuff as a successful electoral technique!

[livius]

I think you’re correct in your assessment of the 17th Amendment, but I think it’s highly unlikely that it will ever be repealed, alas.

[Spok]

If Obama and his minions are truly ignorant about what the bureaucracies are doing, they’ve made the argument that our government is too big and out of control.

[Cen-Tejas]

........look, you cannot attack these bureaucracies through our worthless, citizens have no standing courts, so, an oblique is required, ........ these hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats cannot show up to work every day WITHOUT A PAYCHECK..............there are TWO solutions:

1. DEFUND, DEFUND, DEFUND

2. Then, declare every one of the regulations passed since Obama stole the office of the president NULL AND VOID. If a conservative congress thinks one or two of the tens of thousands of regs is worth keeping, so be it, pass it again!

INDEED, arguably, National Government DEFUNDING is on the march as many cities are finding out. In San Bernardino and Stockton (just for 2 illustrations), the police forces have been cut in half (by some estimates) because the dummies got the TOTAL cost of one cop up to $150,000 a year! At the courthouse, whole courtrooms have been shut down and walled off, Firemen have been laid off and I could go on and on endlessly. So DEFUNDING of bureaucracies is already on the march Nationwide and coming to the Feds soon! Inexorably, this is what happens when LIBERALS over-reach and obtain, temporarily, too much political power.

[loveliberty2]

Thanks for posting, Jacquerie.

We recognize, of course, that the progressives' so-called "living constitution" idea has contributed mightily to the dangerous proliferation of coercive government power, whether implemented by underlings (Turley's "fourth branch") or by Congressmen, Senators, the President, or the Judiciary.

Had elected officials taken their Oaths of fidelity to the Constitution seriously, rejected efforts to expand their power and to grow bureaucracies under their various branches and departments, such monstrosities as we see today could not exist.

Now, we have Senator McCain dissing men like Senators Cruz and Lee who use their voices to call attention to the Constitution and its limits.

Those who, like John McCain, have held "office" in government for extended periods become too occupied with the trappings and habits of office than with the great principles of freedom their "office" was designed to protect and defend.

Note, please, Edmund Burke on the effect of "office" on a government official:

". . . it may be truly said, that men too much conversant with office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted. These forms are adapted to ordinary occasions; and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do admirably well as long as things go on in their common order; but when the high roads are broken up, and the waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, and a far more extensive comprehension of things, is requisite, than ever office gave, or than office can ever give." - Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., on American Taxation April 19, 1774 [Second Edition. Dodsley, 1775.] here.

Now that a new generation of thinkers, men and women who have utilized new technologies to read the great literature of liberty surrounding the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, and the framing of "the People's" Constitution for limiting their government, the old guard, like McCain, who merely sought "office" and perpetuated themselves in that office are understandably without a clue as to how to respond to discussions of principles and ideas.

It is up to us, the citizens of America, to join the new guard who understand that there are ideas too essential to liberty to be traded away in the kind of "habits of office" (Burke) McCain refers to in his sniping, ". . . maybe the senator from Utah ought to learn a little bit more about how business has been done in the Congress of the United States.”

Now, "when the high roads are broken up, and the waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent," is the time for statesmen whose minds are focused on first principles and how to preserve liberty for future generations.

Senators Lee and Cruz, please attend to Burke's wisdom, for it is high time for "a greater knowledge of mankind, and a far more extensive comprehension of things. . . than ever office gave, or than office can ever give." McCain's focus on a "legacy" for this Congress and for President Obama reflects a small mind focused on "office"--not a "greater knowledge" of the sad history of civilization's struggle for liberty.

"...nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society." - John Adams

"Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it." - John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, 1777

"[Our Departed Ancestors] task (and nobly they performed it) [was] to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." - Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838

By growing bureaucracies and then claiming a lack of knowledge of their danger to freedom, liberty is being eroded and and destroyed for future generations. That seems, by Lincoln's definition, to herald a Republic's "death by suicide."