Who was famous for saying that there is a "..never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way?" Was it one of our founding fathers or was it the mysterious man wearing a blue and red cape and a large letter 'S' emblazoned on his chest? If you guessed Superman, you are correct!
If you haven't been living under a rock you've heard plenty about the three scandals aka 'scandalpalooza' that have rocked the White House over the last few weeks; the Benghazi hearings, the AP phone tapping scandal and the IRS targeting conservative groups by denying their organizations tax exempt status to stall their efforts during the 2012 presidential election cycle.
I am a new blogger for TexasGOPvote.com and I was lucky enough to be at the IRS hearing conducted by Committee of Oversight and Government Reform which is chaired by Representative Darryl Issa R-CA. Now, a little background on myself might be helpful here. I am a tea partier along with being part of the GOP. I was at the first tea party held here in Houston, Texas in 2009 and all of the subsequent tea party rallies and helped coordinate a few of those as well. I have personally worked hundreds if not thousands of hours on different projects, strategy meetings and helped block walk for campaigns, as well as run for school board in order to make an impact for the betterment of my community. I have been shoulder to shoulder with other patriots and felt the sting of the left-wing media when they attempted to mock and marginalize the tea party message. Don't think it isn't difficult working with others trying to paint you into a corner and trying to shut you down. Sadly, some of those trying to shout us down have come from within our own party, but that's another story for another day.
So to hear the opening statement from Rep. Issa on Wednesday morning, it brought a little tear to my eye, feeling like someone else had finally taken offense for all of the lies that we had been beaten over the head with since day one. Here is a quote from his opening statement: "Our democracy was created by people, for the people. When government power is used to target Americans for exercising their constitutional rights, there is nothing we as representatives should find more important than to take it seriously, get to the bottom of it, and eradicate the behavior. Since 2010, there appears to have been a targeting of people based on their beliefs. These people, particularly those who used Tea Party in their name, were mocked by the liberal media, mocked by late night television, and referred to by this administration regularly with disdain..." I concur.
There has been a number of findings from the Inspector General and lots of evidence to back up the fact that conservative groups were targeted. I know my own tea party was targeted by asking for personal information about our volunteers and members. There were requests made for future rally destinations to be reported, copies of handouts that would be distributed, etc. I personally think it's great that this is being investigated, but a lot of my fellow tea partiers want to know, to what end are these investigations taking place? So, to find out a little more information, I spoke with Congressman Mike Turner the day of the hearings.
TX GOP VOTE: "What are the goals of this committee in the investigation?"
Rep, Turner: "There's the key issue of who, what, when, where, how and to hold those people accountable who were using an investigative arm of our government to persecute people based on their political beliefs and their political affiliations."
TX GOP VOTE:" How many more hearings do you think there's going to be?"
Rep. Turner: "We're not giving in so there's going to have to be additional hearings. We're going to get to the bottom of this whether people want us to or not. This goes to the heart of being able to preserve democracy and we're going to ensure that our fellow government isn't persecuting people."
TX GOP VOTE: "How far do you think this is going to go?"
Rep. Turner: "We are going to take this wherever this leads. I think that those who know and were complicit should be very worried."
TX GOP VOTE: "Has this investigation uncovered anything that hasn't been revealed yet?"
Rep. Turner: I think the scope and really the abhorrent actions are certainly giving greater fidelity as we go through this. We just had, Mr. Shulman just said that he's not certain that this violates our democratic principles. I was aghast. Of course it does! This goes right to the heart of freedom and the fact that he doesn't see that, certainly shows an environment in which this could happen."
The other sad thing is that the IRS would have you to believe that the reason for all of this targeting that was going on was due to two 'rogue' agents at the Cincinnati, Ohio IRS office. Yeah, tell that to the four Americans that lost their lives in Benghazi over a You Tube video. So the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way wages on and it's us versus them.
