Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Explaining Things

Sometimes, you really need to spread out a story and pay attention to various details, but these are usually pretty simple to explain.

The AP Wire-Tap Scandal   Basically, some dimwit within the White House or CIA....gave an AP reporter some very privileged information, which the CIA got upset about.  So they rattled the cage, and the President evidently agreed to let the Justice Department investigate and figure out the one and only source for that information.  Well....they taped in and got a bunch of connections.  So far, no one is saying much but it appears that they have yet to find the leak.  Course, you might guess that the leak is someone who rarely calls the AP reporters, and that was a one-time only hint from some dinner meeting that they were at.  So to clean this up?  I suspect that some Justice Department guys are going to be asked to meet the boss, and the AP isn't going to be satisfied with the one-star "sorry" statement.  So everything gathered?  Dumped and shredded, my best guess....just to prevent Congress from digging into this mess.

The Military Sexual Assault Mess.  Well....the military has rules and it says that any assault (physical or sexual) will be handled by military prosecutors and a military judge, and subject to military punishments.  Evidently, a number of women are now hostile about this, and want the mess handed over to a civilian type operation to prosecute all sexual assaults, likely by a civilian judge, and have some type of punishment handed down that meets civilian standards.  The Pentagon absolutely doesn't want this type of mess (a even bigger mess than the military way of doing it).  But I suspect that the President will rewrite the UCMJ (the code book) and allow some civilian judge, jury and prosecutor to walk into a military situation.  What happens?  A military guy will just shut up, decline to offer any testimony, and likely find that the civilians just aren't able to do much of anything.  In the end, even less punishment will be handed down....than before.

The IRS scandal   Basically, some dimwits out of the White House....convinced some IRS top-level managers to go along with a scheme to make organizational identification to be tax-free....to be very hard if you were related to patriot groups or the Tea Party.  Someone with the upper level of the IRS in DC....is going to jail, and likely for more than three or four years.  The junior players in this?  If they cooperate with the federal prosecution team, they might get just six months in a jail.  The guy or gal in the White House?  They have to be hoping that someone in the IRS will take the fall....otherwise, their name will be tossed out, and jail-time will occur for them.  What they all did....was illegal by federal standards.

Simply Observations

In one week, three massive scandals have developed with the Administration ....the abuse by the IRS folks with Tea Party-related groups, the possible abuse of IRS with US businessmen who were openly complaining about the direction of the country, and the secret tapings of AP reporters covering White House news.  I would suggest two things. First, this is going to be a fairly long summer, with Congressional and Senate hearings....with some serious blows dealt to the Administration by the end. Second, some folks are going to jail by summer of next year.  Nixon era all over again?  Yeah...pretty much so.  History is so easily forgotten, and a bunch of Nixon-era folks will vouch about jail and it's impact on their lives.

Amazingly enough....France is working on this nifty little tax....on all smartphones and computer tablets.  It's a one-percent deal.  Their aim?  Well...it's called a cultural tax.  Since regular and poor French people don't have these....it's right to tax the people who do have them.  The odds of it passing?  Don't know.  The curious thing....you'd likely go and buy your smartphones in some other country, and just sneak it back into France.  So you'd likely kill off French businesses selling such stuff in the end.

During this recent worldwide concert tour of Justin Bieber.....he decided to risk it all and bring his pet monkey aboard his private plane into Germany.  Customs guys came to greet everyone, and because no paperwork was done for the monkey.....they confiscated him.  Well...the Germans have tested the monkey and confirmed no health issues, and are willing to release him back to Justin.  But there's a deadline....roughly seven days left, to collect the monkey.  Charges?  Well....it's best not to suggest that but I'm betting that Justin won't show up to collect his monkey.  You just wouldn't want to be standing there and have Huns explain that you can't leave now because there's some possible jail-time involved in illegal monkey importation.

Finally, word has gotten out in Bama over the salary structure of the Auburn University President, and his  buddy, the University of Alabama President.  It seems that President Jay Gogue (Auburn), is pulling in almost $2.5 million.  His buddy....President Judy Bonner's salary is at $535,000.  There's always an unfairness between the two colleges....one has a four-star football team....the other has usually a three-star football (although no one wants to admit this, and notice, I didn't say which was which).  One is known for producing a high level of engineers, and the other one...agricultural agents (note, I didn't say which).  President Jay likely drives a pick-up truck around with his $2.5 million salary, and I'm guessing that President Judy drives a BMW.  The thing is.....I suspect that President Jay works sixty hours a week and has more than troubles on each and every weekend with parties on campus.