J.D. Prose – 5/18/13

This page was last updated on May 25, 2013.

Calling out the GOP on their shiny object obsession; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; May 18, 2013.

In the print edition, this column appeared in the op-ed section labeled “ON THE LEFT.” Given Mr. Prose’s body of work and the BCT’s left-leaning positions, did the BCT really think readers didn’t know he’s a “Surly progressive?”

According to his Twitter page, Mr. Prose is a self-described “Surly progressive.” As you read this opinion column and his Twitter “tweets,” keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the BCT. In addition to being an entertainer/pundit, Mr. Prose is a part-time reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2? Does he have a “Chinese wall” in his head to keep his opinions from bleeding into his reporting? (You may recall NPR claimed it fired Juan Williams for doing exactly what Mr. Prose does.) If it can get worse than that, Mr. Prose has made name-calling and personal attacks a foundation of his columns. If pushed, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Prose would try to excuse his writing by claiming he’s paid to be controversial and stir debate. The problem is, you don’t need to get into name-calling and personal attacks to accomplish those goals.

You can find the archive of my Prose column critiques here.

Below is a critique of portions of this column.

“So are we expected to chime in on the phony right-wing scandals like everybody else? We are? Ugh.”

[RWC] So the AP, Benghazi, and IRS actions didn’t really happen?

In my critique of last week’s Prose column, I wrote, “Mr. Prose has been dutifully silent regarding the Benghazi scandal since his column of September 15, 2012, entitled “No doubt about it now, Mitt Romney has no shame.” Now that the mainstream media is finally getting interested in the story, it will be interesting to see Mr. Prose’s reaction.” Now we know.

“All right, if we have to. It’s good to see Republicans fixated on Benghazi and the tragic deaths of four Americans when they disgraced the memory of the 20 children slaughtered in Newtown and however many more will die in the future by refusing to back sane gun control measures. It’s nothing short of despicable hypocrisy, but hey, that’s your modern-day GOP under Speaker John Boehner. Oh, and did you hear that the emails that supposedly broke the ‘scandal’ wide open were doctored by GOP operatives? Missed that on Fox News, did you? Huh.”

[RWC] How is what happened in Benghazi comparable to the Newtown murders?

You can find Mr. Prose’s previous Newtown rants here, here, and here. As noted above, Mr. Prose previously mentioned Benghazi only once since the attack, and even that mention was a political attack on Mitt Romney who had nothing to do with Benghazi.

As for the claim “emails that supposedly broke the [Benghazi] ‘scandal’ wide open were doctored by GOP operatives,” I suggest you read “Pfeiffer Stretches the Truth on Benghazi Emails.” “GOP operatives” were never in possession of emails to doctor. Info reported about the emails before 5/15/13, as in the ABC News story, was based on notes taken during a March 2013 briefing by the White House. Attendees were not allowed to copy the emails and the White House didn’t release the emails until May 15, 2013. As would be expected, the text of quotes based on briefing notes differed from the actual emails. That said, the differing quotes were not significantly different and told the same story.

“Now, we have IRS-gate in which some overworked employees trying to cut corners ‘targeted’ Tea Party and conservative groups trying to get tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations. Wait. What?”

[RWC] And lefties wonder why conservatives don’t like big government. As you read this, remember the IRS is to be the enforcement arm of Obamacare. Since the IRS already has our financial info, imagine how great it will be for the IRS to have our medical records.

If you’re “overworked employees trying to cut corners,” wouldn’t you just rubberstamp applications instead of generating more work for yourself plus illegally leaking data on the applications? The “overworked employees” BS is about furthering the ridiculous assertion that targeting “Tea Party and conservative groups” was not driven by politics. The effect is to turn the IRS into the victims.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report is entitled “Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review.” According to the report, among the “inappropriate criteria” on the “be on the look out” (BOLO) list were group names and applications that mentioned “‘Tea Party,’ ‘Patriots’ or ‘9/12 Project.’” Also on the BOLO list were applications that mentioned “Issues include[ing] government spending, government debt or taxes.” Keep in mind the TIGTA released the report on May 14th, four days before the Prose piece was published. This was more than enough time for Mr. Prose to read the report and know the TIGTA findings.

Consider the latest in the Washington Post (a lefty-approved media outlet) “The Fact Checker” column entitled “A bushel of Pinocchios for IRS’s Lois Lerner.” Ms. Lerner is the IRS Director of Exempt Organizations division. When Ms. Lerner appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee on May 22, 2013, she gave a statement claiming, “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.” Ms. Lerner then invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself and refused to answer questions.

With more and more Democrats in Congress beginning to see the light, it will be interesting to see how long Mr. Prose sticks with his story.

“Yeah. These blatantly political — and some (us) might say anti-American — groups were seeking tax-exempt status so they could make ‘social welfare’ signs comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. No wonder the Tea-publicans are upset. Their little hit squads might not get approved. Oops. Did we say little? Guess who applied for this ‘social welfare’ status? Why none other than Crossroads GPS, the shady supergroup run by the craven Karl Rove, TheDish.com’s Andrew Sullivan reported. Crossroads merely spent $70 million from anonymous donors lying about Obama last year … but they lost. Haha.”

[RWC] A self-described “surly progressive” refers to others as “anti-American?”

I’m sure Mr. Prose considers the Center for American Progress Action Fund and so on to be “social welfare” groups. According to the IRS, “There is no official Congressional or Service pronouncement construing the terms ‘civic league’ or ‘social welfare’ as embodied in section 501(c)(4).” Translation: “Social welfare” means whatever the IRS wants it to mean. Gee, no opportunity for abuse there. FYI, contributions to section 501(c)(4) groups are not tax exempt for the donors. The tax-exempt status is only for group operations. For example, interest earned on contributions between the contributed date and the spent date would not be taxed.

The real scandal is why the IRS is a gatekeeper for free speech regardless of ideology.

As for “signs comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler,” Mr. Prose didn’t provide any examples so it’s likely he’s referring to 2009 when he made a similar claim. In my critique of that piece, I wrote, “Regarding signs ‘comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler, that’s objectionable but I believe you’ll find those are from Lyndon LaRouche, part of Mr. Obama’s lefty opposition that wants Mr. Obama to be true to his historical positions and campaign promises. A search of Mr. Prose’s columns found he didn’t object when lefties constantly referred to then-President Bush as the socialist Hitler.”

Once again Mr. Prose has a fact problem. According to OpenSecrets.org, Crossroads GPS spent “$70,968,744 … in [the 2012] general election on 28 candidates,” not solely against Mr. Obama. What were the lies about Mr. Obama? As for Mr. Obama’s lies, here are some of his greatest hits.

Finally, if you try to fact-check Mr. Prose and go to “TheDish.com” you’ll find yourself at the DISH Network website. You’ll find the Sullivan piece is at dish.andrewsullivan.com.

“Now, we don’t like news organizations like The Associated Press having their records seized any more than the next reporter, but the disingenuous reaction from Teapublistan is laughable.”

[RWC] Mr. Prose is a pundit, not “the next reporter.”

“Here’s the timeline: Security leaks spring from the Obama administration in May 2012, GOPers SCREAM for an investigation, a deputy attorney general orders AP’s phone records be subpoenaed, GOPers wail about freedom. Got it?”

[RWC] Mr. Prose omitted the part where “Republicans in Congress [called] for a special counsel to investigate the leaks independent of the Obama administration. Republicans say that they are concerned the sources of the leaks could possibly influence an internal investigation.”

By the way, Mr. Prose didn’t mention the May 2012 security leaks until this column.

“As Jack White sang, ‘You can’t be a pimp and a prostitute, too.’ Pick which side you’re on, GOPers, or are you playing both in a shameless bid to score cheap political points?”

[RWC] This paragraph is a twofer for Mr. Prose.

First, the effect of the comment is that if you call for the investigation of a possible crime, you can’t complain if you find the investigators allegedly abused their power.

Second, in case you missed it, Mr. Prose just wrote that “GOPers” are either “pimp[s]” or “prostitute[s].” Classy.

You have to love a guy whose job relies on his ability “to score cheap political points” to complain about the practice.

“Seemingly lost amid all the ‘-gate’ and asinine impeachment talk was the fact that the Congressional Budget Office has reduced its deficit estimate for this year by $200 BILLION. Remember the deficit, Teapublicans? It was all the rage last fall … among Teapublicans.”

[RWC] To date I haven’t found analyses of the CBO reports I trust. So far, all I’ve found are comments from purely political sources. In the meantime, here are the CBO documents “An Analysis of the President’s 2014 Budget” and “Updated Budget Projections: Fiscal Years 2013 to 2023.”

“But, hey … Benghazi!!!”

[RWC] I’m kind of surprised Mr. Prose didn’t find a way to work in a racism charge. Maybe next week.

Unlike Mr. Prose, some lefties can only take so much. Here’s an excerpt from the May 19, 2013, edition of CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

“BOB SCHIEFFER [host]: --but the President is in charge of the executive branch of the government. It’s my-- I’ll just make this as an assertion. When the executive branch does things right, there doesn’t seem to be any hesitancy of the White House to take credit for that. When Osama bin Laden was killed, the President didn’t waste any time getting out-- getting out there and telling people about it. But with all of these things, when these things happen, you seem to send out officials many times, who don’t even seem to know what has happened. And I use as an example of that Susan Rice who had no connection whatsoever to the events that took place in Benghazi, and, yet, she was sent out appeared on this broadcast, and other Sunday broadcasts, five days after it happens, and I’m not here to get in an argument with you about who changed which word in--

“DAN PFEIFFER [White House Senior Advisor]: Mm-Hm.

“BOB SCHIEFFER: --the talking points and all that. The bottom line is what she told the American people that day bore no resemblance to what had happened on the ground in an incident where four Americans were killed.”