While the IRS is always ready to expand it's power and size, like any large bureaucracy they do not take risks that could be illegal or get them bad press. The only question is whether they took their instructions from liberal Senators alone, or if the White House also gave an OK, if by no other means than by silence. Clearly the WH knew about it. Also it is beyond belief that the WH was not following Benghazi in real time. Of course the NSC was and would have provided regular briefings to Vallery if not directly to Obama. To scale back on security was clearly a policy decision at the highest level. They were trying to keep a low profile, but they wanted the Consulate and Annex operating for their illegal gun running or whatever they were doing there.

The Federal government is being stacked with extreme liberals and not just at the top. Federal prosecutors are all picked on the basis of left wing affiliations, the same is happening to the military, of course the EPA, Education, Labor and the IRS have been self recruiting these sorts for decades. The effort is systematic but with Justice and the military they are closing the door to ever reversing the tyranny that won't be obvious to normal Democrats and liberal Republicans until it is too late.

Good article. It isn't an accident that we've been subjected to 5 years of systematic fostering of hate of religious sentiment, constitutionalists, Republicans, small business, the tea party, libertarian and conservative think tanks. I have democrat friends and relatives that are only marginally among the low information crowd, they at least watch main stream news, and even read occasionally; they now hate and would go along with any suppression of these dangerous old fashioned notions one sees on the right. They believe any spin put out by the administration and its friends in the press. They do not see in any form the threat of tyranny. If the combination of Benghazi, IRS and AP scandals do not wake them up, what will?

Anyone who has worked for a giant bureaucracy knows that personal integrity isn’t the currency of advancement or security. People learn to get along and go along, form cliques, tie oneself to rising stars, try to join them. The payoffs are enormous, the risks and costs to independence and integrity are also large. In a flat economy of big bureaucracies both private and public, options are limited. When the leadership in those giant organizations also form cliques with other organizations, both private and public, options shrink even further. These are among the reasons small business, religious sentiment, subsidiary institutions, independent media are seen as the enemy by the centralizer, the 1%, the cliques.

It's called pork, not jobs, like any stimulus spending it does not add net jobs.

Their trade balance is nearly irrelevant. What matters is savings and investment which determine growth and the current account balance. Their spending, like ours, is the problem, but ours is much much worse.

Don't kid yourself. Once Obama has transformed the military into another liberal bastion, the left will celebrate a muscular foreign policy. Every left wing dictator in the history of the 20th century held their power by controlling the military. This bunch will be no different. They took on the rhetoric of pacifists because our enemy was the Socialist Homeland. When the US becomes the new socialist homeland they will be aggressively militaristic because the part of the world that is prosperous will be non socialist.

Every international airport in the US is a border, so are the coasts and the northern border. Before the media and liberals killed the braceros program, indigenous americans from Mexico entered legally every year and returned after fruit picking. Illegals came through our airports on tourist and student visas. They will all continue doing this until we do not allow illegals to work except with a work visa, which don't even exist anymore except H for employees of US corporations. We can't stop illegals at any of our borders no matter how much we spend. We must end welfare and enforce work place rules. Those here will self deport and get in line like the millions all over the world.

They track entrants, you show your passport at every hotel, can't work, can't get welfare, and get thrown in jail or deported if caught violating any law including working illegally. Their borders are crossed daily without visas by millions. One doesn't need a visa to enter Europe or most of Latin America. They don't focus on borders but on the jobs and government services. In the US we don't even ask for ID to vote. The whole debate is phony and the democrats encourage it because it emphasizes the anti Mexican nature of the focus. By the way those who cross our borders aren't Hispanic in the first place. Spanish is their second language. They are indigenous Americans and it's a very different culture.

Indeed. They were clearly doing something that would be even more embarrassing than merely being inept. They were inept and dishonest, but clearly there was a reason for having a consulate and annex there in the first place.

Border security is a phony issue. We cannot secure our borders anymore than we can stop illegal narcotics. As long as their is demand there will be supply. Every airport, both coasts and both land borders are ports of entry. The only way to stop it, and the way that will cause self deportation is not to allow any welfare for legal or illegal immigrants and enforce work place rules. This isn't rocket science. Republicans are not more serious than Democrats, but at least the Democrats know why they don't want to stop it. The Republicans are just doing their regular thing, self destruction.