{"id":3371,"date":"2014-06-19T07:15:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T11:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2014-06-19T07:25:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T11:25:06","slug":"scandal-or-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3371","title":{"rendered":"scandal or skin?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IRSbuilding\"<\/a>\"washington-redskins-600x361\"<\/a>When initially pondering what current event to loquaciously pounce upon today, two events seemed especially notable.\u00a0 And then it dawned on me how the two, eventually, seemingly somehow fit together…<\/p>\n

First, the IRS scandal<\/strong>, <\/i>as editorialized by USA Today…<\/p>\n

As Congress investigates the IRS chicanery, the IRS has responded to a request for emails to and from Lois Lerner, who spearheaded the Tea Party harassment, by saying, basically, that the dog ate its homework.\u00a0 Or, rather, the IRS claims, somewhat dubiously, that \u2018a hard drive crash\u2019 on Lerner’s computer led to the loss of emails to outside entities \u2018such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.\u2019\u00a0 You know, the very people she’s accused of coordinating her harassment with.<\/i><\/p>\n

With those emails missing, it’ll be harder to prove whether Lerner’s Tea Party harassment might have been at the behest of other wrongdoers, perhaps going as high as the Oval Office itself.\u00a0 But since government agencies seldom \u2018lose\u2019 evidence that makes them look good, reasonable people might suspect that there’s a cover-up going on.\u00a0 After all, nobody thought that the famous \u201818\u00bd minute gap\u2019 on Richard Nixon’s White House tapes contained anything positive about White House involvement in Watergate.<\/i><\/p>\n

National Journal’s Ron Fournier thinks that \u2018you couldn’t blame a person for suspecting a cover-up.\u2019\u00a0 No, you couldn’t.\u00a0 In fact, you’d have to be pretty gullible \u2014 or in-the-tank \u2014 not to suspect a cover-up.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

And second, Washington’s skin color<\/strong>, also as reported by the widest circulated print newspaper in the United States…<\/p>\n

\u201cUnprecedented pressure on the Washington NFL team to change its name reached a crescendo today when the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board canceled six federal trademark registrations owned by the team, ruling that the term ‘Redskins’ was disparaging to \u2018a substantial composite\u2019 of American Indians when the marks were granted between 1967 and 1990.<\/i><\/p>\n

The 2-1 decision by the board does not mean the Washington team must stop using the name but gives opponents of the name another opening to hammer home their contention that the term is a despicable racial slur…<\/i><\/p>\n

The Washington team retains its federal trademark rights pending appeal. And even if the club loses on appeal, it can continue to use the name, as it has for more than 80 years.\u00a0 But without federal trademark protection, others could potentially use the team’s name and logos to sell merchandise with impunity, although owners of unregistered marks can still try to protect them through state statutes or common law.\u00a0 The team has two months to file the appeal.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The Intramuralist has multiple opinions swirling this day.\u00a0 On the IRS… do you think if we failed to file our tax returns, we could use the same excuse? … and how good do we feel, knowing that this is the organization set up to oversee Obamacare? \u00a0 On the Redskins… each of us deserves respect… but aren\u2019t we again applying economic pressure in hopes of making a moral change? … is that effective?<\/p>\n

Yes, I, too, wasn\u2019t sure how the IRS & NFL went together — even though both abide in the same state — and then it dawned on me… Politicians and pundits pick and choose what to prioritize, obviously opting for what nets the better publicity.\u00a0 In other words, they don\u2019t talk about what they don\u2019t want to talk about.<\/i><\/p>\n

As if on cue, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) immediately, loquaciously pounced upon the Redskins, demanding change, charging the NFL owner with advocating “racism.\u201d\u00a0 On the IRS scandal, however, according to The Hill,<\/em> Reid is taking a \u201cwait-and-see attitude,\u201d deferring opinion to others.<\/p>\n

Some things we like to talk about — some things we don\u2019t.\u00a0 On the Intramuralist, we\u2019ll talk about all things… even if they only seemingly, somehow fit together.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When initially pondering what current event to loquaciously pounce upon today, two events seemed especially notable.\u00a0 And then it dawned on me how the two, eventually, seemingly somehow fit together… First, the IRS scandal, as editorialized by USA Today… As Congress investigates the IRS chicanery, the IRS has responded to a request for emails to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “scandal or skin?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[278,449,450],"class_list":["post-3371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","category-current-issue","tag-irs","tag-lois-lerner-email","tag-washington-redskins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3371"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3379,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions\/3379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}