OK, ready?  Here goes:

• The President’s lawyer learned of the IRS targeting of conservative groups in April.
• The President’s chief of staff learned of the IRS targeting of conservative groups in April.
• The President himself learned of the IRS targeting of conservative groups in the news on May 10.

That’s the story right now from the White House.  Really.

I think right now it is still marginally possible for Barack Obama’s defenders to go with the hey-what’s-the-big-deal approach.  Manufactured scandal, Republicans on a witch hunt, blah blah blah.  Outliers are hurling charges of racism here and there.  There’s no reason to think the sociopolitical environment has suddenly become hostile to that particular brand of nonsense, so those accusations may increase a bit too.

Anything but, you know, the obvious.

I suspect we are not far from something that incontrovertibly implicates President Obama.  The truly mindless sycophants—and they are numerically significant—will continue their standard, hand-waving dismissals as if nothing has happened.  For everyone else, the time-honored tu quoque will become the primary defensive response.

One thing of which I am absolutely convinced:  no matter what emerges—no matter what—Barack Obama will never be anything but defiant and dismissive.  There is no genuine grace or decorum in him.  There is only Chicago thug.  There is only “what are you gonna do about it?  Huh?”

I think that even if it gets genuinely bad, politically speaking, for him, he can’t even fake remorse.  It’s not there to summon.

It will surprise few to read that I am not an especially big fan of our esteemed president.  He is politically bleeding right now, which is really a first in his entire time in office.  I hope it gets much worse, and I think it at least as likely that it will as it won’t.  Whatever happens, I’m thankful that his ability to do any more damage is diminished, and as a student of political communication, I’m looking forward to watching him.

“Following the April 2011 tornadoes, people from other states showed tremendous compassion to Alabama. They helped us in our own rebuilding. They volunteered their time and their resources. They stood with us in prayer and support. Alabama stands ready to do the same for the people of Oklahoma.” – Alabama Governor Robert Bentley

God be with all those hurting and grieving tonight.

But I’m climbing out of it.  So I bought weatherstripping, primer, some screws, and stuff.  I noticed a fellow with a guide dog inside.  It was a striking German Shepherd, 80 pounds or so and a lovely brindle brown and black.  (I actually thought “Seeing Eye dog” at the time, but net research for this post tells me I’m supposed to say “guide dog” now.  So be it.)

I checked out, left with my stuff, and got in the Technical Writing Express.  In the rear-view mirror, I noticed the guy with the guide dog walking my direction in the parking lot, but on the other side.  He was well clear of me, so I shifted to R and started backing out.

The Shepherd stopped instantly.  So, so did his master.  There was no chance I was going to interfere with them.  I looked carefully before I moved.  Nevertheless, there they stood, motionless.  There is a tremendous dignity in a German Shepherd that I don’t think is present in any other breed.

I completed the backing maneuver.  Less than a second after I shifted to a forward gear and started moving, the guide dog resumed walking with his master.

I’ve been thinking about that encounter since.  I’ve marveled at the dog’s extensive training.  (That’s a complex situation I just described.  The dog’s been trained to err on the side of caution.  Very good, yes?)

More than that, it’s made me consider the weight of the cross I’m carrying.  And, to be blunt, it’s really light compared with the crosses of many others.  Getting a chance to see that man with his dog in an actual situation for which the dog is trained, I was granted an opportunity to appreciate what I have.

It was a routine encounter, but one that would require no specific attention from me.  However, he needed his dog.  Because he’s blind.  He can’t see.

Whatever the situation, I’m trying very hard to think about whether I have a legitimate license to complain.  I invite you to join me in that consideration.

That seemed a long-shot at the start of the week, but there were a couple of things that gave me hope that was a possibility.  First, there is something subtle but unmistakably different in Obama’s conduct.  He’ll “get to the bottom of it,” and he’s “outraged.”

But he’s not outraged.  He very much has a “going through the motions” look about him.  I found this notable because he’s been remarkably consistent.  He’s only got a couple of demeanors, and the one he should logically have—the assertive, vaguely dismissive certainty—is absent.  I speculate that it’s because he’s not sure he won’t get splattered, and that’s new territory for him.

So he’s a little more tentative, which really sticks out on him.  There’s some loose end, somewhere—perhaps a bit of sloppiness enabled by hubris—that implicates him, and he hasn’t figured a way out of it.

Now when I say there might be a smoking gun, I’m not saying an email from Barack Obama, subject:  Here is How We’re Going To Take Down the Right-Wingers Using the IRS, with a ten-point plan inside.  I think it is likely to instead be that he learned of the effort and, recognizing it as advantageous, didn’t say anything.  That’s not directing the effort, but it’s not very much above it ethically or morally, either.

How long might that time have been?  Well, maybe about five months.  This reporting this evening—in The New York Times, of all places—solidly indicates that knowledge of the IRS targeting was present in the White House in June 2012.

What’s the trail?  How far to Barack Obama?  Well, that’s the big question, isn’t it?

Expect a frenzied weekend, folks.

That seems wrong, doesn’t it?

Today my colleagues and I checked out 3rd Base Grill on South Parkway.  The net press was good.  Guess what?  The wings are good, too.  They are of eminently desirable size, and cooked to perfection.

That’s an eight-piece lunch special, ordered at the Insane heat level ($1 extra).  They got there largely with habaneros, and I’m here to say, they’re not playing.  This was a pretty seriously hot restaurant item, though rather flavorful as well.  It wasn’t hot for the sake of hot.  In addition, there was a fruity, peppery complexity that was worth the ride to experience.

Additionally, the service was excellent.  One woman was servicing four tables, and I have no complaints with her demeanor, efficiency, or anything else.  She got better than 20% out of me reflexively.

Hi, Jim!

OK, that’s the (substantial) good.  Ready for the bad?  Here goes.  The ambience sucks hard.  It’s a smoky, somewhat run-down bar.  I didn’t see/smell anyone smoking when we were there, but the smell hung in the air just the same.  (I do have to say, it wasn’t such a big deal once olfactory fatigue took over.)  Still, this is an unambiguous dive.  This is not a first date place.

Our experience at 3rd Base Grill was much more positive than negative, and I suspect we’ll find ourselves back there again.

(I do wish they’d drop a grand at Home Depot and a weekend of sweat equity on the place, though.)

7/10

(Poor Barry, though. He must feel so betrayed. Et tu, CNN?)

As quickly as I’d start thinking about a post today, more major developments would come.  Benghazi is only getting worse, but the IRS scandal is beginning to yawn like a chasm.  There’s no telling where the bottom of this thing is.

Guess what?  The IRS released confidential application data of tea party and patriot groups to ProPublica, an “independent” (yeah, right) corporation concerning itself with investigative journalism.

Guess what else?  Senate Democrats actively and extensively called for exactly what the IRS has admitted doing.

The inspector general’s report hasn’t even been released yet.  All of this is swirling ahead of it.

With all that has already emerged against the backdrop of Jay Carney’s unintentionally hilarious press briefing today—catch how he kept saying things like “if proven true” when the IRS has already admitted it?—it’s seeming not so ridiculous to me to wonder whether this path does eventually lead directly to the Oval Office.

Wouldn’t you think that, when communicating something of this nature to the American people, the government would simply say what happened?  The only things I’d think that would need to be omitted would be any details that could jeopardize investigation, or any names of any casualties whose families had not yet been contacted.  You leave those out of your initial presentation, and if you’re asked anything in those arenas, you say “I can’t comment on that right now.  Next question.”

Right?

Why did our government feel it necessary to apparently say, very deliberately:  all right, let’s come up with the official version of the attack?  Why are more people not finding that strange?  I mean, lots of interesting (and, it would appear, damning) details have emerged about the circuitous editing path of the document, but why are more people not finding it curious that there was a document in the first place?

I find it plausible, and indeed likely, that the Obama administration wants to tell a specific and highly consistent story about how it relates to the Arab world.  An attack by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group that leaves four Americans dead is inconsistent with the narrative.  It is inconvenient, and therefore it was removed.

I have no trouble believing our esteemed president is sufficiently arrogant, brazen, and morally bankrupt for that to be the case.

We have also learned today that the IRS actively targeted conservative political groups, asking many intrusive and unconstitutional questions to boot.

Will our esteemed president finally be held accountable for something?