Details are still fuzzy but HBO has confirmed that James Gandolfini, the former Soprano’s star, has died after suffering a heart attack in Italy. Gandolfini was 51 years old and was best known for his role as Tony Soprano on the hit HBO show “The Soprano’s.”
Michele Bachmann today said that she was an “insurgent” in the IRS after graduating from school, and her purpose there was to learn about the “enemy from the inside” so that she could take them down.
Speaking to a group of supporters who actually think she is still relevant, Michele said this:
“Well, it’s been a hundred years now that we’ve had the current United States tax code,” the Minnesota Republican told a crowd of tea party members in Washington, D.C. “Don’t you think a century of oppression is enough?”
“I also want you to know that in my former life, I was an insurgent!” she exclaimed. “I was an insurgent because because I absolutely wanted to defeat the tax code and bring more liberty about in the United States. And so after I went to law school, I got a post-doctorate degree in tax law and after that I got a job with the IRS as a tax lawyer! Because I believe if you understand the enemy from the inside out, that’s the best way to defeat them!”
Bachmann added that lawmakers were “more frightened of real people than anything else.”
“So I think that there are shivers right now going up of a lot of politicians in that building,” she said, pointing to the U.S. Capitol. “Now it’s time for the politicians to listen to all of you!”
“You’re here and you’re clear…. with your message. And your message is, it’s time to abolish the IRS!”
I guess there’s hope for Edward Snowden afterall. He could one day grow up to be an employee of the United States Congress.
The foods to avoid when detoxing are also those that are widely recognized as best limited or avoided in your diet in order to maintain good health.
Caffeinated drinks
Caffeine is a diuretic and leads to dehydration. As a stimulant, it puts your body under stress and deprives it of essential nutrients. It also prevents your body from absorbing vitamins and minerals.
Alcohol
You should definitely give up alcohol while detoxifying. As well as containing sugar, alcohol is broken into a toxin in your body, and the production of harmful free radicals is increased when it is being metabolized. Alcohol damages the liver, muscles and brain, and depletes your body of essential vitamins and minerals.
Wheat
Wheat bran can irritate the colon. Wheat protein, also known as gluten, is difficult to digest, and may cause bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. Many people are intolerant of wheat but find they can consume other grains without problems. However, if you have celiac disease, you will need to avoid all sources of gluten permanently
Convenience foods, fatty –fried foods and sugary foods
These include store-bought meals, cookies, cakes and spreads. Soft drinks also contain a high amount ofsugar. Diet versions are not suitable alternatives because of the amount of additives they contain.
Choose fresh or dried fruits and whole-food products instead, also drink water or natural fruit juices.
Meat
Meat creates extra work for your digestive system and in the case of red meat contains a lot of harmful saturated fat. Eat small quantities of good-quality, organic protein instead to give your body the amino acids it needs. Eggs, nuts, oily fish, and whole soy products are good choices.
Salt and sugar
Your body needs a great deal of fluid to metabolize foods that are high in refined sugar, so if you eat a lot of these foods, your body will retain a lot of water as well. Sugar disrupts blood glucose levels. Salt prevents fluids from being removed from the body.
Cow’s milk products
Milk increases the production of mucus in the body, so it is not beneficial when detoxing. In addition, many people lack sufficient quantities of the enzyme lactose, which is needed to digest lactose and, therefore, cannot properly digest dairy products.
With one scandal after another plaguing the halls of Washington these days, it may seem hard to keep track of each riveting controversy while trying to parse what the crises mean for the nation. And as new political outrages come to dominate the 24-hour news cycle, government scandals that at one point seemed like catastrophic disasters quickly start to fade into the background, appearing less and less relevant each day. This at least seems to be the fate of May’s IRS scandal, which at one point looked to be destined to bring down the Obama administration, or at least tarnish the president’s legacy. But now that the fiasco has been obscured by the NSA spying allegations and the resulting national dialogue over the role of whistleblowers, the once threatening IRS outrage slowly appears to be dripping into the history books. With one notable exception: the Tea Party organizations at the center of the ordeal, which look to be making a comeback thanks to the brouhaha.
Peaks and Losses
The Tea Party wave reached its peak in 2010, when voter discontent over the polarizing Obamacare legislation propelled several young, conservative lawmakers backed by the populist party into Congress during that year’s midterm elections. Since then, though, the anti-taxation coalition’s prestige and influence has waned, with less of their candidates earning government seats in the 2012 vote. As pundits proclaimed the end of the era of riled-up conservative activists, it looked like the once powerful Tea Party was doomed to political extinction.
And then the scandal hit. In mid-May, an audit conducted by the US Treasury showed that an IRS office in Cincinnati specifically targeted conservative organizations that had sought tax-exempt status. This revelation led to government inquiries, Congressional hearings and plenty of resignations as investigators and the media tried to figure out who ordered the extra scrutiny and which DC politicians were aware of it. Since then, Tea Party–affiliated groups have seen an uptick not just in media coverage, but in popular support and even funding.
Back on Track
Soon after the scandal hit, some Tea Party groups saw attendance to their meetings increase threefold. Organizers and leaders of the movement attribute this to the spotlight once again being flung at their non-government-intervention ideologies, especially since the debacle gave them a perfect illustration of Big Brother–like government overreach. Organizers also hope their message will now appeal to more centrist, moderate voters, who they hope are now made aware of the impact big government can have on their everyday lives.
And of course, there’s the money situation. Outrage over the targeting has led conservative donors to pump more cash into local grass-root Tea Party groups, as well as funds from national super PACs. Tea Party groups all over the nation have been more than happy to receive this sudden surge in corporate gifts. With the influx of cash, the Tea Party is looking to once again tackle head-on their big Washington white whale: health care legislation. Websites linked to the group have already popped up trying to link Democratic politicians who voted for Obamacare with the IRS scandal. Because the tax agency will be in charge of enforcing such Obamacare rules as penalties on people who don’t get health insurance under the individual mandate, Tea Party leaders are hoping that associating the seemingly bungling agency with vulnerable politicians will slow down (or maybe even halt) the state-by-state implementation of Obamacare.
Big Changes
The most obvious and talked-about consequences stemming from the IRS scandal is what will happen to the IRS itself. With Tea Party groups long calling for either a change in the agency’s tax policies or its outright abolition, the added scrutiny now being placed on the government service will have to result in some sort of transformation. Influential politicians such as Ohio’s Republican Senator Rob Portman have publicly berated the IRS for targeting groups based on their political beliefs while at the same time acknowledging that system as it currently stands is not working. These politicians have called for a review of policies affecting nonprofit status for political groups, if not the direct elimination of such status. Long-debated practices such as the amount of funds nonprofits can receive from super PACs and how much nonprofits can contribute to political causes will all now be under discussion. And in the end, these are the exact sorts of debates the Tea Party has been pushing for since its inception. So where analysts and pundits may see a scandal, the anti-taxation group has instead seen this fiasco for what it really is: a major political gift.
