Well let me bring to your attention something that happened recently that you probably didn’t read about, or see on TV.  It didn’t make the national press – it was basically ignored.

Alfred and Sylvia Armen own a little music shop in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh.  The Armen’s, who are in their 70s, sell and repair musical instruments, and offer music lessons in their little shop, the House of Music.

On April 27th, 31 year-old Andrew Moore entered their store, and began bashing the septuagenarians in the head with a wooden club.   Sylvia Armen said “everything happened so quickly, it’s kind of a blur.”

We’ll never know whether Moore would have beaten the two senior citizens to death, or merely left them unconscious in a pool of their own blood on the floor, because 73 year-old Alfred was armed with a handgun (a 38 caliber revolver) for protection.  He stopped the brutal attack on his wife and himself by shooting the attacker four times.  The attacker died, and they didn’t.

Alfred and Sylvia Armen were taken to the hospital for head injuries.  They recovered.  The 31 year-old attacker was taken to the morgue.

You probably hadn’t heard about this incident which occurred about 250 miles east of Cincinnati.  It really didn’t fit into the narrative we have heard all too often in the national press – guns are bad, and we need further restrictions on them to make us safer.

But it happened.  And I thought you’d like to know.

Obama’s appointment of Susan Rice to be National Security Advisor is disgraceful – it’s an affront to the American people.  He has rewarded, with a promotion, the very person who misled us all after the Benghazi debacle.

We now know that the Obama Administration knew from the very start, that it was terrorists who carried out this heinous attack.  Despite that knowledge, Rice spun the tale on five Sunday morning news shows that it was not terrorism, rather it was a spontaneous uprising by protestors over an obscure video.

He has made this appointment despite overwhelming opposition in Congress.  And this illustrates something important.  For awhile, it appeared that Obama might have considered actually working WITH the elected representatives of the American people, the Congress.  He had initiated his so-called charm offensive – inviting Republican Senators mostly, and a few House members (like Paul Ryan) to the White House to have dinner with him and chew the fat so to speak.  (Some believed this was because his own poll numbers were coming down due to a lack of cooperation and progress in Washington, and since he’s the top guy there, he was taking some of the blame.)  But whatever the reason, there was some Kumbaya going on in Washington for a change.

Then all the scandals broke – Benghazi, the IRS, and spying on the press (and now apparently on the public too), and Obama and his political allies are now all circling the wagons.  Survival, at all costs, is now the order of the day.  And particularly annoying to the Obama Administration is the fact that since Republicans now control the House, it’s a lot more difficult to sweep certain things under the rug.  Having pesky Chairmen like Darrell Issa on your tail can be pretty uncomfortable.  It would be a lot easier to make it all go away if Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House again, just like back in the “good ‘ole days” of the first part of the Obama Administration, when things like the Stimulus and Obamacare, and Dodd Frank could be forced through no matter how loud Republicans screamed.

It seems more and more evident that President Obama wants complete control again – control of the House as well as the Senate.  That would shut down all the unwanted scrutiny, all the investigations, all the probing committee hearings.  And then they could push through the rest of the liberal (oops, progressive) Obama agenda.

That’s where I need your help.  Nancy Pelosi and those busy beavers at the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) are in the process of determining which races across the country they will target in 2014 in their effort to win back the House.  Even though my district did get better as a result of redistricting, I’m gearing up for whatever the Democrats may throw at me.

I have to report to the Federal Election Commission what I’ve raised for my campaign so far this election cycle by June 30th.  Would you please consider making a contribution to my re-election effort by clicking here, any amount that’s comfortable to you, or you can send a contribution to Chabot for Congress, 3030 Harrison Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45211.

Also, as you may know, I set up a Political Action Committee a few years back called WinNovember, which I use to raise money, and then assist other conservative Republican candidates whom I believe have a fighting chance of defeating a liberal Democrat in Congress; or Republican conservative incumbents who are vulnerable.  You can click here to make a contribution to that fund.

Thanks in advance for your generosity.  Together we can advance a conservative philosophy of less government, lower taxes, and more freedom.

Post script: I would also like to note the passing of two people who were important mentors to me – Benjamin Gettler and Eugene Ruehlmann.

Ben Gettler and his lovely wife Dee have been tremendous supporters of mine through the years.  Ben was a successful businessman, a lawyer, a husband, a father and a grandfather.  He was the leader of UC’s Board of Trustees, head of Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), on Jewish Hospital’s Board of Directors and led JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) just to name a few of his leadership positions.  He gave me invaluable advice on foreign affairs matters and a great many other things over the years.  Ben was 87 years old, and will be greatly missed.

The other truly great American who just passed away was probably the best Mayor Cincinnati ever had, Eugene Ruehlmann, who was 88.  Known as “Clean Gene” because in the sometimes rough and tumble world of politics, Mayor Ruehlmann was the epitome of honesty in government.  But not only was he honest, he was effective, and a great leader.

When I was first elected to Congress, nearly 20 years ago, the freshman class wrote a book (profits going to charity) in which each new member of Congress wrote about that political figure he or she most admired.  I wrote about Gene Ruehlmann.

Gene and his late wife Virginia had 8 children, 25 grandchildren, and thus far 11 great-grandchildren.

I’ll miss both Gene Ruehlmann and Ben Gettler greatly.  They are truly two of the finest people I ever had the honor to know.

Wait a minute, you say. The IRS will never let me get away with that. Maybe not. But that’s pretty much what the IRS itself did. They spent $11,000 for a “happiness expert” and $17,000 for a lecturer on “leadership through art.” The total cost to the taxpayers for their more than 200 conferences which included these outrages, was $50 million.

You’ve probably heard by now that the IRS was also squandering your tax dollars on a bunch of other “necessities” too, like Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island parody videos, line dancing instructions, and hotel rooms that went for up to $3,500 a night (no Motel 8’s for these guys). Of course, the Obama Administration will likely just blame everything on those wascally wabbits at that rogue IRS office way out there in Cincinnati (wherever that is).

This latest revelation of waste and corruption in the Obama Administration harkens back to what we learned about another government agency last year, the GSA (General Services Administration). They spent $822,000 (small potatoes compared to the IRS’s $50 million) flying 300 bureaucrats to a lavish spa and casino in Las Vegas, with the goal in their own words of making their conference “over the top.” This also was on the taxpayers’ dime, and that’s what makes all these abuses particularly outrageous.

Here’s my take on this latest Star Trek/Gilligan’s Island/line dance instructions/happiness expert/ leadership through art/$3,500 per night hotel room/ IRS scandal. At this point we don’t know for sure who knew what when.  All this must be fully investigated, and those responsible should be held accountable – which may mean demotion, firing, or in some cases prosecution.

But to me it means something even more. It means that the government has been allowed to grow far too large. And the Obama Administration has encouraged this growth- in fact, has spurred it. And when government grows this large, it can’t be controlled. It can’t be restrained. It refuses to be restricted, or limited, or deterred.

It doesn’t really care about the rights of its citizens. It doesn’t even care about the Constitution. Big government becomes the center of power. Our rights, even our Constitutional rights, be damned.

And what I hope comes out of all this, is that we all wake up to the threat that is staring us in the face. That the big government we used to talk about; and warn about; is here.

The philosophy of the Obama Administration, and the people they have put in charge in the various departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the government, is that of big government incarnate. And let’s face it, they’re out of control.

What happens over the upcoming weeks and months in determining exactly what our government has been up to, and who knew what when, is critical to the future of our nation. We can expect big government to use every source at its disposal for self-preservation. It will try to destroy its opposition, and anyone who tries to stand in its way.

We must all be prepared. Everything is at stake.

Post script: Since finishing this week’s blog last night, there’s been a breaking news story this morning that I feel compelled to briefly comment on. It’s just been revealed that President Obama is naming disgraced (in many people’s minds, including mine) Susan Rice as National Security Advisor. This is the same Susan Rice who falsely peddled the story on five Sunday morning news shows that the Benghazi attack was just a spontaneous response by protestors to a video – no terrorists here. Talk about rewarding bad behavior! And since National Security Advisor is not a Cabinet position, the appointment is not subject to Senate review; so she’s in; no matter what the public or the elected representatives of the American people think about it. I’m President; you’re not; deal with it.

And also, in case you missed it, I was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren the other day concerning what could be another potential embarrassment for the Obama Administration and the IRS. The clip is only 3 minutes and 41 seconds long.

See you next week.

So this week I’m going to discuss three topics completely unrelated to the Obama scandals: two positive hometown stories, and an international incident that resulted in the death of a Taiwanese fisherman.

First, Sumatran rhinos.  Sumatra is one of the many islands that make up the nation of Indonesia.  Rhinos are endangered worldwide, but the Sumatran rhino is on the verge of extinction.  There may be fewer than 100 of them on earth.  There are about ten in zoos, and the rest are in the wild in Indonesia.  The number of Sumatran rhinos in the wild have been diminishing at an alarming rate, due to poaching, habitat reduction, and other environmental issues.

The first Sumatran rhino to be born in captivity in over 100 years was born right here in Cincinnati, at our zoo.  This baby rhino, a male named Andalas, was followed by a brother and a sister.  Andalas was returned to Indonesia to their breeding program, where he has fathered only the fourth baby Sumatran rhino to be born in captivity.  So three of the four rhinos born in captivity in over a hundred years were born at the Cincinnati Zoo, and the fourth was sired by a Cincinnati-born rhino.  Pretty impressive for Cincinnati.

Here’s the problem.  The parents of Andalas and his siblings have now both died of old age.  So our program here – the most successful Sumatran rhino breeding program in the world – has come to a halt.  As I mentioned, Andalas is back in Indonesia (breeding his own offspring), and since you can’t breed a brother and sister, the brother born in Cincinnati was sent to the Los Angeles Zoo, and we only have one female left, Suci.  We need at least another rhino, ideally two, to continue our world-renowned breeding program.

Here’s where I come in.  The Cincinnati Zoo is in my Congressional District.  And on top of that, I happen to be the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, just the region of the world where Indonesia is located.  So I and my staff have been working on this matter for months now.  I have sought the help of Secretary of State, John Kerry, in interceding with the Indonesian government on behalf of the Cincinnati Zoo.  I have also spoken with the Indonesian Ambassador to the United States.  He suggested that I get him a letter setting out our case, which he would give to the Indonesian President, who happens to be in the United States this week.  I not only provided him with such a letter, but I personally got it signed by both Republican and Democratic members of my subcommittee, including the lead Democrat on the committee, Congressman Eni Faleomavega of American Samoa, (which is sort of in the Indonesian neighborhood, at least relative to Cincinnati.)

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Next, riverboats.  I’ve been trying to breathe life into the Delta Queen for about five years now.  For about 40 years, the Delta Queen had Cincinnati owners, and her home port was here in Cincinnati.  Many Cincinnatians fondly remember taking overnight trips (sometimes honeymoons) on the Queen, or just visiting this beautiful steamboat when she was docked on the banks of the Ohio.

Here’s the problem.  Back in 1966, Congress passed legislation called the Safety at Sea Act, which was aimed at ocean going vessels, but also because of her size and wooden infrastructure, applied to one non-ocean going vessel, the Delta Queen.  From 1966 to 2005, Congress passed nine waivers, allowing the Delta Queen to operate despite the law.  Then in 2005, due to a labor dispute, and contrary to my best efforts, Congress wouldn’t pass a waiver, so the Delta Queen couldn’t any longer take overnight passengers on trips.  So since then, this American treasure has been sitting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, underutilized as a hotel, and on the path to oblivion.

It appears that the labor issue has been resolved, and I have introduced legislation, (with both Republican and Democratic co-sponsors) to give the Queen a waiver once again.  Chances look good, and there’s a Cincinnati group that is seriously interested in purchasing her.

My goal is to at least allow the Delta Queen to once again ply the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers with overnight passengers, and ideally have her home port right here in Cincinnati.  (By the way, a special thanks to Congressmen Brad Wenstrup and Thomas Massie who have been supportive and very helpful in this effort.)

Again keep your fingers crossed.

And finally, a skirmish at sea.  A few weeks ago (May 9^th) in waters which are claimed by both Taiwan and the Philippines, a Philippine Coast Guard ship opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing a Taiwanese fisherman, Hong Shi-Cheng.  Although this incident did not receive much attention from the American press, it has gotten considerable attention in the Southeast Asian press, and there is great consternation by the governments and people of both nations.

Why is this important to the United States?  Both countries are important American allies.  Security cooperation and stability in the region are key U.S. interests.  China is growing in its military and economic power in that region.  And most experts predict that China will be the United States’ principal rival over the next century, and probably beyond.

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, I was contacted by both countries early on to intercede.  Congressman Eni Faleomavega of American Samoa and I sent a letter to the Philippine government urging them to apologize and give compensation to the dead fisherman’s family.  We also met with both the Philippine and Taiwanese Ambassadors to the United States in my office last week.  I’ll let you know how all of this turns out.

Anyway, these are just three of the many interesting things I am working on as your humble servant in the United States House of Representatives. See you next week, when I’ll once again be reporting to you from Washington.

Since Attorney General Eric Holder was already scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee just after the story broke, he was the first top Obama official to be on the hot seat.  (I happen to be a member of that committee.)  He did his best to bob and weave and give non-answer answers to the probing questions he was asked.

Since I’m one of the more senior members on the committee, I got to ask my questions fairly early in the hearing.  I focused particular attention on the Cincinnati aspects of the case – that the Obama Administration seemed to be trying to spin the line that this had all “happened out in Cincinnati, and how were we supposed to know what was going on way out there.”  I pointed out to Attorney General Holder that the Cincinnati IRS office answers to the D.C. office, which is under the Treasury Department, which is under and answerable to the President of the United States.  Holder reluctantly agreed.

I also pressed the Attorney General on my view that there has been a pattern under the Obama Administration to “refuse to take responsibility for its failures, avoid blame, and point fingers in everybody else’s direction.”  Not surprisingly, the Attorney General responded that he did not share my view.

The real question is, how high up did knowledge of what the IRS was up to go?  It’s hard to believe that it was just a few rogue IRS employees in our fair city who did this on their own.  That’s just not the way the IRS, or any other government bureaucracy for that matter, operates.  Something as big as targeting conservative groups for special discriminatory treatment, must have been ordered from higher up the food chain.  Just how high up is still unknown.

The second Congressional hearing took place last Friday before the House Ways and Means Committee (the tax-writing committee which has jurisdiction over the IRS.)  The Administration witness was Steven Miller, the acting head of the IRS.  The Obama Administration made a big deal out of firing this guy just days after the scandal broke.  However, the truth is he was scheduled to leave his position in the next month or so anyway, so his sacking really wasn’t the decisive action the Obama Administration attempted to make it appear.

His appearance before the Ways and Means Committee was an embarrassment.  Most questions posed to him by committee members were met with an “I don’t know” or “we’ll get back to you on that,” (even though HE won’t be there.)  He reminded me a lot of Sergeant Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes fame who’s tag line was “I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing!”  Perhaps his lamest comment was when he admitted that the IRS had “provided horrible customer service.”  Ya think?

And his claim that even though it was overwhelmingly conservative Tea Party and Patriot groups who were targeted for harsher treatment by the IRS, it was not politically motivated, and there was no targeting going on.  WHAT?!

He also ludicrously claimed that the non-targeting targeting was merely “a foolish mistake” and that the IRS employees were “just trying to be more efficient in their workload selections.”  Aaaaahhhhhaaaa!!  I think my head’s going to explode.

One important thing we did learn from this awful witness was the devious way the IRS went about breaking the story.  Knowing that an Inspector General’s report would soon be released, and blow the lid off what the IRS had been up to, Lois Lerner, a top IRS official, was chosen to leak the story.  Lerner was asked a question by a person at a Bar Association function whom she and the IRS claimed was just a random questioner.  Turns out the questioner was an IRS plant, not a random questioner at all.  (As I finish this week’s blog, it has just been revealed that Ms. Lerner intends to take The 5th at today’s congressional hearing.)  The bottom line is, you really can’t believe anything these people say, (or don’t say.)

A few more outrages.

Not only did the IRS delay granting tax-exempt status to conservative groups (in many cases until after the 2012 election was over and Barack Obama was safely re-elected President), but they also demanded information from their victims that was highly inappropriate.  The IRS wanted lists of donors, Facebook posts, and lists of books people were reading, among other intrusive and irrelevant things.  The IRS was clearly trampling all over the First Amendment rights of American citizens – conservative Americans that is – liberals (progressives) were given a pass – (they, after all, would be voting right in the upcoming election!)

And Sarah Hall Ingram.  Who is Sarah Hall Ingram?  She was the person who was in charge of the IRS tax-exempt operation that inappropriately, and probably illegally, targeted conservative groups for “special” treatment.  Well, she’s no longer doing that.  But guess what she IS doing now.  Why she’s running the IRS program that will be overseeing Obamacare!  You can’t make this stuff up.  And these are the people we want controlling our healthcare?

And finally, it wasn’t just conservative GROUPS that were targeted by the IRS.  It was conservative, Romney-supporting individuals.  I give you Frank Vandersloot.  Mr. Vandersloot is an Idaho businessman who also happened to be co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee.  He was one of eight Romney backers who were slimed on Obama’s campaign website; but it didn’t stop there.  He was then audited by the IRS, twice, and his business was audited by the Labor Department.  None of this had ever happened before he became known as a top Romney supporter.  (By the way, after spending $80,000 in attorney’s fees defending himself, it was determined that Mr. Vandersloot had done nothing wrong, and everything against him was dropped.)

But let’s face it, this could clearly have a chilling effect on others who might think about expressing their First Amendment Rights, and supporting other than the Obama team.  And perhaps that’s just what was intended.

I’ll stop there.  I’m getting mad just thinking about the abuses of this corrupt Administration.

We’re Americans.  We don’t take orders from the government.  The government is supposed to answer to us.  We shouldn’t have to fear our government.  But many of us do.  And apparently for good reason.

Perhaps an Administration could even survive two scandals at the same time. But three?

We’ll see. Because the Obama Administration is now facing considerable scrutiny for three, count ’em, three scandals at the same time.  1. Benghazi.  2. The IRS targeting conservative groups for “special” treatment.  3. And most recently, the Obama Justice Department secretly seizing phone records of journalists (never pick a fight with a group that buys ink by the barrel, as they used to say.)

It’s too early to say for certain how all of this will play out, but it could be very bad indeed for this “do as I say, not as I do”; “holier than thou”; “we’re the change we’ve been waiting for” Administration.

First, Benghazi. Four Americans dead, including the first U.S. Ambassador killed overseas in over thirty years.

Obama’s State Department, represented by Susan Rice, goes on five Sunday talk shows and poo-poos any connection to terrorism, claiming instead that it was a spontaneous reaction by demonstrators to a video. Turns out to be total bunk. Obama’s State Department knew from the start that terrorists were responsible for the Benghazi attack. But this didn’t fit in with one of the Obama campaign’s principal themes – that Commander-in-Chief Obama had all but destroyed al-Qaeda, and therefore deserved to be re-elected. Terrorists attacking Benghazi was inconsistent with this campaign theme.

So the facts changed. The intelligence community’s talking points, used by Susan Rice were changed, not in a “single adjustment, changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ ” as Obama’s mouthpiece Jay Carney had claimed, but instead they were revised 12 TIMES.  For example, all references to “terrorism” were dropped.

We now learn that Obama State Department spokeswoman-at-the-time, Victoria Nuland, felt that the truth had to be covered up, because the true facts might be “abused by Members of Congress to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings…” So Congress and the American people were misled, deceived, lied to (pick your verb.) The cover up was on. And it continues to this day.

Second, IRS harassment of conservative groups. Although no one died as a result of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party groups (that we know of), this revelation is every bit as outrageous as Benghazi.

The IRS has truly awesome powers. It can bring strong men to their knees. It can ruin lives. Let’s face it, everyone (in their right mind) is terrified of the IRS.

However, the one thing we know about the IRS (or thought we knew) was that the IRS treated everyone equally (perhaps equally badly, but equally.) It would never be used by our nation’s leaders for partisan political purposes. In fact, when Richard Nixon was alleged to have used the IRS against his enemies, it was the second Article of Impeachment against him, which read: “He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to cause, in violation of the Constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits, or other income tax investigations, to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”

Well, we now know that the IRS was targeting for “special” treatment a whole range of conservative organizations, that had in their name “Tea Party” or “patriot” or “government spending” or other words near and dear to the hearts of conservatives. Of course Obama and his people are claiming they didn’t know a thing – didn’t suspect anything. Well, we’ll see.

The latest revelation is that Senator Chuck Schumer, head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and Max Baucus, Democrat Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee (which oversees the IRS and our tax laws), and other top Democrats, had sent a letter to the IRS, urging them to, in essence, do just what the IRS did – target Tea Party and conservative groups for particular scrutiny.  (And, as I just put the finishing touches on this week’s blog, there’s a USA Today story reporting that liberal groups, with “Progressive” or “Progress” in their names, got their tax exemption approval from the IRS up to three times more quickly than their conservative counterparts.) In other words, liberal groups got preferential treatment – conservative groups got punished.

And finally, Obama’s Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of a whole slew of reporters. This is the thing that has the press most outraged – because THEY’RE the ones who were targeted this time – not Tea Party groups, or American diplomats half way around the globe. Reporters!

The Newspaper Association of America released a statement which read in part: “Today we learned of the Justice Department’s unprecedented wholesale seizure of confidential telephone records from the Associated Press. These actions shock the American conscience and violate the critical freedom of the press protected by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

Any of the three scandals mentioned above could do great damage to the Obama Administration. But all three together are quite serious.

It’s been said that the second terms of many of our Presidents have been cursed – with scandal, tragedy, or other misfortunes. It would appear that the curse is rearing its ugly head quite early in Obama’s second term.