Oh yay

October 27, 2014October 26, 2014 ~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Jeb Bush’s son said it’s “more than likely” his dad will run for president in 2016 in an interview that aired Sunday.

George P. Bush, Jeb Bush’s eldest son, was interviewed by ABC News. The younger Bush is knee-deep in his own campaign this year, running for Texas land commissioner.

ABC’s Jon Karl asked Bush whether his father is running for president.

“I think he’s still assessing it,” Bush said, offering the same demurral his father and other members of his family have given in recent months.

Getting in shape

October 27, 2014October 26, 2014 ~ susie ~ 1 Comment

With your compassion muscle!

As chronically annoyed as I am, I’m still (I like to think) a compassionate person — much to the dismay of those who know me. They get pretty annoyed with my habit of seeing the other side of everyone’s situation. (I remember my father throwing down a paintbrush in frustration and yelling, “Why do you always do that?” “Because there’s another way to look at it,” I said.)

What really annoys me, though, is when people treat me like it’s easy for me. Like I was born that way. I most emphatically was not; it was both a maturity thing and a spiritual practice for me, and it took a long time to break my habits. But it was a decision on my part, not a character trait. I had to learn it, and it was hard.

I’d forgotten that most people don’t think this way until the other day, when I wrote at C&L about Pope Frank calling for an end to the death penalty and to life imprisonment. The comments section was immediately filled with people saying, “Yes, but… all child molesters should be killed!” Or all rapists, or all politicians, or whatever. It reminded me that liberal doesn’t always translate to compassion. Compassion isn’t earned — that’s what makes it compassion. If people deserved it for something they did, it just becomes a transaction. See what I mean?

Or not.

Correct me if I’m wrong

October 27, 2014October 26, 2014 ~ susie ~ 1 Comment

But isn’t this why we have a 4th Amendment? And didn’t we fight a revolution to stop crap like this?

ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost $33,000.

The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.

“How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”

The federal government does.

Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent. Many give up.

“They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.”

On Thursday, in response to questions from The New York Times, the I.R.S. announced that it would curtail the practice, focusing instead on cases where the money is believed to have been acquired illegally or seizure is deemed justified by “exceptional circumstances.”

Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the I.R.S., said in a written statement, “This policy update will ensure that C.I. continues to focus our limited investigative resources on identifying and investigating violations within our jurisdiction that closely align with C.I.’s mission and key priorities.” He added that making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting requirements, called structuring, is still a crime whether the money is from legal or illegal sources. The new policy will not apply to past seizures.