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Last week, the Obama White House was finally exposed to Americans on both the left and right as the abusive and arrogant administration that it is. Throughout this presidency, we’ve seen examples of the constant abuse of power and living above the law – the executive orders on gun control, the assault on religious liberty through Obamacare and the refusal to enforce immigration laws to gain political favor – are just a few among many. And last week, three more egregious offenses came to light that concern all freedom-loving Americans.

First, despite efforts to cover up the origin, truth and creator of the Benghazi talking points, we have seen more than 100 pages of emails that demonstrate how the talking points were changed from fact to fiction to fit the administration’s 2012 election narrative that al-Qaida was on its heels.

Second, the IRS got caught targeting conservative nonprofit groups over their tax-exempt status. The harassment was not from a lone rogue agent, but it was a systematic program condoned at high levels of the agency designed to silence the voices critical of the president’s policies. And it goes even higher. Reports are emerging that top officials at the Treasury Department were aware of the practices as far back as June 2012 – right in the middle of the president’s campaign for re-election – not all too different from the Benghazi case. This incredibly chilling revelation confirms two oft mentioned concerns. First, President Obama’s history of vitriolic attacks on his political foes sets a tone for not only his political supporters, but those who work for him. Second, elitist federal officials have contempt for average Americans who fight to keep power away from them.

The president’s response? Permit me to paraphrase: Who did what? Never heard of such of thing?

But he has assured us he is “angry” – although he’s not angry enough to fire those responsible. Instead, he graciously requested the man who oversaw and condoned such activity to opt for early retirement (with full benefits). You will be pleased to know that the woman who was in charge of the department discriminating against conservative groups is now overseeing Obamacare!

Finally, I am no fan of the Associated Press or the mainstream media, but I will defend with every fiber of my being their First Amendment right. President Obama’s Justice Department secretly pulling the phone records of the AP and possibly members of Congress to investigate government leaks about a terror plot in Yemen is an abuse befitting Fidel Castro, not a U.S. president.

Our mainstream news media have generally treated Barack Obama with adoration since he emerged on the national political scene, and when he has gotten into trouble they have ignored it or generally given him the benefit of the doubt. Most recently, this was true in the reporting, or lack thereof, of the massive failure that led to four American diplomats being killed by al-Qaida in Benghazi. But the media are treating the tax and surveillance scandals differently. Unlike the other scandals, this behavior by the administration is hitting close to home.

Most journalists in America agree with many of the intrusive government policies, unless it is their freedom that government is infringing. The media might want to look at the events over the last decade in Venezuela, where the late President Hugo Chavez brought a huge expansion of government and centralized power and then used his intelligence assets to stifle political and media opponents. This is what leftist leaders do around the world: Control the news media, use bureaucrats to suppress dissent and obscure the truth.

On May 3, 2012, on World Press Day, President Obama issued a statement saying, “On this World Press Freedom Day, the United States honors the role of a free press in creating sustainable democracies and prosperous societies. … We call on all governments to protect the ability of journalists, bloggers and dissidents to write and speak freely without retribution.”

Is it not shocking that during this very same week, the Obama Justice department was secretly obtaining the phone records on 20 lines from the world’s largest and oldest news wire service, attempting to uncover the source of a possible information leak from the government?

Americans are seeing here the ugly side of the liberal, big government philosophy they voted for last fall. This is what you get when government gets too big and intrusive: It tramples on your basic rights.

Remarkably, statements from responsible voices from across the ideological spectrum have condemned these actions by the Obama administration. How about that: After four-and-a-half years, President Obama has finally done something to bring both sides together in Washington.

America has the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) and the UCP (Ultimate Clutch Players). One is mixed martial artists, and the other is quarterbacks of the NFL. They all are athletic warriors who are extremely determined to win.

My favorite in the UFC is Georges St. Pierre. My favorite UCP in the NFL is Tim Tebow.

I know what you are thinking: Tebow has only been in the NFL for three years. True, but Tim’s 2011 season with the Denver Broncos was one of the most remarkable in football history.

Tim Tebow for president! Get the bumper sticker at the WND Superstore.

In 2010, the first round draft pick out of the University of Florida, signed a five-year contract with the Denver Broncos. His rookie season he played back up to then starter Kyle Orton. Orton remained the starter the following season, but after a 1-4 start, Tebow replaced him at halftime against the San Diego Chargers. After attempting to rally his team from a 16-point deficit against San Diego, Tim was named the starter for the upcoming game against the Miami Dolphins. It was in that game that we got to see Tebow work his fourth-quarter magic. Tim came back from a 15-0 disadvantage to the Dolphins and led the Broncos to an 18-15 overtime victory.

And what sportsman can ever forget how that amazing rookie quarterback then led the Broncos to six wins in their next seven games and into the playoffs, beating the highly favored Pittsburgh Steelers in a wild-card game? After finishing the game tied and going into overtime, the Broncos won the coin toss, and Tebow threw a perfect 80-yard pass on the first play to win the game 29-23. It was the Broncos’ first playoff victory in six years.

When the Broncos decided to go with another clutch player in Peyton Manning, Tim joined the New York Jets. He was brought to New York to be the backup quarterback to Mark Sanchez and run some wildcat packages.  

Personally, I think the formula of rotating quarterbacks is ultimately a recipe for disaster. That system never works. There can only be one quarterback leading the team. As the old adage goes, anything with more than one head is a monster.

I have been following Tim since he became a quarterback for the Florida Gators, and I have never seen a more determined and inspiring athlete play the game of football. And I’m not alone in that sports assessment.

Akbar Gbajabiamila, analyst for NFL.com and NFL Network, explained last week in his article, “Tim Tebow’s history as a proven winner should not be ignored”: “Training camps are still a few months away, and already, every team in the NFL has made a major mistake: They’ve overlooked the winning record of Tim Tebow. … Pundits have tried to erase the success Tebow had in 2011 with the Denver Broncos, but make no mistake: it all happened. He did mount multiple fourth-quarter comebacks and notch four overtime victories; he did rush for 118 yards and throw for two touchdowns in one game; he did complete 66 percent of his passes and throw for two touchdowns in another. … In the locker room we had a word to describe that kind of personal highlight reel: ballin.’”

Forbes just released its 2013 list of Most Influential Athletes, and Tim Tebow leads the pack with the No. 1 ranking, followed by Manning at a distant fifth. The only other two NFL players on the list were Drew Brees (No. 6) and Aaron Rodgers (No. 8).

I’ve heard the so-called critics say Tebow has poor technical skills, but the truth is that Tim is a natural-born leader, an amazingly gifted football player, an inspiration to his team and the possessor of intense determination and strategy to bring any team to victory – no matter what the odds. One can improve technique, but leadership is innate. That is why I believe Tebow could be a super star and legend in the NFL.

Take an unprecedented in-depth look at the most celebrated college football player of all time as he defies the odds and astounds critics, making the journey from two-time national champion and Heisman trophy winner to NFL rookie quarterback.

Michael Strahan, Super Bowl champion, Fox football analyst, and now morning show host, recently commented on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “You can’t measure heart. And you can’t measure how hard a guy’s going to work when a guy starts making money.”

Tebow has proven that he plays with all heart, and his hard work and determination is unprecedented.

Tebow is a player who rises to the occasion and delivers big in critical game moments. He reminds me of myself when I used to compete in martial arts. I would spar with my black belts in class, and sometimes they would outscore me. Yet in the tournaments, I would defeat them. My students used to ask me, “Why can we contend equally against you in class, but we can’t beat you in the tournaments?” My answer was always the same, “When it counts, I rise to the occasion.”

The same is true of the former Heisman Trophy winner: When pressure mounts and the game is on the line, Tim’s turbo turns on! It has been said, “If a quarterback came through with a clutch, final-minute victory, he pulled a ‘Tebow.’” And that is why he is the ultimate clutch player.

I believe we have just begun to see what Tim is capable of doing as one of the best among the NFL’S UCP. But a team must play him and let him lead, like the Broncos did. No warrior can prove his worth if kept from the battlefield.

So what team do I feel should give Tim the opportunity to excel as a quarterback and usher them to Super Bowl status?

My present pick would be the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Why? To put it simply, because Tim could help turn the mediocre team into a championship one.  Tebow works miracles on the field, and his inclusion would embolden the spirit of the Jaguars among the team and fans.

Plus – and this has no reflection on the current quarterbacks – Tim is from Florida, where he bears a victor legacy and an extensive fan base, to boot, from his days with the Gators. Tim was raised in the Jacksonville area, where he became a high-school football star. Then his young, stellar career shot into the stratosphere when he led the University of Florida in Gainesville to some record-breaking wins. Tim won two national championships with the Gators and became the first sophomore ever to win the coveted Heisman Trophy.

So, Mr. Shad Khan – the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, David Caldwell – their general manager and coach Gus Bradley, I would give the preceding some serious thought. Whatever you would pay Tebow would be recouped tenfold by the increase in attendance and fan base. With Tim as the quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, they would add thousands (if not tens of thousands) of additional fans to the stadium, including me – even though I don’t live in Florida!

Only one thing that stands in the way, again as Akbar Gbajabiamila, analyst for NFL.com and NFL Network, wisely retorted: “Here’s the truth as I see it: Many coaches let pride or fear of media and fan scrutiny affect the decisions they make about star players.”

But I was reading another USA Today column last week, headlined, “Trailblazer Khan should set course for hirings.” It reported that Khan, as the first minority owner of an NFL franchise, often cites Martin Luther King Jr.’s work as a contributing factor to his success.

So let me respectfully challenge Mr. Khan to consider these words from Dr. King: “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

I know Khan, Caldwell and Bradley have talked, and they know that hiring Tebow would be right – right for them, right for the team, right for the fans and right for Florida.

Tim isn’t worried about his future. With his skillset, confidence, marketability and Christian faith, his future is rock solid and good as gold – on and off the field. As he himself has said, “I don’t know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future.”

All that is needed now is an owner, manager and coach of a football team who have the vision and faith to watch Tebow turn around their team. I guarantee that they will see positive results. I have been an athlete all of my life, being a six-time undefeated world middle weight champion in the martial arts, and I know a winner when I see one.

Tim Tebow is a winner – plain and simple!

Over the weekend, I attended a conference on alternative media at Goddard College in Vermont. The first one was held in 1970, and this one was attended by aging former hippies as well as people from the Millennial Generation.

What we now consider “old” ways of disseminating of our message was quite new back in 1970. FM radio was considered a new technology, and fax machines were not on the horizon. There were computers, but they took up lots of space, needed punch cards and stored things on tape. We had to rely on community organizing to get our message across.

Now with computers and social media such as Facebook and Twitter, there is instant media and a 24-hour news cycle. There is so much free media that we don’t have to pay for most of what we consume. We used to have to wait for the top-of-the-hour news or even plan our evenings around the watching end-of-the-day news. Now, we do not have to wait. If we really enjoy a special anchor or program, we can just watch it online later.

With the division and rancor that we saw this week about political Washington, I thought about those ideas for communication that we used way back when. That is when the left won the communications battle. Most of our organizing tools did not require a whole lot of money back then; they just needed a whole lot of creativity and organizing. Here is what they did.

It began with the arts. Two groups used their own ingenuity to make their point. The Bread and Puppet Theater made puppets that could parade down streets. They were huge and towered above the puppeteer. People would turn out to enjoy them and watch the message they were conveying. At the same time this was happening in the East, the San Francisco Mime Troupe was developing in the West. With paper mache hands, they portrayed the famous court scene of the Chicago 8.

It made the point and people paid attention.

Back then, there was no Starbucks. People congregated at night in coffee houses and participated in events at locations such as clubs and libraries. They were great places to organize and get messages across.

Around the same time, people decided to run for office. Former presidential candidate and now Secretary of State John Kerry ran for office and raised money from a Peter, Paul and Mary concert. People came to groups and discussed matters, often weekly, and the women’s movement in Boston began with discussion groups under the heading of “Bread and Roses,” the title of a well-known union organizing song.

Then there was the “teach-in,” a way of making citizens aware of the issues.

Howard Zinn a famous anti-war spokesperson and college professor, not only spent his time teaching college students in the 1960s, he taught high-school students and freely gave up his weekend time.

Boomers interested in changing the world spent a lot of time on basic communications. They got to know state representatives, members of Congress and other elected officials. Students sought out faculty members who could not only guide them but serve as their spokespeople. Fun events were organized to make a point and to gather like-minded people. One of my favorites took place on the Charles River in 1997. It was called a “be-in,” and it was there to support Harvard Dean John Monro, who was going to teach at a black Southern College at the height of the race crises. Balloons were blown up and flown with his name on it.

Before today’s marketing and branding, the anti-war efforts were in full swing, making the history books in marketing campaigns that today’s political types only wish for. Black arm bands, peace symbols and slogans were everywhere, and later even sidewalk art such as the work of Keith Haring made the AIDS crises come home to the sidewalk near you. His work later sold for thousands of dollars but began as simple protest art.

Now, in the year 2013, we are too busy bending our heads to read our handheld devices to participate in good, old fashion organizing. It doesn’t matter if you are a tea-party activist or a left-winger interested in ending drone warfare, Internet organizing is not the only way to go. The lessons on how to get people behind you and your cause from the 1960s and 1970s are still valuable. They are still the best way to get a cause organized so that it is effective, perhaps even better than the Internet.

I know, I know. We’re not supposed to think – much less say – anything that might cast terrorist aspersions on Muslims.

Islam is, we are consistently told, “a religion of peace.”

Perhaps so, but there’s no doubt events across the world have shown that virtually all terrorist attacks against the West and Christians have been perpetrated by militant Islamists.

Their hate of the infidel – us – and their intentions to eliminate us or convert us into a Shariah world are clearly stated. They train their children in the mantra.

But in our multi-culti-PC haze, we ignore what is before us and pretend history doesn’t count.

Consider last Wednesday. Police on routine midnight patrol at the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown, Mass, discovered seven adults in a no-trespassing area.

This reservoir supplies drinking water for Boston and 40 other communities.

Police questioned the five men and two women.

They said they were chemical engineers recently graduated from college and were there because of “their education and career interests.”

There is no report if the police kept a straight face, but after a cursory background check, the seven were released pending a court summons for trespassing.

But there are other details. All are from the Middle East – Pakistan, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Their names haven’t been released, but we’re told they live in Amherst, Cambridge, Sunderland, Northampton and New York City.

I guess it was just an accident they all turned up together that night to do midnight “chemical engineering research.”

The FBI has tested the water, and there’s no sign of contamination.

But – are these people being followed? What is their immigration status? Do they have jobs? What schools did they attend? Are any of them related? Why don’t we have their names?

And does anyone believe they’ll voluntarily show up for their court date?

But we can’t be suspicious of Muslims, can we – even though the week before it was reported that the FBI arrested a Muslim man in New York in a plot to contaminate the water or air of a U.S. city, hoping to kill 100,000 people?

Canada’s CBC news said he’s Ahmed Abassi, a 26-year-old chemical engineering student at Laval University. In addition, he was linked to a suspected plot to derail a Canadian passenger train.

Am I the only one to see a pattern?

Given our experience with Islamic extremists across the world and in our own country, you’d think it would be tops on our list of issues to inform government officials, law enforcement, the military and, yes, even average Americans, that there are dangers and we need to know of them.

The Boy Scouts’ slogan, “Be Prepared,” says it all.

If you know the enemy and the dangers, you can protect yourself and perhaps even prevent an attack.

But no. The reality is that Muslims in this country get a pass from our government. The reality is that our military and law enforcement are being brainwashed into ignoring history and information, which might make it easier to spot dangers and prevent catastrophes.

Remember Sept. ll? Remember that those terrorists were taking flight lessons on how to fly a plane but not how to land it?

To any thinking person, that might seem strange – especially since the people involved were from the Middle East, most from Saudi Arabia and most on expired visas.

But no, we did nothing, and they accomplished the worst attack on our country in history, killing 3,000 innocent people.

For what? The religion of peace.

In the years since, we’ve prevented a number of terrorists attacks in our country – the Times Square bomber, the underwear bomber, the Fort Dix bombers, the millennial bomber, among them.

But we still act stupid.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued specific warnings about what it considers the dangers of “right-wing religious extremism,” including people who are pro-life and support the Constitution.

According Secretary Janet Napolitano, that’s the core of the dangers to our national security.

But as for pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists – well, back off.

The Daily Caller obtained a government checklist entitled “Countering Violent Extremism Dos and Don’ts,” which says it is the Obama administration policy to consider it legitimate for Islam to criticize our system of government.

It instructs readers to avoid criticism of Islam and Shariah goals and says that anyone who equates the desire for Shariah law in this country with criminal activity is violating our own First Amendment.

Readers are warned not to think Muslims use our laws to subvert democracy, despite the fact that there have been court decisions confirming that very fact.

We’ve just experienced the second worst terrorist attack in this country – bombings in Boston, carried out by two young Muslim brothers. The elder was killed in his escape attempts. He’d gone to Russia for six months and met with radical Muslims.

That he was allowed back into this country on his visa raises questions – but then, we must be nice to Muslims.

The younger is in custody.

Last Sept. 11, he became an American citizen, but he carried out the bombing. In his attempt to escape capture, he hid in a boat in a yard.

The police got him and have now revealed that that he wrote “F### America” and other insults against “the infidels” on the boat panels as well as “Praise Allah.”

Aren’t you glad he’s an American citizen?

How did that happen – after he lived on welfare, flunked out of school, had a scholarship and frequented local radical mosques?

Do you think someone cast a blind eye on these Muslims? Is the sky blue?

As I write this, there was a catastrophic train wreck in Connecticut.

I hope it was an accident.

I hope, I hope, I hope.

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I have some experience with politically motivated tax audits.

I also have some experience with the tea party movement.

I wrote the “Tea Party Manifesto,”which I am making available for a limited time for 99 cents because it is more relevant than ever. I was a headline speaker, along with Sarah Palin, at the first national tea-party convention, and you can see what I said there that I knew – and predicted – would lead to politically motivated audits of my tax returns.

I predicted this would happen in a column in March 2010.

I wrote about it when it came to pass in November 2011.

I don’t claim the gift of prophecy.

I just know the nature of people like Barack Obama and those he places in positions of authority. I know this because I was just like him. I even had some of the same friends and acquaintances as a misguided youth – people like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

But my experience with politically motivated tax audits goes back long before the Obama administration.

I was a prominent target of Bill Clinton’s reign of Internal Revenue Service hell on individuals and tax-exempt organizations. And I was the guy who broke the story about it – long before there was a WND. Back then, I had to get the help of the Wall Street Journal, which, to its credit, gave me commentary space to lay out the whole story and turned the sordid tale into an 11-part series of editorials.

But in this day of historical forgetfulness, no one in the media seems to remember how Bill Clinton used the IRS to terrorize Paula Jones and many other women who had the misfortune of crossing his path along with a virtual who’s who of those who made his “enemies list” like me.

In my case, we finally got the evidence from the Treasury Department years later that showed it wasn’t some “rogue agent” who instigated the audit. It was Bill Clinton personally who dispatched a letter to the head of the IRS tax-exempt division.

Bill Clinton was allowed to skate for that kind of abuse.

And that’s why I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that it would happen again under the watch of Barack Obama.

It’s been three years now that Obama has gotten away with targeting his enemies using the IRS. I’ve heard the horror stories from many friends – most of whom don’t want the limelight. Tax-exempt organizations hate to admit they are being audited because it tends to dry up donations. That was the problem telling the story in the 1990s, and it’s a problem now.

You will hear many horror stories about politically motivated audits now because people and organizations are starting to see it as a badge of honor to be audited by Obama – now that the story has legs.

Some will be tempted to discount these stories. Don’t make that mistake. They’re true. The abuse is far more than anyone can imagine. That’s why Obama publicly dispatched a sacrificial lamb, his IRS commissioner, so quickly. He thinks he may be able to cut his losses by finding a scapegoat.

Whether he’s right remains an open question.

Sadly, it depends primarily on two institutions that don’t have a less-than-stellar track record in holding him accountable – the Republican Party and the media establishment.

I’m not holding my breath.

But I can say this without any equivocation: If Obama serves out his second term by merely blaming others beneath him, this will not be the last administration that uses the IRS to target its enemies. It will become a matter of course for leaders without scruples and integrity to continue the harassment and abuse Obama ensured would happen.

I’m not suggesting we will find any written authorization from Obama to do this – as we did with Clinton. As Rush Limbaugh so aptly pointed out, Obama didn’t need to do that. In politics and government, personnel is policy.

He hired people who would do his bidding. They didn’t need to be told by Obama to do it. All they needed to do was listen to what he said publicly about his enemies in the tea-party movement, the patriot movement and all those who crossed him.

Lastly, let me say this: Not only does Obama have to be chased from the Oval Office to ensure the IRS doesn’t victimize others in the future. The IRS also has to go. It has proven once again to be the U.S. version of the Gestapo – there for future would-be fuehrers to abuse.