Obama IRS selectively investigates opposition exemption apps

[Robert_S]

Great example of why anyone who trusts the government is a moron.

I thought it was the FBI's job to harass domestic political groups of the wrong leaning though. Do I smell a turf war brewing?

[Ian]

Is this the right-wing outrage du jour? I get confused... GOP rank and file types are always getting hysterical over something, and it's usually something false or trivial. This doesn't seem too trivial, though it might not be the Reichstag Fire they seem to hope it is. I'm sure they went crazy during the previous administration when there were charges that the IRS targed liberal groups. Thankfully, Marco Rubio is calling for the IRS commissioner to resign. Too bad there is no such position...

In all seriousness, anyone at the IRS doing this, even if they have a "streamlining" excuse, ought to be put through the wringer. Which is pretty much exactly what Obama said about it when asked yesterday.
But were conservative groups the only ones targeted? Uh, no they weren't: http://www.politicususa.com/gop-scandal ... -2012.html
And was this a policy coming straight from the White House down to Ohio0based staffers of the IRS? I kinda doubt that too. Sorry, pitchfork people, this isn't Watergate II.

(And btw, it takes a lot of fucking nerve for anyone who voted for George W. Bush twice to gripe about this sort of possible wrongdoing. Shame.)

[Robert_S]

He's an atheist Muslim Nazi Communist liberal in league with the Socialist Jewish bankers from Palestine and the Kenyan Illuminati!

[Seth]

A liberal group, Propublica, has come out today and said that the Internal Revenue Service disclosed to them confidential information about some or many of the targeted conservative groups -- the purpose being, of course, so that the conservative groups could be targeted and smeared.

Propublica is a Progressive organization:

ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to “strengthen the progressive infrastructure”–“progressive” being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is http://www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government ... ive-Groups

It too is a tax exempt organization, despite being openly promoting of progressive rather than conservative views.

There is nothing wrong with them, of course, being tax exempt and promoting Progressive views. There is also nothing wrong with tax exempt tea party or conservative groups. That's the point. The conservative groups were specifically targeted by the IRS, the IRS collected data on the organizations, and that included in some cases DONOR LISTS and funding sources. Then the IRS also gave out confidential information that it gleaned to at least one outside entity -- a progressive entity -- Propublica.

And, we're expected to believe this was a lackey in Cincinnati who just went off half-cocked and did this with no direction and no partisan bias.

Be careful not to step in the bull shit, folks!

The most important thing is that it was done specifically in order to sway the election. It's felony election fraud and corruption writ large and people must go to jail, just like the Watergate conspirators did. And that should include Obama. And maybe Biden. Guess who the Speaker of the House (the third in line) is?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Strange, the IRS gets a flurry of applications for tax exempt status from groups with political sounding names and tries to verify they're legit. Odd, very odd.

[Robert_S]

A liberal group, Propublica, has come out today and said that the Internal Revenue Service disclosed to them confidential information about some or many of the targeted conservative groups -- the purpose being, of course, so that the conservative groups could be targeted and smeared.

Propublica is a Progressive organization:

ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to “strengthen the progressive infrastructure”–“progressive” being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is http://www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government ... ive-Groups

It too is a tax exempt organization, despite being openly promoting of progressive rather than conservative views.

There is nothing wrong with them, of course, being tax exempt and promoting Progressive views. There is also nothing wrong with tax exempt tea party or conservative groups. That's the point. The conservative groups were specifically targeted by the IRS, the IRS collected data on the organizations, and that included in some cases DONOR LISTS and funding sources. Then the IRS also gave out confidential information that it gleaned to at least one outside entity -- a progressive entity -- Propublica.

And, we're expected to believe this was a lackey in Cincinnati who just went off half-cocked and did this with no direction and no partisan bias.

Be careful not to step in the bull shit, folks!

The most important thing is that it was done specifically in order to sway the election. It's felony election fraud and corruption writ large and people must go to jail, just like the Watergate conspirators did. And that should include Obama. And maybe Biden. Guess who the Speaker of the House (the third in line) is?

From about the middle of the article http://www.politicususa.com/republican- ... -knew.html

Here’s the deal. Steve Miller was not appointed as acting commissioner until November 9th of 2012, when the Bush appointee stepped down. Republican Congressional aides told the Washington Post that the Bush appointee and Miller knew that conservatives were being targeted. Republicans and their dark money groups are making all kinds of allegations about the IRS targeting conservatives.

But we haven’t seen any proof that the IRS did more than badger these groups for documentation

Sorry, but the far right has little room to complain about being badgered for documentation.

[Coito ergo sum]

Dear scoffers,

The IRS has already apologized and admitted they were targeting conservative groups.

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... ml?hpid=z1

[Coito ergo sum]

The IRS wants YOU - to share everything - David Nather and Tarini Parti and Byron Tau - POLITICO.com
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/t ... 91378.html

Donor lists
Lists of books read
Whether officers ever planned to run for office
What issues were important to them
Provide summaries and copies of all materials passed out at meetings.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Dear scoffers,

The IRS has already apologized and admitted they were targeting conservative groups.

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... ml?hpid=z1

We weren't scoffing at the story, but at the tedious and endless stridency of your comments.

[Robert_S]

Dear scoffers,

The IRS has already apologized and admitted they were targeting conservative groups.

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... ml?hpid=z1

We weren't scoffing at the story, but at the tedious and endless stridency of your comments.

I don't mind the strident. It's the lack of perspective, the feeling that every event is looked at as something to be shoehorned into a pre-selected narrative.

Maybe Obama sucks worse than I'd like to think, but this shit is coming off as pretty desperate.

[JimC]

I don't think we have many tax exempt political groups in Oz, conservative or otherwise...

Too many tax exempt religious groups, that's for sure...

Personally, I think Physics teachers should be a tax exempt group, because the clear benefits we bring to the common good, which includes making teenager's brains hurt...

[Seth]

Strange, the IRS gets a flurry of applications for tax exempt status from groups with political sounding names and tries to verify they're legit. Odd, very odd.

It is odd, considering the fact that the IRS was only doing so for groups with political sounding names like "Tea Party" and "Freedom" and other names obviously connected with conservative causes, not to mention groups into teaching about the Constitution and civil rights.

It's particularly odd also given that they don't give the same degree of scrutiny to liberal-sounding and environmental defense-sounding groups.

It's also odd that they were demanding information from the groups that they a) don't ask for from liberal groups; and b) they have a negative right to even ask for...specifically donor lists and membership lists, which they are legally forbidden from demanding.

It's also odd because many of those groups, including ones that actually complied with the outrageous demands, STILL haven't gotten their certification up to two years later.

And to cap off all the oddities, it happened during Obama's first regime in the run up to his second term election and it was against exactly the grassroots conservative and Libertarian groups who were gaining political power and traction against his election.

Empirical evidence says it's a conspiracy known and approved at the highest level, and it's a conspiracy against our most valuable right, the vote.

Odd indeed.

[Robert_S]

Under a Bush appointee Seth.

[JimC]

Under a Bush appointee Seth.

Who (to be fair) could have been made pointedly aware which side his bread is buttered...

If there is clear political bias in the selection of groups to be investigated, as CES and Seth are alleging, then heads should roll...

[Robert_S]

Under a Bush appointee Seth.

Who (to be fair) could have been made pointedly aware which side his bread is buttered...

If there is clear political bias in the selection of groups to be investigated, as CES and Seth are alleging, then heads should roll...

Could have, if...

Like the other economic shoe dropping, I'll wait for some more evidence to come in.