IRS Targets Groups

[woooooooo]

Cant say that this took me by surprise. Guess I better tone down my facebook rants, or they will come looking for me.

Thoughts?

[tantalyr]

As George Will pointed out Sunday, one of the articles of impeachment brought by the House of Representatives against then-President Richard Nixon was his targeting of specific individuals and groups for IRS audits. Is this any different?

Oh wait! Obama's response is that this was the work of some "rogue" IRS agents. Yeah, right . . . .

[woooooooo]

200 of them? Just in Cincinatti alone?

*cough*

[Deleted]

I love this quote...

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, demanded the resignation of the IRS commissioner in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Monday, noting the agency "cannot operate with even a shred of the American people's confidence under the current leadership.

Uh Marco... Why don't you and the rest of Congress resign then because none of you have a shred of the American people's confidence either.

As George Will pointed out Sunday, one of the articles of impeachment brought by the House of Representatives against then-President Richard Nixon was his targeting of specific individuals and groups for IRS audits. Is this any different?

Depends upon how high up the order originated I would think.

[Kulamata]

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/10/the-irs-was-wrong-to-target-the-tea-party-they-shouldve-gone-after-all-501c4s/

What's happening here? Groups are requesting special treatment based on their limited political function. Some groups are apparently advertising themselves as overtly political; reviewing their applications closely to ensure that they are not in the process of committing tax fraud does not seem unreasonable.

I agree with the articles; such review is mandated, but should certainly not have been one-sided, and most certainly should not have been selective in questioning smaller groups preferentially.

www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_05/brighter_lines_and_brighter_li044731.php

www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/politics/irs-ignored-complaints-on-political-spending-by-big-tax-exempt-groups-watchdog-groups-say.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

And finally, a nice discussion of the finer points of who, and which, these groups are. Finer points that are being cheerfully ignored in the awfullest scandal since GW Bush had the IRS audit (not review applications for tax-expempt status, but audit) liberal organizations, like Green Peace.
www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_05/527_501c4_whatever044710.php

And another: www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/14/lets-back-up-how-is-the-irs-supposed-to-scrutinize-501c4s-anyway/

[Kulamata]

Belatedly, just came across this, my favorite take on the matter, pending further developments. Concise. Also backs up a view of mine; if something is bad, odds are better than 5-2 that it's incompetence rather than evil...
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/14/the-irs-report-insubordination-and-incompetence-but-not-much-of-a-conspiracy/

[Kulamata]

www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html?alcmpid=politics

Hokay! It seems that the only group actually denied tax-exempt status was a liberal group. No doubt as part of a dastardly liberal plot to confuse the righteous.

I note that Boehner has suggested jail time for the IRS officials involved; I'd agree, especially the Bush-embedded-hangover-agent-conservative-moles who actually did their jobs!!!

As an aside, I'm really past tired of "whose ox is gored" political stances. Always present, it's been turned up to eleven since Obama won the presidency.

[Kulamata]

www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/15/1209313/-The-IRS-scandal-all-smoke-no-fire?detail=hide

Posted with the caveats: No links to support material; from a partisan site. It does, however, have in part the flat, affectless "just the facts ma'am" tone that often bodes well. It does explain why no suits ensued.

I waited a couple of days to see if I could find supporting info; it's depressing to see how much of the commentary is just commenting on some other commentator's comments. Calling the blogosphere an echo machine has a lot of truth to it.

[tantalyr]

When History looks back at the past couple of weeks and analyzes the trifecta of scandals rocking the Obama administration--the IRS, Benghazi and the AP and Fox News journalist subpoenas--the one History will judge as the most harmful, in my view, is the secret subpoenas for journalists' communications. Why? Up until now the Obama administration could always count on the mainstream media to leap to its defense and focus the narrative away from negative aspects of the administration. Not anymore.

Even such self-confessed (and "proud") liberal commentators such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberding and Maureen Dowd are attacking the administration.

As with the night of the Benghazi attack, I have to wonder what Obama and/or Holder were thinking when they green-lighted those subpoenas . . . .

[Kulamata]

Well, here's something on the IRS issue;
www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/05/the-irs-non-scandal-moves-to-capitol-hill.html If those numbers get widely aired (and they probably won't), that only 70 of ~300 organizations that were reviewed had Tea Party in their names seems like a data point that might calm things down. Although they can't get much calmer in the populace at large; latest poll figures (small changes, but still,) are up for Dems, up for the President, and down only for the Republicans. "But he was a big, awful woolf, with teeth THIS big!!!!!!!"

Bengazi went very quiet, very quickly. $500M was cut by Republicans from the $5 Billion requested for embassy security in the last budget; perhaps more of a quietus resulted from the discovery that the emails that the Republicans leaked had been doctored. (Shades of the Acorn and Farm Bureau videos.)

I'm more uncomfortable about the press subpoenas; not because of the role in "shaping the narrative" but because a free press is one of the rilly, rilly big pillars of our democracy. Since it's been mentioned that National Security is involved, it may take a little longer for the final facts to dribble out... remember how long it took for the Valerie Plame story to fully emerge. I await further developments with quiet interest.

The admin has been more active in pursuing and punishing whistle blowers than any other, save perhaps Nixon. Not a good sign. And while I don't have a dog in that fight, the pursuit of medical pot outlets in states where they are legal indicates a narrow-minded zealousness in pursuing easy targets at the expense of the very large and difficult measures against the cartels.

[tantalyr]

The Obama adminstration certainly wasn't helped in their efforts to put out the fires when the IRS official in charge of scrutinizing the tax exemption requests took the Fifth Amendment before Congress today. That's just putting blood in the water in front of a group of sharks.

On a side note, I'm gaining sympathy daily for Jay Carney. I imagine he's feeling a bit like Baghdad Bob these days.

[tantalyr]

I am just amazed at how the once smooth and polished Obama machine/administration keeps fumbling and flailing about during this perfect storm of scandals.

In response to the press's outrage over the AP FoxNews reporter subpoenas, Obama has appointed AG Holder to investigate DOJ policies regarding investigation of reporters and their sources. In other words, Obama had ordered Holder--who signed off on the subpoenas to the FoxNews reporter--to investigate himself.

Now Holder has set a Friday, off-the-record meeting with press representatives to discuss DOJ policies. As one wag put it yesterday: Holder is asking the press "You need to help me protect you from me." Unsurprisingly, several news organizations have declined their invitations to attend, including now-former Obama stalwarts New York Times, Huffington Post and CNN (not to mention the AP).

I am simply stunned that the formerly slick machine that is the Obama machine could so consistently mishandle this storm. I really wonder what they will come up with next.

[Pharcellus]

Now that the transcripts to the behind-closed-doors committee hearings, led by that right wingnut Issa, have been released, we can now see that this whole "scandal" isn't a scandal after all.

www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/06/18/193086191/6-things-we-just-learned-about-the-irs-scandal

There was no scandal. The targeting of the groups was legal and proper, albeit handled badly. All of this doesn't even rate as a tempest in a teacup and certainly doesn't rise to the level of "scandal", at least outside of the nutty right-wing conspiracy-theorists minds. It rates right up there with birtherism and chemtrails.

[D0Zer]

Jun 19, 2013 17:38:29 GMT Pharcellus said:

Now that the transcripts to the behind-closed-doors committee hearings, led by that right wingnut Issa, have been released, we can now see that this whole "scandal" isn't a scandal after all.

www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/06/18/193086191/6-things-we-just-learned-about-the-irs-scandal

There was no scandal. The targeting of the groups was legal and proper, albeit handled badly. All of this doesn't even rate as a tempest in a teacup and certainly doesn't rise to the level of "scandal", at least outside of the nutty right-wing conspiracy-theorists minds. It rates right up there with birtherism and chemtrails.

LOL and you believe what NPR says.

tinyurl.com/kkubr8c

This is far from over.

[Pharcellus]

Jun 24, 2013 23:16:33 GMT D0Zer said:

LOL and you believe what NPR says.

tinyurl.com/kkubr8c

This is far from over.

Did you read the article? Apparently not. You just saw "NPR" and ran away.

Then, you link to some conservitard blog which provides nothing of substance (despite the ridiculous "Sarah Palin for Senate" popup -- yeaaaah, right).

The NPR article links to the ACTUAL Inspector General's report which proves that this entire thing is bullshit.

Further, the documents the IRS provided as evidence show that they didn't just target Tea Party groups, but also progressive, liberal, and Occupy groups as well. The White House had no part in it. Period. End of story.

This thing is done. Stick a fork in it.