The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups

[mini me]

Originally Posted by bobabode

I think that once we do get to the bottom of this we'll find that the IRS have been evenhanded pricks. After all that's the job qualification for working at the Infernal Revenooer Service.

I just hope they haven't found Pete's still, yet.

I didn't realize until now that it was even possible to use "evenhanded" and "IRS" in the same sentence.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Oh, I remember them flipping their lids about it back then and figured they were just looking for preferential treatment from the taxman but it's now the cause celebre since Benghazigate turn out to be such a farce.

You see, back in the day when lefty lunatics like Abbie Hoffman where flipping out and grasping at straws and microphones at every chance most of us hippies were rolling our eyes and cheering when people like Pete Townsend bashed him in the head and pushed him off the stage.

That is exactly how I view loonies like Michele Bachman and the rest. Egomaniacs spouting grand conspiracies and end of the world scenarios that have no basis in fact. It's all old hat from my perspective.

Well said, Robert.

Dave

[bobabode]

Heh, heh. Didja miss where I called them pricks?

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Heh, heh. Didja miss where I called them pricks?

No, they are pricks. They have to be. They are in the business of dealing with tax cheats. Which is exactly what trying to paint an overtly political organization as a charity, so you can avoid paying taxes, is. TAX FRAUD.

Who's the moron here who honestly thinks people in the friggin' Tea Party would never dream of avoiding taxes? That's what REALLY deserves a ............

Dave

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

No, they are pricks. They have to be. They are in the business of dealing with tax cheats. Which is exactly what trying to paint an overtly political organization as a charity, so you can avoid paying taxes, is. TAX FRAUD.

Who's the moron here who honestly thinks people in the friggin' Tea Party would never dream of avoiding taxes? That's what REALLY deserves a ............

Dave

That was directed at mini me but you're absolutely right. As to these teabagger organizations like Glenn Blech's 9/12 and the rest, anyone who believes that they're social welfare organizations, even under the "mostly" interpretation, has rocks in their heads or they think the rest of us do. Maybe they suffer from some sort of attention deficit disorder but I certanly remember all of those anti Obama adverts they ran in the last election. Remember that carnivorous chicken one with the little girl? That one wasn't overtly political, was it?

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by whell

The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups.

I for one though it very appropriate.

[wgrr]

Here is a pretty clear explanation of how the IRS took it upon themselves to change one word in a Congressional created law in 1959 that put the determination of political activity on the shoulders of the agents. Congress mandated many years ago that all 501 (c) (3) and (4)'s had to be investigated for political activity. I believe the agents in this case were using modern technology to aid in narrowing done potential political groups to investigate. Once again I have to point out that the OP's assertion that only conservatives were targeted is incorrect. As I pointed out before, the only 501(c) (4) to lose tax exempt status was a progressive PAC.

Here is O'Donnell's take on it. I am beginning to like O'Donnell. He does do his research and he is not full of BS.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/...al-irs-scandal

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by noonereal

I for one though it very appropriate.

Dave

[bobabode]

I agree, wgrr. How the IRS got from "exclusive" to "mostly" an organization doing social welfare interpretation is a mystery to me.

Hiding donor lists is a corrosive practice in politics and should be absolutely forbidden.

[bobabode]

More from the "goofy" LA Times

By David Horsey May 16, 2013, 5:00 a.m.


On Wednesday, President Obama fired the head of the Internal Revenue Service, the first sacrificial lamb brought down after the alleged “targeting” of conservative political groups by the IRS. Obama declared, “Americans are right to be angry about it.” Call me out of step, but I am angrier that the president is joining the rush to judgment.
All that is known for sure is that some IRS functionaries took a shorthand route to identify partisan political groups that might be pretending not to be political so that they could get the tax-exempt status available to social welfare organizations. The IRS employed various key words, such as “tea party” and “patriot,” and that is how it got into trouble. The IRS now stands accused of singling out conservatives for special scrutiny, even though such groups comprised just a third of the nearly 300 organizations picked out for extra attention.
It is worth noting that, though applications from some conservative organizations were slowed down, few, if any, were rejected. By law, any group whose primary purpose is to support the election of one set of candidates and the defeat of others should not be eligible for the 501(c)(4) designation. In practice, however, even Karl Rove and Barack Obama can weasel their way into a 501(c)(4) tax exemption that also provides anonymity for their fat cat corporate donors.
The actual scandal here is that so many campaign organizations are pretending to be no more politically involved than a group of volunteer firemen. Does anyone believe that the tea party groups that were supposedly so unfairly treated by the IRS are politically disinterested social welfare associations? Yet, everyone from the president to Jon Stewart to the mainstream media is buying into the Republican scenario that the IRS was carrying out a vendetta against the right wing.
What the IRS people did was not smartly conceived or executed, but there is, as yet, no evidence that they were trying to do anything more than their jobs. They were not helped in that by politicians in Washington who have so fuzzed up the campaign laws in order to benefit their political benefactors that it is not a simple thing for an IRS analyst to get things right when applying the 501(c)(4) statute. A big snafu was committed, but it is wildly premature for House Speaker John A. Boehner to demand that someone go to jail, as he did Wednesday.
The feigned outrage of Boehner and his compatriots is rather transparently part of the Republicans’ ceaseless campaign to undercut the president at every turn. They could hardly be expected to let an opportunity as ripe as the IRS flap pass them by. For his part, the president, embroiled in battles with his enemies on so many fronts, clearly decided he should get out in front on this one and put on his own show of outrage.
If some beleaguered IRS bureaucrats have their careers ruined, chalk it up to collateral damage in Washington’s permanent partisan war.