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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on May 10, 2013, 07:48:11 AM
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IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130510/us-irs-political-groups/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER | May 10, 2013 10:43 AM EST |
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WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.
Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.
Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They said the agency asked them an inordinate number of questions to justify their tax-exempt status.
Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.
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Wow.
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Wow.
The IRS is a weapon, a massive entity and a political tool.
Just wait to until the ACA is fully in place.
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Pretty bad stuff, but at least they owned up.
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http://www.wfpl.org/post/mitch-mcconnell-demands-white-house-investigate-irs-targeting-conservative-groups
LOL!!!! Good luck w that Mitch! ::) ::)
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/carney-irs-run-bush-political-appointee_722149.html
Carney blaming Bush - LMFAO!!!!
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IRS: We Targeted Conservative, Tea Party Groups With Extra Scrutiny — 'Mistakes Were Made'
Brett LoGiurato|May 10, 2013, 1:33 PM|4,165|47
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A Mitt Romney supporter at a campaign rally in Ohio.
The Internal Revenue Service admitted Friday to targeting conservative and Tea Party groups with additional scrutiny during the 2012 campaign, the Associated Press first reported.
IRS spokesperson Lois Lerner said at a conference in Washington that the agency apologized for the special emphasis and scrutiny in applications for tax-exempt status.
According to the AP, she said that organizations containing the words "Tea Party" or "patriot" were targeted for additional review, blaming that on "low-level" workers in Ohio.
Here is the full statement the IRS released later:
Between 2010 and 2012, the IRS saw the number of applications for section 501(c)(4) status double. As a result, local career employees in Cincinnati sought to centralize work and assign cases to designated employees in an effort to promote consistency and quality. This approach has worked in other areas. However, the IRS recognizes we should have done a better job of handling the influx of advocacy applications.
While centralizing cases for consistency made sense, the way we initially centralized them did not. Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale. We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system. To date, more than half of the cases have been approved or withdrawn.
It is important to recognize that all centralized applications received the same, even-handed treatment, and the majority of cases centralized were not based on a specific name. In addition, new procedures also were implemented last year to ensure that these mistakes won’t be made in the future. The IRS also stresses that our employees - all career civil servants -- will continue to be guided by tax law and not partisan issues.
In a conference call later Friday with reporters, the IRS reiterated that it was not engaging in any political attacks by targeting groups with "Tea Party" and "patriot." But it couldn't point to other non-conservative or political-sounding words.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for a government-wide review.
"Now more than ever we need to send a clear message to the Obama administration that the First Amendment is non-negotiable, and that apologies after an election year are not an sufficient response to what we now know took place at the IRS. This kind of political thuggery has absolutely no place in our politics," McConnell said in a statement.
At one point last year, 16 tea party groups joined together in claiming harassment by the IRS, something the agency denied at the time. The IRS said that roughly 75 groups were targeted.
One of those groups, the Tea Party Patriots, called on President Barack Obama to apologize and demanded that Congress investigate.
“The IRS has demonstrated the most disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power,” said Jenny Beth Martin, the group's national coordinator.
“This deliberate targeting and harassment of tea party groups reaches a new low in illegal government activity and overreach. It is suspicious that the activity of these ‘low-level workers’ was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred. ... We reject a simple apology that does nothing to alleviate the danger of this happening again. Only immediate and public actions on the part of the IRS and the president will suffice.
Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities, but it cannot be their primary activity.
This post has been updated.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/irs-tea-party-groups-conservatives-2013-5#ixzz2SvG6bobs
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Bush's Fault
Seriously
The head of the IRS at the time this happened was a Bush Appointee
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.
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Bush's Fault
Seriously
The head of the IRS at the time this happened was a Bush Appointee
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.
so bush is responsible for increasing taxes on the rich starting in 2013? not Barack Obama?
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/carney-irs-run-bush-political-appointee_722149.html
Carney blaming Bush - LMFAO!!!!
Typical. ::) So it was a practice "initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati," and stopped by the Bush appointee when he found out about it. And apologized. But it's Bush's fault?
An Obama appointee would have probably turned a blind eye.
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so bush is responsible for increasing taxes on the rich starting in 2013? not Barack Obama?
well not so much Bush as Republicans and a Senate rule
I'm sure you won't disagree that Republicans passed the Bush tax cuts (with some Dems too) and were required to make them sunset after ten years because of the Byrd Rule
So if you want to blame something for that then blame the Byrd Rule
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Typical. ::) So it was a practice "initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati," and stopped by the Bush appointee when he found out about it. And apologized. But it's Bush's fault?
An Obama appointee would have probably turned a blind eye.
he didn't stop it
he denied it was even happening
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HAHAHAHA the fundy libtards know no limits
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HAHAHAHA the funds libtards know no limits
yep, that fundy libtard running the IRS was appointed by Bush and denied this was even happening
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yep, that fundy libtard running the IRS was appointed by Bush and denied this was even happening
Hahah yup Obama is not responsible for anything over the past 4+ years unless you agree with it hahahahaha fundy liberalism at work folks
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Hahah yup Obama is not responsible for anything over the past 4+ years unless you agree with it hahahahaha fundy liberalism at work folks
did I say that
feel free to show any way that Obama is responsible for this
fundy libtard
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Back in May 2009, Professor Glenn Reynolds, better known to his followers as Instapundit, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he discussed some odd rhetoric from President Obama. Obama had been refused an honorary doctorate by Arizona State University, and Obama remarked, “President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.” Reynolds pointed out:
Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.
As it turns out, the IRS under President Obama routinely gave special scrutiny for groups with the terms “tea party” or “patriots” in their titles. His little joke doesn’t read much like a joke anymore.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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Bush's Fault
Seriously
The head of the IRS at the time this happened was a Bush Appointee
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.
He was on his way out. I suppose Bush gave the order to go after conservative groups as well. Haha.
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He was on his way out. I suppose Bush gave the order to go after conservative groups as well. Haha.
Exactly
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IRS Blames 'Low-Level' Employees for Targeting Conservative Groups
Breitbart ^ | 5/13/13 | Tony Lee
Posted on May 10, 2013 9:06:34 PM EDT by Nachum
On Friday, the IRS blamed "low-level" employees in its Cincinnati office for targeting tax-exempt organizations that had "Tea Party" or "Patriots" in their names during the 2012 election and apologized for their actions.
Upon a review of the IRS bureaucracy, though, the Cincinnati office is not a random backwater outpost for "low-level" IRS rogues. In fact, the Cincinnati office is where determinations on tax-exempt organizations' eligibility are made and is the only physical office in the complex IRS bureaucracy dedicated to tax-exempt determinations.
On the IRS's website, in the "How to Contact the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division" section, the Cincinnati office is the only one listed for people to contact if they have questions about "Charities & Non-Profits":
To obtain a determination letter that applies the principles and precedents previously announced to a specific set of facts, or to transmit copies of amended documents write or fax to:
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
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He was on his way out. I suppose Bush gave the order to go after conservative groups as well. Haha.
Obama has no involvement and this happened under Douglas Shulman's watch
so you either have to believe the story that it was a few low level employees and that the head of the agency is not responsible for the actions of his employees or you have to blame the head of the agency, who was appointed by Bush
those are the only two choices
If Repubs weren't always acting like a bunch of pussy victims all the time they would realize this was just the action of a couple of employees and the real story is that it's FUCKING AMAZING that the IRS admitted it much less apologized for it
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Obama has no involvement and this happened under Douglas Shulman's watch
No, no, no.
Not according to libtards. Anything that occurs during a president's term is his responsibility. Whether he had any involvement or not. This standard was established by the left when they blamed Bush for 9-11. When they blamed Bush for high gas prices. The only exception is the economy because they still blame Bush for it and he is not even in office.
So, lets apply the same standard to the current clown in chief. Thanks.
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No, no, no.
Not according to libtards. Anything that occurs during a president's term is his responsibility. Whether he had any involvement or not. This standard was established by the left when they blamed Bush for 9-11. When they blamed Bush for high gas prices. The only exception is the economy because they still blame Bush for it and he is not even in office.
So, lets apply the same standard to the current clown in chief. Thanks.
let's apply the same standard
fundy libtards denied Bush was responsible for anything so if we're going to apply the same standard then Obama has no fault in this
back in actual reality we have tons of proof of culpability of Bush Admin for 911 and Iraq, etc.. ( I wouldn't blame Bush for gas prices) but we have zero evidence of any culpability of Obama in this non-story
again, my primary point is this is non-story, except for the amazing fact that the IRS apologized
Repubs are in permanent victimhood and just crave the next story that they can feel bad about
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let's apply the same standard
right wing libtards denied Bush was responsible for anything so if we're going to apply the same standard then Obama has no fault in this
back in actual reality we have tons of proof of culpability of Bush Admin for 911 and Iraq, etc.. ( I wouldn't blame Bush for gas prices) but we have zero evidence of any culpability of Obama in this non-story
again, my primary point is this is non-story, except for the amazing fact that the IRS apologized
Repubs are in permanent victimhood and just crave the next story that they can feel bad about
Good.
Now all you have to do is blame Obama and the dumbocrats for the sorry state of the economy, the never ending spending, UE still above 7%, more people than ever on welfare, millions more on ue benefits, millions who have quit looking for a job, highest UE rate among blacks in 20 years, downgrade of UE economy, Gitmo still open, not a single war has ended that wasn't suppose to end according to the schedule set by Bush, the high price of gasoline (even higher than when Bush was president and libtards were crying about it like battered whores), and the fake stock market bubble created by the never ending printing of money by the fed.
Blame Obama because if it was a Republican President, you along with the other leftist morons, would be blaming him for every single thing that I just noted.
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IRS Inquisition Update
By Kevin Williamson
May 11, 2013 9:40 AM
National Review
Along with targeting tea-party groups, the IRS may also have given extra-special attention to the tax-exempt status of some Jewish groups for political reasons.
From the Jewish Press:
The passionately pro-Israel organization Z STREET filed a lawsuit against the IRS, claiming it had been told by an IRS agent that because the organization was “connected to Israel,” its application for tax-exempt status would receive additional scrutiny. This admission was made in response to a query about the lengthy reveiw of Z STREET’s tax exempt status application.
In addition, the IRS agent told a Z STREET representative that the applications of some of those Israel-related organizations have been assigned to “a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.” . . .
And at least one purely religious Jewish organization, one not focused on Israel, was the recipient of bizarre and highly inappropriate questions about Israel. Those questions also came from the same non-profit division of the IRS at issue for inappropriately targeting politically conservative groups. The IRS required that Jewish organization to state “whether [it] supports the existence of the land of Israel,” and also demanded the organization “[d]escribe [its] religious belief system toward the land of Israel.”
More bureaucratic snafus?
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Obama has no involvement and this happened under Douglas Shulman's watch
so you either have to believe the story that it was a few low level employees and that the head of the agency is not responsible for the actions of his employees or you have to blame the head of the agency, who was appointed by Bush
those are the only two choices
If Repubs weren't always acting like a bunch of pussy victims all the time they would realize this was just the action of a couple of employees and the real story is that it's FUCKING AMAZING that the IRS admitted it much less apologized for it
Which president was Douglas Shulman? was he the president between Bush and Obama? lol
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IRS Knew Tea Party Was Being Targeted In 2011: Report
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER 05/11/13 03:18 PM ET EDT
WASHINGTON — A federal watchdog's upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011.
The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted.
On Friday, the IRS apologized for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if those groups were violating their tax-exempt status.
The Treasury's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week.
The Associated Press obtained part of the draft report.
That report says the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups learned that groups were being targeted in June 2011. It does not say whether Shulman was notified.
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Posted on May 11, 2013, 2:34:24 PM EDT by Libloather
The Internal Revenue Service’s admission that it inappropriately targeted conservative political groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 presidential election only gives congressional Republicans more ammunition as they try to defund and weaken the agency.
For the past few years, Republican lawmakers have sought to slash the funding of the IRS. Reducing the agency’s budget makes it more difficult for it to collect taxes and audit individuals. (Score one for Republicans who dislike high taxes).
But, more importantly, the IRS is also one of the key agencies that will implement the Affordable Care Act. Much of the funding stream for the incoming health care law, arguably the president’s signature legislative achievement, comes from two tax increases: a 3.8 percent hike on investment income for wealthy individuals, estates, and trusts, as well as an additional Medicare tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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Posted on May 11, 2013, 7:16:50 PM EDT by mandaladon
The IRS acknowledging that it targeted conservative political groups during the 2012 election season has sparked bipartisan calls for investigation -- with House Republicans already saying they will hold a hearing on the issue. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Friday the Republican-led chamber would investigate the tax-collecting agency for flagging the groups for additional review to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status. “The IRS cannot target or intimidate any individual or organization based on their political beliefs,” the Virginia Republican said. Cantor’s comments were followed within minutes by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp saying he would hold a hearing. The IRS on Friday apologized for targeting groups, but Camp, R-Mich., argued the agency had “repeatedly denied” such activity. “The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing,” he said. The committee has jurisdiction over the IRS, but it remains unclear whether other House committees also will investigate the issue, in which roughly 300 groups were flagged.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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[ Invalid YouTube link ]
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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ways-and-means-irs-provide-all-communications-containing-words-tea-party-patriot-or
Obama = culture of corruption
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324715704578478851998004528.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
The scandal grows
FORWARD!!!!
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Just months after being slimed by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, Mitt Romney supporter and businessman Frank VanderSloot was informed that he was going to be audited not only by the Internal Revenue Service, but by the Labor Department as well.
VanderSloot’s saga was told by columnist Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street Journal last July.
In April 2012, VanderSloot, who served as the national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee, was one of eight Romney backers to be defamed as ”wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records” in a post on the Obama campaign’s website. The post, entitled “Behind the curtain: a brief history of Romney’s donors,” singled out VanderSloot for being a ”litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”
Two months later, the IRS informed VanderSloot he and his wife were going to be audited, Strassel reported. Two weeks after that, VanderSloot was notified by the Labor Department that it was going to “audit workers he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa program for temporary agriculture workers,” reported Strassel.
“The H-2A program allows tens of thousands of temporary workers in the U.S.; Mr. VanderSloot employs precisely three,” Strassel wrote.....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324715704578478851998004528.html
Corruption at its worst. FORWARD
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Internal IRS Mandate: ‘Be on Lookout’ for ‘Organizations…Educating on Constitution, Bill of Rights’
Cybercast News Service ^ | May 12, 2013 | Terence P. Jeffrey
Posted on May 13, 2013 6:51:53 AM EDT by Olog-hai
A timeline of Internal Revenue Service activities that was developed by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and provided to congressional staff indicates that early last year—as the nation was headed toward a presidential election—the IRS issued a “be on the lookout order” (BOLO) for officials in its “Determinations Unit” to ferret out for heightened scrutiny organizations applying for tax exempt status that were involved in educating Americans “on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
The inspector general’s timeline indicates that as early as March 2010 the IRS’ “Determinations Unit” had begun targeting for special scrutiny organizations that used in their tax-exempt applications the words “Tea Party” or “Patriots.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
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Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.
What a crock of sh1t. That is not how these organizations function. It all comes from the top.
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Posted on May 13, 2013, 9:01:10 AM EDT by swampthang77
USBC News Wire- Yet a another major scandal is rocking the already extraordinarily unpopular Obama administration, this time the controversy involves abuses by the IRS in targeting US citizens based on their political views.
It appears that agents used keywords to target groups in opposition to the governing Democratic administration. Remarkably, the agents found it acceptable to single out patriots for unprecedented behavior. The agents singled out their fellow citizens by using keywords such as “patriot” or “tea party” (itself a reference to the earliest American patriots) to identify groups that object to the policies of the current administration. Lois Lerner, senior Internal Revenue Service official, was unable to provide even a single example of similar targeting, harassment or intimidation of leftists organizations...
(Excerpt) Read more at usbcnews.com ...
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The Obama administration is the most corrupt US administration in possibly all US history. Everything about this administration screams crooks, cronies and incompetent.
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What a crock of sh1t. That is not how these organizations function. It all comes from the top.
Not usually. Over arching policy decisions normally come down from the top. Individual programs and lower level policies are then established by the minions to show the senior leaders how their policy goals are being implemented.
however, I don't buy that senior leaders didn't have knowledge of what was going on. They were kept abreast of the various programs in effect - unless some massive CT is shows otherwise.
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Not usually. Over arching policy decisions normally come down from the top. Individual programs and lower level policies are then established by the minions to show the senior leaders how their policy goals are being implemented.
however, I don't buy that senior leaders didn't have knowledge of what was going on. They were kept abreast of the various programs in effect - unless some massive CT is shows otherwise.
This started in 2010 and the director knew about in 2011 and then lied about it.
Funny too how remember all the liberal pieces of garbage and obama campaign rallied on and on and on about romney's taxes and those of his donors?
Corruption at its worst.
Chicago gangster getto thug behavior
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Not usually. Over arching policy decisions normally come down from the top. Individual programs and lower level policies are then established by the minions to show the senior leaders how their policy goals are being implemented.
however, I don't buy that senior leaders didn't have knowledge of what was going on. They were kept abreast of the various programs in effect - unless some massive CT is shows otherwise.
I'd be shocked if there wasn't at least one person up the ladder who had an idea of what was going on.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/obama-irs-scandal_n_3266577.html
more lies from Obama
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let's apply the same standard
fundy libtards denied Bush was responsible for anything so if we're going to apply the same standard then Obama has no fault in this
back in actual reality we have tons of proof of culpability of Bush Admin for 911 and Iraq, etc.. ( I wouldn't blame Bush for gas prices) but we have zero evidence of any culpability of Obama in this non-story
again, my primary point is this is non-story, except for the amazing fact that the IRS apologized
Repubs are in permanent victimhood and just crave the next story that they can feel bad about
and the old "they started it" argument shows itself once again! i honestly don't know how an adult could post somehting like this and stand behind it. once again you've devolved into arguing like a 16 year old girl who's mad at her boyfriend. i'm way too old for this shit.
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http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/13/the-irs-admits-to-targeting-conservative-groups-but-were-they-also-leaking
The damn is going to break on this and it going right to Axelrod, cutter, ploufe, etc.
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Just months after being slimed by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, Mitt Romney supporter and businessman Frank VanderSloot was informed that he was going to be audited not only by the Internal Revenue Service, but by the Labor Department as well.
VanderSloot’s saga was told by columnist Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street Journal last July.
In April 2012, VanderSloot, who served as the national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee, was one of eight Romney backers to be defamed as ”wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records” in a post on the Obama campaign’s website. The post, entitled “Behind the curtain: a brief history of Romney’s donors,” singled out VanderSloot for being a ”litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/13/flashback-romney-donor-vilified-by-obama-campaign-then-subjected-to-2-audits/#ixzz2TC8QNSGu
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Tom Brokaw scolded President Obama on Monday, criticizing his response to the IRS' admission that it targeted conservative groups.
The organization apologized on Friday for subjecting groups that had "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications to extra reviews. Brokaw weighed in on Monday's "Morning Joe," expressing his disappointment with the administration.
When asked how the president should respond, he said, "There's only one spin for the president to make, which is to come out and say, 'This is outrageous, it's unacceptable in my administration. I have asked the people who are responsible for this to be removed from their jobs and we're gonna have a complete investigation and then throw a house cleaning if necessary of the IRS.'"
"I'm offended by it," Brokaw continued. "This is not a political issue or a conservative or a liberal issue. It really is about trusting your government especially when it comes to one of the most sensitive parts." He argued that Obama should have had a statement about the scandal. Obama did address the controversy later on Monday during his press conference with David Cameron.
"Let's get this cleaned up and move on," Brokaw said that morning. "Welcome to the second term, Mr. President."
Chuck Todd piled on as well, criticizing what he said was the lack of "outrage" from Democrats about the IRS' admission. "This is outrageous no matter what political party you are," he said.
Related on HuffPost:
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/obama-irs-scandal_n_3266577.html
more lies from Obama
what was the lie
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what was the lie
He wont hold anyone accountable for their crimes. Same as fast n furious, same as solyndra, same as everything else w this scandal ridden cesspool in DC,
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He wont hold anyone accountable for their crimes. Same as fast n furious, same as solyndra, same as everything else w this scandal ridden cesspool in DC,
wait wait wait... do you know what the definition of a lie is...?
im extremely confused right now.. im looking for something that says "obama said this but did that..."
thats not what that link is above...like dude what the fuck
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amazing
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wait wait wait... do you know what the definition of a lie is...?
im extremely confused right now.. im looking for something that says "obama said this but did that..."
thats not what that link is above...like dude what the fuck
In Obama's case - past performance is a perfect indicator of future results.
There is nothing left to do but laugh at this clown you voted for TWICE
No one will be fired, no one will be reprimanded, nothing will happen other than a new scandal of obama's emerging and this one being forgotten about since the next one will be worse than the last.
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The IRS: An Outlaw Tax Collector
National Review ^ | 05/13/2013 | The Editors
On March 22, 2012, IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee, which was inquiring as to whether the agency was targeting tea-party groups and other conservative organizations filing for tax-exempt status. He firmly and repeatedly denied that any such thing was happening. “There’s absolutely no targeting,” he said. A little over a year later, the IRS confirmed that it was in fact improperly targeting not only tea-party groups but also Jewish religious nonprofits and organizations inspired by Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project.
Lori Lerner, the IRS official in charge of tax-exempt organizations, told reporters on Friday that her superiors had been unaware of the actions, which she blamed on a handful of low-level employees in a Cincinnati office. But the next day, the Associated Press confirmed that well before Shulman’s substantially untrue testimony before Congress, the IRS had convened a meeting with its chief lawyer to discuss the very thing the commissioner said was not happening. In early 2012, the IRS adopted a new variation on the policy, flagging the applications from, among others, organizations “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights,” according to an internal report.
The IRS’s explanation was perfectly Washingtonian: “Mistakes were made.” But the agency’s actions do not appear to be mere mistakes; they give every indication of being misconduct with malice aforethought, a campaign of intimidation conducted by political partisans misusing government power and government resources. If so, those actions are not only unethical but criminal.
The organizations that were improperly targeted were subject to inquisitorial questioning in violation of IRS policies and practices. The IRS improperly demanded that conservative groups disclose lists of donors — 501(c)(4) donors can remain anonymous under the law — as well as political literature, contacts with political figures and activists, even activities of friends and family members not related to the organizations in question. Jewish groups were quizzed about their theological beliefs and their opinions on Israel.
There are at least three separate categories of wrongdoing here. The first is the targeting of groups that were believed to be critical of the Obama administration or the federal government in general. The second is the demanding of information that was irrelevant to the tax-status questions at hand, which would have been wrong even if the practice had been applied evenhandedly across the political spectrum. The third is the misleading of Congress and the public about these practices.
The IRS is one of the most powerful agencies in the federal government, with fearsome powers that the Department of Homeland Security can only dream of having. (Does DHS subject Americans to mandatory annual questioning about their personal lives, family arrangements, finances, business practices, travel, etc.?) It has a history of being used as a tool of political retaliation, not only by the Nixon administration but at least as far back as Franklin D. Roosevelt. An agency with that kind of power, with access to sensitive information on every individual, business, church, charity, and school in the country, must conduct itself according to the very highest standards. The IRS does not.
This episode is not the only reason we have had to question the rectitude of the IRS’s conduct in recent years. Somehow, Mitt Romney’s tax returns managed to be leaked, as did documents from American Crossroads, the organization associated with Republican strategist Karl Rove. The misuse of confidential IRS documents is a crime, and a serious one.
To target individuals and organizations because of their political and religious beliefs is a serious offense to our constitutional order. To use federal employees, offices, and records to do so is the misappropriation of government funds and other resources.
The IRS is a bureau of the Treasury Department, which means that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew bears some responsibility here, though the bulk of the misdeeds seem to have been done before his tenure. Rather than disclosing these actions voluntarily, the IRS has attempted to hide them and to obscure the culpability of its employees. Lois Lerner told National Review on Friday that no disciplinary action had been taken against any employee, and then retracted that statement, saying that she would not discuss the subject. But disciplinary action — at least — is clearly called for. The IRS’s failure to be fully forthcoming on this issue, and the lack of satisfactory steps toward reform and transparency, must weigh substantially upon our evaluation of Lew’s leadership.
This is a matter for congressional investigation, which will be forthcoming, but also for criminal investigation, which to our knowledge is not yet under way. President Obama and his Treasury secretary owe the country a full and honest explanation of how this was allowed to happen. But if Benghazi has shown anything, it is that this administration cannot be counted upon for such assessments. It therefore falls to the relevant oversight committees in the House and the Senate to flush out the truth of this matter, and to recommend legislative reforms to bring this outlaw agency to heel.
________________________ _______________
and not a damn thing was done to fire these people or end the practice.
FORWARD!!!!
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and the old "they started it" argument shows itself once again! i honestly don't know how an adult could post somehting like this and stand behind it. once again you've devolved into arguing like a 16 year old girl who's mad at her boyfriend. i'm way too old for this shit.
Tell me about it. It's a way to avoid actually dealing with the issue.
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In Obama's case - past performance is a perfect indicator of future results.
There is nothing left to do but laugh at this clown you voted for TWICE
No one will be fired, no one will be reprimanded, nothing will happen other than a new scandal of obama's emerging and this one being forgotten about since the next one will be worse than the last.
ok.. since you want to go there...i can laugh at all of your LANDSLIDE COMING.. but i guess you were right about a LANDSLIDE...just the wrong side
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In Obama's case - past performance is a perfect indicator of future results.
There is nothing left to do but laugh at this clown you voted for TWICE
No one will be fired, no one will be reprimanded, nothing will happen other than a new scandal of obama's emerging and this one being forgotten about since the next one will be worse than the last.
Dude.. seriously...thats awful. Your Predictions on what someone else would do cant justify you calling them a liar.. like you dont understand the term liar...thats just gross.. dude your training as a lawyer should make you better than this.. cmon dude this drives me nuts that you dont see this.. And it alarms me that youre an adult with this thought process and arent afraid to tout it all over the place...Youre annextremely irrational thinker
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323978/Revealed-The-55-questions-IRS-asked-tea-party-group-years-waiting--including-demands-names-donors-volunteers.html
Wow - and the communist democrats have the balls to accuse others of mcarthy like tactics?
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and the old "they started it" argument shows itself once again! i honestly don't know how an adult could post somehting like this and stand behind it. once again you've devolved into arguing like a 16 year old girl who's mad at her boyfriend. i'm way too old for this shit.
Shit, that's been the standard tactic since Day #1...Bush did it!
And the really funny thing is, most people here didn't even support Bush.
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IRS Commissioner Learned Of Tea Party Targeting In May 2012
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER 05/13/13 08:45 PM ET EDT
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/irs-commissioner-tea-party_n_3268943.html
WASHINGTON — Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steven T. Miller repeatedly failed to tell Congress that tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted, even after he had been briefed on the matter.
The IRS said Monday that Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra, sometimes burdensome scrutiny.
At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without revealing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee but again was not forthcoming on the issue – despite being asked about it.
At the hearing, Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, told Miller that some politically active tax-exempt groups in his district had complained about being harassed. Marchant did not explicitly ask if tea party groups were being targeted. But he did ask how applications were handled.
Miller responded, "We did group those organizations together to ensure consistency, to ensure quality. We continue to work those cases," according to a transcript on the committee's website.
He added, "It is my hope that some of the noise that we heard earlier this year has abated as we continue to work through these cases."
Earlier, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., had raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed. Boustany specifically mentioned tea party groups in his inquiry.
But in a June 15, 2012, letter to Boustany, Miller gave a generic response. He said that when the IRS saw an increase in applications from groups that were involved in political activity, the agency "took steps to coordinate the handling of the case to ensure consistency."
He added that agents worked with tax law experts "to develop approaches and materials that could be helpful to the agents working the cases."
Miller did not mention that in 2011, those materials included a list of words to watch for, such as "tea party" and "patriot." He also didn't disclose that in January 2012, the criteria for additional screening was updated to include references to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
"They repeatedly failed to disclose and be truthful about what they were doing," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Camp's committee is holding a hearing on the issue Friday and Miller is scheduled to testify.
"We are going to need to find out how much he knew," Camp said of Miller.
The Senate Finance Committee announced Monday that it will join a growing list of congressional committees investigating the matter.
The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status. In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.
The agency blamed low-level employees in a Cincinnati office, saying no high-level officials were aware.
When members of Congress repeatedly raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed last year, a deputy IRS commissioner took the lead in assuring lawmakers that the additional scrutiny was a legitimate part of the screening process.
That deputy commissioner was Miller, who is now the acting head of the agency.
Camp and other members of the Ways and Means Committee sent at least four inquiries to the IRS, starting in June 2011. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, sent three inquiries. And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, sent at least one.
None of the responses they received from the IRS acknowledged that conservative groups had ever been targeted, including a response to Hatch dated Sept. 11, 2012 – four months after Miller had been briefed.
In several letters to members of Congress, Miller went into painstaking detail about how applications for tax-exempt status were screened. But he never mentioned that conservative groups were being targeted, even though people working under him knew as early as June 2011 that tea party groups were being targeted, according to an upcoming report by the agency's inspector general.
"It is almost inconceivable to imagine that top officials at the IRS knew conservative groups were being targeted but chose to willfully mislead the committee's investigation into this practice," Camp said. "This revelation goes against the very principles of free speech and liberty upon which this country was founded, and the blatant disregard for which the agency has treated Congress and the American taxpayer raises serious concerns about leadership at the IRS."
The IRS issued a statement Monday saying that Miller had been briefed on May 3, 2012 "that some specific applications were improperly identified by name and sent to the (exempt organizations) centralized processing unit for further review." That was the unit in Cincinnati that handled the tea party applications.
Miller became acting commissioner in November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush.
On June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to a draft of the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
At the meeting, Lerner was told that groups with "Tea Party," `'Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately."
However, when Lerner responded to inquiries from the House oversight committee, she didn't mention the fact that tea party groups had ever been targeted. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs a subcommittee.
Lerner also met twice with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, in March and in May 2012, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. She didn't mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted, according to the timeline.
"Knowing what we know now, the IRS was at best being far from forth coming, or at worst, being deliberately dishonest with Congress," Hatch said Monday.
On Monday, President Barack Obama said he first learned about the issue from news reports on Friday. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House counsel's office was alerted the week of April 22 that the inspector general was finishing a report concerning the IRS office in Cincinnati. But, he said, the counsel's office did not get the report and the president did not learn the focus until Friday.
"If, in fact, IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that had been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outrageous and there's no place for it," Obama said Monday at a press conference. "And they have to be held fully accountable, because the IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity, and people have to have confidence that they're applying it in a non-partisan way, applying the laws in a non-partisan way."
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Associated Press reporters Jim Abrams and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this report.
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IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups
By Juliet Eilperin and Zachary A. Goldfarb, Updated: Monday, May 13, 8:09 PM
Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea party-affiliated groups.
IRS employees in Cincinnati also told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications, according to interviews with the activists.
Lois G. Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, told reporters on Friday that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions were undertaken by “front-line people” working in Cincinnati to target groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names.
In one instance, however, Ron Bell, an IRS employee, informed an attorney representing a conservative group focused on voter fraud that the application was under review in Washington. On several other occasions, IRS officials in Washington and California sent conservative groups detailed questionnaires about their voter outreach and other activities, according to the documents.
“For the IRS to say it was some low-level group in Cincinnati is simply false,” said Cleta Mitchell, a partner in the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP who sought to communicate with IRS headquarters about the delay in granting tax-exempt status to True the Vote.
Moreover, details of the IRS’s efforts to target conservative groups reached the highest levels of the agency in May 2012, far earlier than has been disclosed, according to Republican congressional aides briefed by the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) on the details of their reviews.
Then commissioner, Douglas Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee who stepped down in November, received a briefing from the TIGTA about what was happening in the Cincinnati office in May 2012, the aides said. His deputy and the agency’s current acting commissioner, Steven T. Miller, also learned about the matter that month, the aides said.
The officials did not share details with Republican lawmakers who had been demanding to know whether the IRS was targeting conservative groups, Republicans said.
“I wrote to the IRS three times last year after hearing concerns that conservative groups were being targeted,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement Monday. “In response to the first letter I sent with some of my colleagues, Steven Miller, the current Acting IRS Commissioner, responded that these groups weren’t being targeted.”
“Knowing what we know now,” he added, “the IRS was at best being far from forth coming, or at worst, being deliberately dishonest with Congress.”
As new details emerged Monday, Democrats and Republicans alike decried the agency’s actions as an unacceptable abuse of power.
In a news conference on Monday, Obama said he learned of it in media reports on Friday and has “no patience with it.”
“If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on, and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous,” Obama said. “And there’s no place for it. And they have to be held fully accountable.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday that the White House counsel’s office learned of an upcoming IRS inspector’s general report on April 22 as part of a routine notification, but had not received access to the report.
On Capitol Hill, two Senate panels — the Finance Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations — announced Monday that they will investigate. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Ways and Means Committee have been looking into IRS attempts to single out organizations on the right for heightened scrutiny. Ways and Means has called IRS officials to testify Friday.
“These actions by the IRS are an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). “The IRS will now be the ones put under additional scrutiny.”
Separately, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) introduced companion bills Monday that would require the IRS to fire any employee found “willfully” violating “the constitutional rights of a taxpayer,” according to statements by both lawmakers. The bills also would make them criminally liable for their actions.
Even as Obama vowed that his administration “will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this,” however, the IRS offered no new information on how it selected which groups to single out for scrutiny.
The White House is legally prohibited from contacting the IRS about a tax matter, under a prohibition adopted after the Watergate scandal. And although it can contact the Treasury Department about tax issues, neither Treasury nor the IRS can disclose specific taxpayer information. The IRS can release information only about a petition for tax-exempt status once it has been approved.
Obama is not in a position to remove Lerner, a career official who can be terminated for cause only under normal civil service proceedings. The IRS has two political appointees: the commissioner, who serves a five-year term, and the chief counsel.
As the IRS came under broader political attack Monday, more details surfaced on how the tax-exempt organizations division struggled to determine which nonprofits should receive “social welfare” status after the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. That decision, which allowed corporations and unions to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on elections, opened the door for groups to accept undisclosed contributions as long as their “primary purpose” was not politics.
In a Jan. 9, 2012, letter to the Richmond Tea Party, IRS specialist Stephen Seok asked questions including “the names of the donors, contributors and grantors,” as well as the size of the contributions and grants, and when they were given.
Richmond Tea Party President Larry Nordvig, whose group applied for tax-exempt status in December 2009 and received it in July 2012, said the extended inquiry had “a very chilling effect” on how much money the group could raise because its donors preferred anonymity.
The Wetumpka Tea Party of Alabama experienced a two-year delay after submitting its initial application.
Becky Gerritson, a 44-year-old stay-at-home mother and the group’s president, said the IRS sent a questionnaire asking for the names of all volunteers, donor identification and contribution amounts, the names of any legislators its members had communicated with directly or indirectly, and the contents of all speeches its members had made, among a long list of other details.
“I was outraged,” Gerritson said. “Being an election year, I felt like it was intimidation.”
The group did not provide the information. Approval came only after the group sought help from the American Center for Law and Justice, which threatened a lawsuit against the IRS, Gerritson said.
Although some of the groups were explicitly labeled “tea party” or “patriot,” others that came under intense scrutiny were focused on challenging the Affordable Care Act — known by many as Obamacare — or the integrity of federal elections.
In a June 3, 2011, letter to the IRS, Mitchell questioned the agency’s motivations for delaying recognition of one of her clients who had filed nearly two years earlier, writing, “Is the [group’s] opposition to Obamacare and the takeover of America’s healthcare system by the government the reason that this application has been held up and not approved?”
Catherine Engelbrecht, president of the Houston-based True the Vote, first filed for tax-exempt status in July 2010. At one point, Engelbrecht — who is still awaiting a determination from the IRS regarding her voting rights organization and a separate tea party group, King Street Patriots — said an IRS employee informed her: “I’m just doing what Washington is telling me to do. I’m just asking what they want me to ask.”
The IRS did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Josh Hicks and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Discuss this topic and other political issues in the politics discussion forums.
© The Washington Post Company
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Koch Industries Lawyer to White House: How Did You Get Our Tax Information?
1:31 PM, Sep 20, 2010• By JOHN MCCORMACK
Lately, the White House and its allies have been drawing attention to the political activities of libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. In an August 9 speech, President Obama singled out Americans for Prosperity, a free-market political group founded by David Koch in 2004. In the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, Obama said:
Right now all around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it’s a big oil company, or a big bank. You don't know if it’s a insurance company that wants to see some of the provisions in health reform repealed because it’s good for their bottom line, even if it’s not good for the American people.
"Using a great deal" of research by the left-wing Center for American Progress, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer reported in the magazine's August 30 issue that the Kochs are "waging a war against Obama." Reason's Nick Gillespie argued that Mayer's report was nothing more than "sly innuendo and revelations as lame as they are breathless," but that hasn't stopped top Democrats from blasting the Kochs for funding the Democrats' political opposition.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/koch-industries-lawyer-white-house-how-did-you-get-our-tax-information-1
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There was a scandal exactly like this with Clinton in the 90's. anybody remember that? Can't find the details on it now but I remember the same issue coming up with the story of Pres. Clinton going after opponents with the IRS.
You would think Hillary would have said, "Obama, don't do that shit, it made us look bad when we tried to do it" but I guess not lol...
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Will The IRS Abuse Its ObamaCare Enforcement Powers Too?
Investor's Business Daily ^ | May 11, 2013 | IBD EDITORIALS
Posted on May 13, 2013 9:08:48 PM EDT by raptor22
Tax Abuse: As nonconservative groups complain of politically motivated targeting by the IRS, we're reminded it's the IRS that's going to be enforcing one of the greatest expansions of government power in our history.
In recent days we've come to know what is meant by the adage that the power to tax is the power to destroy. Our country was born in revolt against taxation used by a tyrant to control and stifle liberty, and this is not the first president to abuse this power.
Back in May 2009, Professor Glenn Reynolds, better known to his followers as Instapundit, wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal recounting how President Obama, who had been refused an honorary doctorate by Arizona State University, remarked: "President (Michael) Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."
It wasn't that funny then, and it's definitely not funny now that conservative groups have been a target of IRS harassment and intimidation.
The Washington Post reports that of 298 groups selected for special scrutiny, according to a congressional aide it talked to, 72 had "tea party" in their title, 13 had "patriot" and 11 had "9/12."
According to documents obtained by the Post, IRS exempt organizations division chief Lois G. Lerner, who has "apologized" for the agency's actions, objected in a meeting held June 29, 2011, with IRS staffers in which they described giving special attention to instances where "statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run."
Yet only six months later, on Jan. 15, 2012, the agency decided to look at "political-action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement," according to the appendix in an Inspector General's report.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
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NBC's Todd: Where Are Obama And The Democrats On 'Outrageous' IRS Story?
Independent Journal ^ | May 13, 2013 | Michael Miller
Posted on May 14, 2013 4:59:37 AM EDT by Colofornian
As the IRS controversy over targeting The Tea Party grew even more troublesome over the weekend, Barack Obama and the Democrats were nowhere to be found. No statements. No Comments. No condemnation.
Fox News is reporting that the IRS may have been casting an even wider net, saying agents could have unfairly targeted groups that touted better government economic policy and debt pay-down. Also among the targeted: Groups that tried to educate about the Constitution or government policy critics, Fox News said.
Unlike the Benghazi scandal, which the mainstream media virtually ignored for eight months, the IRS controversy already has a few liberal commentators riled up. One of them is NBC’s Chuck Todd:
“I have to say though, Tom (Brokaw), that he (Obama) had a chance Friday afternoon … he had a healthcare event about 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. He had an opportunity to say something. I think they let Jay Carney’s words speak; I thought they were very weak; it didn’t seem like they had a sense of urgency about it – a real sense of outrage.”
“And then look at the reaction of the entire Democratic Party … Why aren’t there more Democrats jumping on this? This is outrageous – no matter what political party you are …”
“Maybe they were distracted by Benghazi; maybe they made the decision they didn’t want it to be about healthcare. I raised this question – where was the outrage? And the only pushback was, ‘Well, Jay Carney spoke about this at the press briefing, he was pretty strong.’ It didn’t sound very strong to me.”
“I think this story has more legs – politically in 2014 – than Benghazi.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ijreview.com ...
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The IRS is a weapon, a massive entity and a political tool.
Always has been, and as long as it exists, ...always will be.... regardless of whatever administration is in office.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-denounces-reported-irs-targeting-of-conservative-groups/2013/05/13/a0185644-bbdf-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_print.html
Wow. Damn is giving way.
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The IRS Targeting Scandal Could Disrupt Obamacare
Josh Boak and Eric Planin, The Fiscal Times|57 minutes ago|270|3
The Internal Revenue Service’s scandalous targeting of Tea Party-themed and other conservative groups could severely damage President Obama – but it’s not necessarily because anyone close to the White House sanctioned the allegedly independent actions by the tax collection agency.
In fact, the president was quick on Monday to condemn the actions exposed in an inspector general's report being released later this week.
The real fallout could be that it will impede Obamacare, which passed in 2010 under the official title of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The IRS will largely administer this attempt at providing near-universal health insurance. It is responsible for overseeing the tax credits and tax increases in the law, and—most critically—ensuring that businesses and individuals comply with the individual mandate and other major provisions.
Prominent Republicans are already connecting the unpopular insurance program to the questions swirling around the IRS targeting of non-profits that grew out of the Tea Party movement.
For them, the scandal is just what the doctor ordered, a chance to attack the IRS--a perennial punching bag--as politically tainted while linking the scandal back to a massive implementation challenge confronting the administration. The House plans a symbolic vote this week to repeal Obamacare, the 37th time it has done so.
Former House Speaker and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich declared Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," "How can you put Obamacare under the Internal Revenue Service?
“Why would you trust the bureaucracy with your health if you can’t trust the bureaucracy with your politics?" he said. "There are bureaucrats in the IRS who are capable of ruining your life while lying about it.”
"Americans should remember that this same corrupt IRS will be in charge of enforcing Obamacare," Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page Friday. "Forgive me for not trusting these big government promises any more than I trust the White House’s latest Benghazi spin or the IRS’ fairness."
Ahead of a House Ways and Means Committee hearing this Friday about the IRS scandal, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., said the IRS has no business monitoring anyone's health insurance information. "I will not rest until the full scope of the IRS’ corruption is uncovered, the guilty parties are held accountable, and actions are taken to ensure this never happens again," Black, a member of the committee, told Newsmax.
The IRS has undermined its own credibility on the issue. It initially claimed before a congressional committee that conservative groups were not under a special microscope. The agency then apologized last week for targeting that supposedly occurred out of a Cincinnati field office. But a new report by the Washington Post on Monday says that IRS officials in Washington and California also queried conservative groups, who were told at the time that a Washington-based task force was overseeing their applications.
But long before the current uproar over the IRS scrutiny of these politically motivated groups seeking non-profit status, Republicans were challenging budget and staffing levels at the IRS and demanding to know how much the agency intended to spend to implement Obama’s health care reform law.
The agency has been saddled with an expanding workload and relatively flat funding levels for years that have left the IRS unable to adequately perform its primary duties – collecting taxes, overseeing audits, and providing the public with reasonable service.
As a result, the agency has struggled to collect the hundreds of billions of dollars a year that the government is owed but not paid, Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, said in her annual report to Congress last year.
Last June, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report estimated that the IRS would spend $881 million of taxpayers’ money to implement the first four years of Obamacare, including about $500 million that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) diverted to the agency.
The Administration has requested $440 million as part of its 2014 budget proposal to help the IRS prepare for implementing the health care law. And the IRS has estimated that it would need to assign a total of 2,195 employees to deal with health care reform by the end of this year.
Some Republicans believe that the IRS and administration are intentionally low-balling the actual cost and manpower needs. In March, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, called on the acting IRS commissioner Steven T. Miller to provide a detailed accounting on the costs of administering Obamacare.
Now with House Republican leaders furious about how the IRS treated conservative groups—despite their past denials— several analysts say it is possible the controversy could be used as another excuse to cut agency funding and manpower to further thwart implementing Obamacare.
“When people look at funding the IRS they’re going to take into account everything that’s out there,” said Floyd Williams, a former legislative affairs director for the IRS who is now with a private Washington public policy strategies firm. “It’s no secret some in Congress have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, let alone limit IRS funding for enforcement . . . . [The] IRS has already suffered the past three years with a status quo budget, which basically is a reduction, especially if you look at people who retired and haven’t been able to be replaced. Now, you have sequestration coming up. All of that added together spells trouble for the IRS and tax law enforcement.”
Paul Van de Water, a health care policy expert with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, cautioned that “it’s hard to tell at this point” what -- if any -- effect the flap over the IRS’s dealing with conservative groups will have on funding for Affordable Care Act enforcement.
“It seems to me that Republicans haven’t lacked for reasons not to provide enough funding for the IRS in the past, so it’s not as if they need a new reason to do so, but who knows? When you get into the realm of politics, all sorts of strange things can happen.”
Under the legislation, the IRS will provide insurance premium tax credits to help low and moderate income people purchase health coverage. It also will impose penalties on employers that fail to provide insurance and individuals who decline to purchase the coverage made available to them.
But even without Obamacare, this week’s scandal does have some legs of its own.
The investigative journalism non-profit ProPublica reported Monday that it had received at the end of last year from the IRS Cincinnati office the confidential and pending applications for tax exemption from nine conservative groups.
While many organizations bearing the Tea Party name are small players, the applications provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request included forms submitted by the Karl Rove-linked Crossroads GPS and Americans for Responsible Leadership, an Arizona-based group that supported Republican presidential candidate with more than $5.2 million in expenditures.
More from The Fiscal Times:
Diamonds: A Better Safe Haven Than Gold?
Detroit Needs a Miracle As It Sinks Deeper in Debt
Has Obama Taken a Page Out of Nixon’s Playbook?
This story was originally published by The Fiscal Times.
Read more: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/05/14/Why-the-IRS-Scandal-Could-Bring-Down-Obamacare.aspx#page1#ixzz2TGZpthY9
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wait wait wait... do you know what the definition of a lie is...?
I looked up the word in the dictionary and all it showed was this:
(http://4gfc.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/obamalyingexcusemeimnotdonelyingyet.jpg)
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Posted on May 14, 2013, 11:40:00 AM EDT by Perdogg
The progressive-leaning investigative journalism group ProPublica says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office that targeted and harassed conservative tax-exempt groups during the 2012 election cycle gave the progressive group nine confidential applications of conservative groups whose tax-exempt status was pending.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
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Uh oh.
Cleta Mitchell to Newsmax: IRS Scandal Reaches to White House
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
By Melanie Batley and Kathleen Walter
Cleta Mitchell, one of Washington's most respected elections attorneys, told Newsmax she has tangible proof that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were fully aware of the agency's campaign to target conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, despite their denials.
And she thinks the president knew about the practice too. If proven, she said, it could be an impeachable offense.
Mitchell, in an interview with Newsmax TV on Tuesday, said she was told by a Cincinnati IRS agent that applications by two of her conservative clients were being processed by — and would ultimately be approved or denied — in Washington.
She said she also is aware of nearly 100 other conservative groups that were being targeted by Washington.
Editor's Note: Video Exposes Dangers of Obamacare Law
"There were nearly 100 groups across the country that got the very egregious set of letters from the IRS that were almost identical and they came from offices all over the country so I know of at least 85 to 90, maybe more, organizations," said Mitchell, who represents six groups which say they have been targeted, including the King Street Patriots and True the Vote.
"If they had the name "tea party" or they had the word "patriots" or if their mission was smaller government or study the Constitution, believe it or not, that would cause the IRS to say, 'Oh we better investigate these groups.'"
She added she had two clients whose group's purpose was to lobby against Obamacare, both of which received extra IRS scrutiny. And of the clients who have gone public with their claims, they received "incredible scrutiny, voluminous requests for information, documents, almost like having been audited before they even are an exempt organization."
In the case of one such client, she and her family subsequently became targets for audits to their personal and business tax returns, and were even visited by three different government agencies. She also knows of other groups who had surprise visits from the FBI after they applied for IRS status.
Mitchell said she doesn't believe that the president or the White House was uninvolved in the IRS activities, as the administration has claimed.
"I've thought for some time that this is politically motivated and that's the reason it was happening. And, as I said, I've been doing this for more than 20 years and I've never seen anything like this until 2009, 2010. And the only thing that changed was we had a different administration," she said.
"We know that the White House used the Department of Health and Human Services to try to silence critics about Obamacare. So if we know that they used HHS, why wouldn't they also use the IRS or other federal agencies to try to silence political critics?"
Mitchell credits Congress for investigating the matter but says they have had limited effectiveness because she believes the IRS has lied even to lawmakers during hearings last year.
"They've been very helpful but the fact is the IRS has lied and covered up, even to the members of Congress," she said. "The problem is they've had hearings — the IRS commissioner basically lied to the Congress last year when he appeared before Congress and they asked him about this targeting conservative groups and he said it wasn't true. Well, no, we find out yes, it was true."
She added, "They may try to say it was low-level people. It was not low-level people. They weren't in Cincinnati. It was being directed out of Washington, and I have them on record saying that."
Editor's Note: Video Exposes Dangers of Obamacare Law
Mitchell said the IRS practices are in violation of federal law.
She said it's "a criminal offense to misuse information submitted by a taxpayer or an entity, anybody who submits anything to the IRS. The IRS agents are limited in what they can do with it, the scope of what they can say and do with it. So, clearly, the federal law has been broken."
Asked whether it would be an impeachable offence if it emerged that the president or his officials were behind the IRS's practices, Mitchell said, "Well, it certainly was for Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week."
She added, "Isn't that ironic? The House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week on May 18, and one of those was misuse of the IRS to go after political enemies."
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/irs-obama-tea-party/2013/05/14/id/504419
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Shoe Horn as u see fit. 3 can highlight the ones that fit the best...apparently we can use douchbag commie as a charge.
Article 1
RESOLVED, That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours, and that the following articles of impeachment to be exhibited to the Senate:
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT EXHIBITED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE NAME OF ITSELF AND OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST RICHARD M. NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT OF ITS IMPEACHMENT AGAINST HIM FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS.
ARTICLE 1
In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his consitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice, in that:
On June 17, 1972, and prior thereto, agents of the Committee for the Re-election of the President committed unlawful entry of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, District of Columbia, for the purpose of securing political intelligence. Subsequent thereto, Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation of such illegal entry; to cover up, conceal and protect those responsible; and to conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities.
The means used to implement this course of conduct or plan included one or more of the following:
1.making false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States;
2.withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States;
3.approving, condoning, acquiescing in, and counselling witnesses with respect to the giving of false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States and false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings;
4.interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and Congressional Committees;
5.approving, condoning, and acquiescing in, the surreptitious payment of substantial sums of money for the purpose of obtaining the silence or influencing the testimony of witnesses, potential witnesses or individuals who participated in such unlawful entry and other illegal activities;
6.endeavouring to misuse the Central Intelligence Agency, an agency of the United States;
7.disseminating information received from officers of the Department of Justice of the United States to subjects of investigations conducted by lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States, for the purpose of aiding and assisting such subjects in their attempts to avoid criminal liability;
8.making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States into believing that a thorough and complete investigation had been conducted with respect to allegations of misconduct on the part of personnel of the executive branch of the United States and personnel of the Committee for the Re-election of the President, and that there was no involvement of such personnel in such misconduct: or
9.endeavouring to cause prospective defendants, and individuals duly tried and convicted, to expect favoured treatment and consideration in return for their silence or false testimony, or rewarding individuals for their silence or false testimony.
In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
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Chicago Marxist street criminals.
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NBC's Todd: Where Are Obama And The Democrats On 'Outrageous' IRS Story?
Independent Journal ^ | May 13, 2013 | Michael Miller
Posted on May 14, 2013 4:59:37 AM EDT by Colofornian
As the IRS controversy over targeting The Tea Party grew even more troublesome over the weekend, Barack Obama and the Democrats were nowhere to be found. No statements. No Comments. No condemnation.
Fox News is reporting that the IRS may have been casting an even wider net, saying agents could have unfairly targeted groups that touted better government economic policy and debt pay-down. Also among the targeted: Groups that tried to educate about the Constitution or government policy critics, Fox News said.
Unlike the Benghazi scandal, which the mainstream media virtually ignored for eight months, the IRS controversy already has a few liberal commentators riled up. One of them is NBC’s Chuck Todd:
“I have to say though, Tom (Brokaw), that he (Obama) had a chance Friday afternoon … he had a healthcare event about 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. He had an opportunity to say something. I think they let Jay Carney’s words speak; I thought they were very weak; it didn’t seem like they had a sense of urgency about it – a real sense of outrage.”
“And then look at the reaction of the entire Democratic Party … Why aren’t there more Democrats jumping on this? This is outrageous – no matter what political party you are …”
“Maybe they were distracted by Benghazi; maybe they made the decision they didn’t want it to be about healthcare. I raised this question – where was the outrage? And the only pushback was, ‘Well, Jay Carney spoke about this at the press briefing, he was pretty strong.’ It didn’t sound very strong to me.”
“I think this story has more legs – politically in 2014 – than Benghazi.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ijreview.com ...
Oh shit u lost chuck!
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Carney: White House notified of IRS targeting ‘several weeks ago;’ Obama: I found out Friday
dailycaller.com ^ | 5-14-2013 | Sarah Hofmann
Posted on May 14, 2013, 2:31:49 PM EDT by servo1969
Full Title - "Carney: White House notified of IRS targeting tea party ‘several weeks ago;’ Obama: I found out Friday [VIDEO]"
White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a press conference Tuesday that the White House was notified about the IRS targeting tea party groups “several weeks ago.” This comes a day after President Obama said he found out about it from news reports on Friday of last week.
During a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, President Obama was asked about the IRS scandal. He responded, ”I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this. I think it was on Friday.”
However, Carney said Tuesday that first a report had to be compiled by the IRS’s inspector general and then when it was completed, it was passed on to the administration.
“A notification is appropriate and routine and that is what happened and that happened several weeks ago,” Carney said.
Carney said the White House will not make a formal statement until a complete IG report is released.
Carney said later in the press conference that although the White House was notified “weeks ago” about the IRS investigaton, neither he nor the president were notified individually.
Lol!
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Carney: White House notified of IRS targeting ‘several weeks ago;’ Obama: I found out Friday
dailycaller.com ^ | 5-14-2013 | Sarah Hofmann
Posted on May 14, 2013, 2:31:49 PM EDT by servo1969
Full Title - "Carney: White House notified of IRS targeting tea party ‘several weeks ago;’ Obama: I found out Friday [VIDEO]"
White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a press conference Tuesday that the White House was notified about the IRS targeting tea party groups “several weeks ago.” This comes a day after President Obama said he found out about it from news reports on Friday of last week.
During a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, President Obama was asked about the IRS scandal. He responded, ”I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this. I think it was on Friday.”
However, Carney said Tuesday that first a report had to be compiled by the IRS’s inspector general and then when it was completed, it was passed on to the administration.
“A notification is appropriate and routine and that is what happened and that happened several weeks ago,” Carney said.
Carney said the White House will not make a formal statement until a complete IG report is released.
Carney said later in the press conference that although the White House was notified “weeks ago” about the IRS investigaton, neither he nor the president were notified individually.
Lol!
I'm almost at a loss for words. Big lies. Little fibs. Misdirection. There is a stench emanating from this administration.
I'm on the verge of calling this administration corrupt.
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In Obama's case - past performance is a perfect indicator of future results.
There is nothing left to do but laugh at this clown you voted for TWICE
No one will be fired, no one will be reprimanded, nothing will happen other than a new scandal of obama's emerging and this one being forgotten about since the next one will be worse than the last.
Except they fucked with the AP...that makes it all different.
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Obama can't keep his lies straight fr one hour to the next.
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In a wild press conference today, White House press secretary Jay Carney blithely informed reporters that just because the IRS had admitted to giving extra scrutiny to conservative non-profit applicants doesn’t mean something negative had occurred. President Obama has already said that it would be “outrageous” if reports about IRS profiling were true.
An AP reporter asked, “The president did use the word 'if these activities had taken place,' but there has been an acknowledgement on the part of the IRS leadership that these things did indeed occur. I wondered why the president used that phrasing in claiming that it was outrageous?"
Carney’s response: “Those from the IRS that have spoken about this obviously have much greater insight into what took place than we do. We have not seen the report. We have not independently collected information about what transpired. We need the independent inspector general's report to be released before we can make judgments. One person's view of what actions were taken or what that individual did is not enough for us to say something concretely happened that was inappropriate.”
In other words, the IRS’ apology may have been wrongheaded. Carney is apparently unaware of the first rule of holes: stop digging.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/14/Carney-IRS-wrong
LMFAO!!!! HA HA HA !!!!
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IRS Did Not Tell Congress About Tea Party Targeting
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER and HENRY C. JACKSON 05/14/13 05:29 PM ET EDT
WASHINGTON — A government watchdog is blaming ineffective management at the Internal Revenue Service for allowing agents to improperly target tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status.
In an upcoming report, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration says lax management allowed the practice to go on for 18 months. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report ahead of its release.
The IRS on Friday apologized for targeting tea party as well as other conservative groups.
The report said that when asked by investigators, IRS supervisors said the criteria they used to decide which groups they examined were not influenced by people or organizations outside the IRS.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
The Justice Department is investigating the Internal Revenue Service for targeting tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.
Holder said the FBI will investigate to see if any laws were broken. He said he ordered the criminal investigation Friday – the day the IRS publicly acknowledged that it had singled out conservative groups.
"Those (actions) were, I think, as everyone can agree, if not criminal, they were certainly outrageous and unacceptable," Holder said. "But we are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations."
Numerous congressional committees already are investigating the IRS for singling out tea party and other conservative groups during the 2010 congressional elections and the 2012 presidential election. But Holder's announcement takes the matter to another level, if investigators are able to prove that laws were broken.
Holder said he wasn't sure which laws may have been broken.
Meanwhile, documents obtained by The Associated Press suggest the targeting of conservative groups could be more widespread than the IRS has acknowledged. The agency has said it was limited to low-level workers in a Cincinnati office.
But documents sent from the IRS to tea party groups show that IRS offices in California and Washington, D.C., also sought extensive information from tea party groups who requested tax-exempt status.
The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups.
The agency started targeting groups with "Tea Party," `'Patriots" or "9/12 Project" in their applications in March 2010. The criteria later evolved to include groups that promoted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The practice ended in May 2012, according to a draft of an upcoming report by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.
In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors. The agency blamed low-level employees in a Cincinnati office, saying no high-level officials were aware.
But in letters provided by the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 27 tea party groups that have sought tax exempt status, IRS officials from two cities in California – El Monte and Laguna Nigel – as well as officials in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati contacted groups seeking extensive information.
The law center's chief counsel, Jay Sekulow, said he was astonished the IRS said activity was limited to Cincinnati.
"To me, that was what was mind-boggling, they tried to create a narrative," he said.
Sekulow said 10 of the groups his organization represents are still without tax exempt status years after applying for it, while 15 others have been granted the status after long delays and two others decided to drop their effort because it was taking up too much time and required too much private information.
"Donor lists, conversations you've had with members of the House or Senate," he said. "They were so intrusive they violate the IRS manual."
Julia Hodges, a member of the Mississippi Tea Party, said she received a questionnaire from an IRS official in El Monte. She said she went back and forth with IRS officials for three years before her organization withdrew its application for tax exempt status because it was taking up too much time and effort.
She said the IRS requested all sorts of information she didn't think was relevant, including resumes of the group's members. The organization first sought tax exempt status in 2009 and abandoned its efforts in April 2012.
"The biggest thing was just the amount of time," said Hodges. "We would answer these questions on the side and thought this is never going to end. It's never going to cease."
The IRS did not respond Tuesday to questions about why agents outside Cincinnati had also questioned tea party groups.
In an opinion piece in Tuesday's editions of USA Today, acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller conceded that the agency demonstrated "a lack of sensitivity to the implications of some of the decisions that were made." He said screening of advocacy groups is "factually complex, and it's challenging to separate out political issues from those involving education or social welfare."
These groups were claiming tax-exempt status as organizations promoting social welfare. Unlike other charitable groups, they can engage in political activity. But politics cannot be their primary mission.
That determination is up to the IRS.
Miller said the agency has implemented new procedures that will "ensure the mistakes won't be repeated."
On Monday, the IRS said Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny.
At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee but again did not mention the additional scrutiny – despite being asked about it.
Miller's op-ed did not address why he did not inform Congress after he was briefed.
Miller was a deputy commissioner at the time. He became acting commissioner in November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, questioned the timing of the IRS admission. It came days before the expected release of the inspector general's report. The IRS admission was made at an American Bar Association conference.
"This timing is curious," Grassley says in a letter Tuesday to Miller. "The IRS chose not to fully answer long-standing congressional questions on the issue, even though they had been posed months before this particular question was asked at the conference."
Grassley asked Miller to provide records relating to the agency's decision to disclose the targeting of tea party groups at a Friday conference rather than to members of Congress who had been asking about it for more than a year. He also asked for any communications on the issue between the IRS and the White House.
At least three congressional committees have made similar requests. The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by GOP Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, is holding a hearing on the issue Friday and Miller is scheduled to testify.
On Tuesday, Camp and Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee, requested a trove of documents from the IRS on the issue.
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
___
Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
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IRS Intimidation Forced Founder To Shut Down Tea Party Group
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/14/IRS-Intimidation-Forced-Founder-To-Shut-Down-Tea-Party-Group
by John Nolte14 May 2013
, 5:40 AM PDT597post a comment
The IRS scandal is growing by leaps and bounds in a way that must be terrifying to an Administration already dealing with fallout from the uncovering of their Libya lies and the knowledge that the Department of Justice seized the phone records of 20 Associated Press reporters. Tuesday morning, ABC News revealed what might have been the political motivation behind the IRS's decision to target Tea party groups -- to ensure they weren't as effective in 2012 as they were in 2010.
In the 2010 midterms, even the media that despises the Tea Party will admit that the nationwide grassroots movement was a major factor behind record GOP electoral gains. By the time the smoke cleared, Obama had lost the House and his filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate.
Is it just a coincidence that it was only after these 2010 victories that the IRS decided to single out Tea Party groups for special scrutiny? And not just scrutiny, but the kind of scrutiny that bogged these groups down with paperwork and restricted their political activities.
The Narrative some in the media, like JournOlist founder Ezra Klein of The Washington Post, are desperate to spin is that this was a single Midwest IRS office concerned with political groups abusing a new tax exempt status. The isolation of Tea Parties was merely "discriminatory."
Already this morning, though, Klein's spin is falling apart. Chris Good of ABC News reports that Jennifer Stefano of Philadelphia was so intimidated by the IRS that she closed her Tea Party down:
"In the documents that were sent to me, if you did not tell the whole truth by not putting all your personal information out there by Facebook, by Twitter, of your personal relationship with candidates and parties ... it could be considered perjury and perjury carried jail time," Stefano, 39, told ABC News.
"That was frightening and that's why I shut it down. I shut my group down."
Tom Zawistowski, former president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, told ABC News that, "The reason for this attack by the IRS on the tea party was to make sure we were not as effective in 2012 as we were in 2010, and that's what they did[.]"
Zawistowski also believes that the ridiculous amount of information and documents requested by the IRS was "opposition research," having nothing to do with whether or not a group would qualify as tax exempt.
The IRS asked another Ohio tea party organization, the Liberty Township Tea Party, about its political views and relationships with an individual and another group.
"Provide a list of all issues that are important to your organization. Indicate your position regarding each issue," the IRS commanded in a letter with 35 questions, many including between three and six bullet-pointed subquestions.
ABC News adds:
In letters obtained by ABC News, the Internal Revenue Service asked detailed questions of local tea party groups from 2010 to 2012.
Other Tea Party groups interviewed complained of getting bogged down by the paperwork. One group claims that "500 pages of stuff" went "back and forth" between them and the IRS:
There was kind of a cloud over us. ... It did curtail the things we could do. We could not go outside the IRS rules. Tax-exempt status allows you to do certain things, and we did not go outside them.
These groups say they didn’t hear from the IRS until after their 2010 victories. Then, before they could recreate that success against Obama in 2012, all of a sudden they are intimidated, restricted from certain political activities, and bogged down in a bureaucratic nightmare -- all at the hands of the IRS.
Sorry, Ezra Klein, that doesn't sound "discriminatory" to me -- that sounds like a political tactic. Moreover, if it was a political tactic, we already know that it was not one confined to a single office in the Midwest. Klein's own Post reports Tuesday that…
Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
We now know that the IRS targeted Obama's political enemies, and either by accident or design, made them less effective during his reelection campaign in 2012. W also now know that Administration officials are lying about what they knew about this scandal and when they knew it.
The only question that matters now is whether or not anyone in the Obama re-election campaign is in any way tied to this. And at this point, that is a perfectly reasonable question to ask.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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Franklin Graham: IRS targeted us, too
By: Reid J. Epstein
May 14, 2013 05:08 PM EDT
The IRS came after Billy Graham, too, his son charged Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama.
Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family’s international humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, said that the IRS notified the organizations in September that it was conducting a “review” of their activities for tax year 2010.
With the IRS admitting it gave extra scrutiny to conservative political organizations, Graham says he now believes that the review was part of an Obama administration effort of “targeting and attempting to intimidate us.”
(PHOTOS: 10 slams on the IRS)
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association urging of voters to back “candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel” during last year’s presidential race was the reason why IRS agents visited the North Carolina offices of both Graham groups, the letter accuses.
“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote in the letter, which was shared with POLITICO. “I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.”
Graham said that “in light” of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party groups for added scrutiny, “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.”
(Also on POLITICO: IRS head: 'Mistakes were made')
Graham was not available to comment Tuesday because he was traveling, a spokesman said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An IRS spokesman said that he had not seen the letter and could not comment.
The Graham organizations kept their federal income tax exemptions after the audit — but were not told they’d be able to until after the November election, he wrote.
Graham, who last week attended a White House meeting for religious leaders to discuss gun control, said the IRS story threatens to engulf all manner of non-profit organizations.
“Mr. President, the IRS has already publicly acknowledged it operated in a less than neutral and non-partisan way,” Graham wrote. “We also now know that the target of their improper actions was much wider than political or Tea Party organizations. Will you take some immediate action to reassure Americans we are not in a new chapter of American history – repressive government rule?”
(Also on POLITICO: Tea party groups threaten to sue IRS)
The IRS review, which Graham wrote involved an IRS agent visiting the two agencies last October, followed the Billy Graham ministry publishing newspaper ads in North Carolina backing a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment passed in May.
© 2013 POLITICO LLC
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IRS official Lerner speedily approved exemption for Obama brother’s ‘charity’
Posted By Charles C. Johnson On 5:06 PM 05/14/2013 In Politics | No Comments
Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.
According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval.
Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.
The National Legal and Policy Center filed an official complaint with the IRS in May 2011 asking why the foundation was being allowed to solicit tax-deductible contributions when it had not even applied for an IRS determination. In a New York Post article dated May 8, 2011, an officer of the foundation admitted, “We haven’t been able to find someone with the expertise” to apply for tax-exempt status.
Nevertheless, a month later, the Barack H. Obama Foundation had flown through the grueling application process. Lerner granted the organization a 501(c) determination and even gave it a retroactive tax exemption dating back to December 2008.
The group’s available paperwork suggests an extremely hurried application and approval process. For example, the group’s 990 filings for 2008 and 2009 were submitted to the IRS on May 30, 2011, and its 2010 filing was submitted on May 23, 2011.
Lerner signed the group’s approval [pdf] on June 26, 2011.
It is illegal to operate for longer than 27 months without an IRS determination and solicit tax-deductible contributions.
The ostensibly Arlington, Va.-based charity was not even registered in Virginia despite the foundation’s website including a donation button that claimed tax-exempt status.
Its president and founder, Abon’go “Roy’ Malik Obama, is Barack Obama’s half-brother and was the best man at his wedding, but he has a checkered past. In addition to running his charity, Malik Obama ran unsuccessfully to be the governor of Siaya County in Kenya. He was accused of being a wife beater and seducing the newest of his twelve wives while she was a 17-year-old school girl.
Sensing something wrong when he and a group of Missouri State students visited Kenyan in 2009, Ken Rutherford, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on banning landmines, determined that Malik Obama was an “operator” and elected to give a donation of 400 pounds of medical supplies to a local clinic instead.
“We didn’t know what he was going to do with them,” Rutherford told the New York Post in 2011.
It is also not clear what the Barack H. Obama Foundation actually does. Its website claims the organization has built a madrassa and was building a imam’s house but there is no other evidence that the nonprofit was actually helping poor Kenyan children.
“The Obama Foundation raised money on its web page by falsely claiming to be a tax deductible. This bogus charity run by Malik had not even applied and yet subsequently got retroactive tax-deductible status,” Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Daily Caller. Boehm described Malik Obama’s attempt to raise money as constituting “common law fraud and potentially even federal mail fraud.”
Boehm doubted that the charity is doing what it says it’s doing and wondered why the charity was given tax-exempt status so quickly after the evidence of wrongdoing came to light.
“How do you get retroactive tax-exempt status when you haven’t even applied to get it in the first place?” Boehm said.
Lerner continues to draw fire for her handling of the IRS targeting of conservative and citizen groups, but her colleagues have started to defend her, alleging that she behaves “apolitically.”
Larry Noble, who served as general counsel at the FEC from 1987 to 2000, hired and promoted Lerner. “I worked with Lois for a number of years and she is really one of the more apolitical people I’ve met,” Noble told The Daily Beast. “That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have political views, but she really focuses on the job and what the rules are. She doesn’t have an agenda.”
Lerner could not be reached for comment. Calls to the Barack H. Obama Foundation went directly to the organization’s voicemail and were not returned.
Follow Charles on Twitter
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Article printed from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com
URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/14/irs-official-lerner-approved-exemption-for-obama-brothers-charity
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IG report: ‘Corrective actions have not been fully implemented’
Posted By Caroline May On 7:39 PM 05/14/2013 In Politics | No Comments
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released Tuesday, reveals that the IG believes the issues raised have not been fully resolved.
The hotly anticipated report delves into the fact that the IRS singled out conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for enhanced scrutiny, delayed their applications and burdened groups with unnecessary requests, including donor information.
According to the report, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Audit Michael E. McKenney believes the issues has not been completely corrected.
“Nine recommendations were made to correct concerns we raised in the report, and corrective actions have not been fully implemented,” McKenney wrote in a memo dated Tuesday and included in the report. “Further, as our report notes, a substantial number of applications have been under review, some for more than three years and through two election cycles, and remain open.”
“Until these cases are closed by the IRS and our recommendations are fully implemented, we do not consider the concerns in this report to be resolved,” he added.
The inspector general recommended in part that the IRS improve documentation of the reasons applications are held for review, develop a process to track assistance requests, publish guidance, offer training to employees in advance of election cycles, finalize the remaining “political campaign intervention cases” and request that the “social welfare activity guidance be developed by the Department of the Treasury.”
“In their response to the report, IRS officials agreed with seven of our nine recommendations and proposed alternative corrective actions for two of our recommendations,” the report reads. “TIGTA does not agree that the alternative corrective actions will accomplish the intent of the recommendations and continues to believe that the IRS should better document the reasons why applications potentially involving political campaign intervention are chosen for review and finalize and publish guidance.”
Follow Caroline on Twitter
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Article printed from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com
URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/14/inspector-general-corrective-actions-have-not-been-fully-implemented/
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Franklin Graham: IRS targeted us, too
By: Reid J. Epstein
May 14, 2013 05:08 PM EDT
The IRS came after Billy Graham, too, his son charged Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama.
Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family’s international humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, said that the IRS notified the organizations in September that it was conducting a “review” of their activities for tax year 2010.
With the IRS admitting it gave extra scrutiny to conservative political organizations, Graham says he now believes that the review was part of an Obama administration effort of “targeting and attempting to intimidate us.”
(PHOTOS: 10 slams on the IRS)
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association urging of voters to back “candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel” during last year’s presidential race was the reason why IRS agents visited the North Carolina offices of both Graham groups, the letter accuses.
“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote in the letter, which was shared with POLITICO. “I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.”
Graham said that “in light” of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party groups for added scrutiny, “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.”
(Also on POLITICO: IRS head: 'Mistakes were made')
Graham was not available to comment Tuesday because he was traveling, a spokesman said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An IRS spokesman said that he had not seen the letter and could not comment.
The Graham organizations kept their federal income tax exemptions after the audit — but were not told they’d be able to until after the November election, he wrote.
Graham, who last week attended a White House meeting for religious leaders to discuss gun control, said the IRS story threatens to engulf all manner of non-profit organizations.
“Mr. President, the IRS has already publicly acknowledged it operated in a less than neutral and non-partisan way,” Graham wrote. “We also now know that the target of their improper actions was much wider than political or Tea Party organizations. Will you take some immediate action to reassure Americans we are not in a new chapter of American history – repressive government rule?”
(Also on POLITICO: Tea party groups threaten to sue IRS)
The IRS review, which Graham wrote involved an IRS agent visiting the two agencies last October, followed the Billy Graham ministry publishing newspaper ads in North Carolina backing a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment passed in May.
© 2013 POLITICO LLC
Holy smokes. Cascade.
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Carney: W.H. 'People Were Aware' of IRS Targeting Conservatives, But Didn't Do Anything About It
2:14 PM, May 14, 2013• By DANIEL HALPER
Spokesman Jay Carney said some at the White House "were aware" of reports that IRS was targeting conservatives, but that nobody bothered to do anything about it:
"I still don't quite understand the timeline," said MSNBC's Chuck Todd, about the IRS scandal. "We had members of Congress complaining about this for two years. Did it just never reach you guys here at the White House that there was these complaints that conservative groups felt they were being singled out and targeted?"
"I'm sure people were aware of and knew some of the stories that had been reported about the complaints, but we were not aware of any activity or of any review conducted by the inspector general until several weeks ago," Carney responded.
Todd replied, "Should you have been made aware sooner? I don't understand."
"Let's just say that -- well, first of all for all the reasons why distance between -- you know, why the IRS should not be politicized, you know, there has to be that distance. But on the specific question that you had, I want to wait and see what the report says and wait and see what we actually know happened and what the facts are before we comment beyond what the president said yesterday on this matter and before we make any decisions or pronouncements about what actions should be taken. I mean, you heard the president say what he believed and what he feels what is reported about specific targeting turned out to be true. But we need to see if that's actually the case," Carney said.
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
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Andrea Mitchell: IRS scandal ‘one of the most outrageous excesses I’ve seen in all my years of journalism’
By Charlie SpieringMay 14, 2013 | 7:43 am
4
On "Morning Joe" Tuesday this morning, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell delivered a strong reaction to the news that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups beginning in 2011, calling it “one of the most outrageous excesses I’ve seen in all my years in journalism.”
Mitchell explained that Americans have to understand that their tax returns are private, especially since the Richard Nixon era.
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http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/14/rand-paul-wants-criminal-charges-against-officials-involved-in-irs-targeting
;D
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BOMBSHELL… ABC Analyst: West Wing Of White House Authorized IRS-Gate Targeting (Video)
Gateway Pundit ^ | 5-14-2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on May 14, 2013 8:55:50 PM EDT by servo1969
Barack Hussein Nixon (M.Ryan)
ABC News’ Trey Hardin: West Wing Of White House Authorized IRS-Gate Targeting
Gee, it wasn’t a local IRS office scandal after all. ABC’s Trey Hardin suggested “with a very strong sense of certainty” that the West Wing of the White House authorized the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
Via ORYR:
[Video]
From the video:
Trey Hardin: “I will tell you this on the IRS front. I’ve worked in this town for over 20 years in the White House and on Capitol Hill and I can say with a very strong sense of certainty that there are people very close to this president that not only knew what the IRS were doing but authorized it. It simply just does not happen at an agency level like that without political advisers likely in the West Wing certainly connected to the president’s ongoing campaign organization.”
Trey Hardin was on with Doug McIntyre on 790 KABC this morning.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/14/irs-tea-party-progressive-groups/2158831
WTF!!!! Yeah, nothing going on here.
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WASHINGTON -- In the 27 months that the Internal Revenue Service put a hold on all Tea Party applications for non-profit status, it approved applications from similar liberal groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows.
As applications from conservative groups sat in limbo, groups with obviously liberal names were approved in as little as nine months. With names including words like "Progress" or "Progressive," these groups applied for the same tax status and were engaged in the same kinds of activities as the conservative groups.
The controversial, 3-year-old strategy to manage the increasing number of political groups seeking tax-exempt status came under fire Tuesday. The agency's own inspector general blamed IRS leadership for "ineffective management."
The Justice Department wants to know if that was more than just mismanagement. Calling the IRS' actions "outrageous and unacceptable," Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he has asked the FBI to investigate. "We're examining the facts to see if there were any criminal violations," he said.
A federal official who has been briefed on the matter said the investigation could focus on potential violations of civil rights law, including targeting groups based on political affiliation and infringing free speech. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said authorities could consider possible violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts political activities of government workers.
The IRS inspector general, in an audit issued Tuesday, said the agency used "inappropriate criteria that identified Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions" instead of evidence of political activity. The tax exemption requires that organizations have "social welfare" as their primary purpose, but IRS officials said the rules are unclear how much political activity they can engage in.
The White House says it knew nothing of the screening until a few weeks ago. In a statement Tuesday, President Obama said, "The report's findings are intolerable and inexcusable." Obama said he has directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew "to hold those responsible for these failures accountable, and to make sure that each of the Inspector General's recommendations are implemented quickly, so that such conduct never happens again."
Contributing: Kevin Johnson
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
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Fuck this makes watergate look like kiddies playing in the sandpit. Current administration is operating like some African dictatorship - corruption everywhere you turn.
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Document: IRS ordered conservative educational group to turn over a list of high school and college students it trained
Federal government demanded a list of everyone a Tennessee organization had ever trained, or planned to train
Linchpins of Liberty mentors high school and college students and teaches them conservative political philosophy, but is not tea-party-linked
'Can you imagine my responsibility to parents if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?' asked the group's founder
IRS Inspector General report listed seven questions the agency should never have asked, but this wasn't one of them
By David Martosko In Washington
PUBLISHED:00:18 EST, 15 May 2013| UPDATED:04:15 EST, 15 May 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324716/Document-IRS-ordered-conservative-educational-group-turn-list-high-school-college-students-trained.html
When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train.
'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.'
That question was part ofthe tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letterto Kevin Kookogey. founder of the group Linchpins of Liberty. He had submitted his application 13 months earlier.
'Can you imagine my responsibility to parents if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?' he asked MailOnline.
It's 'an impossible question to answer fully and truthfully,' he said, 'without disclosing the names of anyone I ever taught, or would ever teach, including students.'
Three of the more than 90 questions the IRS posed to Linchpins of Liberty, including (#24) the demand for a list of everyone the organization had trained, or planned to train - all of whom would be students in college and high school
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney faced hostile media questions on Tuesday, including many about the fast-brewing IRS scandal. He maintained that the White House had no knowledge of the IRS's practice of targeting conservative groups
Like the leaders of many tea party-affiliated groups whose tax-exemption applications have become the subject of angry complaints, Kookogey called the IRS's inquisition an overreach, 'especially considering that my organization mentors high school and college students.'
It 'should send chills through your spine,' he told MailOnline, 'that the government would ask me to identify those I teach, and to provide details of what I teach them.'
The 13-month delay, while burdensome, was far shorter than those some other groups endured. According to a report released late Tuesday by the IRS's Office of Inspector General, the average delay at one point was 574 days.
Revealed: The 55 questions the IRS asked one tea party group after more than two years of waiting - including demands for names of all its donors and volunteers
Obama battles to contain THREE growing 'scandals': White House evades fury over Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting tea party and DOJ spying on reporters' phone calls
Obama condemns IRS targeting of conservative groups as 'intolerable and inexcusable' as he fights to control mounting scandal
Attorney general demands criminal investigation into 'outrageous and unacceptable' IRS targeting of Tea Party
But Kookogey said a $30,000 grant was canceled as a result of the IRS's months-long radio silence, when he couldn't tell his donor that Linchpins had earned its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
That money would have made a significant difference to the group, judging from its public filings in Tennessee. In 2011, Linchpins of Liberty reported collecting just $3,460 in contributions, and spending $7,328 on its programs.
Kevin Kookogey said his group, Linchpins of Liberty, should never have been caught up in the IRS's anti-conservative dragnet. The IRS Inspector General issued a report on Tuesday largely clearing upper-echelon officials in the Obama administration
The group's online materials refer to it as 'an American leadership development enterprise.' Its stated purpose is to mentor high school and college students, placing an emphasis on Western civilization and an old-style core curriculum - what previous generations called the 'great books.'
'Our ideas are opposed to the Obama administration, but we’re not tea party,' Kookogey told The Tennessean.
It's that lack of a tea party connection, he said, that makes his predicament so maddening.
He told MailOnline that nothing about his group - 'not our name or our description or our website, or anything' - should have placed it among the organizations the IRS chose to scrutinize closely by using key words like 'tea party,' '9/12,' and 'patriots' as qualifiers.
'I'm not a Tea Party group. I'm not a Patriot group by name' he toldNewsChannel 5in Nashville.
'We mentor high school and college students in conservative political philosophy. It's a one on one relationship.'
Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he ordered a Justice Department investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny. He will face questions on Wednesday from House Republicans in a Judiciary Committee hearing
Kookogey summed it up in an interview with MailOnline as 'unethical, unconstitutional, and unfair,' later asserting in an email that '[w]e were targeted by the IRS based on our political beliefs and the content of our speech.'
The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 27 conservative groups including Linchpins of Liberty, is planning to file suit against the IRS.
Jordan Sekulow, that organization's chief counsel, wrote on Tuesday that 'the IRS abuse is ongoing.'
'Even though the IRS admitted wrongdoing,' Sekulow wrote in an essay for FoxNews.com, even though the Inspector General’s report indicates that wrongdoing was widespread, the IRS still hasn’t withdrawn its overbroad and unconstitutional questions, and it still hasn’t granted the exemptions it should grant, despite the fact that some applications have been pending for more than two years.'
The Inspector General's report includes a list of 'the seven questions' the IRS asked right-wing groups that were later 'identified as being unnecessary.'
Its request for the list of students trained by Linchpins of Liberty was not among them.
The report also largely exonerates political appointees in the Treasury Department and at the top of the IRS, instead blaming mid-level bureaucrats for providing 'ineffective management' and using 'inappropriate criteria' to red-flag conservative groups.
It makes no mention of anyone in the White House directing the IRS to play political favorites. But The Washington Post has reported that 'senior IRS officials' in Washington, D.C. were notified of the practice in 2011.
The IRS Inspector General identified just seven questions that were 'unnecessary,' among the hundreds asked of tea party groups and other conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status
In December of that year, Kookogey says, he called the IRS's nonprofit evaluation arm in Cincinnati, Ohio, to find out why his group's application had taken so long.
The agent on the other end of the line, he said, told him, 'We are waiting on guidance from our superiors as to your organization and similar organizations.'
Attorney General Eric Holder has said that he ordered the FBI to initiate a criminal probe on Friday, when he learned about the IRS's practices.
The IRS's actions, he said, were, 'certainly outrageous and unacceptable, but we are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations.'
Holder is expected to testify in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday in Washington. On Friday the House Ways and Means Committee will hear testimony from acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George.
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio has called for Miller to lose his job.
Jordan Sekulow (R) is threatening to sue the IRS on behalf of his conservative clients, while Sen. Marco Rubio (L) has asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to fire the acting IRS commissioner
'At a bare minimum, those involved with this deeply offensive use of government power have committed a violation of the public trust that has already had a profoundly chilling effect on free speech,' Rubio wrote Monday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. 'Such behavior cannot be excused with a simple apology.'
'It is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership,' Rubio continued. 'Therefore, I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effective immediately.'
On Friday, Sekulow demanded that the IRS immediately approve the tax-exempt status applications of his organization's 10 legal clients, including Linchpins of Liberty, that are still waiting. He issued the agency an ultimatum: Grant the requests by noon on May 17, or prepare to fight in court.
'We are demanding that the IRS grant our remaining clients tax-exempt status immediately,' Sekulow said in a statement. 'If that does not occur by Friday, we will advise our clients of their right to sue the IRS for the redress of their grievances.'
Read more: Read the IRS Office of Inspector General's report
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324716/Document-IRS-ordered-conservative-educational-group-turn-list-high-school-college-students-trained.html#ixzz2TMZpXr5p
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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Obama classmate audited 2 years ago now 'vindicated'
Critic charges IRS abuse part of plan to destroy opposition
Published: 10 hours ago
Art MooreAbout | Email | Archive
http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/obama-classmate-see-i-told-ya-so-about-irs
As Attorney General Eric Holder orders an investigation of the International Revenue Service after a top official admitted targeting conservative groups with extra scrutiny, an outspoken critic of Obama who claimed more than half a year ago that the administration was using the IRS to punish him is feeling vindicated.
“I feel like a million bucks. I feel absolutely vindicated. I knew this was going on,” Wayne Allyn Root told WND.
Root, the Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate in 2008 who has claimed Obama was strangely unknown to him and his fellow Columbia University classmates, recounted his story to WND last October of becoming the target of unusual audits, beginning in January 2011, despite a “spotless” 30-year tax record.
He charged in October that the order to audit him came from Obama himself, and he is even more convinced now.
“I believe this is not rogue agents, who would be risking their pension and careers,” he said.
In October, Root said the order to audit him “must have come from the highest levels of government.”
“Obama is using the power of the IRS and other government agencies to punish his political opposition and intimidate and silence his critics,” Root charged at the time.
At that time he was calling for congressional hearings “to determine if the Obama administration is misusing its power to damage or ruin the lives, drain the finances, or just distract Obama’s critics and political opposition.”
Now, the House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a formal hearing for Friday to probe the IRS scandal.
In March 2012 hearings before the Financial Services and the Ways and Means Oversight subcommittees, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman twice denied that the IRS had targeted conservative groups.
On Monday, Root contacted the office of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., offering to testify before Congress.
Root said that until this week, he would not have expected scrutiny of the Obama administration to get much traction, but with the news Monday that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of Associated Press journalists, he thinks the media “woke up overnight and realized this is a tyrant that we’ve got in charge.”
Root has been a relentless critic of Obama in thousands of appearances on political talk shows on TV and radio over the past four and a half years, focusing on what he calls the president’s anti-capitalist policies. He also writes columns and commentaries for many popular conservative websites.
A pre-law and political science major in the class of 1983, like the president, Root told WND that he received an “unsettling” telephone call from an IRS agent in January 2011 who called himself a fan of his and considered it “an honor” to audit him.
Root won a complete victory last summer in tax court, which found no taxes owed in his 2007 and 2008 filings. But then, he said, he and his tax attorney were shocked when he was hit with a new audit just five days later, for 2009 and 2010.
Root told WND in October he knew of many cases like his that pointed to a pattern of abuse by the Obama administration, including of high-profile friends who contribute to the Republican Party and GOP bundlers.
Last year, billionaire Frank VanderSloot became the target of investigations by both the IRS and the Labor Department after he gave $1 million to a super PAC that supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The GOP’s biggest donor, Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, said a federal criminal investigation into his company’s business practices was politically motivated. Another casino giant, Steve Wynn, also has been investigated.
This week, Root has received many emails from people who identify as conservative and believe the IRS has been harassing them for political reasons.
He said he was contacted by a Mormon man who said everyone he knew in his small Mormon community was being audited for the first time in their lives.
The man told Root the Mormons are easy to identify because their tax forms show they give 10 percent of their income to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Root said the Mormon man told him, “Everywhere I go, I run into people who are being audited, and they have never been audited before.”
Root sees the alleged targeting of Mormons as consistent with the report Tuesday that the IRS was targeting Jewish groups that are pro-Israel.
“Who in America would be more conservative Republican and donate more to Romney than Mormons?” he asked.
Cloward and Piven
Root has charged that Obama is borrowing from the radical, collectivist strategy of former Columbia professors Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.
The aim is to overwhelm the welfare system for the purpose of collapsing it and replacing it with a system of guaranteed annual income.
“I’ve been saying it since he was elected in 2008,” Root said of Obama, “his goal is the Cloward and Piven plan we learned at Columbia University – you’ve got to bankrupt your opposition and you’ve got to bankrupt the United States of America. You’ve got to bankrupt it with debts, entitlements and spending. And it’s all happening in front of our very eyes.”
The recent admission by the IRS, he said, supports his contention that Obama aims to attack business owners who fund conservative candidates and causes until they have no money left.
“If you raise people’s taxes and regulate them to death, and assess IRS liens and audit them to death, eventually the people who write all the big checks to conservative causes will go bankrupt,” he said.
Root acknowledges his assessment of Obama opens himself to charges that he is extreme, but he insists anyone who has met him “would describe him as a family man or a man of faith who does not make exaggerative statements and wear a tin foil hat.”
“And yet,” he said. “I believe with every bone in my body that Barack Obama is a Marxist out to destroy capitalism and the United States of America.”
Now, he said, as Obama his hit with a perfect storm of scandals, “you tell me if anything I’ve said now appears to be extreme.”
“No,” he said, “the only extremists here are the radical Marxists sitting in the White House.”
After Obama’s inaugural speech in January, House Speaker John Boehner seemed to agree that Obama was undertaking a scorched-earth political strategy, notably declaring that he believed the president wanted to “annihilate” the Republican Party.
Boehner said the broader goal of the administration was “to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”
Recalling Boehner’s statement, Root commented: “That’s how you become a communist or socialist nation.”
In September, Root announced that he was stepping down from his positions in the Libertarian Party to focus on helping elect Republicans to office who share his small-government values. He reasoned that it’s not enough to have a “philosophical foundation rooted in liberty” if you can’t win as a third-party candidate.
No sign of Obama at Columbia
Root drew wide attention as the Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate in 2008 when he contended that although he and Obama were both pre-law and political science majors in Columbia’s class of 1983, he never even heard of Obama during his time at the university. None of the classmates with whom he’s spoken knew of him either, he claimed. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article cited a Fox News survey of 400 people who were Columbia students from 1981 to 1983 and found no one who remembered Obama.
Root said Tuesday it’s telling that no one from his Columbia days has yet to come forward and declare any knowledge of Obama at the time.
“Every kid I went to school with was a liberal, trending toward Marxist. They all said it. They all said they were proud Marxists,” Root said. “You would think they would defend the president, and you would have students saying, ‘I knew him, and Wayne Root is wrong.’ No one has.”
There’s “just dead silence,” he said.
“Nobody saw him there. There is something wrong with the story, I am telling you.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/obama-classmate-see-i-told-ya-so-about-irs/#xRJqqLxKcIjD3GiV.99
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The IRS wants YOU — to share everything
By: David Nather and Tarini Parti and Byron Tau
May 14, 2013 07:36 PM EDT
The Internal Revenue Service asked tea party groups to see donor rolls.
It asked for printouts of Facebook posts.
And it asked what books people were reading.
A POLITICO review of documents from 11 tea party and conservative groups that the IRS scrutinized in 2012 shows the agency wanted to know everything — in some cases, it even seemed curious what members were thinking. The review included interviews with groups or their representatives from Hawaii, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere.
The long-awaited Treasury Department inspector general report released Tuesday says the agency itself decided some of its questions to conservative groups were way over the line — especially the one about donors.
(Also on POLITICO: Watchdog: IRS used ‘inappropriate criteria’)
The report shows that top IRS officials put a stop to some of the questions in early 2012, including the ones that asked tea party groups who their donors were, what issues were important to them and whether their top officers ever planned to run for office. And they told the investigators they planned to destroy the donor lists that had already been sent in.
But interviews with members of the groups paint a more dramatic picture than the bland language of the report, which just says the IRS “requested irrelevant (unnecessary) information because of a lack of managerial review, at all levels, of questions before they were sent to organizations seeking tax-exempt status.”
“They were asking for a U-Haul truck’s worth of information,” said Toby Marie Walker, the president of the Waco Tea Party.
(Also on POLITICO: White House stuck on IRS scandal response)
Some groups even gave up in the face of the IRS questions.
Several of the groups were asked for résumés of top officers and descriptions of interviews with the media. One group was asked to provide “minutes of all board meetings since your creation.”
Some of the letters asked for copies of the groups’ Web pages, blog posts and social media postings — making some tea party members worry they’d be punished for their tweets or Facebook comments by their followers.
(PHOTOS: 10 slams on the IRS)
And each letter had a stern warning about “penalties of perjury” — which became intimidating for groups that were being asked about future activities, like future donations or endorsements.
In one instance, the American Patriots Against Government Excess was asked to provide summaries or copies of all material passed out at meetings. The group had been reading “The 5000 Year Leap” by Cleon Skousen and the U.S. Constitution.
The group’s president, Marion Bower, sent a copy of both to the IRS. “I don’t have time to write a book report for them,” she said.
The Albuquerque Tea Party was asked about connections to other groups — Conspiracy Brews, Marianne Chiffelle’s Breakfasts, Concerned Citizens for Limited Government, Concerned Citizens for Common Sense.
The Hawaii Tea Party was about Dylan Nonaka, the former head of the Hawaii Republican Party.
Some were asked about any connection to Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit group backed by the Koch brothers that ironically never underwent the same level of IRS scrutiny.
And then they asked whether one group knew Justin Binik-Thomas.
Never heard of him? He’s a former leader of the Cincinnati Tea Party, and clearly someone in the Cincinnati IRS office knew who he was.
So when the Liberty Township Tea Party applied for tax-exempt status, the IRS threw this question into its March 2011 letter to the group: “Provide details regarding your relationship with Justin Binik-Thomas.” (They didn’t know him well enough to spell his name right.)
In an interview Tuesday, Binik-Thomas said he has never worked with the Liberty group and isn’t sure why the IRS asked that group about him — although he says it’s “possible that they just Googled ‘tea party’ and assumed that we’re all the same.”
But Binik-Thomas said it was a chilling experience when the Liberty group told him his name was in their letter — because now he wonders what else the IRS has in store for him.
“Will my personal taxes get audited? Will my small-business taxes get audited? Am I a pawn to try to get at another group?” Binik-Thomas asked.
“There are a lot of people involved in the tea party. Why was I isolated from thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people? Why was I singled out?”
Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Irvine and an election law expert and blogger, said that it’s the IRS’s job to ensure that these groups are not primarily involved in campaign-related activities. “So it has taken a murky rule and tried to resolve disputes about status in some cases using a very fact-intensive and intrusive inquiry,” he said.
“It would be far better for the IRS — or even better, Congress — to have a bright line rule about who has to disclose what and keep the IRS out of this line of inquiry,” Hasen added. “For example, make every group regardless of tax status disclose major donors funding election ads to the FEC. That’s it. Then there would be no reason for political groups to take the (c)(4) status and the pressure would be off the IRS.”
The IRS investigations took time. Several conservative group leaders spoke of 18 months or more of delays, only to get missives in early 2012 demanding answers to detailed questions within a few weeks.
“The thing that would characterize the attitude of the IRS was silence. We submitted our application, and it would be almost a year before we would get an answer back,” said Laurence Nordvig, the executive director of the Richmond Tea Party. “It’s not like we were talking to someone every day and they were being polite or rude. We weren’t hearing from them at all.”
The Richmond group first applied for 501(c)(4) status in December 2009 and got final approval in July 2012.
The letters came from IRS offices in Ohio, California and Washington, D.C. And one letter — to American Patriots Against Government Excess — came under the name of Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations office. Lerner was the IRS official who announced last Friday the agency had singled out certain groups for review based on search terms like “tea party” and “patriot.”
Tea party groups felt that the requests for donors were particularly intrusive.
“They were asking for the names of the donors, which is exactly the opposite of what we were looking for because if people knew their names would be made public or known to the government, they stop giving,” said Nordvig.
“Why do you even need that? There’s no reason your tax status should depend on your donors,” Littleton said.
Toby Marie Walker, the president of the Waco Tea Party, says her group applied for 501(c)(4) status in July 2010 and didn’t get a response from the IRS until February 2012 — when it sent a letter with 20 questions, including requests for printouts of its Web page and social networking sites.
It also wanted copies of all newsletters, bulletins and fliers, as well as any stories written about the group.
“They were killing trees right and left,” Walker said.
The IRS also asked for transcripts of radio shows where her group had mentioned political candidates by name — a job she figured would have cost her group $25,000. And it asked whether her group had “a close relationship” with any candidates or parties, a question she considered especially vague.
Walker said her group eventually got the questions knocked back a bit, with the help of the American Center for Law and Justice — and the IRS agreed to drop items like the Web page and Facebook printouts.
In January, Walker said, the Waco Tea Party submitted its final responses to the IRS — and in March, it won its tax-exempt status. By that point, she didn’t really feel like celebrating.
“It was a win, but I didn’t feel like it was a win, because it took us 18 months,” Walker said.
Chris Littleton, one of the co-founders of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, said the group got a grilling from the IRS when it submitted its application, in letters the group has posted on its website. The IRS also gave him so much grief when he tried to apply for tax-exempt status for another group, American Junto, that “we just gave up on it,” he said.
But when he submitted an application for a third group — Ohioans for Health Care Freedom, now renamed Ohio Rising — “it went through just fine,” Littleton said. “They never asked a single set of questions.”
Julie Hodges of the Mississippi Tea Party said the group has less than $800 in its account and relied on volunteer lawyers to deal with the IRS. It withdrew its application for 501(c)(4) status in early 2012, citing the delays and questions.
“The government is harassing us over a political position,” Hodges said.
The Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots applied in January 2010, and two years later, received an inquiry from the IRS with 35 questions.
“I do recall our co-founder called the IRS and the agent on the phone pretended he had our case file open in front him,” said the group’s president, Chris Rossiter. “Then she asked him a question, and he said, ‘What’s your group’s name again?’”
Several said that because the tea party groups constantly spoke to each other, it was easy to see they were all getting the same questions from IRS.
“It was a mistake for the IRS to take on the tea party because what we do is organize, so we’re going to figure out we were getting the same letters,” Rossiter said.
Lauren French contributed to this report.
© 2013 POLITICO LLC
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So How Did Obama’s Organizing for Action Get IRS 501(c)(4) Approval So Quickly?
Jammie Wearing Fools ^ | May 15, 2013 | Jammie
Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 12:00:39
With Obama’s IRS scandal mushrooming by the day, we’ve been learning that some applications for 501(c)(4) status have languished for years and while some targeted groups have simply given up since delays were so long. Yet curiously, some groups favorable to Obama or actually run by an Obama have been mysteriously sped up through the process.
Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.
According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval.
Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.
The National Legal and Policy Center filed an official complaint with the IRS in May 2011 asking why the foundation was being allowed to solicit tax-deductible contributions when it had not even applied for an IRS determination. In a New York Post article dated May 8, 2011, an officer of the foundation admitted, “We haven’t been able to find someone with the expertise” to apply for tax-exempt status.
Nevertheless, a month later, the Barack H. Obama Foundation had flown through the grueling application process. Lerner granted the organization a 501(c) determination and even gave it a retroactive tax exemption dating back to December 2008....
(Excerpt) Read more at jammiewf.com ...
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Prominent Catholic Prof. Claims IRS Audited Her After Speaking Out Against Obama
The Blaze ^ | May 15, 2013 | Billy Hallowell
Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 12:03:06 PM
In the midst of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal, individuals and groups, alike, are continuing to come forward with ever-startling allegations. On Wednesday, Dr. Anne Hendershott, a devout Catholic and a noted sociologist, professor and author, exclusively told TheBlaze that she believes she may have been one of the IRS’s targets.
SNIP
It all started with a phone call she received at her home in May of that year — a call during which Hendershott was told she would be audited. A letter that followed on May 19, 2010 solidified the IRS’s request to meet her in person two months alter in July. While IRS investigations are certainly not uncommon occurrences, the professor believes that the situation surrounding hers was more-than-curious.
“The IRS calls my house and says … ‘I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to be auditing your business’ and I said ‘My businesses?’ and he said, ‘You know the expenses you take off for writing,” the academic recalls.
SNIP
But the circumstances surrounding the irregular nature of the experience don’t end there, though. Hendershott noted it was particularly surprising that she, alone, was audited. Her husband, who brings in the vast majority of the family’s income, was not included in the IRS’s inquiry — even though the Hendershotts always files jointly.
So when the agent explained that she would need to come alone and in person to discuss her “business” activity in July of 2010, the professor was perplexed.
“[The IRS agent] didn’t even let me decide when it would be good for me … He didn’t want my husband to come,” she said of the meeting, which was held at an IRS office in New Haven, Connecticut.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
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IRS Scandal Grows: Agency Withheld Approval of Pro-Life Group
LifeNews.com ^ | 5/15/13 | Steven Ertelt
Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 1:03:42 PM by tellw
The scandal involving IRS discrimination against conservative groups is growing. In one case LifeNews has profiled, a pro-life group was told it had to promote abortion.
Now, the Thomas More Society is speaking out about blatant bias by the supposedly apolitical tax-collection agency. The pro-life legal group informed LifeNews today that cases it handled support mounting accusations that demonstrate the agency’s abuse of pro-life organizations, in addition to those identified as ‘tea party’, ‘patriot’, or ‘government spending’ groups.
Outrage spurred by recent revelations of IRS discrimination against these groups has also led the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to announce a full investigation into the matter.
According to TMS, in one case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa.
In a phone call to Coalition for Life of Iowa leaders on June 6, 2009, the IRS agent “Ms. Richards” told the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board’s signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside of Planned Parenthood. Once the IRS received this letter, their application would be approved.
After a series of letters following a request for more invasive information, Thomas More Society special counsel Sally Wagenmaker sent a letter to the IRS demanding the tax exempt status be issued immediately.
Wagenmaker summarized her concerns about what she called “the IRS’s disturbing ability” to stall and suppress legitimate applicants. She explained how through lengthy questionnaires and wrong citations of applicable law (as in the case of Coalition for Life of Iowa), applicants with less fortitude or without access to legal advocates like the Thomas More Society will be effectively silenced from exercising their constitutional freedoms.
Wagenmaker added, “The IRS’s role should only be to determine whether organizations fit the section 501(c)(3) test for ‘charitable, religious, or educational’ qualification, not to inquire about the content of prayers, protests, and petitions. It’s high time that the IRS be called to account for its workers’ potential to trample on our constitutional rights, through such ostensibly innocuous means…what the Ways and Means committee will discuss may only be the tip of the iceberg of IRS abuses.”
In another similar case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for charitable tax-exempt recognition of Christian Voices for Life, questioning the group’s involvement with “40 Days for Life” and “Life Chain” events. The Fort Bend County, Texas, organization was subjected to repeated and lengthy unconstitutional requests for information about the viewpoint and content of its educational communications, volunteer prayer vigils, and other protected activities.
“The application of Christian Voices for Life clearly indicated that the organization qualified as a charitable organization under section 501(c)(3),” stated Sally Wagenmaker. She added, “The IRS seemed to be intent on denying or delaying tax-exempt status based upon the organization’s pro-life message, rather than any legitimate exemption concern, through its exhaustive, cumbersome questioning. The implication that Christian Voices for Life somehow intended to engage in illegal activity was insulting.”
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http://www.wyff4.com/news/politics/URGENT-IRS-Rogue-Employees/-/9324082/20159778/-/xh0ed5/-/index.html?absolute=true
LOL - IRS blaming two people.
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Whomever gets thrown under the bus will probably start opening up about how high up the chain this went.
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Reports: IRS Spared Liberal Groups as Tea Party Languished, More Conservative Orgs Targeted Than First Thought
Guy Benson | May 15, 2013
Recommend this article
Comments 29
Remember what we were told when this explosive story first broke less than a week ago? The IRS official in charge of tax exemptions for organizations said the improper methods employed within her division were executed by "low level workers" in Cincinnati who weren't motivated by "political bias," and impacted roughly 75 organizations? Wrong, wrong and wrong:
"Low Level" - Officials within the highest echelons of the agency were aware of the inappropriate targeting, including the last two commissioners -- at least one of whom appears to have misled Congress on this very question. Now Politico reports that Lerner herself sent at least one of the probing letters to an Ohio-based conservative group.
The director of the Internal Revenue Service division under fire for singling out conservative groups sent a 2012 letter under her name to one such group, POLITICO has learned. The March 2012 letter was sent to the Ohio-based American Patriots Against Government Excess (American PAGE) under the name of Lois Lerner, the director of the Exempt Organizations Division...at the time of the letter, the group was in the midst of the application process for tax-exempt nonprofit status — a process that would stretch for nearly three years and involve queries for detailed information on its social media activity, its organizational set-up, bylaws, membership and interactions with political officials. The letter threatened to close American PAGE’s case file unless additional information was received within 60 days.
These burdensome requests were apparently designed to bury the victimized groups in paperwork. Carol reported last night that some 58 percent of these applicants were asked for unnecessary information and data, according to the Inspector General's review. Some inquiries asked for screenshots of organizations' Facebook posts and even lists of what books (!) its members were reading.
"No Political Bias" - This claim was laughable on its face from the start, in light of the agency's surreal criteria for added scrutiny and the "red flag" words and phrases that triggered investigations. Now add to the mix this scoop from USA Today:
In February 2010, the Champaign Tea Party in Illinois received approval of its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 90 days, no questions asked. That was the month before the Internal Revenue Service started singling out Tea Party groups for special treatment. There wouldn't be another Tea Party application approved for 27 months. In that time, the IRS approved perhaps dozens of applications from similar liberal and progressive groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows. As applications from conservative groups sat in limbo, groups with liberal-sounding names had their applications approved in as little as nine months. With names including words like "Progress" or "Progressive," the liberal groups applied for the same tax status and were engaged in the same kinds of activities as the conservative groups.
Lerner also reportedly fast-tracked an approval for a foundation operated by President Obama's half brother, taking the extraordinary step of granting it retroactive tax-free status.
"Seventy-five organizations effected" - That number almost immediately swelled to 300. Now it's closer to 500:
The IRS targeting of conservative groups is far broader than first reported, with nearly 500 organizations singled out for additional scrutiny, according to two lawmakers briefed by the agency. IRS officials claimed on Friday that roughly 300 groups received additional scrutiny. Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that the number has actually risen to 471. Further, they said it is "unclear" whether Tea Party and other conservative groups are being targeted to this day.
We have an answer to that question now, too. Here's Carol again, quoting the cover letter from the IG's findings, dated yesterday: "A substantial number of applications have been under review, some for more than three years and through two election cycles, and remain open." Lest you even ask, nobody involved in this scheme has been disciplined (yet); just the opposite, in fact:
More allegations of IRS impropriety are cropping up across the country, and similar questions are now being raised about political favoritism within the EPA's FOIA request process: "Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute." This steady drumbeat of ugliness was enough to prompt NBC's Nightly News to kick off its broadcast with a Nixon comparison last evening, and for Jonathan Alter to pronounce the administration's crisis management efforts "disastrous:"
An "unhealthy love" for Obama is a diagnosis that applies to some people well beyond the White House walls. Think, for instance, of the famously tingly man who hosts the show on which Alter appeared. The good news in all of this is that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid see these allegations of Statist bullying as a prime opportunity to...turn back the clock on stifling political speech and pass pet legislation that would hamper conservative organizations while shielding Democrats' union cronies. Good luck with that, guys. Conservatives have far better messaging opportunities here: If the IRS is at best grossly incompetent, and at worst maliciously politicized, how can they be trusted to enforce Obamacare starting next year? And don't citizens have more cause than ever to be leery of ideas like national gun registries? Parting quotation: "What we are witnessing is nothing less than a dramatic reversal of the nation’s political narrative."
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FLASHBACK 2009: Obama Jokes About IRS Auditing Political Enemies
by Ben Shapiro
10 May 2013
Back in May 2009, Professor Glenn Reynolds, better known to his followers as Instapundit, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he discussed some odd rhetoric from President Obama. Obama had been refused an honorary doctorate by Arizona State University, and Obama remarked, “President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.” Reynolds pointed out:
Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.
As it turns out, the IRS under President Obama routinely gave special scrutiny for groups with the terms “tea party” or “patriots” in their titles. His little joke doesn’t read much like a joke anymore.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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IRS exec got $42K in bonuses in three years
May 15, 2013 | 4:19 pm
Mark Tapscott
Executive Editor
The Washington Examiner
Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011. (Thinkstock)
Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.
That figure was included in data provided by the IRS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Washington Examiner. Lerner is director of the IRS exempt organizations division, which processes and approves or denies applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Lerner received $17,220 for 2010, $14,691 for 2011 and $10,620 for 2012, the most recent year for which the IRS said data was available.
Her annual salary in 2009 and 2010 was $172,200, and $177,000 in 2011 and 2012. With the bonuses, Lerner was paid a total of $740,931 for the four-year period.
Lerner admitted last week that her agency had singled out conservative groups with words like "Tea Party" and "Patriot" in their names. Being singled out reportedly delayed resolution of their application for many months for most of the groups, while applications from liberals groups were typically processed in only a month or two.
Kelly Cohen, a member of The Washington Examiner's Watchdog investigative reporting team, contributed to this report.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of The Washington Examiner.
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The Corner
Committee Chairman: ‘Yes,’ I Was Lied To by IRS
By Jonathan Strong
May 15, 2013 3:23 PM
Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, charged top IRS officials, including former commissioner Doug Shulman, of lying to Congress over the targeting of tea-party groups.
“They knew this was going on and responded in writing to the committee that it was not,” said Camp in an interview at the Capitol. He also said “yes” when I asked him whether he felt that Shulman and others had lied.
Camp, who is the point man for House Republicans on tax issues, said his committee is still investigating the motivation of officials who targeted right-leaning organizations. Next week, the House oversight committee, led by Representative Darrell Issa, will hold a hearing on the IRS scandal.
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http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/DA6A0LSG3
(AP) AP NewsAlert
WASHINGTON
Obama says treasury secretary requested and received resignation of acting IRS commissioner.
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OBAMA: ACTING HEAD OF THE IRS STEVE MILLER HAS RESIGNED
Grace Wyler|23 minutes ago|2,355|41
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller has resigned in the wake of the controversy surrounding the agency's unfair targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups.
"The misconduct uncovered is inexcusable," he said in a brief statement to reporters in the White House East Room. "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior at any agency, but especially the IRS."
"I am angry about it, Americans are angry about it — and they are right to be angry about it."
He said that he had directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to ask for Miller's resignation, and that Miller had agreed to step down.
"Given the controversy surrounding the audit, it's important to institute new leadership that can restore confidence going forward," Obama said.
But, he added, the problem is "fixable."
"I'll do everything in my power to ensure nothing like this happens again."
The statement comes as the White House goes into full damage control mode to deal with the swirl of scandals that has engulfed the Obama administration, and now threatens to derail the President's second-term agenda.
In addition to the IRS investigation, the Obama administration has come under fire this week over the news that the Department of Justice secretly seized Associated Press phone records, and the White House continues to face questions about its response to the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
Of the three scandals, the IRS targeting of conservative groups appears to be the most pressing for the White House. Earlier Wednesday, Obama met with senior Treasury Department officials to discuss the IRS investigation.
An inspector general report released Tuesday blamed ineffective IRS management for allowing agents to inappropriately target conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
In a statement Tuesday night, Obama called the findings of the report "intolerable and inexcusable," and said he had appointed Lew to make sure that whoever was responsible is held accountable.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-irs-tea-party-scandal-2013-5#ixzz2TP7Je7VS
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IRS Targeted Numerous Christian Groups Including 180 Year-Old Baptist Paper
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 3:21 PM
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/irs-targeted-numerous-christian-groups-including-180-year-old-baptist-paper
The Obama IRS targeted Christian groups including Franklin Graham and the Biblical Recorder
The Obama Internal Revenue Service targeted several Christian groups including a 180 year-old Baptist paper.
Todd Starnes reported:
Several well-known religious organizations say they were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, including the ministry founded by famed evangelist Billy Graham and a 180-year-old Baptist newspaper, Fox News has learned.
Among the ministries targeted are the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse and the Biblical Recorder – the newspaper of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. The revelations seem to indicate the IRS was targeting more than just Tea Party groups and conservative political organizations.
“I am bringing this to your attention because I believe that someone in the Administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us,” wrote Franklin Graham in a letter Tuesday to President Obama. “This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.’”
Graham is president of the ministry his father founded – as well as the international charity known as Samaritan’s Purse. Both organizations were notified of the IRS audits on the same day – not long after running advertisements supporting North Carolina’s Marriage amendment.
The editor of the Biblical Recorder said the organization “was curious” following the audit by the IRS.
From The Recorder:
The IRS inquired about forms filed in 2010 by the Recorder. Earlier today on Fox News’ website, an article referenced all three audits with concerns that the IRS had also targeted conservative, religious groups.
The IRS notified Allan Blume, the Recorder’s editor, in March that the publication was being audited. An IRS agent visited the publication and conducted an interview with the editor and the organization’s attorney. The IRS agent completed his work with Blume and the BR’s attorney on May 9.
Blume remained cautious about making too many assumptions.
“We have no evidence that we were directly targeted by the IRS,” Blume said. “We were told there were questions about three consecutive years of what is called ‘unrelated business income.’ Attention seemed to be drawn to this item because much of our income comes from Cooperative Program gifts.”
“Once the agent understood the Southern Baptist way of giving and supporting mission causes, there seemed to be no serious concerns.”
Blume said, “The IRS agent was courteous and professional throughout the audit. We did not experience any form of intimidation by the agent. As expected, he had some suggestions about procedures, but affirmed that our records were in good condition. We are waiting for the agent’s official letter on the results of the audit. Such a letter typically takes up to six weeks.”
With that said, Blume added, “We are curious.”
More… The number of targeted groups swells to 500.
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Busted – White House Spokesman Says White House Notified of IRS Investigation in April – So How Did Obama Not Know Until Last Week?
Posted on May 13, 2013 by BC
Lie after lie after lie – this is really getting disgusting!
How about a hot babe pic to take your mind off of our treasonous President?
The Blaze – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One Monday that the White House counsel’s office was briefed last month on the investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.
Carney said the IRS inspector general notified the White House counsel’s office during the week of April 22 that it was completing a review of the IRS office in Cincinnati that targeted conservative political groups for special examination.
Well, wait a minute: Didn’t President Obama say he was simply unaware of it until last Friday?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/13/white-house-spokesman-claims-white-house-notified-of-irs-investigation-in-april-so-how-did-obama-not-know-until-last-week/
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Liberal Organization With Ties To George Soros Got Documents From IRS
George Soros? I haven’t written about him in awhile. When you understand a simple concept it makes understanding the world a whole lot easier. Money talks. That’s it. Even the “do gooders” at ProPublica.org require money and George Soros is always willing to write a check for a good progressive cause. This IRS scandal is bigger than anyone can imagine. It has Obama’s prints on it as well as those of George Soros. Whether or not they are guilty of giving any orders, you can not deny that they are both well connected to those who were doing the dirty work.
ProPublica dropped a bombshell on Monday evening. For those who have not heard, they admitted to receiving confidential documents, at their request, from the IRS.
On Nov. 15, 2012, ProPublica requested the applications of 67 nonprofits, all of which had spent money on the 2012 elections. (Because no social welfare groups with Tea Party in their names spent money on the election, ProPublica did not at that point request their applications. We had requested the Tea Party applications earlier, after the groups first complained about being singled out by the IRS. In response, the IRS said it could find no record of the tax-exempt status of those groups — typically how it responds to requests for unapproved applications.)
Just 13 days after ProPublica sent in its request, the IRS responded with the documents on 31 social welfare groups.
One of the applications the IRS released to ProPublica was from Crossroads GPS, the largest social-welfare nonprofit involved in the 2012 election. The group, started in part by GOP consultant Karl Rove, promised the IRS that any effort to influence elections would be “limited.” The group spent more than $70 million from anonymous donors in 2012.
So our good friends at ProPublica were receiving these documents from the IRS in the spirit of good investigative journalism. I left the paragraph about Rove and Crossroads to illustrate a point. The article I am taking these quotes from was not journalism. It was filled with left-wing opinion as well. That’s what blogs are for (like this one). We need to understand the organization that was in receipt of these documents to understand the full scope of the story. Does the end justify the means? Not when it is infringing on the liberties of others. We don’t work like that in America.
By the way…it gets better.
ProPublica also exposed a tie to Washington D.C. and you know what that means. I don’t have to spell it out for you, do I? Check this out:
Last December, Collegio wrote in an email: “As far as we know, the Crossroads application is still pending, in which case it seems that either you obtained whatever document you have illegally, or that it has been approved.”
This year, the IRS appears to have changed the office that responds to requests for nonprofits’ applications. Previously, the IRS asked journalists to fax requests to a number with a 513 area code — which includes Cincinnati. ProPublica sent a request by fax on Feb. 5 to the Ohio area code. On March 13, that request was answered by David Fish, a director of Exempt Organizations Guidance, in Washington, D.C.
In early April, a ProPublica reporter’s request to the Ohio fax number bounced back. An IRS spokesman said at the time the number had changed “recently.” The new fax number begins with 202, the area code for Washington, D.C.
Ding, ding, ding…we have a winner! The hearings on Friday promise to be full of fireworks. This is not about a lone office in Cincinnati as originally reported. This scandal goes straight to Mr. Obama’s neighborhood and I have another tie to that neighborhood later, but let’s get to Soros.
OK, so what does all of this have to do with George Soros? Soros just happens to be one of the chief financiers for ProPublica and many other media organizations. Let’s go back to a wonderful Fox News investigative piece from May 2011.
The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. 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 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.
Wow, so George Soros is a major financier of ProPublica? How fascinating.
In the spirit of giving you more than what you asked for I will throw in one more name that might ring a bell. A guy named Ben Sherwood, president of ABC News, just happens to sit on the ProPublica “Advisory Board.”
Why is that important?
Ben Sherwood’s sister just happens to be Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall who is a special assistant to Barack Obama. Coincidence? Or course it is.
Like I said, it will be a very interesting hearing beginning Friday. It would seem like there could be a lot more here than a few IRS agents who don’t like conservatives. We may never know how high this goes but you should be aware that there are proven connections.
I’ve put in an illegal request for some documents that I have no business seeing. If I get them I will be sure to update you. If I do not then you will have to wait until Friday’s hearings.
Read more: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/05/liberal-organization-with-ties-to-george-soros-got-documents-from-irs/#ixzz2TQ0Eui8K
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Documents: IRS letters harassing conservative groups came from Washington, DC headquarters and from California offices, despite Inspector General's focus on Cincinnati employees
Tax agency has admitted targeting tea party groups and other conservative organizations for special, politically motivated scrutiny
IRS inspector general focused on wrongdoing in Cincinnati, Ohio office and ignored abusive letters coming from other cities
MailOnline found letters from IRS's Washington, D.C. headquarters, and from IRS offices in two southern California cities
The American Center on Law and Justice is threatening to sue the IRS if 27 tea party groups aren't granted tax-exempt statuses by Friday
By David Martosko In Washington
PUBLISHED:18:27 EST, 15 May 2013| UPDATED:18:31 EST, 15 May 2013
Jay Sekulow (L) says his American Center for Law and Justice will sue the IRS if it doesn't grant tax-exempt status to 27 tea party groups by Friday. Lois Lerner (R) is a civil servant, not a political appointee, heads the IRS office the handles tax-exempt groups
Steven Miller then the acting IRS Commissioner, described the two employees as being 'off the reservation,' according to the CNN source.
Miller, added CNN, had emphasized that the problem was not confined to just two staffers.
Tuesday's report from the IRS Office of Inspector General, however, focused exclusively on the Cincinnati office.
This IG's review, according to the report 'was performed at the EO [Exempt Organizations] function Headquarters office in Washington, D.C., and the Determinations Unit in Cincinnati, Ohio.'
The Washington staffers involved, the IG report continues, were in charge of reviewing materials prepared in Cincinnati. 'As part of this effort, EO function Headquarters office employees reviewed the additional information request letters prepared by the team of [Cincinnati] specialists,' the report reads.
IRS offices in the California towns of El Monte and Laguna Niguel sent politically motivated letters to tea party groups, suggesting that the problem reached beyond the Cincinnati office where the IG report focused
One letter, sent to a northern California organization, demanded to know about its links with the Redding (Calif.) Tea Party Patriots. 'Tea party' was one phrase that reportedly triggered a 'Be On The Lookout' notice among IRS employees looking for politically conservative applicants for tax-exempt statuses
Nothing in the report describes letters sent by IRS employees in California or the District of Columbia.
Yet an April 21, 2010 letterto the Albuquerque Tea Party organization, containing a preliminary list of 10 questions, came from the IRS's Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division in Washington, D.C. The group responded on June 10.
Seventeen months passed before the IRS responded on November 16, 2011. That letter, similar in scope and tone to other intrusive IRS letters that have drawn national attention, also came from the Washington, D.C. IRS office. It included an additional 28 questions.
A separate lettercame to Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now (PECAN), a Redding, California conservative group, from an IRS office in the Orange County, California town of Laguna Niguel.
That letter, dated January 31, 2012, asked 55 questions, including a demand for 'complete copies of the organization's website that is accessible to members only.'
It also asked a series of pointed questions about PECAN's relationship to the Redding Tea Party Patriots, an overtly political organization.
Under mounting pressure, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday in the East ROom of the White House that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller would be stepping down
Steven Miller, shown here in a CBS report, is the highest-profile official to resign under pressure from the Obama administration. Miller informed IRS employees in a face-saving email that he would be leaving weeks from now, 'as my acting assignment ends in early June'
A third IRS letter to a group called Oklahoma City Patriots In Action, or the OKC PIA Association, came from an IRS office in El Monte, California, an eastern suburb of Los Angeles, on February 9, 2012.
It included 59 questions, including a demand for a list showing the time, date, place and 'content schedule' for every 'public rally or exhibition' the group had ever conducted.'for or against any public policies, legislations [sic], public officers, political candidates, or like kinds.'
'Please state whether you provide any advocacy training to your members and to the general public,' another question read. 'If yes, describe in detail your advocacy training and provide copies of any publications concerning such training.'
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents all three groups, provided MailOnline with a letter from the IRS in Washington, D.C. in which the agency said it still had not decided whether to award the Albuquerque Tea Party tax-exempt status.
That letter was dated April 16, 2013, more than three years since the group filed its initial application.
Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ's chief counsel, scoffed at the idea of the IRS scapegoating a pair of its Cincinnati employees, given the letters he has seen from offices three time zones apart.
The Tea Party Patriots and other conservative groups provided a powerful rallying force during the 2010 midterm elections. It was around the same time that the Obama administration's IRS began targeting such groups that applied for tax-exempt nonprofit status
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. George Russell (L) will testify alongside the now-former acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller before the House Ways and Means Committee on May 17. Also shown is IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Linda Stiff
'The IRS's assertion that this scheme was launched by a couple of rogue employees in the Cincinnati office is absurd,' Sekulow said. His organization represents 27 tea party organizations, all of which were targeted, he said, with partisan attacks.
'To suggest that a couple of low-level employees decided to launch this unprecedented conduct of intimidation does not square with the facts,' he added.
Sekulow said his group plans to sue the IRS if it has not granted all 27 groups their tax-exempt statuses by Friday.
'The action and conduct of the IRS is not only intolerable and unconscionable, it is actionable. We continue to move forward with our plans to file a federal lawsuit which could come as early as next week."
Sekulow showed MailOnline an IRS letter to his group's tea party client in Wetumpka, Alabama. That letter, which did originate in Cincinnati, was similar to the Washington, D.C. and California letters, and identical in some places.
The similarities suggest a program of national scope, tied together with standardized texts and applied from IRS offices nationwide.
If that's the case, the IRS's explanations to date will be left wanting.
Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified last year that there was no program in his agency targeting conservative political groups for special screening before tax-exempt status was conferred. That testimony proved false
Rain or shine: Tea party stalwarts were known for stubbornly supporting a strict reading of the U.S. Constitution, and for getting under the skin of political liberals. News that the IRS, under the Obama administration, singled them out for special screening, may energize them into another potent force in time for the 2014 election
A timeline included in the Inspector General's report describes the agency's attempt to retrain its employees after the politically partisan program was discovered.
'Training was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on how to process identified potential political cases,' one timeline entry reads.
Two days later, according to the same timeline, an IRS team 'began reviewing all potential political cases began [sic] in Cincinnati, Ohio.'
The report describes nothing about remedial action taken anywhere else.
MailOnline asked an IRS spokeswoman to comment on whether the IRS or the Office of Inspector General interviewed employees in its California offices as part of preparing the report released Tuesday. MailOnline also asked if the Inspector General's office questioned anyone who worked in the Washington, D.C. headquarters, including political appointees.
The IRS had no response, despite providing a specific email address for those questions during a phone call.
In March 2012, Douglas Shulman, then the IRS Commissioner, testified before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight that the tax agency did not investigate organizations differently according to their political ideologies.
'As you know, we pride ourselves in being non-political, non-partisan organization,' Shulman said then. 'There is absolutely no political targeting.'
This chart, from the IRS Inspector General's report, shows the pecking order at the IRS among people who handle tax-exempt organizations. Lois Lerner is represented by the small box at center reading 'Director, EO.' Employees above her pay grade include some political appointees. At the top is Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Linda Stiff, shown above in red
Lois G. Lerner, the woman who leads the IRS division that evaluates and monitors tax-exempt organizations, learned in June 2011 - nine months earlier - that this was not true, according to the Inspector General's report.
Given that letters originated in Washington, Cincinnati and southern California, and may have come from other IRS offices as well, it will become a greater challenge for Shulman to explain why he was mistaken when he testified on Capitol Hill last year.
Both Lerner and Shulman will testify in a house Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on May 22.
'The IG report indicts IRS for a colossal management failure, but leaves many questions unanswered,' said California Rep. Darrel Issa, who chairs that committee, in a statement.
In a separate hearing on May 17, the House Ways and Means Committee will hear testimony from Steven Miller – now the former Acting IRS Commissioner – and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George.
'The IRS absolutely must be non-partisan in its enforcement of our tax laws,' said Michigan Republican Rep. Dave Camp, who chairs that committee, in a statement.
'The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing. ... We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions.'
Obama announced Miller's departure during a brief dinnertime announcement before news cameras in the East Room of the White House. The IRS, the president conceded, 'improperly screened conservative groups.'
Referring to the Inspector General's report, Obama said 'the misconduct that it uncovered is inexcusable. It's inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it. And I am angry about it.'
grows...
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325068/Documents-IRS-letters-harassing-conservative-groups-came-Washington-DC-headquarters-California-offices-despite-Inspector-Generals-focus-Cincinnati-employees.html#ixzz2TQEWBqPy
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CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -
FOX19 has exclusively learned that as many as four people may be the first Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees to face disciplinary action, and possibly even criminal charges, for allegedly targeting Tea Party and Liberty groups applying for non-profit status.
On Wednesday, the IRS announced that it has pin-pointed two employees at the agency's Cincinnati office for being 'primarily' responsible.
In addition, acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller resigned his position, revealed by President Obama on Wednesday.
"Secretary Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS, because given the controversy surrounding this audit, it's important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward," said President Obama in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Prior to his resignation, Steven Miller called the two Cincinnati employees 'rogue' and 'off the reservation', adding that they were 'overly aggressive' in handling the requests from those conservative groups over the past two years.
Miller also added that those two employees have already been 'disciplined' by the agency.
However, despite the claim of just two employees being involved, FOX19 has exclusively learned from two separate sources that there could be at least four Cincinnati employees involved.
Those four employees -- whose names we have chosen to withhold until they have been officially confirmed -- Have each worked in the IRS Exempt Organizations Department.
This is the same department that has admitted publicly to sending letters to Tea Party and other conservative organizations.
FOX19 has also confirmed those four Cincinnati employees made large requests of information from:
•The Richmond, Virginia Tea Party in January of 2012.
•The Ohio Liberty Council in January of 2012..
•Dan Backer, a lawyer based in Washington D.C. who helped six small conservative groups apply for 501c4 status in February of 2012.
•The Liberty Township Tea Party in March of 2012.
One of FOX19's two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim "they simply did what their bosses ordered". Keep in mind, as FOX19 reported on Tuesday, the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011.
In fact, according to that report, Lois Lerner who heads the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations, was told on June 29, 2011 that groups with 'Tea Party', 'Patriot' or '9/12 Project' in their names were being flagged for additional, and often burdensome, scrutiny.
While the IRS is pointing at 'two rogue employees', the number of organizations that were singled out has swelled to nearly 500, according to Rep. Congressmen Darryl Issa and Ohio's Jim Jordan.
FOX News is also reporting that at least two Cincinnati agents have been subpoenaed to testify before congress on Monday.
Copyright 2013 WXIX. All rights reserved.
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http://www.fox19.com/story/22265631/four-cincy-irs-workers-not-two-allegedly-connected-to-scandal
wow - !!!
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http://www.fox19.com/story/22265631/four-cincy-irs-workers-not-two-allegedly-connected-to-scandal
wow - !!!
One of FOX19's two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim "they simply did what their bosses ordered".
No way this stops with a few low level employees.
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One of FOX19's two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim "they simply did what their bosses ordered".
No way this stops with a few low level employees.
This is going right to Jack Lew and Jarrett if not Obama himself
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http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/348441/director-irs-tax-exempt-determinations-office-obama-donor-eliana-johnson
LMFAO!!!! Culture of Corruption
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"The director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements, which oversees the determinations of tax-exempt organizations, is a donor to Barack Obama. Holly Paz donated $2,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign, according to Open Secrets, which maintains a database of individual political donations."
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Embattled IRS official Lois Lerner’s husband’s law firm has strong Obama connections
Posted By Patrick Howley On 12:13 AM 05/16/2013 In Politics | No Comments
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who apologized for targeting conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny is married to an attorney whose firm hosted a voter registration organizing event for the 2012 Obama re-election campaign, praised President Obama’s policy work, and had one of its partners appointed by Obama to a key ambassadorship.
IRS Exempt Organizations Division director Lois G. Lerner, who has been described as “apolitical” in mainstream press coverage of the IRS scandal, is married to tax attorney Michael R. Miles, a partner at the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. The firm is based in Atlanta but has a number of offices including in Washington, D.C., where Miles works.
The 400-attorney firm hosted an organizing meeting at its Atlanta office for people interested in helping with voter registration for the Obama re-election campaign.
This is not the first of Lerner’s connections to the president to surface. Earlier this week The Daily Caller reported that Lerner personally signed the tax-exemption approval for a shady charity run by Obama’s half-brother, after an inexplicably brief one-month application process. (Related: Lois Lerner approved exemption for Obama brother’s ‘charity’)
“Come learn more about how you can create, organize, and host a voter registration event here in Atlanta in the coming weeks. We will be meeting at at 7:30pm at 999 Peachtree St. NE, in the law offices of Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan,” read an event posting on my.barackobama.com.
Longtime Sutherland partner David Adelman, the former Democratic minority whip of the Georgia state senate, serves as ambassador to the Republic of Singapore in the Obama administration.
“Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP announces that its partner and Georgia State Sen. David I. Adelman, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore. President Obama nominated Sen. Adelman on November 20, 2009,” according to a Sutherland press release dated March 19, 2010.
“Sutherland has a great tradition of excellence. It has been a privilege to be a part of such a fine firm,” Adelman said at the time of his confirmation, according to the Sutherland press release.
“I am humbled by the confidence President Obama and Secretary Clinton have in me, and I look forward to building on the strong U.S.-Singapore relationship,” said Adelman, who joined Sutherland in 1993 and spent his entire career in private practice with the firm.
Sutherland heaped praised on Obama’s work in the U.S. Senate on legal issues pertaining to employee misclassification, which Sutherland works intensely enough on to have launched the website workerclassification.com .
“The subject of worker classification is likely to take on increased importance in light of the recent election of Barack Obama as President. While in the Senate, President Obama showed an interest in strengthening workers’ rights, particularly with respect to whether they should be classified as employees,” according to a Sutherland press release dated April 28, 2009.
“Along with others, he introduced the Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007. This legislation sought to give regulatory authority to the IRS to establish standards for properly classifying workers and to repeal the Section 530 safe harbor provisions that currently allow employers to rely on industry practice or professional advice as a reasonable basis for classifying workers. Also as a senator, President Obama, along with others, introduced the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act on September 29, 2008, which sought ‘to provide a special penalty for employers who misclassify employees as nonemployees,” according to the Sutherland press release.
Follow Patrick on Twitter
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Article printed from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com
URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/16/embattled-irs-official-lois-lerners-husbands-law-firm-hosted-an-obama-campaign-organizing-meeting
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The Treasury Inspector General's damaging report on the IRS-Tea Party scandal has destroyed the administration's claim that low-level workers in a Cincinnati, Ohio office are to blame, revealing that 10 of 12 agency offices referenced in the affair are in Washington.
The report repeatedly references actions taken by the Washington-based Exempt Organizations unit and guidance specialists also in Washington. What's more, the report was researched in the Exempt Organizations offices and the Cincinnati-based Determinations Units, which has received the blame for targeting Tea Party groups.
The audit, for example, probes into how the Cincinnati-based Determinations Unit developed its plan to pay attention to groups with the words "Tea Party," "Patriot," and other phrases used by anti-Obama groups during the 2010 election.
Washington-based offices denied involvement, but did change the "criteria" for groups to target in July 2011. Instead of looking for "Tea Party" groups seeking tax exempt status to investigate, the criteria was broadened to "political, lobbying or [general] advocacy."
However, "the team of specialists subsequently changed the criteria in January 2012" back, apparently without telling their bosses. "Specialists" are both Washington- and Ohio- based.
Popular talk radio host Mark Levin, one of the first to post the IG report online, suggested that the House committees investigating the scandal use the IG's "High-Level Organization Chart of Offices Referenced in this Report" on page 29 in picking who should testify. He suggested that the heads of all 12 be called to testify.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/10-of-12-irs-offices-implicated-in-scandal-are-in-washington/article/2529725?custom_click=rss
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FOX NEWS INSIDER - Press Secretary Jay Carney defended the Obama administration as it faces scrutiny for the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. Today on The Five, Eric Bolling voiced his concern, saying, “2011, I was pretty vocal against four more years of President Obama. […] I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not but I did get an IRS audit in 2012 for my 2011 tax returns. I’m not sure if there’s any correlation.”
Andrea Tantaros commented, “It’s the Chicago way. [Obama] said he would change D.C. and the way they do business. Boy, has he ever.”
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;)
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Report: IRS denied tax-exempt status to pro-lifers on behalf of Planned Parenthood
May 15, 2013 | 2:40 pm | Modified: May 16, 2013 at 9:35 am
Planned Parenthood endorsed Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The IRS also pressured another pro-life group about its religious activities. “The IRS withheld approval of an application for charitable tax-exempt recognition of Christian Voices for Life, questioning the group’s involvement with ’40 Days for Life’ and ‘Life Chain’ events,” according to the law firm. “The Fort Bend County, Texas, organization was subjected to repeated and lengthy unconstitutional requests for information about the viewpoint and content of its educational communications, volunteer prayer vigils, and other protected activities.”
The IRS admitted last week to that some members of the agency targeted Tea Party groups for discriminatory reviews of their applications for tax-exempt status. The Justice Department has initiated a criminal investigation into the matter.
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IRS official Lerner speedily approved exemption for Obama brother’s ‘charity’
Posted By Charles C. Johnson On 5:06 PM 05/14/2013 In Politics | No Comments
Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.
According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval.
Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.
The National Legal and Policy Center filed an official complaint with the IRS in May 2011 asking why the foundation was being allowed to solicit tax-deductible contributions when it had not even applied for an IRS determination. In a New York Post article dated May 8, 2011, an officer of the foundation admitted, “We haven’t been able to find someone with the expertise” to apply for tax-exempt status.
Nevertheless, a month later, the Barack H. Obama Foundation had flown through the grueling application process. Lerner granted the organization a 501(c) determination and even gave it a retroactive tax exemption dating back to December 2008.
The group’s available paperwork suggests an extremely hurried application and approval process. For example, the group’s 990 filings for 2008 and 2009 were submitted to the IRS on May 30, 2011, and its 2010 filing was submitted on May 23, 2011.
Lerner signed the group’s approval [pdf] on June 26, 2011.
It is illegal to operate for longer than 27 months without an IRS determination and solicit tax-deductible contributions.
The ostensibly Arlington, Va.-based charity was not even registered in Virginia despite the foundation’s website including a donation button that claimed tax-exempt status.
Its president and founder, Abon’go “Roy’ Malik Obama, is Barack Obama’s half-brother and was the best man at his wedding, but he has a checkered past. In addition to running his charity, Malik Obama ran unsuccessfully to be the governor of Siaya County in Kenya. He was accused of being a wife beater and seducing the newest of his twelve wives while she was a 17-year-old school girl.
Sensing something wrong when he and a group of Missouri State students visited Kenya in 2009, Ken Rutherford, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on banning landmines, determined that Malik Obama was an “operator” and elected to give a donation of 400 pounds of medical supplies to a local clinic instead.
“We didn’t know what he was going to do with them,” Rutherford told the New York Post in 2011.
It is also not clear what the Barack H. Obama Foundation actually does. Its website claims the organization has built a madrassa and was building a imam’s house but there is no other evidence that the nonprofit was actually helping poor Kenyan children.
“The Obama Foundation raised money on its web page by falsely claiming to be a tax deductible. This bogus charity run by Malik had not even applied and yet subsequently got retroactive tax-deductible status,” Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Daily Caller. Boehm described Malik Obama’s attempt to raise money as constituting “common law fraud and potentially even federal mail fraud.”
Boehm doubted that the charity is doing what it says it’s doing and wondered why the charity was given tax-exempt status so quickly after the evidence of wrongdoing came to light.
“How do you get retroactive tax-exempt status when you haven’t even applied to get it in the first place?” Boehm said.
Lerner continues to draw fire for her handling of the IRS targeting of conservative and citizen groups, but her colleagues have started to defend her, alleging that she behaves “apolitically.”
Larry Noble, who served as general counsel at the FEC from 1987 to 2000, hired and promoted Lerner. “I worked with Lois for a number of years and she is really one of the more apolitical people I’ve met,” Noble told The Daily Beast. “That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have political views, but she really focuses on the job and what the rules are. She doesn’t have an agenda.”
Lerner could not be reached for comment. Calls to the Barack H. Obama Foundation went directly to the organization’s voicemail and were not returned.
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Article printed from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com
URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/14/irs-official-lerner-approved-exemption-for-obama-brothers-charity/
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325068/Documents-IRS-letters-harassing-conservative-groups-came-Washington-DC-headquarters-California-offices-despite-Inspector-Generals-focus-Cincinnati-employees.html
More lies from Obama and the IRS - the letters came from DC - not Ohio
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Video: IRS scapegoats not exactly taking it lying down
posted at 8:01 am on May 16, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
Last night, Barack Obama tried to take control of the narrative on one of the scandals that have rocked his administration by announcing that IRS Commissioner Steve Miller had resigned by request of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. As it turns out, Miller was leaving in a month anyway, but the outgoing IRS chief took the time to note that the wrongdoing was limited to two IRS employees in the Cincinnati office, who had already been “disciplined” — which directly contradicts the Inspector General’s report, which shows managerial involvement since March 2010 at least, and coordination between multiple offices and units. The report also notes that at least 300 applications got improperly obstructed, and the number is likely much higher than that.
Fox 19 in Cincinnati reports that the number doubled yesterday evening to four IRS employees, and that they’re not terribly interested in martyrdom (via Twitchy):
FOX19 has exclusively learned that as many as four people may be the first Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees to face disciplinary action, and possibly even criminal charges, for allegedly targeting Tea Party and Liberty groups applying for non-profit status.
On Wednesday, the IRS announced that it had pinpointed two employees at the agency’s Cincinnati office for being ‘primarily’ responsible. …
One of FOX19′s two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim “they simply did what their bosses ordered.” FOX19 reported on Tuesday that the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011.
In fact, according to that report, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations, was told on June 29, 2011 that groups with ‘Tea Party’, ‘Patriot’ or ’9/12 Project’ in their names were being flagged for additional, and often burdensome, scrutiny.
Did I say 300 organizations? According to the report, Reps. Jim Jordan and Darrell Issa now put that number closer to 500. If it was just these four agents, they’d have to have been rather, er, productive. Besides, if it was just four agents in one office, Lerner wouldn’t have spent two years trying to massage the process to make it look less partisan — she would have told the four to knock it off in 2011, and the IRS chief counsel would have insisted on it when notified in August 2011.
Why might Lerner have been motivated to let the harassment continue? Maybe the connections at her husband’s law firm might provide an answer:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who apologized for targeting conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny is married to an attorney whose firm hosted a voter registration organizing event for the 2012 Obama re-election campaign, praised President Obama’s policy work, and had one of its partners appointed by Obama to a key ambassadorship.
IRS Exempt Organizations Division director Lois G. Lerner, who has been described as “apolitical” in mainstream press coverage of the IRS scandal, is married to tax attorney Michael R. Miles, a partner at the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. The firm is based in Atlanta but has a number of offices including in Washington, D.C., where Miles works.
The 400-attorney firm hosted an organizing meeting at its Atlanta office for people interested in helping with voter registration for the Obama re-election campaign.
This is not the first of Lerner’s connections to the president to surface. Earlier this week The Daily Caller reported that Lerner personally signed the tax-exemption approval for a shady charity run by Obama’s half-brother, after an inexplicably brief one-month application process.
The reason Miller claimed that the two-maybe-four employees had already been disciplined was to head off potential criminal charges. That step would get them talking about who ordered the targeting of conservative groups. Two of the employees in that office — who may or may not be among that supposedly rogue group — will testify to Congress on Monday, and that may give us a more credible account than two IRS agents wreaking havoc for three years — with management aware of the problem for two of those years — without being reined in until after the election.
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Ohio groups long ago sounded alarm on IRS
Toledo Blade ^ | 5/16/2013 | BY TOM TROY AND VANESSA McCRAY
Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2013 11:34:00 AM by
Conservative Ohio groups more than a year ago raised the alarm that the Internal Revenue Service was holding up their applications for tax-exempt status, leading Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Urbana) to request the audit that led to the IRS's admission that it targeted Tea Party-related groups for close scrutiny. The scandal on Wednesday broadened enough to prompt President Obama's Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to request the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller. Mr. Jordan, who chairs a Tea Party-leaning conservative caucus in the House of Representatives, sent a letter on March 27, 2012, to the IRS, seeking a response to complaints from Ohio groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at toledoblade.com ...
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IRS scandal needs more than a scapegoat
By Rand Paul , Special to CNN
May 16, 2013 -- Updated 1616 GMT (0016 HKT) CNN.com
President Obama speaks Wednesday about the IRS scandal.Editor's note: Rand Paul, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
(CNN) -- The Internal Revenue Service has admitted that it targeted groups with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names. We've since learned that a wider array of groups concerned about spending, debt, high taxes, government growth, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights -- basically any conservative or libertarian issue you can name -- was targeted.
President Obama said Monday that he was "outraged" over the IRS' behavior. He said that those responsible should be held "fully accountable." I wonder when that will happen?
On Wednesday, the president requested and received the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller -- but that is not enough. The executive branch has been aware of this scandal for nearly two years and now, only as a result of massive public pressure, the administration has found a scapegoat.
The president did not announce that Miller was responsible, and we still don't know who came up with the idea to target the tea party. We have not been told whether Obama administration officials knew about the discrimination and if they allowed it to continue when they found out. Forcing out Miller is not the end of this scandal.
Holding the guilty parties accountable is just the first step. But if the handling of the attack in Benghazi, Libya, is any indication, there are no guarantees this will happen.
The IRS is under the president's jurisdiction. He needs to fully recognize the gravity of these charges.
The IRS targeting citizens for political reasons is not simply another Washington scandal. At issue is something that strikes at the very heart of who we are as a people, what we believe as Americans and what this country has always stood for.
Bachmann: IRS scandal 'troubling'IRS acting commissioner forced outRumsfeld: Scandals are perfect stormThe First Amendment was written to protect many different types of expression. But the Founding Fathers' primary concern -- and a first principle for every generation of Americans that followed -- was the protection of political speech. Apparently, the IRS was even targeting people who criticized how the country was being run.
Protecting citizens' right to speak out against their government has always been an integral part of what separates us from tyrannical regimes. What the IRS did is how the KGB used to target dissidents. It is how they deal with troublemakers in China.
It is not how we treat American citizens. Our Constitution guarantees it.
This week, I introduced a Senate Resolution condemning the IRS' actions and calling for a full investigation into how the agency infringed upon the First Amendment rights of those targeted.
Democrats put a hold on my resolution.
We have learned that some officials knew about these indiscretions long before the recent denials. We wanted to investigate to find out who knew what, when, and for how long.
We have learned that some tea party groups had unduly long wait times for tax-exempt status. Some eventually withdrew their applications out of frustration.
In my home state of Kentucky, a 9/12 group filed for 501(c)(4) status in December of 2010. It received its first correspondence almost immediately, saying there would be a determination within 90 days.
Fourteen months later, the IRS requested answers to 30 questions with sub-bullets -- 88 total separate inquiries -- and gave only a two-week period to comply.
The Kentucky 9/12 Project's Eric Wilson estimated that it would have taken 5,000 pages to respond.
Eventually, the IRS granted granted this group tax-exempt status -- after well over a year. We wanted to find out why they had to wait. We wanted to find out what groups, and how many, might have been victims of political discrimination.
We wanted to ask for an independent authority to investigate and seek criminal charges against those who were involved in targeting Americans for their political views. We wanted to determine if the White House was aware and failed to take action.
This is not about Republican vs. Democrat or conservative vs. liberal. It is about arrogant and unrestrained government vs. the rule of law. Imagine if the IRS had targeted liberal or progressive groups under the Bush administration. The First Amendment cannot be renegotiated depending on which party holds power.
The power to tax is the power to destroy. These allegations concerning the IRS remind us yet again of the inherently destructive nature of leviathan. With Obamacare adding staff and hundreds of millions to the budget of the IRS, the new and intrusive powers granted to our nation's revenue collection service were worrisome enough. We should use this recent abuse of power as an opportunity to rein them in.
Each congressman and senator, and even the president, took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. It is now upon us to determine if the IRS intentionally trampled the First Amendment rights of Americans who dared to dissent.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rand Paul.
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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http://www.examiner.com/article/irs-official-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-obamacare-office
FUCKING WOW!!!
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http://www.examiner.com/article/irs-official-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-obamacare-office
FUCKING WOW!!!
lol didnt they tell you it was all bush's fault
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Outrageous!… St. Louis TV Host Taken Off Air After Talking About IRS Harassment (KMOV-TV)
Gateway Pundit ^ | May 16, 2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on May 17, 2013 12:14:56 AM EDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In April 2012 St. Louis News 4’s Larry Conners grilled President Barack Obama on his extravagant vacation schedule and on bullying the Supreme Court.
“The economy is a big concern for folks, I mean the unemployment, trying to make ends meet, gas prices, food prices going up. Some of our viewers are complaining that they get frustrated and angered when they see the first family jetting around different vacations and so forth…”
It was one of the few hard-hitting interviews the president sat through last year.
On Tuesday Larry Connors revealed that after his interview with Barack Obama the IRS targeted him. He posted this on his Facebook page.
On Thursday Larry Connors was taken off the air until further notice.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
Longtime KMOV (Channel 4) anchorman Larry Conners is “off the air” until further notice.
The station is examining Conners’ recent allegations that he was targeted by the Internal Revenue Service after interviewing President Barack Obama.
“He’s not suspended. We just all thought it made sense (for him) to take a few days off,” news director Sean McLaughlin said Thursday.
“We take this very seriously, and we don’t expect this to drag on. We’re still looking into the situation and weighing our options,” he said....
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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http://www.newsmax.com/Newswidget/irs-scandal-official-obamacare/2013/05/16/id/504962?promo_code=10E2C-1&utm_source=10E2Canadafreepress&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1
This is incredible - we warned you morons how many times?
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Woman At The Center Of The IRS Scandal Is Now In Charge Of Implementing Obamacare
Michael Kelley|17 minutes ago|51|
Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when the office began targeting conservative Tea Party, is now running the IRS office in charge with administering Obamacare, ABC reports.
Meaning she crashed upward.
As the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, Ingram is now in a key government position at a time when President Obama just sacked the IRS chief over the targeting scandal.
An inspector general report released Tuesday confirmed that IRS agents were inappropriately targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status by asking unnecessary requests — notably asking for the names of donors and political affiliations of officers:
And here's the role of the IRS Affordable Care Act office — with Ingram at the helm — in implementing Obamacare (via The Fiscal Times):
The IRS will largely administer this attempt at providing near-universal health insurance. It is responsible for overseeing the tax credits and tax increases in the law, and — most critically — ensuring that businesses and individuals comply with the individual mandate and other major provisions.
The Drudge Report highlights a story revealing that Ingram received more than $96,000 in bonuses between 2010 and 2012, which is the period that the targeting reportedly took place.
All in all, the fact that Ingram was at the heart of the IRS misdeeds has been promoted to an integral position — instead of being reprimanded — provides Republicans a ton of material to use against Obamacare.
On Thursday evening the House took another symbolic vote to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act, and House Speaker John Boehner said he had “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-irs-scandal-and-obamacare-2013-5#ixzz2TY5C2MZv
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-tax-exemptionobamacare-exec-got-100390-in-bonuses/article/2529899
Badabooom - this leftist communist corrupt slut got 100k in bonuses while targeting the tea party
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Strassel: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top The bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service did exactly what the president said was the right and honorable thing to do.
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSELL
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Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.
President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.
But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.
Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. "He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?" asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.
At the White House, President Obama addresses the IRS scandal, May 15.
.Mr. VanderSloot is the Obama target who in 2011 made a sizable donation to a group supporting Mitt Romney. In April 2012, an Obama campaign website named and slurred eight Romney donors. It tarred Mr. VanderSloot as a "wealthy individual" with a "less-than-reputable record." Other donors were described as having been "on the wrong side of the law."
This was the Obama version of the phone call—put out to every government investigator (and liberal activist) in the land.
Twelve days later, a man working for a political opposition-research firm called an Idaho courthouse for Mr. VanderSloot's divorce records. In June, the IRS informed Mr. VanderSloot and his wife of an audit of two years of their taxes. In July, the Department of Labor informed him of an audit of the guest workers on his Idaho cattle ranch. In September, the IRS informed him of a second audit, of one of his businesses. Mr. VanderSloot, who had never been audited before, was subject to three in the four months after Mr. Obama teed him up for such scrutiny.
The last of these audits was only concluded in recent weeks. Not one resulted in a fine or penalty. But Mr. VanderSloot has been waiting more than 20 months for a sizable refund and estimates his legal bills are $80,000. That figure doesn't account for what the president's vilification has done to his business and reputation.
The Obama call for scrutiny wasn't a mistake; it was the president's strategy—one pursued throughout 2012. The way to limit Romney money was to intimidate donors from giving. Donate, and the president would at best tie you to Big Oil or Wall Street, at worst put your name in bold, and flag you as "less than reputable" to everyone who worked for him: the IRS, the SEC, the Justice Department. The president didn't need a telephone; he had a megaphone.
The same threat was made to conservative groups that might dare play in the election. As early as January 2010, Mr. Obama would, in his state of the union address, cast aspersions on the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, claiming that it "reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests" (read conservative groups).
The president derided "tea baggers." Vice President Joe Biden compared them to "terrorists." In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. "Nobody knows who's paying for these ads," he warned. "We don't know where this money is coming from," he intoned.
In case the IRS missed his point, he raised the threat of illegality: "All around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates . . . And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation."
Short of directly asking federal agencies to investigate these groups, this is as close as it gets. Especially as top congressional Democrats were putting in their own versions of phone calls, sending letters to the IRS that accused it of having "failed to address" the "problem" of groups that were "improperly engaged" in campaigns. Because guess who controls that "independent" agency's budget?
The IRS is easy to demonize, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It got its heading from a president, and his party, who did in fact send it orders—openly, for the world to see. In his Tuesday press grilling, no question agitated White House Press Secretary Jay Carney more than the one that got to the heart of the matter: Given the president's "animosity" toward Citizens United, might he have "appreciated or wanted the IRS to be looking and scrutinizing those . . ." Mr. Carney cut off the reporter with "That's a preposterous assertion."
Preposterous because, according to Mr. Obama, he is "outraged" and "angry" that the IRS looked into the very groups and individuals that he spent years claiming were shady, undemocratic, even lawbreaking. After all, he expects the IRS to "operate with absolute integrity." Even when he does not.
Write to kim@wsj.com.
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IRS tax exemption/Obamacare exec got $103,390 in bonuses; Did Obama OK them?
The Examiner ^ | 5/16/2013 | Mark Tapscott
Posted on Friday, May 17, 2013 8:30:32 AM by Lakeshark
Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.
More recently, Ingram was promoted to serve as director of the tax agency's Obamacare program office, a position that put her in charge of the vast expansion of the IRS' regulatory power and staffing in connection with federal health care, ABC reported earlier today
**snip**
High-ranking career federal civil servants like Ingram are eligible for recognition through citations known as Distinguished and Merit Service awards that can carry with them cash bonuses of anywhere from five to 35 percent of their base salary.
The largest of such awards, however, require presidential approval, according to the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal civil service workforce.
“If the recommended award is over $25,000, the Director of OPM reviews the nomination and forwards his/her recommendation to the President for approval,” according to the OPM guidance.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
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The Internal Revenue Service scandal involving the apparently unjustified targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups has also hit home with the Hispanic community.
George Rodriguez, former president of the San Antonio Tea Party, said that when the organization applied for non-profit status, leaders were intimidated by IRS workers with excessive paperwork and meddling questions.
“They asked us all sorts of things that were out of the norm,” Rodriguez, now head of the conservative South Texas Alliance, told Fox News Latino. “We knew these questions were not the norm and we had our suspicions about them.”
SUMMARY
The complaint from the San Antonio group is just one of many nationwide leveled against the federal agency, which surfaced last Friday when Lois G. Lerner director of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, let slip that low-level IRS staffers had given extra scrutiny to conservative groups with words such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names.
The public slip started a furor among conservative groups and pundits and forced U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce that the Justice Department would open a criminal investigation into the matter.
Rodriguez said the group received a questionnaire from the IRS with “well over 50 questions,” including inquiries into who the group met with, where they held their meetings, who was in attendance and what the subject of their internal emails were.
“They should have been worried about the numbers, not who we were meeting with,” he added. “It was flat-out dirty politics.”
The complaint from the San Antonio group is one of many nationwide leveled against the embattled federal agency, in the escalating case that surfaced last week when Lois G. Lerner, director of the IRS’ exempt-organizations division, let slip that low-level IRS staffers had given extra scrutiny to conservative groups with words such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names.
Republicans have pressed the Obama administration for heads to roll. On Wednesday, Obama asked for and received the resignation of the agency's acting commissioner, Steve Miller.
The scandal sparked a furor among conservative groups and pundits, forcing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce that the Justice Department would open a criminal investigation into the matter.
Holder followed the announcement by adding Wednesday that the FBI’s criminal investigation could include charges of civil rights violations, false statements and potential violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities.
“I can assure you and the American people that we will take a dispassionate view of this,” Holder said. “This will not be about parties, this will not be about ideological persuasions. Anybody who has broken the law will be held accountable.”
The revelations also spurred calls for investigations into the practices of the administration of President Barack Obama and allegations of a potential cover-up operation.
“It’s an abuse of power and it smells of Watergate,” said Bob Quasius, the president of the conservative Latino group Café con Leche, referring to the political scandal that led to the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
“I think it goes to the top levels of his administration,” Quasius added. “If it doesn’t directly connect to him it at least connects to someone close to him.”
So far, however, there has been no evidence directly linking the Obama administration to the IRS mess-up. For its part, the administration has tried to portray the scandal as something done independently of the federal government in Washington by the IRS field office in Cincinnati.
The federal government enacted strict measures following the Watergate scandal to keep the executive branch of government away from the IRS, making it very difficult for the president to interfere in the agency’s affairs.
Of the 296 applications for nonprofit status the inspector general reviewed, the San Antonio Tea Party was one of the 108 that were approved. Of the others, 28 were withdrawn by the applicants and 160 were still open.
Despite the approval of the group’s application, which Rodriguez said required the help of the American Center for Law and Justice, he still believes that the hoops it had to jump through were indicative of the “shenanigans” that were going on in the IRS.
“We understand we need to show we’re a nonprofit,” Rodriguez said. “But these questions were way beyond what the norm is and were way out of line.”
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Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/05/16/irs-allegedly-targeted-latino-run-conservative-group/#ixzz2TYxAzlFV
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Resigned IRS chief formerly ran non-profit section
Submitted by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton on May 17, 2013 – 11:20 am ESTNo Comment.
By: James Simpson
Examiner.com
As Congressional Democrats scurry for cover in the wake of the growing scandal surrounding IRS harassment of tea party and conservative groups, President Obama announced on Wednesday that acting IRS chief, Steven T. Miller would resign. As with Benghazi and seemingly everything else these days, Obama claims to have known nothing about it. Too much time at the golf course no doubt.
But the dam is bursting on this story. Every day the number of affected groups grows as more and more is uncovered. Today it was revealed for example that the decades-old Leadership Institute was audited in 2011. To defend itself, the institute had to shell out over $50,000 in legal fees. Run by stalwart Reagan friend Morton Blackwell, the LI has an impeccable reputation. Of course the IRS found nothing.
During the recall of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker in 2012, a group called “Verify the Recall” hastily formed to check the 1 million recall petitions turned in at the last minute by union organizers. Working with True the Vote, this organization evaluated every one of those petitions in little more than a month. Other groups, including this writer, publicized their herculean efforts.
The IRS apparently didn’t like this. The North East Tarrant Texas Tea Party (NETTTP) never told the IRS they were working on the recall, yet IRS questioned them about their relationship with VTR. True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrect said, “There is no explaining this away. It is a reprehensible abuse of power by the IRS to ask one organization for information about the activities of a separate organization while holding their non-profit status hostage.”
Similarly, in 2010, the IRS demanded that an Ohio group, the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law explain in detail its “involvement with the Tea Party.” The Center provides legal counsel to Ohioans whose constitutional rights have been aggrieved, including tea party organizations and individuals. While it ultimately received its tax-exempt status, the Center said that, “IRS harassment of liberty-oriented groups, and intent to root out “tea party” activities, even through non-tea party sources such as 1851, has been in full force for a minimum of three years.”
The list of offended parties grows daily, and while Congressional Democrats are puffing and strutting about this “outrage,” many of these same politicians demanded the IRS investigate tea party and other conservative groups. That paragon of virtue, Senator Carl Levin, repeatedly demanded that the IRS look into the tax-exempt status of conservative groups in the run up to the 2012 election. Meanwhile, Senator Max Baucus, called the scandal, “an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust.” But back in 2010, when his Finance Committee asked the IRS to examine conservative groups, he dismissed Republican objections as “groundless.”
IRS bureaucrats are being blamed for this scandal, but the fact is that bureaucrats do not engage in this kind of potentially criminal behavior unless forced to do so by political leaders. There is simply too much to lose and nothing to gain, regardless their political leanings.
When however, a bureaucrat is elevated to a political position, as was Steven Miller, things change. Then, he may feel more latitude to take liberties. Even then however, there must be some kind of signal. It may not have come from Obama directly, but there is little doubt that Democratic leaders were all on the same page.
Miller was a career IRS bureaucrat. Significantly, he was formerly commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, which oversees licensing of tax-exempt organizations. Miller was the right man for the job. While not denying tax-exempt status outright, his division made it so difficult that many organizations quit. Those that stuck with it however, finally got their approvals, but for most, they came after the 2012 elections.
So this was the game all along. In 2010, Democrats got what former Florida Rep. Allen West called a “southern-fried butt whipping!” This was largely the result of effective Tea Party activism. Obama and the Democrats wanted to be sure there wasn’t a repeat performance in 2012. Through the corrupt and criminal use of the IRS, they got their way. These groups are now having no problem getting approvals. For once House Speaker John Boehner got it right: these people need jail!
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IRS Commissioner on Scandal: ‘We Provided Horrible Customer Service’
CNSNews ^
Posted on Friday, May 17, 2013 12:59:04 PM by Sub-Driver
IRS Commissioner on Scandal: ‘We Provided Horrible Customer Service’ May 17, 2013 By Penny Starr
(CNSNews.com) – Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller told members of the House Ways and Means Committee at a hearing on Friday that the scandal engulfing the agency for allegedly targeting conservative groups is about poor customer service.
“I can say generally we provided horrible customer service here,” Miller said. “I will admit that.
“We did horrible customer service,” Miller said. “Whether it was politically motivated or not is a very different question.”
Miller made the remark during an exchange with Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio), who asked the commissioner about Sarah Ingram, the woman who from 2009 to 2012 was in charge of overseeing the division of the IRS which grants tax-exempt status before being promoted to be director of the agency’s Affordable Care Act office.
Tiberi asked Miller who oversaw Lois Lerner, the woman who worked for Ingram and publically apologized at a recent public event for employees giving greater scrutiny to conservative groups seeking non-profit status.
“Who was (Lerner’s) boss in 2011 and 2012?” Tiberi asked. “Who did she report to?”
“I believe it would have been ….” Miller said.
“Sarah Ingram maybe?” Tiberi asked.
“Part of that time and part of that time another gentleman,” Miller said.
“Okay,” Tiberi said. “And that other gentleman has submitted his resignation?”
“I believe so,” Miller said.
“And what is Ms. Ingram doing today?” Tiberi said. “What’s her job title?”
“She works on implementing the Affordable Care Act,” Miller said.
“Okay,” Tiberi said. “Who promoted her to that position?”
“I would have moved her into that position,” Miller said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
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IRS chief defends targeting of groups as 'obnoxious,' not illegal
The Hill ^ | 05/17/13 12:23 PM ET | Bernie Becker and Peter Schroeder
Posted on Friday, May 17, 2013 1:12:04 PM
Acting IRS chief Steven Miller on Friday said he did not believe agency officials did anything illegal when giving extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Miller, who was forced to resign this week by President Obama, said he didn’t believe the scrutiny was illegal even as he apologized for the IRS’s actions, which have turned into a political storm for the White House.
He also admitted under questioning from House Ways and Means Committee members that facts could emerge that might change whether he thinks anyone in the agency committed a crime, and he said one staffer involved in the extra scrutiny was reassigned and another received counseling.
Facing tense, and at times hostile, questions from GOP lawmakers at the first congressional hearing on the IRS controversy, Miller said the screening process the IRS used was “obnoxious” and called the customer service the agency offered “horrible.”
Miller stressed that the extra attention happened because IRS officials faced an avalanche of applications for tax-exempt status.
But he also pushed back on GOP lawmakers who said the IRS was targeting conservatives, calling that a “loaded” statement.
“When you talk about targeting, that’s a pejorative term,” Miller said.
Asked if the IRS's actions had been illegal, he responded: “I don’t believe it is.”
He then added of the behavior: “I don’t believe it should happen.”
Miller’s answers have not sit well with GOP lawmakers throughout Friday’s hearing, and his comments fly in the face of top Republicans like Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who have said that agency staffers should be jailed.
Republicans on Friday accused the acting IRS chief of lying to them about the extra scrutiny given to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Miller found out about that special attention more than a year ago but declined to tell lawmakers.
At the start of Friday’s committee hearing, Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) rattled off several different violations he believes the IRS committed.
Camp also linked the IRS uproar to what he called a “culture of cover-ups and political intimidation in this administration,” an apparent reference to last year’s attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Justice Department’s subpoena of reporter records.
“This systemic abuse cannot be fixed with just one resignation,” Camp said. “And, as much as I expect more people need to go, the reality is this is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the IRS being too large, too powerful, too intrusive and too abusive of honest, hardworking taxpayers.”
But Republicans on the panel have also expressed frustration throughout the hearing at Miller’s sometimes feisty answers, with the acting chief maintaining that he did not lie to them.
“You're not going to cooperate with me, Mr. Miller, and you've been uncooperative in this hearing,” Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) told the IRS official.
Democrats acknowledged that the IRS had made serious mistakes and generally agreed with Miller’s statements that agency officials did not target Tea Party and conservative groups for political reasons.
“What I'm trying to point out, and basically to debunk, is the notion or idea the political statements — and, I believe, nonfactual statements by Chairman Camp — to link these scandals to the White House,” said Rep. Joe Crowley (N.Y.), a member of House Democratic leadership.
Democrats also stressed repeatedly that the Doug Shulman, who was IRS commissioner when the targeting took place, was nominated by former President George W. Bush. And several said that the major issue was the cloudy regulations guiding which groups should be granted tax-exempt status.
Miller is testifying along with Russell George, the Treasury inspector general whose report details what he called “ineffective management” at the agency.
George’s report found that the IRS asked for excessive information from conservative groups, including donor lists and whether group leaders wanted to run for public office. The IRS also applied inconsistent principles when deciding which groups to give extra screening, the report said, leading some groups to wait months or years for approval.
According to the inspector general’s report, Lois Lerner, the IRS official who first disclosed the targeting, found out in June 2011. Lerner pushed for the screening guidelines to be changed, but other IRS officials eventually went around her to change them again.
George’s report also says that IRS staffers assert that lower-level employees crafted the screening process and that they were not influenced by any outside group.
Miller on Friday acknowledged that Lerner’s disclosure of the IRS targeting last Friday came from a planted question.
Camp had said in his opening statement that he was interested in hearing why the IRS targeting occurred and why the agency kept it secret for so long, who started the extra scrutiny, and when President Obama and his administration found out.
But in a hearing break, he told The Hill that he wasn’t satisfied with the answers the panel was getting from Miller, a feeling shared by other Republicans.
“On the one hand, you’re arguing today that the IRS is not corrupt,” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.). “But the subtext of that is you say, ‘Look, we’re just incompetent.’ And I think it is a perilous pathway to go down.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/300447-irs-chief-defends-targeting-of-groups-as-obnoxious-not-illegal#ixzz2TZRy5P6d Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/17/the-scathing-speech-that-just-got-a-near-standing-ovation-during-the-irs-hearing/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=Share%20Buttons
Nice. Nailed this corrupt thug to the wall
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Obama Appointed IRS Union President to Group in Charge of Federal Raises in 2010
by Wynton Hall
17 May 2013, 3:02 AM
The week after Republicans’ historic 2010 midterm election landslide, President Barack Obama appointed the union president that represents “tens of thousands in the IRS,” Colleen Kelley, to a key Administration post. Two years later, that union, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), contributed $580,412 to federal candidates—94% of which were Democrats.
The position Obama appointed Kelley to: the Federal Salary Council, an advisory group charged with recommending federal employee raises.
Representing 150,000 members from 31 federal agencies and departments including the Internal Revenue Service, the NTEU bills itself as the nation’s largest independent federal union. Kelley, herself a former IRS Agent, commands her union brigade with partisan ferocity.
“I guess the Republicans’ idea of shared sacrifice is that they have lots of ways to share the money they take away from the only group actually sacrificing—middle class federal workers,” Kelley said last February.
And when it came time to rally the troops to reelect Obama, Kelley rose to the occasion. "NTEU supported the re-election of President Obama,” said Kelley. “He is the right leader for our country and for the dedicated members of the federal workforce.”
Indeed, IRS agents strongly supported Obama. As Breitbart News reported Monday, IRS employees donated over two-and-a-half times as much to Obama as to Mitt Romney.
Now, however, with the IRS in the center of the political profiling scandal, the Kelley and the NTEU have gone quiet.
“NTEU is working to get the facts but does not have any specifics at this time,” Kelley wrote in an email reply to The Washington Post. “Moreover, IRS employees are not permitted to discuss taxpayer cases. We cannot comment further at this time.”
American Spectator reporter Jeffrey Lord says behind NTEU and Kelley’s silence lies a nexus of attitudes and actions that may prove critical in understanding the IRS targeting scandal and the culture that fueled it.
“What attitude are you going to display as you review Tea Party applications that must, by law, come in to the IRS for approval?” asks Lord. “You already know what to do. And inside the IRS, that’s exactly what was done.”
Lord added: “The Tea Party, in the vernacular, was screwed. By IRS bureaucrats whose union money is being used to attack the Tea Party. Of course these IRS employees know what to do—most probably without even being asked.”
The House Ways and Means Committee will hold the first hearing on the IRS conservative targeting scandal this Friday when recently resigned acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George are scheduled to testify.
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Lerner’s admission of IRS’s inappropriate behavior was pre-planned public disclosure
11:43 AM 05/17/2013
WASHINGTON – Last week, Lois Lerner, head of the tax exempt division of the Internal Revenue Service dropped a bombshell: The IRS had been applying extra scrutiny to conservative groups claiming tax exempt status.
The revelation came seemingly out of the blue, in response to a question during a panel at an American Bar Association conference, leaving the audience baffled, according to reports.
As it turns out, it was not a spontaneous revelation. The question, said outgoing IRS Commissioner Steven Miller in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday, was planted, as part of a prepared strategy for the IRS to release this information to the public.
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Under questioning from Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, Miller said it was a “prepared Q and A,” and the question, which came from tax lawyer Celia Roady had been discussed in advance as well.
Later, Miller, questioned by Rep. Peter Roskam, explained that the disclosure had been made to coincide with the conclusion of the inspector general’s report.
Miller said he and Lerner discussed, in a what he believed was a phone conversation, whether “now that the TIGTA report was finalized, now that we knew all of the facts … did it make sense for us to start talking about this in public.”
Asked why he had not first reached out to the committee to tell them, Miller first said they had planned “to do that at the same time,” but that “did not happen.” He later said they “were reaching out to this committee at the same time,” and that they had “called to try to get on the calendar.”
“Is that all you got?” Roskam scoffed.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/17/lerners-admission-was-pre-planned-public-disclosure/#ixzz2TZoYkrzx
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http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/348669/irs-please-detail-content-your-members-prayers-jim-geraghty
Unfucking real
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May 16, 2013 4:00 AM
The Nine Lies of Lois Lerner
Notes toward a catalogue
By Kevin D. Williamson
Lie No. 1: Lois Lerner’s apology last Friday was a spontaneous reaction to an unexpected question from an unknown audience member. In fact, the question came from tax lawyer and lobbyist Celia Roady. Ms. Roady has some interesting career highlights: She was part of the 1997 ethics investigation of Newt Gingrich, but, more to the point, she was appointed to the IRS’s Advisory Council on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities by IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman. She is a longtime colleague of Lerner, who is director of tax-exempt organizations. Ms. Roady has declined to comment on whether her question was planted, but it obviously was. The IRS had contacted reporters and encouraged them beforehand to attend the otherwise un-newsworthy event, and it had an entire team of press handlers on hand. So what we have is the staged rollout of what turns out to be — given the rest of this list — a disinformation campaign.
Lie No. 2: Lerner said about 280 organizations were given extra scrutiny, about 75 of them tea-party groups or similar organizations. The actual number of organizations that were targeted is closer to 500.
Lie No. 3: This was the work of low-level grunts in Cincinnati. In truth, very senior people within the IRS, including its top lawyer, were aware of the situation, and had been since at least 2011. The home office in Washington was very much involved in the process.
Lie No. 4: Lerner says that the situation came to her attention through allegations from tea-party groups carried in media reports. In fact, the matter has been under both internal and external investigation for some time.
Lie No. 5: Lerner says she put an end to the practice as soon as she found out about it. In fact, the IRS continued to do precisely the same thing, only monkeying a little bit with the language: Instead of targeting “tea party” groups explicitly, it targeted those groups with an interest in such esoterica as limited government, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc.
Lie No. 6: She says that the commissioner of the IRS didn’t know about the targeting project. While the targeting was going on, Ms. Lerner’s boss was being asked some very pointed questions by Congress on the subject of targeting tea-party groups. He enthusiastically denied that any such thing was going on, in direct contravention of the facts. Ms. Lerner says he didn’t know about the situation, because it was confined to those aforementioned plebs in Cincinnati. But given that this was not the case, her explaining away the commissioner’s untrue statements to Congress is a lie based on another lie — a compound lie, if you will. And acting commissioner Steven Miller was briefed on the situation in May of 2012 — and then declined to share his knowledge of it with Congress when asked about it during a hearing in July.
Lie No. 7: Lerner says she came forward with her apology unprompted by any special consideration. In fact, an inspector general’s report was about to be released, making the matter public.
Lie No. 8: When Congress was investigating complaints from conservative groups, Lerner told them that she could not release information about organizations with pending applications. But her group was in fact releasing such information — to the left-leaning news organization ProPublica, rather than to congressional investigators.
Lie No. 9: Lerner says that there was no political pressure to investigate tea-party groups. In fact, Senator Carl Levin (D., Mich.) repeatedly pressed the agency to investigate conservative groups falling under Lerner’s jurisdiction. What we have, then, is this: Under a Democratic administration, the IRS was under pressure from Democratic elected officials to investigate political enemies of the Democratic party. The agency did so. Its commissioner lied to Congress about its doing so. When the inspector general’s report was about to make these abuses public, the agency staged a classic Washington Friday news rollout at a sleepy American Bar Association tax-law conference, hoping to minimize the bad publicity. Lerner lied to the public about the nature, scope, and extent of the IRS intimidation campaign.
That she has a job today is a scandal in itself. She’ll be receiving an award — for public service! — from the Western New England University School of Law on May 18. An orange jumpsuit would suit her better than academic robes.
— Kevin D. Williamson is a roving correspondent for National Review. His new book, The End Is Near and It’s Going To Be Awesome, was recently published
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IRS Attack Against Tea Party Assaulted Civility
Posted 05/16/2013 07:28 PM ET
Democracy: The IRS targeting of Tea Party groups is mind-boggling not only for its abuse of government power. It's also disturbing for what it intended to do: destroy civil society, opening a door for tyranny.
The formation in 2009 of hundreds of Tea Party groups at the rallying cry of CNBC news editor Rick Santelli, from places as diverse as Lowell, Mass., Pleasanton, Calif., Asheville, N.C., Yuma, Ariz., and Lincoln, Neb., among hundreds of others, was a spontaneous reaction by ordinary American citizens to an overspending, oversized government whose overreach called into question its constitutionality.
Yet it was these very Tea Parties that were specially targeted by the IRS in its outrageously intrusive efforts to learn their every secret, to leak those secrets to a hostile, slanderous media, and to delay beyond justification their approvals as tax-free institutions in an effort to suppress them — while granting those permissions easily to leftist ones .
As an agency that favored expanding its own power, the IRS and its political masters naturally felt threatened by Tea Party success, seen in the rallies of millions in February and then April 2009, as well as the proliferation of groups across the country.
But they weren't threats to anyone except tyrants, because they were civil society groups with deep roots in the American experience. They were the sort of organizations first observed by French writer Alexis De Tocqueville in his "Democracy in America."
De Tocqueville considered these "intermediary groups" controlled by neither the state nor the family to be the essential element in America's success with representative democracy — the linchpin to what enabled individuals to be citizens instead of subjects.
"Intermediary institutions (clubs, local political organizations, community activities, churches, etc.) tie us — really oblige us — to our neighbors. They train us to recognize the ways we can satisfy our various needs without turning to (the state) to provide the goods we require," Montclair University Professor Brian Smith told the Evangelical Christian Society.
De Tocqueville "says these associations teach the art of being free and living responsibly. Without them, we will fall out of our practice of self government," he said.
And that's why the IRS attack on the Tea Parties is so disturbing. It has implications for our democracy.
As perspective, while De Tocqueville considers civil associations indispensable for democracy, the world's leading communist tyrants and their philosophers have long sought to destroy them as "bourgeois institutions."
Karl Marx considered civil society groups "a reflection of the egotistical interests of society" that would be better off run as a collective under a supreme leader, while Lenin considered them an obstacle to his "dictatorship of the proletariat."
Italian communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci in particular considered them an obstacle even worse than overthrowing the state.
"The state was just a forward trench," he wrote in his Prison Notebooks. "Behind it stood a succession of sturdy fortresses and emplacements." That is, civil society.
Gramsci advocated establishing something he called "civil hegemony" as a means of subverting independent civil society groups and then merging them with the state as means of making the state supreme.
The 1960s radicals called this "the long march through the institutions."
They knew that without true civil society organizations to promote self-government, such as the Tea Party, all that's left is an all-powerful state that citizens must face alone.
The fact that the IRS tried and may have succeeded in destroying some Tea Party and other groups is a sign that the broader agenda wasn't just suppression of political dissent, but imposition of the kind of tyranny found in places like Cuba, where law-abiding civil society has been replaced by fanatical government-directed mobs.
That's what De Tocqueville warned about. These IRS transgressions ought to be treated as what they are — a fundamental attack on our democracy.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/us/politics/irs-scandal-congressional-hearings.html?hp&_r=3&
Unbelievable - the IRS director knoew about this BEFORE the election and never said shit to Congress about it when asked.
And to boot - liberal communist pansies are cheering on this culture of crime and sludge
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Official Reveals That Obama Administration Members Knew About Conservative IRS Complaints During The Election
Brett LoGiurato|21 minutes ago|0|
J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's Inspector General, disclosed during Congressional testimony on Friday that Obama administration officials in the Treasury Department knew about inappropriate targeting of conservative groups during the 2012 election.
George told the House Ways and Means Committee in testimony on Friday that he informed the Treasury's general counsel of his investigation into the matter on June 4, according to the New York Times. He then told Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin "shortly thereafter."
President Barack Obama has said that he had no knowledge of the IRS' singling out of conservative-sounding groups for extra scrutiny. But this is the first signal that anyone in his administration had knowledge.
George hedged when relaying his comments, saying he only informed the Treasury officials about allegations from conservative groups and let them know he was investigating. He did not get into specifics and he did not inform them that the scrutiny had been inappropriate, he said.
Outgoing Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who also testified at the hearing, maintained throughout the hearing that the extra scrutiny was not politically motivated. He specifically objected to use of the word "targeting" to describe the IRS' actions, calling it a "loaded word."
Congressional Republicans were skeptical of those claims, and George's statement is likely to add to that. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who was Mitt Romney's running mate on the Republican ticket, told George that his comment "raises a big question."
Wolin is set to testify next week in a loaded House Oversight Committee hearing that will also feature George, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, and Lois Lerner, the IRS' director of tax-exempt organizations.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/irs-scandal-obama-conservatives-tea-party-inspector-general-2013-5#ixzz2TaCQiylL
Wow - how high does this go?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/us/politics/irs-scandal-congressional-hearings.html?hp&_r=1&#commentsContainer
Getting closer and closer to Obama
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Democrat Crowley: IRS' Lerner Should Be Fired for Lying
Friday, 17 May 2013
By Christiana Lilly
Rep. Joe Crowley Friday all but accused Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner of lying to Congress about the agency's targeting of conservative groups and joined Rep. Sander Levin in calling for her immediate resignation or firing.
Crowley, a New York Democrat, said Friday on MSNBC's Jansing & Co. that Lerner "failed to answer the question" when she was asked at a Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing last week if the IRS was investigating political 501 (c) (4) groups that had applied for tax-exempt status through the agency division she headed.
"She then two days later planted a question at a press event, only to then use that opportunity to apologize for what the IRS had been doing," Crowley continued.
He said he confronted her later and she denied that she had even been asked about the targeting effort at the hearing.
"The truth was, I had asked in Congress at a committee hearing two days earlier," Crowley said, adding: "If you're Miss Lerner, you're worried about your career right now."
Crowley and Michigan Democrat Levin, the top two members of their party on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, called for Lerner to resign, and failing that, to be fired for her conduct in trying to control fallout from IRS controversy, which has now turned into a full-blown scandal.
Crowley insisted, however, that the White House was not aware or involved in the targeting effort, citing the inspector general's report released earlier this week indicating it did not stretch beyond the tax collection agency.
Like Republicans, he said he was angry, too, but added that GOP lawmakers are wrong to claim that Obama knew about it or, even worse, had orchestrated it, much as Richard Nixon had done with the Watergate cover-up nearly 41 years ago.
"It’s about partisanship once again and trying to somehow link this to the White House. It’s the same old, same old, exactly what people are really angry about what is happening in Washington today," he said, criticizing the GOP.
"Really we should all be outraged by what took place. I am. No political entity ought to be investigated or gone after by the IRS."
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/crowley-irs-lerner-lying/2013/05/17/id/505096
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Higher-Ups Knew of IRS Case
Hearing Shows Obama Administration Officials Were Told in June 2012 of Probe Into Tea-Party Targeting.
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By JOHN D. MCKINNON, SIOBHAN HUGHES and DAMIAN PALETTA
The Internal Revenue Service's watchdog told top Treasury officials around June 2012 he was investigating allegations the tax agency had targeted conservative groups, for the first time indicating that Obama administration officials were aware of the explosive matter in the midst of the president's re-election campaign.
An IRS watchdog says he informed Obama administration officials last June that a probe was underway over the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. Damian Paletta reports. Photo: Getty Images.
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The disclosure to the Treasury general counsel and the deputy secretary was a cursory one, according to J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. He said he didn't reveal conclusions of the probe, which was in its early stages, and his disclosure came as part of a routine update to Treasury leaders. At the time, Republican lawmakers were complaining publicly about alleged IRS targeting of tea-party groups.
The revelation nonetheless raised a fresh set of questions about who was aware of the problem within the Obama administration. It was one of several new details that emerged during a contentious four-hour House committee hearing Friday, held one week after an IRS official revealed at a legal conference that the agency had taken "absolutely inappropriate" actions in targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for often heavy-handed scrutiny.
Among other disclosures: The conference revelation was itself stage-managed. Ousted IRS acting Commissioner Steven Miller testified he planned it with the director of the division in question. Republican lawmakers expressed amazement that IRS officials didn't tell them first.
The hearing left numerous other fundamental questions unanswered, however, including who ordered the targeting and why it continued so long, pointing to a protracted investigation ahead. Mr. Miller conceded the agency likely disciplined the wrong employee in one effort to address the problem. Another was reassigned in the agency's Cincinnati office, but he couldn't provide the employee's name.
Reuters
Steven Miller, the outgoing IRS chief, appears before a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the Internal Revenue Service on Friday.
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Following the hearing, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.), who led the proceedings, expressed frustration and left open the possibility of issuing subpoenas to the IRS. "I think the most interesting revelation was the overall arrogance of the IRS and the lack of information from somebody who was in charge," Mr. Camp said.
The Treasury Department, in a statement, confirmed officials were notified in June 2012 that an audit had begun. It added an underlined sentence, "Treasury strongly supports the independent oversight of its three Inspectors General, and it does not interfere in ongoing IG audits."
Treasury also said Neal Wolin, the deputy secretary, didn't notify anyone outside of Treasury that the audit was under way and that Mr. Wolin and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew "learned about [the inspector general's] findings when they were reported publicly last week." A White House aide said Friday that Treasury officials didn't share the information with White House officials.
House Republicans probe for political motivations behind the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, saying lawmakers had been lied to and that there had been additional violations at the agency. John McKinnon reports on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.
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White House officials say they learned about the targeting of conservative groups from the report, and not before. President Barack Obama on Thursday said, "I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG report had been leaked through the press."
At the hearing, lawmakers of both parties expressed anger that IRS officials didn't reveal the problems to them in 2012. GOP lawmakers, after receiving complaints from tea-party groups about IRS scrutiny, asked then-commissioner Douglas Shulman about that in March 2012. He testified before the Ways and Means committee then that there was "absolutely no targeting," but he didn't correct his testimony after learning of the problems in May, according to congressional investigators. Mr. Shulman couldn't be reached for comment.
Several other IRS officials, including Mr. Miller, didn't disclose the problems to lawmakers in letters and testimony. Mr. Miller Friday cited the continuing inspector-general investigation, even though he obtained an internal IRS investigation in May 2012 that came to some of the same conclusions as the inspector general report.
"I was not going to go there because I did not have full possession of the facts, sir," Mr. Miller said at one point.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578488833834357540.html
Getting closer to obama
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http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/05/17/kmovs-conners-barred-from-facebook-interviews-on-irs-controversy
Fallout everywhere
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http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/05/busted-complete-irs-scandal-timeline-in.html
Everything you need to know so far
>:(
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Jindal calling for Jail Time
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Here's How The IRS Planted The Question That Sparked The Tea Party Scandal
Brett LoGiurato|May 18, 2013, 1:20 PM|5,008|18
Washington tax lawyer Celia Roady acknowledged that at the behest of the IRS, she asked a question at a May 10 conference that would ignite the controversy over inappropriate targeting of conservative groups.
Four days before a damning Inspector General's report was due to be released, the IRS wanted to get out ahead and potentially defuse some of the backlash.
Roady serves on the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities. She asked the planted question to Lois Lerner, the IRS' director of the tax-exempt division. Within minutes, it sparked shock and a firestorm that the IRS had revealed it inappropriately targeted certain groups, particularly with the words "Tea Party" and "patriot" in their title.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the firm that employs Roady, released a statement on her behalf explaining her role in asking the question:
“On May 9, I received a call from Lois Lerner, who told me that she wanted to address an issue after her prepared remarks at the ABA Tax Section’s Exempt Organizations Committee Meeting, and asked if I would pose a question to her after her remarks. I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we spoken about any of this before I received her call. She did not tell me, and I did not know, how she would answer the question.”
Outgoing Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller confirmed during testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday that the question had been planted.
That led to intense questioning from members of Congress, who wondered why Lerner did not reveal the news during testimony before the committee on May 8, two days before the conference.
Miller said that the plan had been to simultaneously notify Congress after Lerner's public admission, but acknowledged that "didn't happen."
"She has been directly involved in this matter," Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) said on Friday. "She failed to disclose what she knew to this committee, choosing instead to do so at an ABA conference two days later.
"This is wholly unacceptable."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/irs-scandal-celia-roady-planted-question-tea-party-conservatives-obama-2013-5#ixzz2Tgg54GLH
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Obama's Counsel Told of IRS Audit Findings Weeks Ago
WSJ ^ | May 19, 2013, 7:54 p.m. ET | PETER NICHOLAS
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 10:12:40 PM by BenLurkin
The White House's chief lawyer learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups, a senior White House official said Sunday.
That disclosure has prompted a debate over whether the president should have been notified at that time.
In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general's report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that "a small number of line IRS employees had improperly scrutinized certain…organizations by using words like 'tea party' and 'patriot,' " the official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
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Two IRS Offices Targeted Hawaii GOP Leader at Same Time [ DNC's newest Jim Crow Laws IRS2012 ]
thegatewaypundit.com ^ | May 19 2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:40:22 PM by NoLibZone
Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, May 19, 2013, 2:50 PM
The hits keep coming… Two independent IRS offices targeted Hawaii conservative leader Dylan Nonaka last year at the same time. hawaii gop Dylan Nonaka is former executive director of the Hawaii GOP
The Daily Caller reported, via FOX Nation:
In what former Republican executive and activist Dylan Nonaka is calling a massive invasion of privacy that suggests a coordinated effort to target conservative groups, two IRS offices last year independently and simultaneously conducted costly audits and sought tea party-related training materials that they apparently believed could be tied to Nonaka.
Nonaka, who is the former executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party and a faculty member of the Arlington, Va.-based conservative activist training organization the Leadership Institute, is little-known outside of Hawaii. So when the now-infamous Cincinnati IRS office in 2012 demanded that the Hawaii Tea Party explain its “relationship with Dylan Nonaka” and the Leadership Institute, and “provide copies of the training material used by Dylan Nonaka” — all almost at the same time that the Baltimore IRS office separately began auditing the Leadership Institute and requesting its training materials — it wasn’t long before Nonaka became suspicious.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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Something at the IRS Doesn't "Add Up"
Carol Platt Liebau | May 19, 2013
Recommend this article
Comments 24
New defenses and distractions in the IRS scandal are going to come rolling out from the administration and its defenders like water off a duck's back.
One ploy is evident in this sympathetic story from Friday's Washington Post seeking to portray the IRS Determinations Unit as a just a group of nice, non-partisan number-crunchers:
The [determinations] staff member [in Cincinnati], who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that the determinations unit is competent and without bias, that it grouped together conservative applications “for consistency’s sake” — so one application did not sail through while a similar one was held up in review. This consistency is paramount in the review of all applications, according to Ronald Ran, an estate-tax lawyer who worked for 37 years in the IRS’s Cincinnati office.
“You’re not going to have a bunch of flaming liberals in the exempt-organizations department looking for conservative applications,” he said.
But look what the anonymous staff member also said:
"We people on the local level are doing what we are supposed to do. . . .That’s why there are so many people here who are flustered. Everything comes from the top. We don’t have any authority to make those decisions without someone signing off on them. There has to be a directive.” (emphasis added)
Huh. Something doesn't quite "add up." Why? Because on page 7 of the IG report, it states that in June of 2011, the Director of Exempt Organizations learned of the "inappropriate criterion" and directed that they be changed to "focus on the 'political, lobbying or [general] advocacy' activities of the organization." But then, the IG report, page 7, goes on to read that the team of specialists changed them back:
"However, the team of specialists subsequently changed the criteria in January 2012 without executive approval because they believed the July 2011 criteria were too broad. The January 2012 criteria again focused on the policy position of organizations instead of tax-exempt laws and Treasury regulations." (emphasis added)
So we are supposed to believe that a team of determinations specialists "went rogue" to change criteria laid out at the direction of the Director of Exempt Organizations, despite the assertion that "everything comes from the top" and there's no "authority to make decisions without someone signing off on them"? Interesting.
(Incidentally, sometimes it seems that the press generally doesn't have much respect for the intellect or memory of Americans; is anyone at "This Week" aware of the irony of having Charles Rangel on as a panelist to opine on abuse of the tax system?)
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Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun?
By Jeffrey Lord on 5.20.13 @ 6:11AM
President met with anti-Tea Party IRS union chief the day before agency targeted Tea Party.
“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House
Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal?
Is the White House Visitors Log the trail to the smoking gun?
The stunning questions are raised by the following set of new facts.
March 31, 2010.
According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.
The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:
Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30
In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”
The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:
April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.
In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.
The NTEU is the 150,000 member union that represents IRS employees along with 30 other separate government agencies. Kelley herself is a 14-year IRS veteran agent. The union’s PAC endorsed President Obama in both 2008 and 2012, and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles to anti-Tea Party candidates.
Putting IRS employees in the position of actively financing anti-Tea Party candidates themselves, while in their official positions in the IRS blocking, auditing, or intimidating Tea Party and conservative groups around the country.
The IG report contained a timeline prepared by examining internal IRS e-mails. The IG report did not examine White House Visitor Logs, e-mails, or phone records relating to the relationship between the IRS union, the IRS, and the White House.
In fact, this record in the White House Visitors Log of a 12:30 Wednesday, March 31, 2010 meeting between President Obama and the IRS union’s Kelley was not unusual.
On yet another occasion, Kelley’s presence at the White House was followed shortly afterwards by the President issuing Executive Order 13522. A presidential directive that gave the anti-Tea Party NTEU — the IRS union — a greater role in the day-to-day operation of the IRS than it had already — which was considerable.
Kelley is recorded as visiting the White House over a year earlier, listed in this fashion:
Kelley, Colleen Potus/Flotus 12/03/2009 18:30
The inclusion of “FLOTUS” — First Lady Michelle Obama — and the 6:30 pm time of the December event on this entry in the Visitors Log indicates this was the White House Christmas Party held that evening and written up here in the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times focused on party guests from the President’s home state of Illinois and did not mention Kelley. Notably, the Illinois guests, who are reported to have attended the same party as Kelley, included what the paper described as four labor “activists”: Dennis Gannon of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Tom Balanoff of the Service Employees International Union, Henry Tamarin of UNITE, and Ron Powell of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Six days following Kelley’s attendance at the White House Christmas party with labor activists like herself, the President issued Executive Order 13522 (text found here, with an explanation here). The Executive Order, titled: “Creating Labor-Management Forums To Improve Delivery of Government Services” applied across the federal government and included the IRS. The directive was designed to:
Allow employees and unions to have pre-decisional involvement in all workplace matters….
However else this December 2009 Executive Order can be described, the directive was a serious grant of authority within the IRS to the powerful anti-Tea Party union. A union that by this time already had the clout to determine the rules for IRS employees, right down to who would be allowed a Blackberry or what size office the employee was entitled to. The same union that would shortly be doling out serious 2010 (and later 2012) campaign contributions to anti-Tea Party candidates with money supplied from IRS employees. The union, as noted last week here in this space, already has the authority to decide all manner of IRS matters, right down to who does and does not get a Blackberry.
It is the same union whose IRS employee-members were being urged in 2012 by Senate Democrats (Chuck Schumer, Al Franken, Max Baucus, and others) to target Tea Party and other conservative groups.
Which, as the IG records, they did.
Both Mr. Obama and the NTEU’s Kelley have been by turns evasive and tight-lipped about their roles in the blossoming IRS scandal.
Kelley refused to open up to the Washington Post. In an article titled ”IRS, union mum on employees held accountable in ‘sin’ of political targeting,” the Post quoted the following:
“NTEU is working to get the facts but does not have any specifics at this time. Moreover, IRS employees are not permitted to discuss taxpayer cases. We cannot comment further at this time,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said via e-mail.
A call to the NTEU office in Cincinnati resulted in a similar response: “We’ve been directed by national office. We have no comment.”
The President approached things in a more evasive manner.
Last Thursday at the President’s press conference with the Turkish prime minister, Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg News asked the following question, bold print for emphasis:
“Mr. President, I want to ask you about the IRS. Can you assure the American people that nobody in the White House knew about the agency’s actions before your Counsel’s Office found out on April 22nd? And when they did find out, do you think that you should have learned about it before you learned about it from news reports as you said last Friday? And also, are you opposed to there being a special counsel appointed to lead the Justice Department investigation?”
The President’s response? (Again bold print emphasis.)
“But let me make sure that I answer your specific question. I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG report had been leaked through the press.”
Take note: Goldman’s question was:
“Can you assure the American people that nobody in the White House knew about the agency’s actions before your Counsel’s Office found out on April 22nd?”
The President evaded by answering:
“I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report…..”
The question was not whether he knew about the IG report ahead of time. The question was whether he could “assure the American people that nobody in the White House knew about the agency’s actions.”
In response, the President ducked.
In other words, the IRS union chief went to the White House to meet personally with the president on March 31. The union already had Executive Order 13522 behind it, issued by the President barely three months earlier. An Executive Order directing that the IRS must “allow employees and unions to have pre-decisional involvement in all workplace matters….”.
The very next day after that March 31 meeting at the White House, the IRS, with the union involved in its decision-making, was setting up its “Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party.”
Which raises the famous question from Watergate: What did the President know and when did he know it?
While potentially explosive now, in fact the Obama Administration hadn’t been in office a month before Kelley was boasting of the IRS union’s influence in the White House.
In a February 15, 2009 interview given to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh is Kelley’s home town), there was this question from the PG reporter, with the now Washington-based Kelley boasting as below, key point in bold print:
Q: Has the Obama staff been receptive?
A: Yes. We have worked with the transition team, given them suggestions; and throughout the campaign, President Obama talked about working with the federal employees and unions. He’s recognized the contributions federal employees make. I was just at the White House (Jan. 30) while he was signing some executive orders to undo some things the prior administration did.
Catch that?
The boast?
“I was just at the White House…”
Which is to say, the election of 2008, in which the union had endorsed Obama, was no sooner over than the head of the IRS union had “worked with the transition team” and “given them suggestions.” Literally ten days after the Obama January 20 inaugural in 2009 — January 30 the article notes — Kelley was boasting that “I was just at the White House while he (the President) was signing some executive orders to undo some things the prior administration did.”
And what did Kelley see as the IRS union’s relationship with the White House she had already visited ten days into the President’s first term?
Kelley responded candidly, again with the bold print added for emphasis:
“We are looking for a return to what we used to call partnership. I don’t really care what it’s called. For me, it’s about collaboration.”
Catch those words?
Collaboration. Partnership.
In addition to Kelley’s three visits to see the President — in January of 2009, December of 2009, and March of 2010 — she is listed for three other visits, the contact names those of presidential aides:
“Kelley, Colleen Weiss, Margaret 11/04/2009 10:00”
“Kelley, Colleen Weiss, Margaret 12/01/2009 12:00”
“Kelley, Colleen Nelson, Greg 01/14/2010 13:40”
The obvious question instantly arises with the revelation that Kelley was meeting with the President personally — the day before the IRS kicked into high gear with its “Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party”.
Were the President of the United States and the President of the NTEU meeting in the White House at 12:30 on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 — and engaged in “collaboration” and “partnership”? A “collaboration” and “partnership” that was all about targeting the Tea Party?
And did that collaboration and partnership result in the IRS letting loose the hounds on the Tea Party and conservative groups — the very next day after the Obama-Kelley meeting?
To add to the administration’s IRS-NTEU woes is the fact that beyond the Inspector General, there is another IRS-connected agency in the Treasury Department: the IRS Oversight Board.
And on that board sits a presidential appointee named Robert M. Tobias. Tobias, oddly, was a Clinton appointee in 2005, confirmed by the Senate for a five-year term. He is still there. He is the longtime NTEU general counsel and Kelley’s predecessor as the union president. Here’s the statement, from the IRS Oversight Board, on all of this. It is headed:
IRS Oversight Board Deeply Troubled by Breakdown in IRS Process in Reviewing Tax-Exempt Applications.
There was no reference to the influence of the anti-Tea Party NTEU in the statement. Why would there be when the union’s ex-president sits on the Oversight Board itself?
Obama’s problem here is considerable.
By not forthrightly answering Goldman’s question, he seems to be evading the issue in the manner that brought so much trouble in the form of congressional investigations, special prosecutors, and impeachment threats to Presidents Nixon and Clinton, with Nixon being forced to resign the presidency and Clinton brought to a Senate trial.
The President’s too-clever-by half evasion added to Kelley’s silence leaves open the question of whether the union and the White House, not to mention the IRS Oversight Board, are collaborating — collaborating right now — on a cover-up.
Nixon looked the American people in the television eye and flatly lied about his personal involvement in the Watergate scandal, lies that came from a frantic attempt to conduct a cover-up.
Clinton looked the American people in the eye and famously wagged his finger as he lied that he “did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.” In Clinton’s case this extended to lying to a federal grand jury.
For a good long while, the American people in fact believed both Nixon and Clinton. The stories are now legion of Nixon cabinet and staff believing their man, and Clinton’s cabinet and staff believing their man’s protestations of innocence as well.
Finally, in both cases, the truth was out.
As Washington and the country have long since twice-learned the hard way, the parsing of presidential words in cases like this, not to mention looking into the cameras and boldly lying on the prayer of getting away with the lie, always bodes ill for presidents. It leads inevitably to that simple question famously uttered by then-Tennessee GOP Senator Howard Baker and posed of Nixon at the Senate Watergate hearings: “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
Twice in recent American history the answer to this question, once for Nixon and once for Clinton, has landed popular, powerful presidents in impeachment hot water. Ending Republican Nixon’s presidency altogether and coming close to doing the same with Democrat Clinton. Leaving the legacy of each permanently scarred.
The notion that the players in the IRS scandal did what they did to get past the 2012 election will only add to an Obama presidential reputation as borrowing the Nixon playbook on skirting scandal in a presidential election year.
Ironically re-casting the image of America’s first black president as the black Nixon.
With the examples of how Nixon and Clinton dodged, evaded, and lied, Obama’s non-answer to Juliana Goldman’s question at last week’s press conference comes in for much more scrutiny. Matched to the silence of Kelley it begins raising obvious questions. Such as:
• Did the President himself ever discuss the Tea Party with Kelley?
• Did the President ever communicate his thoughts on the Tea Party to Kelley — in any fashion other than a face-to-face conversation such as e-mail, text, or by phone?
• What was the subject of the Obama-Kelley March 31, 2010 meeting?
• Who was present at the Obama-Kelley March 31 meeting?
• Was the Tea Party or any other group opposing the President’s agenda discussed at the March 31 meeting, or before or after that meeting?
• Is the White House going to release any e-mails, text, or phone records that detail Kelley’s contacts with not only Mr. Obama but his staff?
• Will the IRS release all e-mail, text, or phone records between Kelley or any other leader of the NTEU with IRS employees?
• What role did Executive Order 13522 play in the IRS investigations of the Tea Party and all these other conservative groups?
Doubtless there are others, considerable others and the list of questions will grow.
Not to be lost sight of here is the role of the NTEU in raising money for Democrats in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles — the exact period when the IRS was busy going after the Tea Party and the others to curb any possible influence the groups could have in the elections of 2010 and 2012.
The NTEU, through its political action committee, raised $613,633 in the 2010 cycle, giving 98% of its contributions to anti-Tea Party Democrats. In 2012 the figure was $729,708, with 94% going to anti-Tea Party candidates. One NTEU candidate after another, as discussed last week in this space, campaigned vigorously against the Tea Party.
So the motivations here — defeating the Tea Party in 2010, and failing at that, making sure that the news of the metastasizing cancer in the IRS was kept quiet until after the 2012 presidential election was over — are clear.
What is particularly interesting here are the automatic assumptions of the mainstream media in all of this.
Like this “given” from the Washington Post’s Dan Balz, bold print added for emphasis.
The most corrosive of the controversies is what happened at the IRS, which singled out tea party and other conservative groups for special scrutiny in their applications for tax-exempt status. That Obama knew nothing about it does little to quell concerns that one of the most-feared units in government was operating out of control.
But if in fact the President did know about it?
Here’s the Washington Post’s “Journolist” Ezra Klein:
The crucial ingredient for a scandal is the prospect of high-level White House involvement and wide political repercussions.…
If new information emerges showing a connection between the Determination Unit’s decisions and the Obama campaign, or the Obama administration, it would crack this White House wide open. That would be a genuine scandal. But the IG report says that there’s no evidence of that. And so it’s hard to see where this one goes from here.
Exactly.
Which is why it will be a curious sight indeed to see the efforts the media will go to ignore/dismiss the tight, on-the-record connection between the President personally and a vociferously anti-Tea Party union. A union that has the literal run of the IRS — and whose union chief is recorded as having met with the President in the White House the day before the IRS launched “a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases.” A decision with which, according to the IG report: “The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.” Check those words from Mr. Klein again:
If new information emerges showing a connection between the Determination Unit’s decisions and the Obama campaign, or the Obama administration, it would crack this White House wide open. That would be a genuine scandal.
The question now is a simple one.
In 1974, “the smoking gun” was a tape recording that ended the Nixon presidency.
In 1998, the smoking gun was a blue dress — and it almost undid Bill Clinton’s White House.
Now the all-too-familiar pattern of scandal and its day-by-day drip-drip-drip nature has begun to set in. Newsmax is now quoting Washington attorney and conservative activist Cleta Mitchell as saying:
“There were nearly 100 groups across the country that got the very egregious set of letters from the IRS that were almost identical and they came from offices all over the country, so I know of at least 85 to 90, maybe more, organizations.”
Regular American all over the country are coming forward with their stories. Understanding the relationship between the Obama White House and the IRS union will be a must for congressional investigators.
President Obama is coming perilously closer to becoming the new Nixon. The next Bill Clinton.
And once again, as news of exactly what a president was doing in the Oval Office on a particular day and time goes public, yet again the old question becomes new.
What did the President know? And when did he know it?
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/20/obama-and-the-irs-the-smoking
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SMOKING GUN: Obama Met With IRS Union Chief the Day Before Agency Started Targeting Conservatives
Gateway Pundit ^ | May 20, 2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 9:49:07 AM by blueyon
National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley (in tan jacket) leads a protest earlier this month. About 250 Federal workers massed in Federal Plaza in Manhattan May 7 to protest the sequester cuts. (The Chief)
This explains things… President Obama met with anti-Tea Party IRS union chief Colleen Kelly in the White House the day before the agency targeted Tea Party. The Spectator reported:
“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal?
Is the White House Visitors Log the trail to the smoking gun?
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/there-was-no-surge-in-irs-tax-exempt-applications-in-2010/275985
more lies from Obama and his corrupt admn
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Obama High-Fives IRS with $92 Million in Bonuses
Townhall ^ | 05/20/2013 | Morgan Brittany
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 10:06:38 AM by SeekAndFind
The IRS scandal is becoming more insane by the minute. After the testimony on Friday from the Inspector General and the now “retiring” acting IRS Commissioner, Steven Miller, things couldn’t be more convoluted. First of all, Obama came out and said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had “demanded the resignation” of Miller, when in fact, Miller was due to leave his post by June of this year. So there was no “resigning” going on, and he will leave with all of his benefits intact. Wow! No accountability, no answers, no penalties.
Next we find out that during the four year period between 2009 and 2012 more than $92 million in bonuseswere handed out by IRS executives to thousands of tax agency employees. These bonuses were mostly given out to managers and executives for “performance based incentives”.
So let me get this straight. These people were paid a salary by the taxpayers, and then given a bonus by the taxpayers to reward them for harassing and intimidating the taxpayers. Ok, got it. There are over 97,000 employees of the IRS, 16,910 of them got some sort of bonus for “a job well done”. The largest bonus went to former IRS Commissioner Richard E. Byrd who received $60,270.
Digging a little deeper we find out that Lois Lerner, the woman who told us publicly that her agency was improperly singling out conservative and other groups including religious organizations, received more than $42,000 in bonuses over that four year period. She ADMITTED wrongdoing and yet was rewarded once again with OUR money!
But the best is yet to come. Sarah Hall Ingram who was in charge of tax-exempt organizations while the Tea Party and conservative groups were being targeted has conveniently been relocated within the IRS and now is in charge of the IRS office responsible for overseeing Obamacare. Promoted for a job well done! Joseph Grant, the executive who seems to be the one taking the fall for Ingram during that time is now resigning his post. He took over for Ingram when she was promoted. During the years 2010-2012 he received three bonuses totaling $83,950 in addition to his salary of $177,000. Job well done Joe!
During the years that Ingram was overseeing the tax-exempt division she received bonuses totaling $103,390 in addition to her salary which was raised from $172,500 to $177,000 during that time. In 2009 she received $7,000 in bonus money: (I guess she was just having her people gather names.) In 2010 it ramped up to $34,440. (Must be when the IRS agents started harassing their targets.) She took home an extra $35,400 in 2011, (delay, delay, and delay those applications for conservative groups.) 0 conservative groups with Tea Party or 9/12 in their name were approvedfor tax-exempt status in 2011 therefore, she receives a huge bonus. Then in 2012 she received a $26,550 bonus. She probably got less that year because the Tea Party groups had been stopped and the election was in November. The damage had been done and she reaped the rewards.
Mission accomplished. The IRS succeeded in shutting down the opposition and they were all high-fived and handsomely rewarded.
When this all unravels, and it will, hopefully; will we ever be able to trust any part of government at all? Right now we can’t trust the Executive branch; they lie to us and seem more inept than a third world country. We can’t trust the State Department; they are equally inept, except at cover-ups. Homeland Security can’t protect us from terrorists on our own soil, yet they stock up on guns, ammo and tanks for unknown reasons. The Treasury Department manipulates the economic figures to fit their agenda and destroy our economy. Spying on American citizens and the press has been uncovered, and the Military is left hanging out to dry and can no longer trust anyone to watch their backs.
When will this madness end? This is not America; at least not the one I know. This is like some unbelievable Hollywood film that you watch but know could never happen, except it IS happening. Scandal after scandal is crippling our nation and unfortunately we have to deal with them. The Democrats want to “move on”, but we can’t move on until we cure the cancer that has infected this administration.
Will it ultimately lead to the top? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure; someone knows the answers to all of this and they can’t keep pleading ignorance forever.
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FLASHBACK: Romney Donor Vilified By Obama Campaign, Then Subjected to 2 Audits
Romney donor bashed by Obama campaign now target of two federal audits
By Joseph Weber
Published July 25, 2012 | FoxNews.com
An Idaho businessman singled out by the Obama campaign for giving $1 million in support of Mitt Romney is now the focus of IRS and Labor Department audits.
Frank VanderSloot, in an interview with FoxNews.com on Tuesday, said he received the initial audit notice from the IRS last month. Two weeks later, he got one from the Labor Department stating the agency would be looking into records related to foreign employees working at his Idaho Falls cattle ranch.
It might all be a coincidence, he said -- but the timing was peculiar.
VanderSloot gave the pro-Romney money last year to the super PAC “Restore of Future.” Then in April, he was identified along with seven other donors on an Obama campaign website as “wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records.”
At the time, VanderSloot spoke out and accused the campaign of targeting him unfairly. Then came the audits.
“It seems coincidental, but who knows,” VanderSloot told FoxNews.com Tuesday. “The problem is the president made the list, and 61 days later I get the first letter. One has to ask: Is the fact I’m being shot at the result of having a target on my back? … Was the list made with that intent?”
VanderSloot expected some scrutiny, considering he is a co-chairman on the Romney campaign, and years of contributing to state and national races had already exposed him to the rough-and-tumble world of politics.
He has also been targeted by liberal bloggers and an opposition research team that directed an investigator to poke around his local courthouse, looking at divorce records and other cases.
Yet VanderSloot, owner of the Melaleuca wellness product company, never expected to be branded on an presidential campaign website as a “litigious, combative and bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”
“I had never heard anybody say that,” said VanderSloot, who speculated the anti-gay claim is largely the result of him about 13 years ago opposing the film “It’s Elementary -- Talking about Gay Issues in School” airing on public TV because it was not suitable for viewing by young children.
“Ninety percent of my gay friends agreed,” he said.
VanderSloot was prescient in his public comments after appearing on the list, musing on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” about whether the list was perhaps a tip-sheet for media critics or federal agencies.
“Am I going to get a call from the FDA … or the IRS?” he said Tuesday, echoing his comments from the show.
Still, the 63-year-old VanderSloot doesn’t think President Obama directly ordered the audits, because simply allowing the so-called "enemy list" to be posted on the original “Keeping GOP Honest” site was enough.
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IRS Scandal Makes Its Way To Illinois Statehouse
Posted: 05/20/2013 2:30 pm EDT
WASHINGTON -- The controversy surrounding the IRS' targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status is, if nothing else, an easy target. Virtually no one has defended the actions of the tax-collection agency, including its outgoing acting commissioner. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came the closest, and he merely noted that prior IRS-related controversies never elicited Republican outrage.
Over the weekend, the pile-on extended to the states, where local officials asked 501(c)4 non-profit groups in their districts to come forward with stories of abuse they endured at the hands of the IRS. The most assertive push to get in front of the story came in Illinois, where on Friday two state representatives introduced legislation instructing the White House to comply with congressional investigations into the agency.
"[W]e urge the White House, the Office of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, and the Internal Revenue Service to comply with all requests related to Congressional inquiries without any delay, including making available all IRS employees involved in designing and implementing these prohibited political screenings," the bill reads.
"[A]nd be it further RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be delivered to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury, the acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and each member of the Illinois,"
The bill was introduced by Republican state Reps. Darlene Senger and David McSweeney. It's unclear what type of authority they believe they have over congressional activities, or whether anyone on the Hill is aware of their resolution. Neither office returned a request for comment.
But symbolic bills are often the most popular. By the time of its introduction, Senger and McSweeney's bill already had 11 other co-sponsors.
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Jindal calling for Jail Time
LOL - jail time for what
did Jindal happen to mention what the crime was
this is going to end in tears for you just like everything else
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/irs-investigation_n_3308037.html#comments
LMFAO!!!!
Even OB own staff keep him in the dark on everything.
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Senior W.H. staff knew of IRS investigation, did not tell Obama
By JENNIFER EPSTEIN |
5/20/13 2:35 PM EDT
Senior White House staff knew of the ongoing investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative groups ahead of the release of a report from a Treasury Department inspector general, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday, but held off on informing the president to wait for a final report.
With the knowledge of an investigation, the White House held to a "cardinal rule" that it should not get involved in an external investigation, Carney said during his daily briefing. "No one in this building intervened in an ongoing independent investigation or did anything that could be seen as intervening," he said.
"To the chagrin of some who would have liked us to get more in front of this, we appropriately waited," Carney later added.
(POLITICO Junkies: Obama, scandal & damage control)
White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler was informed of the IG's audit on April 24, Carney said, and was told that the audit was nearing its conclusion and that a report would be forthcoming indicating that several IRS employees were involved in targeting groups with "tea party" and "patriot" in their names for additional scrutiny.
Carney was more vague last week, telling reporters that Ruemmler's office was informed of the existence of an investigation during the week of April 22, but informed of little more. On Monday, he said that some staff in the counsel's office were told of the report -- and others nearing completion -- a week earlier, on April 16.
(Also on POLITICO: Reports: W.H. told of IRS targeting probe in April)
Ruemmler did inform White House chief of staff Denis McDonough's office of the investigation, Carney said, and other senior staff were also told of the report. Carney wouldn't say who those other staffers were, but did say there were communications between White House staff and Treasury Department staff ahead of the first news reports of the IRS investigation, which emerged 10 days ago.
Though senior staff knew of the probe, Carney said Ruemmler concluded that the investigation was "not a matter she should convey to the president" until the report was finalized.
LOL - who really buys into this malarchy?
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Senior W.H. staff knew of IRS investigation, did not tell Obama
By JENNIFER EPSTEIN |
5/20/13 2:35 PM EDT
Senior White House staff knew of the ongoing investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative groups ahead of the release of a report from a Treasury Department inspector general, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday, but held off on informing the president to wait for a final report.
With the knowledge of an investigation, the White House held to a "cardinal rule" that it should not get involved in an external investigation, Carney said during his daily briefing. "No one in this building intervened in an ongoing independent investigation or did anything that could be seen as intervening," he said.
"To the chagrin of some who would have liked us to get more in front of this, we appropriately waited," Carney later added.
(POLITICO Junkies: Obama, scandal & damage control)
White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler was informed of the IG's audit on April 24, Carney said, and was told that the audit was nearing its conclusion and that a report would be forthcoming indicating that several IRS employees were involved in targeting groups with "tea party" and "patriot" in their names for additional scrutiny.
Carney was more vague last week, telling reporters that Ruemmler's office was informed of the existence of an investigation during the week of April 22, but informed of little more. On Monday, he said that some staff in the counsel's office were told of the report -- and others nearing completion -- a week earlier, on April 16.
(Also on POLITICO: Reports: W.H. told of IRS targeting probe in April)
Ruemmler did inform White House chief of staff Denis McDonough's office of the investigation, Carney said, and other senior staff were also told of the report. Carney wouldn't say who those other staffers were, but did say there were communications between White House staff and Treasury Department staff ahead of the first news reports of the IRS investigation, which emerged 10 days ago.
Though senior staff knew of the probe, Carney said Ruemmler concluded that the investigation was "not a matter she should convey to the president" until the report was finalized.
LOL - who really buys into this malarchy?
I don't believe it one bit, but let's assume it's true. That means they not only "appropriately waited," they let the president find out about it from the media. That's pure incompetence if true.
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I don't believe it one bit, but let's assume it's true. That means they not only "appropriately waited," they let the president find out about it from the media. That's pure incompetence if true.
that's probably because this is small small small potatoes and the report and the findings were not even finalized yet and could have changed
the chief of staff doesn't go running to Obama with every bit of trivial news, especially something that is not even finalized yet
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/20/politics/irs-targeting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
In addition, Carney made clear that the information Ruemmler received on April 24 included details of improper acts by IRS officials.
At the same time, Carney emphasized that the information was preliminary and could have changed before the inspector general released his final report on May 14.
also, no teabagger groups were even denied 501c4 status
in fact the only group denied was a democratic group
this is much to do about nothing and the only mistake Obama made was commenting negatively before getting all the facts
These 501c4 groups are all a big f'ng joke
Very few of them deserve tax exempt status
That is what Obama should have said from the beginning
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You are better spinning thelies than Carney is - submit your resume Carney is done
that's probably because this is small small small potatoes and the report and the findings were not even finalized yet and could have changed
the chief of staff doesn't go running to Obama with every bit of trivial news, especially something that is not even finalized yet
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/20/politics/irs-targeting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
also, no teabagger groups were even denied 501c4 status
in fact the only group denied was a democratic group
this is much to do about nothing and the only mistake Obama made was commenting negatively before getting all the facts
These 501c4 groups are all a big f'ng joke
Very few of them deserve tax exempt status
That is what Obama should have said from the beginning
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You are better spinning thelies than Carney is - submit your resume Carney is done
tell me anything I said that is not true
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More Obama aides knew of IRS audit; Obama not told (yeah, OK, we'll go with that...)
Washington Examiner ^ | 5/20/2013
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 5:47:16 PM by markomalley
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior presidential advisers knew in late April that an upcoming report was likely to find that IRS employees had inappropriately targeted conservative political groups.
That disclosure on Monday expanded the known circle of top officials who were aware of the audit beyond those identified earlier by the White House.
The White House says McDonough and the other advisers did not tell President Barack Obama about the impending report, leaving him to learn the results from news reports later.
The White House defended the decision to keep the president in the dark, with press secretary Jay Carney saying Obama was comfortable with the fact that "some matters are not appropriate to convey to him, and this is one of them."
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More Obama aides knew of IRS audit; Obama not told (yeah, OK, we'll go with that...)
Washington Examiner ^ | 5/20/2013
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 5:47:16 PM by markomalley
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior presidential advisers knew in late April that an upcoming report was likely to find that IRS employees had inappropriately targeted conservative political groups.
That disclosure on Monday expanded the known circle of top officials who were aware of the audit beyond those identified earlier by the White House.
The White House says McDonough and the other advisers did not tell President Barack Obama about the impending report, leaving him to learn the results from news reports later.
The White House defended the decision to keep the president in the dark, with press secretary Jay Carney saying Obama was comfortable with the fact that "some matters are not appropriate to convey to him, and this is one of them."
"likely to find" and .....so what if they knew it in late April
this is just another version of Issa's nonsense over "act of terror" vs "terrorist attack"
another jaw breaking yawn from the general public
no one gives a shit
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"likely to find" and .....so what if they knew it in late April
this is just another version of Issa's nonsense over "act of terror" vs "terrorist attack"
another jaw breaking yawn from the general public
no one gives a shit
no one gave a shit about gun control either didnt stop you yahoos...at least this is of consequence.
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no one gave a shit about gun control either didnt stop you yahoos...at least this is of consequence.
yep, no one except about 90% of the public and a more than a super majority of gun owners and NRA members
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yep, no one except about 90% of the public and a more than a super majority of gun owners and NRA members
simply b/c they had an opinion on the matter when asked doesnt mean they gave a shit, less than 4% thought it was an important issue.
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simply b/c they had an opinion on the matter when asked doesnt mean they gave a shit, less than 4% thought it was an important issue.
many many different polls show that ~ 90% of the public supported more background checks
I guess if we're going to pretend that 90% of those who wanted more background checks also didn't give a shit then they must not give a shit about the current back of scandals since nowhere near 90% of the public think any of them are important
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http://www.humanevents.com/2013/05/20/everyone-at-the-white-house-knew-about-the-irs-scandal-except-the-president/#.UZqoc8hreDc.facebook
By: John Hayward
5/20/2013 05:58 PM
The most laughable spin yet poured out of the Administration today, in the wake of revelations that the top White House lawyer knew about the incoming IRS scandal nearly a month ago. From the Wall Street Journal:
In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general’s report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that “a small number of line IRS employees had improperly scrutinized certain…organizations by using words like ‘tea party’ and ‘patriot,’ ” the official said.
President Barack Obama said last week he learned about the controversy at the same time as the public, on May 10, when an IRS official revealed it to a conference of lawyers. The president’s statement drew criticism, focusing attention on his management style and whether he has kept himself sufficiently informed about the agencies under his authority.
Others, including veterans of previous scandals, said the counsel—whose role is to advise the president on all legal matters concerning his job and the White House—was right to avoid telling Mr. Obama about the audit’s early findings. Doing so could have caused a new storm by creating the appearance of meddling in an independent investigation that hadn’t yet concluded, former officials said.
Whoever these “others” are, they’re hilarious. This would be the same President who swooped in to save Attorney General Eric Holder from the Fast and Furious investigation with a timely claim of executive privilege, right?
Anyone who understood the mega-tonnage of that IG report could see that informing the President was far more sensible, and useful to the nation, than making him look like a fool. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Obama’s defenders that they’re once again putting his personal political viability above the needs of the country. What kind of “leader” is more concerned about avoiding “the appearance of meddling” than dealing with a shocking abuse of power, and coming to the aid of its victims? Sorry, IRS victims, you’re on your own; the White House has Obama’s image to consider.
By the time these revelations boiled into the White House press room, spokesman Jay Carney was reduced to claiming the entire White House senior staff knew about the IRS scandal, but they deliberately kept the President in the dark, leaving him to learn about it by reading the newspapers last Friday:
Give credit where it’s due: you don’t normally see absurdity pushed this hard with a straight face by anyone who isn’t dressed like a clown and threatening Batman.
There are dark suspicions Obama knew what was going on at the IRS much longer than a month ago. According to Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator, it might have been as long ago as March 2010:
According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.
The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:
Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30
In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”
The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:
April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.
In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.
It’s all circumstantial, of course. There’s a lot of circumstance at the White House these days. It’s apparently a renewable resource.
Let’s be charitable and assume the President wasn’t directly involved in launching this outrage, back in 2010. Let’s further grant, for the sake of argument, that the rest of the Administration was as clueless as the IRS hierarchy claims to be… until late last month. With weeks of advance notice, the White House couldn’t come up with a better response than what we’ve seen so far? They couldn’t shake some of these bureaucrats by the lapels and get some facts out of them? It’s chilling to think that President Obama’s “I learned about it from the news, like everybody else” routine is the best they could come up with. It’s insulting that they were so confident the American public would swallow it. This is the final, ridiculous stage of the effort to separate Obama from the actions of his Administration, maintaining his personal popularity at the expense of our national political sanity.
Via Human Events
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Tax-exempt Obama Foundation doesn’t exist at listed addresses
- The Daily Caller - http://dailycaller.com -
Tax-exempt Obama Foundation doesn’t exist at listed addresses
Posted By Charles C. Johnson On 1:44 PM 05/20/2013 In Politics | No Comments
The “charity” run by President Barack Obama’s half-brother that was fast-tracked for IRS tax-exempt status is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website.
The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based.
The Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama.
As first reported by The Daily Caller, the foundation was speedily approved for IRS exemption by Lois Lerner, the IRS senior official at the center of the targeting of conservative organizations that have waited over two years to receive tax exempt status. (RELATED: IRS official Lerner speedily approved exemption for Obama brother’s ‘charity’)
The charity was even given retroactive tax-exempt status despite never having bothered to apply for it. And its history of soliciting donations before receiving tax-exempt status was apparently overlooked.
The address listed on the site barackhobamafoundation.o rg is 107 S. West St. #401, Alexandria, Va., which houses a UPS store on a street that includes a tailor, a Catholic Charities thrift shop and a Gold Works jewelry store.
“They probably just rent a mailbox here or receive mail here,” said a UPS employee when asked if the store was the address for the Barack H. Obama Foundation. She did not know if Malik Obama, who his website says divides his time between Kenya and Virginia, had been in to the store.
A visit to the UPS store revealed that there is a mailbox numbered 401.
The address listed in the group’s IRS filings — 4201 Wilson Blvd. Ste 110-152, Arlington, Va. 22030 — is even more suspicious, as it is a marketing center for A Better Today Recovery Services — a drug-and-alcohol treatment organization.
A receptionist who answered the phone at A Better Today said neither she nor anybody in the office had heard of the Barack H. Obama Foundation. She said A Better Today had been located at the Arlington address for “a couple years.” The IRS filings that list the Arlington address as the foundation’s headquarters were dated May 2011.
“I don’t know if it’s listed wrong or what’s going on, but we have never heard of that,” the receptionist said, adding that A Better Today had never received calls or correspondence related to the Barack H. Foundation.
Although the future president’s 1995 book “Dreams From My Father” depicted the foundation’s namesake, Barack H. Obama, Sr., as a heavy drinker who lost both legs in a car accident, the foundation does not appear to take any interest in addiction treatment.
The foundation’s mission statement is “to provide people everywhere with resources to uplift their welfare and living standards in memory of Barack H. Obama: in the region of his birth, Kenya, and beyond.”
Its guiding principle is “the inherent belief that no one can truly enjoy the riches he has reaped if his neighbor suffers. … We seek to elevate the human condition so that everyone can live in dignity and truly enjoy having one another as neighbors.”
Despite raising more than $250,000, the alleged charity doesn’t seem to have done much. Its website claims the organization has built a madrassa and was building an imam’s house as well as some “proposed latrines,” but there is no other evidence that the nonprofit was working to “mitigate social-shortcomings in areas of education and literacy, health and well-being, poverty, and lack of community infrastructure in such basic needs such as water, electricity, shelter and sustenance,” as the site says.
Alton Ray Baysden, a former Department of State employee and registered Republican who helped to start the foundation, declined to comment before seeing copies of this reporter’s passport and government ID, along with a description of the article’s “motivation” and “slant.”
Repeated phone calls to the Barack H. Foundation went to the organization’s voicemail and were not returned.
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Article printed from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com
URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/20/tax-exempt-obama-foundation-doesnt-exist-at-listed-addresses/
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IRS targeted conservative college interns
Posted By Patrick Howley On 10:36 PM 05/20/2013 In Politics | No Comments
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanded information about conservative groups’ college-aged interns, prompting outrage from one of the country’s top conservative activist organizations and leading one former intern to wonder whether his family’s pizza parlor would be endangered.
The IRS requested, in an audit, the names of the conservative Leadership Institute’s 2008 interns, as well as specific information about their internship work and where the interns were employed in 2012, according to a document request the IRS sent to the Leadership Institute, dated February 14, 2012.
The IRS requested:
“Copies of applications for internships and summer programs; to include: lists of those selected for internships and students in 2008.
– In regards to such internships, please provide information regarding where the interns physically worked and how the placement was arranged.
– After completing internships and courses, where were the students and interns employed?”
The Arlington, Virginia-based Leadership Institute is a conservative activist training organization founded in 1979 by Virginia Republican National Committeeman Morton C. Blackwell, the youngest elected delegate to the 1964 Republican convention that nominated Barry Goldwater. The institute was audited in 2011. As The Daily Caller has reported, at least two different IRS offices made a concerted effort to obtain the group’s training materials.
The Leadership Institute’s audit, which was conducted by the IRS’ Baltimore office and which ended with no determination of wrongdoing but cost the conservative group $50,000 in legal fees, only covered the year 2008, leading employees to speculate that the IRS’ primary interest was figuring out how the group operates during a presidential election year.
“They were very interested in seeing what conservative organizations were doing in 2008, and where the interns from 2008 were now employed,” Leadership Institute vice president of programs David Fenner told the Daily Caller, adding that he “absolutely” believed the IRS audited information from 2008 because it was an election year.
“We declined to give them the names” of former interns, Fenner said.
“When you’re audited, you’re not told why you’re being audited. So the first round of questions are pretty basic and general. In the subsequent rounds they asked invasive questions. Those are the questions we declined to answer. It’s none of their business, and it’s not part of a legitimate audit,” Fenner said.
“It has the feel of a watch list,” Fenner added.
2008 Leadership Institute intern Shane McGonigal, who is now a Leadership Institute regional field coordinator, said that he feared his family’s pizza parlor could be jeopardized by the IRS’ audit.
“It didn’t just affect me, it affected my family too,” McGonigal, who was a 21-year old Virginia college student during his 2008 internship, told TheDC.
“My family opened up a CiCi’s pizza franchise in Virginia, where i was employed after my internship,” McGonigal said, adding that he was relived the Leadership Institute did not disclose his post-internship employer to the IRS.
“They could have audited my family’s business,” McGonigal said. “I was very concerned.”
The IRS also demanded information on the high school and college students trained by the conservative group Linchpins of Liberty.
LI — Intern Questions(1)
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Article printed from The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com
URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/20/irs-targeted-conservative-college-interns/
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5 Troubling Questions About The IRS Scandal
Posted 05/20/2013 06:34 PM ET
Scandal Watch: Despite White House attempts to brush the IRS scandal aside as "irrelevant" or the work of rogue miscreants, huge questions remain about who ordered IRS agents to harass Tea Party groups, and why.
Every day, in fact, raises new and more disturbing questions that congressional investigators must get answers to. Among them:
1. Who told Internal Revenue Service workers to target conservatives? It's becoming increasingly clear these workers did not act on their own. Over the weekend, the Washington Post quoted an IRS staffer saying how "everything comes from the top."
The New York Times reported that IRS accountants got a "directive from their manager" in early 2010 to "be on the lookout" for Tea Party-type groups.
And Treasury workers union President Colleen Kelley told the Associated Press last week, "No processes or procedures or anything like that would ever be done just by frontline employees without any management involvement." So which manager issued the directive? And how far up the chain of command does it go?
2. Who knew what, when? Days after Obama emphatically stated that he learned about the IRS targeting only when it broke on May 10, we learn that Treasury officials told Obama's chief counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, about the targeting weeks before.
We also learned that Treasury itself had known about the targeting since last June — in the middle of the presidential election, and the IRS officials knew before that, but didn't stop the practice.
Did Treasury tell anyone at the White House? Did Obama's chief counsel? Was anyone talking with the Obama presidential campaign about any of this?
3. Why does Lois Lerner still have a job? Ever since Lerner, director of the IRS' tax exempt organizations unit, planted the "spontaneous" question that let her "inadvertently" reveal the IRS targeting, her false claims about the scandal have piled so high, the Washington Post fact checker called it a "bushel of Pinocchios." Since Lerner played a key role in this scandal, and since it is about public trust in the IRS, it's worth pondering why she hasn't been fired.
4. Will the White House stonewall investigations? Getting the bottom of the scandal will require access to communications within the IRS and between the IRS and other administration officials.
Obama last week promised he was "looking forward to working with Congress to fully investigate what happened," but his top adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, put a big asterisk next to that over the weekend, saying that "we're not going to participate in ... a partisan fishing expedition designed to distract from the real issues at hand."
This is not a promising start, since Obama could toss any request from Congress into that category.
5. Why did the IRS try to cover it up? If this really were a bureaucratic snafu, as IRS officials insist, why did they try so hard to keep it under wraps until after the election, then mislead the country about it once the story broke?
Until these and other questions are answered, this scandal is anything but "irrelevant."
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California tea party group files class-action lawsuit against the IRS
Daily Mail ^ | May 21, 2013 | David Martosko
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 10:40:38 AM by Smokeyblue
A California tea party group sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, saying it was among the conservative organizations the federal government targeted for special scrutiny because of its political positions. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, seeks the certification of a class action, which could open the floodgates for as many as 300 other right-wing groups to join the legal effort.
NorCal Tea Party Patriots, based in Colfax, California, told the court that the IRS discriminated against it because of the beliefs of its members, subjecting it to 'a lengthy and costly delay in recognition of their tax-exempt status, and the required disclosure of the personal political beliefs, writings, thoughts, and activities' of its members.
NorCal's website describes its members as 'volunteers who simply love their country and want to save it from a tyrannical takeover.'
Ginni Rapini, the group's founding president, told KGO-ABC7 in San Francisco last week that the IRS made unreasonable demands when she applied for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status for the organization.
'They wanted every email I had ever sent out,' she said. 'They wanted the transcripts of every speech from any speaker at any event, meeting or anything that we had had.'
Like hundreds of other groups, she waited for more than two years while her application sat in the IRS's Cincinnati, Ohio office, never hearing from the agency why it was being delayed. NorCal's tax-exempt status was granted in August 2012, nearly 29 months after the application was filed.
The delays were unreasonable, according to the federal lawsuit, 'because if their tax-exempt status had been ultimately denied they would have been forced to retroactively file tax returns and pay taxes and penalties for up to two years while their applications were pending.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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Outrageous
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Obama’s Defense in IRS Case Is Pre-Election Ignorance
By Mike Dorning & Richard Rubin - May 21, 2013 11:21 AM ET.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-21/obama-s-defense-in-irs-case-is-pre-election-ignorance.html
Whether the Internal Revenue Service controversy explodes into something bigger comes down to this: Did anyone in the Obama administration know before the Nov. 6 election that the agency singled out Tea Party groups for extra screening?
Graphic: Who Knew What and When?
President Barack Obama walks in to speak on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on May 15, 2013. Photographer: Susan Walsh/AP Photo
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“The first question is who knew what when before the elections,” said David Gergen, an adviser to Republican and Democratic presidents from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton.
“It’s a lot more relevant if people withheld sensitive information in a controversy that is, at its heart, about political power,” said Gergen, now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
What’s now an embarrassment to President Barack Obama’s administration would be elevated to a lasting stain if evidence emerges that anyone outside the IRS knew or was involved, either in inspiring the selective scrutiny or in withholding disclosure to the public, during the sensitive election season. So far, no such evidence has emerged.
White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was briefed on the findings on April 24 and informed White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday. Obama said he wasn’t informed of the politically sensitive findings and said he first learned of the scandal when it was publicly disclosed on May 10.
Carney said yesterday it was Ruemmler who decided that the president shouldn’t be told earlier.
Administration Explanations
The account Carney provided yesterday went beyond previous White House explanations. Dan Pfeiffer, an Obama senior adviser, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on May 19 that the White House had “no idea what the facts were” when Treasury officials informed Ruemmler of the audit. Carney said yesterday that Ruemmler was told that certain words such as “Tea Party” and “patriot” were used to identify groups for extra screening.
A Treasury Department official said this morning that the department deferred to the IRS in deciding how to make the report’s findings public. The IRS first suggested using a speech by Lois Lerner, the head of the division overseeing tax-exempt organizations. While Treasury officials expressed concern, they deferred to the IRS, according to the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The IRS also suggested using congressional testimony by the acting commissioner, Steven Miller, during which the agency expected he would be asked about the matter, the official said.
Planting Question
When Miller wasn’t asked in the congressional testimony, the agency suggested planting a question in the audience about the matter during a public speech Lerner was to make May 10, the strategy which the agency ultimately used to reveal the findings. The Treasury department deferred to the IRS in both instances, the official said.
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Mark Childress was consulted on the first two strategies for disclosure, though not the third option ultimately deployed, said a White House official, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Congressional testimony today from Douglas Shulman, who was IRS commissioner through the election, might provide some more answers.
Miller, who was Shulman’s deputy, was aware of the improper targeting by May 3, 2012 -- six months ahead of the election, according to testimony Miller gave last week. Miller, who became acting commissioner after Shulman left last November, is being forced out of the IRS.
‘Not Surprising’
Among the questions Shulman will encounter is why he didn’t inform Congress of the improper targeting. In March of that year, Shulman testified there was no targeting, a statement which by May he learned was misleading.
“It’s not surprising to me that members of Congress took umbrage that the earlier testimony from senior leadership of the IRS was not clarified once they knew more about what was going on,” said Jack Quinn, a Washington lobbyist and White House counsel in the Clinton administration.
A clarification of misleading testimony is “expected” by veteran members of Congress, including Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Gergen said. The panel is holding a hearing on the IRS controversy today.
“It’s why Orrin Hatch has every reason to be angry,” Gergen said. Shulman’s failure to correct the record is “not just imprudent. It’s stupid,” he said.
Any evidence that shows administration officials knew details of the IRS activity before the election would undercut their story and open them to accusations of withholding information for partisan gain.
Independent Agency
Unlike the Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, the IRS isn’t an independent agency. It’s housed inside the Treasury Department, and IRS officials work with Treasury counterparts.
Although the IRS is prohibited from sharing information about individual taxpayers, the tax agency routinely discusses emerging issues and priorities with the administration.
After Tea Party and small-government groups’ complaints became public in early 2012, the IRS could have informed Treasury as to what it was doing or Treasury could have sought an explanation from the IRS, said a former senior Treasury official.
Such a conversation would be expected, given the politically sensitive nature of the issue, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of business contacts with the IRS and Treasury.
The barrage of questions Carney confronted yesterday, over the Obama administration’s response after it was notified last month of a Treasury Department inspector’s report on the IRS controversy, have more to do with the political positioning.
Informing President
“It’s a management question: What do we tell the president?” Gergen said. “I have been in White Houses where there have been fights about what to tell the president and when. Usually, it’s whether to tell the president tonight or tomorrow, not wait two weeks.”
A central theme of congressional complaints so far has been how the IRS singled out Tea Party and Patriot groups, which have been more friendly to Republicans than Democrats, for tougher scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status.
In 2010, IRS employees in Cincinnati began looking for a way to sort which applications for tax-exempt status they should scrutinize. Their job was to prevent groups that were primarily political -- involved in elections -- from being approved for tax-exempt status.
Setting Criteria
They settled on criteria that included such phrases as “Tea Party” and “patriot.” Those terms caught groups that favor Republicans and smaller government. Other criteria didn’t have the same effect and some groups with opposite views did.
Lerner, the mid-level Washington official who oversaw the effort, found out what was happening in June 2011. She tried to change the criteria, only to see Cincinnati workers change them back and send out to the groups extensive questionnaires, some of which asked for reading materials and donor lists.
In early 2012, after the questionnaires went out, Republican lawmakers started complaining. Shulman, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush and then the IRS commissioner, assured them in March 2012 that there was no “targeting.” At the same time, Miller, a deputy commissioner, dispatched an aide to figure out what was going on.
Miller learned the details on May 3, 2012, and he said Shulman found out, too. “I’m sure Mr. Shulman knew,” Miller said at the hearing. “I’m not sure that anybody above Mr. Shulman knew.”
Inspector General
Even as the inspector general informed officials outside the IRS about the existence of his audit -- including Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican -- the knowledge of what the IRS had done remained inside the agency, at least based on the evidence that has become public.
It started spreading beyond the IRS in mid-March 2013, when the inspector general began sharing his draft report. The IRS informed the Treasury Department of the findings shortly after that, according to a Treasury statement.
The Treasury Department -- though neither Wolin nor Secretary Jacob J. Lew -- received an updated draft report in late April. The IRS acknowledged that it had singled out small-government groups on May 10, when Lerner responded to a planted question at a tax conference.
The inspector general’s report came out May 14, and by the next day, Obama announced Miller’s resignation.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.net; Richard Rubin in Washington at rrubin12@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net; Jodi Schneider at
jschneider50@bloomberg.net
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IRS Commissioner Contradicts Earlier Testimony, Says Tea Party-Targeting Was Partisan
Posted: 05/21/2013 2:25 pm EDT | Updated: 05/21/2013 2:47 pm EDT
WASHINGTON -- The head of the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday, in his second day of sworn testimony before congressional committees, admitted under questioning that the agency's targeting of tea party groups was a partisan act.
"It absolutely was," said Steven Miller, acting commissioner of the IRS, when asked by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) if the agency acted in a partisan manner.
Miller had said in his opening statement to the Senate Finance Committee that the targeting was "not an act of partisanship." The question of whether the IRS personnel who targeted tea party groups acted in a partisan way has implications for whether they broke laws such as the Hatch Act, which forbids government employees from engaging in partisan political activity.
HuffPost asked IRS officials about Miller's comment after the hearing, and sent one of them the transcript of Miller's exchange with Burr. The IRS has not yet responded.
Here is a transcript of the exchange between Burr and Miller, where they are discussing "be on the lookout" (BOLO) terms that the IRS was using to target conservative groups. In his reference to a "second listing," Miller is referring to a change in BOLO terms on January 2012. The terms started out in 2011 as focused on "organizations in the Tea Party movement," were changed in June 2011 to a far more vague scope that did not indicate political or ideological orientation, and then were changed back in January 2012 to more specific terms.
Miller's reference to a "second listing" is actually to the third iteration of the BOLO terms. So when Burr refers to the terms "before," it's clear he is talking about the BOLO terms before July 2011, which were specifically focused on the tea party.
BURR: Mr. Miller, let me just ask you. Has this practice stopped?
MILLER: What practice, sir?
BURR: The practice of how they process the consideration of these applications -- keywords "conservative," "tea party," "patriot"?
MILLER: I believe that that did happen. The names stopped when -- last in -- when Lois Lerner first learned of it. The second listing, by the way, if you take a look at that, in the Treasury inspector general's report, is still problematic because it talks about policy positions, but it actually is not particularly partisan in how it talks about policy positions.
BURR: So it was partisan -- it was partisan before, though.
MILLER: Yes, it absolutely was.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-top-irs-official-fifth-amendment-20130521,0,6645565.story
BBBOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!
TAKING THE 5TH
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WASHINGTON – A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.
Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening – or why she didn’t reveal it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor 3rd.
Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee Wednesday.
Document: Inspector general's report on the IRS
Photos: President Obama's scandal-filled week
Photos: President Obama's past
IRS officials still don't have full explanation of targeting
Former IRS commissioner 'dismayed' by inspector general's report
White House officials knew of IRS audit findings weeks in advance
See more stories »
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DOCUMENT: The Inspector General’s report on the IRS
“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif. The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.
Taylor, a criminal defense attorney from the Washington firm of Zuckerman Spaeder, said that the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation, and that the House committee has asked Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year.
Since Lerner won’t answer questions, Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” There was no immediate word whether the committee will grant her request.
According to an inspector general’s report, Lerner found out in June 2011 that some staff in the nonprofits division in Cincinnati had used terms like “Tea Party” and “Patriots” to select some applications for additional screening of their political activities. She ordered changes.
But neither Lerner nor anyone else at the IRS told Congress, even after repeated queries from several committees, including House Oversight, about whether some groups had been singled out unfairly.
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moron teabaagers didn't even need to apply to the IRS for tax exempt status
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moron teabaagers didn't even need to apply to the IRS for tax exempt status
What a terrible past few weeks for the liberal criminal syndicate
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/05/21/internal-irs-probe-cited-same-problems-with-approach-to-conservative-groups-in-may-2012-house-aide-says
Badaboom!!!!
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The IRS Official At The Center Of The Scandal Will Plead The Fifth Amendment Before Congress Tomorrow
Brett LoGiurato|10 minutes ago|1|
Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, will invoke the Fifth Amendment and not answer questions while testifying before a House committee on Wednesday about the IRS' inappropriate targeting of conservative groups.
Lerner is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. In a letter to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that was obtained by The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, Lerner's attorney, William W. Taylor III, wrote that "she has no choice but to take this course."
Taylor also asked that she be excused from the hearing, writing that it would "have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her." However, Issa has issued a subpoena to require her appearance before the committee.
Lerner revealed the IRS' inappropriate targeting and sparked the scandal after answering a question at a May 10 conference from Washington tax lawyer Celia Roady.
Wednesday's hearing is expected to be loaded, with former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, and J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's Inspector General, also scheduled to testify.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/irs-scandal-lois-lerner-plead-fifth-amendment-2013-5#ixzz2TxqMQBIQ
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The IRS Official At The Center Of The Scandal Will Plead The Fifth Amendment Before Congress Tomorrow
Brett LoGiurato|10 minutes ago|1|
Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, will invoke the Fifth Amendment and not answer questions while testifying before a House committee on Wednesday about the IRS' inappropriate targeting of conservative groups.
Lerner is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. In a letter to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that was obtained by The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, Lerner's attorney, William W. Taylor III, wrote that "she has no choice but to take this course."
Taylor also asked that she be excused from the hearing, writing that it would "have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her." However, Issa has issued a subpoena to require her appearance before the committee.
Lerner revealed the IRS' inappropriate targeting and sparked the scandal after answering a question at a May 10 conference from Washington tax lawyer Celia Roady.
Wednesday's hearing is expected to be loaded, with former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, and J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's Inspector General, also scheduled to testify.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/irs-scandal-lois-lerner-plead-fifth-amendment-2013-5#ixzz2TxqMQBIQ
Oh snap. :o
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Carney: Obama Didn’t Ask Why He Didn’t Know about IRS Before News Reports
nationalreview.com ^
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 5:24:13 PM
Carney: Obama Didn’t Ask Why He Didn’t Know about IRS Before News Reports
By Andrew Johnson May 21, 2013 4:12 PM Comments 21
Jay Carney told reporters that President Obama did not ask his senior staff why he was learning about the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups for the first time through news reports two weeks ago, rather than from his staff. The administration has admitted that White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was informed in late April of the inspector general report detailing the targeting and that she shared the information with members of the the president’s senior staff. The White House maintains that neither Ruemmler nor the president’s staff made him aware of the report.
“The president believes that the counsel’s decision is the right one,” Carney said. He reiterated that the president would not have wanted to intervene in an ongoing investigation.
Carney also said that White House deputy chief of staff Mark Childress spoke with Treasury Department officials about how to best reveal the IRS’s targeting, including a “discussion about the possibility of a speech.” The targeting was instead revealed when Lois Lerner responded to a planted question about the targeting at a conference earlier this month.
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Carney: Obama Didn’t Ask Why He Didn’t Know about IRS Before News Reports
nationalreview.com ^
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 5:24:13 PM
Carney: Obama Didn’t Ask Why He Didn’t Know about IRS Before News Reports
By Andrew Johnson May 21, 2013 4:12 PM Comments 21
Jay Carney told reporters that President Obama did not ask his senior staff why he was learning about the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups for the first time through news reports two weeks ago, rather than from his staff. The administration has admitted that White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was informed in late April of the inspector general report detailing the targeting and that she shared the information with members of the the president’s senior staff. The White House maintains that neither Ruemmler nor the president’s staff made him aware of the report.
“The president believes that the counsel’s decision is the right one,” Carney said. He reiterated that the president would not have wanted to intervene in an ongoing investigation.
Carney also said that White House deputy chief of staff Mark Childress spoke with Treasury Department officials about how to best reveal the IRS’s targeting, including a “discussion about the possibility of a speech.” The targeting was instead revealed when Lois Lerner responded to a planted question about the targeting at a conference earlier this month.
This is stupid. Being made aware of an investigation is not intervening. ::)
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This is stupid. Being made aware of an investigation is not intervening. ::)
You think the POTUS should intervene in an ongoing investigation and even prior to having an outcome?
Is that something POTUS's normally do
btw - not one single Teabagger group was denied 501c4 status and in fact they don't even need to apply to the IRS for tax exempt status
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You think the POTUS should intervene in an ongoing investigation and even prior to having an outcome?
Is that something POTUS's normally do
btw - not one single Teabagger group was denied 501c4 status and in fact they don't even need to apply to the IRS for tax exempt status
Obama has no idea what is going on in his admn since he is doing blow all day
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Obama has no idea what is going on in his admn since he is doing blow all day
fucking moron
and you wonder why no one takes you seriously
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Colbert concludes tea partiers are ‘a bunch of pussies’ after consulting his lawyer hahahahaha
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=b716156ab5ecd7182fdbf9e72d749dcb&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F1014489243&v=1&libId=63d61e76-aef9-4c28-9128-94056c3615e4&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Frs%2F2013%2F05%2F21%2Fcolbert-concludes-tea-partiers-are-a-bunch-of-pussies-after-consulting-his-lawyer%2F&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F%3Fcom%3Dforum%26id%3D1014&title=Colbert%20concludes%20tea%20partiers%20are%20%E2%80%98a%20bunch%20of%20pussies%E2%80%99%20after%20consulting%20his%20lawyer%20-%20Democratic%20Underground&txt=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Frs%2F2013%2F05%2F21%2Fcolbert-concludes-tea-partiers-are-a-bunch-of-pussies-after-consulting-his-lawyer%2F&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13691759147119
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Colbert concludes tea partiers are ‘a bunch of pussies’ after consulting his lawyer hahahahaha
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=b716156ab5ecd7182fdbf9e72d749dcb&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F1014489243&v=1&libId=63d61e76-aef9-4c28-9128-94056c3615e4&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Frs%2F2013%2F05%2F21%2Fcolbert-concludes-tea-partiers-are-a-bunch-of-pussies-after-consulting-his-lawyer%2F&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F%3Fcom%3Dforum%26id%3D1014&title=Colbert%20concludes%20tea%20partiers%20are%20%E2%80%98a%20bunch%20of%20pussies%E2%80%99%20after%20consulting%20his%20lawyer%20-%20Democratic%20Underground&txt=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Frs%2F2013%2F05%2F21%2Fcolbert-concludes-tea-partiers-are-a-bunch-of-pussies-after-consulting-his-lawyer%2F&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13691759147119
yep, not a peep out of our right wing nutbags about this fact
http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=479997.0
http://on.cc.com/10Ldfpc
so much for the lie that the IRS somehow prevented them from organizing or taking action prior or during the election
Colbert was raising money and creating ads and other media content and never applied for tax exempt status
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many many different polls show that ~ 90% of the public supported more background checks
I guess if we're going to pretend that 90% of those who wanted more background checks also didn't give a shit then they must not give a shit about the current back of scandals since nowhere near 90% of the public think any of them are important
again simply b/c they have an opinion when asked doesnt mean they though it was important.
did you not see the poll showing that 4% thought it was an important issue?
I guess not, I bet you have an opinion on fat chicks in tight clothes...that doesnt mean you think its an important issue...what a fucking tard!!!
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again simply b/c they have an opinion when asked doesnt mean they though it was important.
did you not see the poll showing that 4% thought it was an important issue?
I guess not, I bet you have an opinion on fat chicks in tight clothes...that doesnt mean you think its an important issue...what a fucking tard!!!
why don't you post your link and we'll see how close your memory is to reality
while you are at it go ahead and post many many different polls showing this so that it's comparable to the number of polls showing high double digit support for back ground checks
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why don't you post your link and we'll see how close your memory is to reality
while you are at it go ahead and post many many different polls showing this so that it's comparable to the number of polls showing high double digit support for back ground checks
google it tard, or better yet actually click on threads that go against your view...you can start with the one about the DOJ monitoring fox reporters that the entire liberal goof troop is avoiding...
LOL again simply b/c someone has an opinion on something doesnt mean they think its important...YOU DO UNDERSTAND THAT RIGHT?
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google it tard, or better yet actually click on threads that go against your view...you can start with the one about the DOJ monitoring fox reporters that the entire liberal goof troop is avoiding...
LOL again simply b/c someone has an opinion on something doesnt mean they think its important...YOU DO UNDERSTAND THAT RIGHT?
no thanks
I already have way too much experience with you repeating back things that I've said and changing them so I don't need to waste my time
I will just assume you are wrong as usual
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no thanks
I already have way too much experience with you repeating back things that I've said and changing them so I don't need to waste my time
I will just assume you are wrong as usual
hahaha how can I change your quotes?
LMFAO what a tard
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hahaha how can I change your quotes?
LMFAO what a tard
you repeat back what you think I said rather than linking my quote
you change the content
you've done this many times
this is one of the hallmarks of you being a fundy libtard
Another hallmark of course is that you claim no memory of it
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go back and read my posts
I said exactly the same thing
the two people in the field office are to blame and I don't think it's even a scandal (once again - Obama capitulating and throwing someone under the bus just like he did with Shirely Sherrod, Van Jones, etc..)
Bush's Fault
Seriously
The head of the IRS at the time this happened was a Bush Appointee
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.
LOL what part of this did I misinterpret straw?
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LOL what part of this did I misinterpret straw?
my last post was in response to the many times you've attempted to paraphrase something I've said and completely changed it or left out part of it
regarding this topic you've apparently chosen to ignore all of my other posts such as the one below
now, if you want to go off on your tangent again about gun legislation then post some links or I will continue to assume your memory is faulty (either that or your intelligence)
Obama has no involvement and this happened under Douglas Shulman's watch
so you either have to believe the story that it was a few low level employees and that the head of the agency is not responsible for the actions of his employees or you have to blame the head of the agency, who was appointed by Bush
those are the only two choices
If Repubs weren't always acting like a bunch of pussy victims all the time they would realize this was just the action of a couple of employees and the real story is that it's FUCKING AMAZING that the IRS admitted it much less apologized for it
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my last post was in response to the many times you've attempted to paraphrase something I've said and completely changed it or left out part of it
regarding this topic you've apparently chosen to ignore all of my other posts such as the one below
now, if you want to go off on your tangent again about gun legislation then post some links or I will continue to assume your memory is faulty (either that or your intelligence)
lol you clearly stated that you didnt blame bush when you obviously did in a previous post....
As Ive stated there was more than one thread here on it, if you bothered to actually look you would find it...you could also google it but whatever...you would simply find some simple minded reason for dismissing it so continue to think that simply b/c someone has an opinion on something they believe its important lol
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lol you clearly stated that you didnt blame bush when you obviously did in a previous post....
As Ive stated there was more than one thread here on it, if you bothered to actually look you would find it...you could also google it but whatever...you would simply find some simple minded reason for dismissing it so continue to think that simply b/c someone has an opinion on something they believe its important lol
Wrong again, as usual
Obama has no involvement and this happened under Douglas Shulman's watch
so you either have to believe the story that it was a few low level employees and that the head of the agency is not responsible for the actions of his employees or you have to blame the head of the agency, who was appointed by Bush
those are the only two choices
If Repubs weren't always acting like a bunch of pussy victims all the time they would realize this was just the action of a couple of employees and the real story is that it's FUCKING AMAZING that the IRS admitted it much less apologized for it
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Quote from: LurkerNoMore on March 28, 2013, 12:35:08 PM
Good luck with that. He overcompensates by trying to string buzz words together in an attempt to sound witty and knowledgeable which in reality leaves any argument or stance of his with a bigger gap in it than there was before.
Particularly amusing is his habit of trying to reverse your statement back in the form of a rhetorical question in the hopes that you will make his argument for him. Since he isn't exactly sure of what he is trying to say or how to convey it. LOL fits tonymctunes to the tee
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Quote from: LurkerNoMore on March 28, 2013, 12:35:08 PM
Good luck with that. He overcompensates by trying to string buzz words together in an attempt to sound witty and knowledgeable which in reality leaves any argument or stance of his with a bigger gap in it than there was before.
Particularly amusing is his habit of trying to reverse your statement back in the form of a rhetorical question in the hopes that you will make his argument for him. Since he isn't exactly sure of what he is trying to say or how to convey it. LOL fits tonymctunes to the tee
in additional to all of the above he also likes to make up new words like "fundy liberal" but when asked is not capable of defining his own creation and even denies creating it
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Wrong again, as usual
Those aren't even close to the only 2 choices. There's a whole range of possibilities.
Regardless of who appointed who, Obama has been at the helm for over 4 years. More than sufficient time for his appointed people and policies to have filtered throughout all organizations within the Executive.
And it doesn't have to be something nefarious. He could've just stated as an overall policy to increase scrutiny on certain things which may lead to fraud. And then the lower level employees enacted the policies to make that happen. If word never reached Obama, it could have been filtered out at any possible level of supervision, but then that leads to questioning why supervisors and leaders never passed it up and it directly reflects on his management.
And a whole range of possibilities in between...
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Those aren't even close to the only 2 choices. There's a whole range of possibilities.
Regardless of who appointed who, Obama has been at the helm for over 4 years. More than sufficient time for his appointed people and policies to have filtered throughout all organizations within the Executive.
And it doesn't have to be something nefarious. He could've just stated as an overall policy to increase scrutiny on certain things which may lead to fraud. And then the lower level employees enacted the policies to make that happen. If word never reached Obama, it could have been filtered out at any possible level of supervision, but then that leads to questioning why supervisors and leaders never passed it up and it directly reflects on his management.
And a whole range of possibilities in between...
it could also be (and likely is) exactly what the outgoing director said it was which was the decision of a couple of low level employees in one field office
I think even more important is that this so called scandal will open up the entire 501c4 section of the code to a lot more scrutiny which is completely valid
the code was written as follows:
The Statute IRC 501(c)(4) provides for exemption of:
Civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated
exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.
Local associations of employees, the membership of which is limited to the
employees of a designated person or persons in a particular municipality
and the net earnings of which are devoted exclusively to charitable,
educational, or recreational purposes.
The statutory terms disclose that IRC 501(c)(4) embraces two general
classifications:
a. Social welfare organizations, and
b. Local associations of employees.
Later the IRS added contradictory language saying "primarily" so now we have a definition of exclusively that also means primarily
This confusion (caused by the IRS) leads to all kinds of problems in figuring out if a group is really qualified for this status
This status has been abused for decades and especially so in recent years
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it could also be (and likely is) exactly what the outgoing director said it was which was the decision of a couple of low level employees in one field office
No, in my experience that would be highly unlikely. They do not work in a vacuum. They were pushing their sitreps up to somebody at a supervisory level. Now, if that supervisor filtered them out, or somebody up higher (as all sitreps get filtered smaller and smaller), then the more likely question is at what point in the chain of command were they removed and why was it not deemed important enough to pass up.
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Lois Lerner taking the 5th no biggie right Straw?
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No, in my experience that would be highly unlikely. They do not work in a vacuum. They were pushing their sitreps up to somebody at a supervisory level. Now, if that supervisor filtered them out, or somebody up higher (as all sitreps get filtered smaller and smaller), then the more likely question is at what point in the chain of command were they removed and why was it not deemed important enough to pass up.
I don't have any knowledge of how an IRS field office works so If you do I'll defer to your knowledge of that
I'm sure there is going to be an investigation (probably many redundant ones since the Repubs like that sort of thing) so I guess this will be more detailed at some point
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Lois Lerner taking the 5th no biggie right Straw?
who knows
could be something or not
she is the one who first revealed this info to begin with
whatever happens I'm sure it will lead to nothing but frustration and tears for you
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who knows
could be something or not
she is the one who first revealed this info to begin with
whatever happens I'm sure it will lead to nothing but frustration and tears for you
She revealed it because she knew it was coming to light
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She revealed it because she knew it was coming to light
whatever you say champ
I have no idea and I'm guessing you have the same or even less but I know how you like to get yourself excited over shit like this and life has been tough for you so have at it and enjoy yourself with this while you can
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whatever you say champ
I have no idea and I'm guessing you have the same or even less but I know how you like to get yourself excited over shit like this and life has been tough for you so have at it and enjoy yourself with this while you can
LOL - seeing the entire Obama admn go down in flames day by day is something I relish in
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/lois-lerner-irs-scandal_n_3314693.html
Obama cultists in full meltdown
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LOL - seeing the entire Obama admn go down in flames day by day is something I relish in
the only thing going down in flames is your sanity
it's going to be fun to watch you cry again as all of these so called scandals fade away but then I guess Obama will complete his plan to collapse the nation right?
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the only thing going down in flames is your sanity
it's going to be fun to watch you cry again as all of these so called scandals fade away but then I guess Obama will complete his plan to collapse the nation right?
Yeah Obama is doing so great - lol
You voted for this ghetto crackhead twice who is now drowned in scandal and disgrace
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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/21/Top-Democrats-Call-For-More-IRS-Resignations?utm_source=feedly
Demos calling for more firings
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Yeah Obama is doing so great - lol
You voted for this ghetto crackhead twice who is now drowned in scandal and disgrace
sorry to bust your bubble
hasn't seemed to have hurt his poll #'s and in fact he is up in one poll since last month
Obama was at 49 percent in last week’s Gallup poll. He’s at 49 percent in this week’s Gallup poll. CNN gave Obama even better news. A poll conducted on Friday and Saturday — so, peak scandal days — found the president’s approval rating at 53 percent. That’s a slight increase from their last poll, which was conducted in April and found Obama’s approval at 51 percent.
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sorry to bust your bubble
hasn't seemed to have hurt his poll #'s and in fact he is up in one poll since last month
LOL - 51% - 47% of which are ghetto parasites and welfare moochers like yourself who support him
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LOL - 51% - 47% of which are ghetto parasites and welfare moochers like yourself who support him
says the loser who actually lives in a ghetto while I'm on track (just looked at my numbers for end of month) to make over 250k this year
glad to see though that you can admit this approval ratings are not harmed at all and in fact have gone up
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says the loser who actually lives in a ghetto while I'm on track (just looked at my numbers for end of month) to make over 250k this year
glad to see though that you can admit this approval ratings are not harmed at all and in fact have gone up
sorry asshole - im not in that group - but you are on welfare ebt obamaphone and support o-thug solely because he funds your welfare
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sorry asshole - im not in that group - but you are on welfare ebt obamaphone and support o-thug solely because he funds your welfare
says the loser who lives in the ghetto and has complained repeatedly that he can't afford to move out
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sorry asshole - im not in that group - but you are on welfare ebt obamaphone and support o-thug solely because he funds your welfare
[/quote
says the loser who lives in the ghetto and has complained repeatedly that he can't afford to move out
LOL - selling my place - closing is in a few weeks - selling for double what I paid in 2004. You = idiot
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LOL - selling my place - closing is in a few weeks - selling for double what I paid in 2004. You = idiot
good for you
you finally sold the shit hole
where are you moving to?
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good for you
you finally sold the shit hole
where are you moving to?
Moved the office to WHITE Plains, NY right near the NYS Supreme Court, Westchester County.
trying to move to Fairfield CT w the GF
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Moved the office to WHITE Plains, NY right near the NYS Supreme Court, Westchester County.
trying to move to Fairfield CT w the GF
I assume you're going to take the 30k you made on your dump and buy a new place
what's the target purchase price for the new place
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I assume you're going to take the 30k you made on your dump and buy a new place
what's the target purchase price for the new place
LOL netting about 50k - bit have 150k liquid for a new place, I cant touch my SEP, IRA, or other funds
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LOL netting about 50k - bit have 150k liquid for a new place, I cant touch my SEP, IRA, or other funds
damn, your place only sold for 100k
my place appreciated that much last year alone
aren't you a veteran?
Why not get a VA loan with no money down and keep your cash
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IRS Official Who Targeted Tea Party, Also Targeted Conservative Groups in the 90s
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On May 21, 2013 @ 12:37 pm In The Point | 5 Comments
Twice they say is a pattern. Or a charm. And there isn’t much charm in using government agencies to conduct an illegal war against the opposition.
Perhaps no other IRS official is more intimately associated with the tax agency’s growing scandal than Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division. Since admitting the IRS harassed hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups for over two years, Lerner has been criticized for a number of untruths—including the revelation that she apparently lied about planting a question at an American Bar Association conference where she first publicly acknowledged IRS misconduct.
Prior to joining the IRS, Lerner’s tenure as head of the Enforcement Office at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was marked by what appears to be politically motivated harassment of conservative groups.
Lerner was appointed head of the FEC’s enforcement division in 1986 and stayed in that position until 2001. In the late 1990s, the FEC launched an onerous investigation of the Christian Coalition, ultimately costing the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours in lost work. The investigation was notable because the FEC alleged that the Christian Coalition was coordinating issue advocacy expenditures with a number of candidates for office. Aside from lacking proof this was happening, it was an open question whether the FEC had the authority to bring these charges.
The FEC was targeting the Christian Coalition for its role during the Clinton Administration, including the 1992 election. It was a rather blatant attempt at taking down a non-profit speaking to the opposition’s base.
And Lerner’s tactics at the FEC were rather similar to the IRS’s current campaign.
FEC attorneys continued their intrusion into religious activities by prying into what occurs at Coalition staff prayer meetings, and even who attends the prayer meetings held at the Coalition. This line of questioning was pursued several times. Deponents were also asked to explain what the positions of “intercessory prayer” and “prayer warrior” entailed, what churches specific people belonged, and the church and its location at which a deponent met Dr. Reed.
One of the most shocking and startling examples of this irrelevant and intrusive questioning by F EC attorneys into private political associations of citizens occurred during the administrative depositions of three pastors from South Carolina. Each pastor, only one of whom had only the slightest connection with the Coalition, was asked not only about their federal, state and local political activities, including party affiliations, but about political activities that, as one FEC attorney described as “personal,” and outside of the jurisdiction of the FECA [Federal Election Campaign Act]. They were also continually asked about the associations and activities of the members of their congregations, and even other pastors.
The witch hunt eventually ended in failure, but not before using government power to entangle and intimidate conservative groups. That was clearly the goal this time around as well.
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Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/irs-official-who-targeted-tea-party-also-targeted-conservative-groups-at-fec/
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DHS SENDS IN CHOPPER to Intimidate Tea Party Protesters in LA
Gateway Pundit ^ | May 22, 2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 8:18:20 AM
ARMED DHS GUARDS greeted St. Louis Tea Party protesters at the Town and Country IRS office on Tuesday.
Around 300 protesters turned out anyway.
DHS parked their vehicles right outside the IRS office just in case the Tea Party protesters got crazy and violent.
But the DHS intimidation was not isolated to St. Louis.
In Los Angeles DHS put a chopper in the air and told Tea Party protesters they could not be on federal property.
They had to move away from the building.
This report came from a Tea Party protester in California.
Many of our 300 tea party folks were approached immediately by Homeland Security and told they could not be on federal property. My lawyer told me as long as I didn’t block passage we were OK. Many Homeland Security trucks and a helicopter above us scared many patriots so most of group went to public side walk to rally.
However, I stayed at IRS entrance telling Homeland Security it is my right to be there.
Then as I was leaving carrying my sign a woman jumped out of her car in IRS parking lot and started threatening me, “I am with ICE!”
To which I replied, “I am with Laguna Patriots!”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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Greenfield: Partisan Nation
Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog ^ | Wednesday, May 22, 2013 | Daniel Greenfield
Posted on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 8:17:50 AM by Louis Foxwell
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Partisan Nation
Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog
The use of the IRS to target conservative groups should be the least surprising development in years. Not only does that sort of thing date back to Clinton and JFK, both of whom unleashed the IRS on their enemies, not to mention Nixon who never managed to pull off the things that JFK grinned, did and got away with, but there was no reason for not to do it.
The two reasons not to sic the IRS on your enemies are decency and the law. Is there anything in Obama's career, including his treatment of fellow Democrats, to suggest that he cares for either one?
The man in the White House clawed his way to power by stabbing his mentor in the back, leaking the divorce records of his political opponents and throwing out the votes of Democrats in Florida and Michigan to claim the nomination.
And he was just getting started.
In the last election, Obama urged voters to punish our "enemies". It was a window into the mindset of a man who moans and groans about partisan politics, but talks like Huey Long when he gets in front of the right audience.
But these days the description is fairly apt. Who was the last president that both sides could agree was an okay sort of guy or something less than the devil incarnate? The answer might be George H. W. Bush, who was pilloried for being an out of touch rich guy, but really not all that bad when you think about it. And that means we have to go back two decades to find a president that the other side didn't think should be put on an ice floe and pushed out to sea.
And before Bush I, we would have to go back all the way to the Eisenhower or Truman era. Politics was never nice. It was often very nasty indeed. But this isn't the petty infighting of the political class anymore. We're not talking about Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr shooting it out or Eleanor Roosevelt driving a car with a teapot on its roof behind Theodore Roosevelt Jr to keep him away from the job that would eventually go to her husband. This is a partisan politics born out of ideology.
The old politics sought a status quo that could be tweaked to favor one side or interest. The new ideological politics seek a fundamental transformation that will entirely destroy the status quo and eventually tear out every element, overturn every trace of what was and replace it with what should be. Ideological partisanship of this stripe is not concerned with the stability of the system. It is not worried about burning bridges because it believes all the bridges will have to be burned anyway.
There is a limit to what any political movement can do out of greed or personal vendettas in a democracy, but there is no limit to what it can do when it combines these with a political ideology whose ends justify all means. There is nothing that it will not do because it is unconcerned with the long term consequences of its actions, only with the short term results. It has no long term investment in the existing system which it intends to destroy.
Corrupt ideologies treat men with no decency as valuable assets. Their lack of scruples proves their willingness to put ideology over all mores and norms. The more extreme the ideology, the fewer limits it accepts on its freedom of action against its enemies and the more such actions come to seem natural. And then why not punish your enemies by using the full force of government against them?
The practical reason for not using government agencies to repress your opposition in a democracy was that they might do the same thing to you. But the mobilization of the bureaucracy as an arm of the left has made that fear largely irrelevant. Using the IRS to target Democrats would be dangerous business for a Republican. And the same would go for every other Federal agency whose appointees may be loosely conservative, but oversee organizations stuffed full of liberals and union members.
There is no such deterrent on the other side. And the only remaining deterrent, the fear of public exposure was largely nullified by the media. The impression was that Obama Inc. could do anything it pleased and get away with it. And so it did.
A system of checks and balances only works if the participants are bound by some higher code than ideology. Ethics is no longer a defining code. Neither is Americanism or democracy or any of the other things that politicians made speeches about back in the 19th and 20th. The infrastructure of the left has eclipsed all other bonds and connections. It has collective goals and a power structure that runs through public and private organizations mobilized for a common purpose.
That renders the old rules mostly meaningless. Suggestions to be considered, if the various organs, the oversight groups, the bureaucracies and the media are in the mood. And if they are, then they may pay a little attention to the latest abuse of power. If they're not, they won't.
It's easy to compare Obama to Nixon, but the comparison is wrong. Nixon had lost faith in the entire idea of rules. He had floundered in a corrupt system for so long that he had to sacrifice everything he believed in to get ahead only to still be hemmed in on all sides. Obama never believed in rules and never compromised on anything except on a temporary basis. Nixon was angry, but Obama is blithe.
It's not a post-rules world. But it's a world where force determines which rules apply to whom.
Obama will illegally and unilaterally impose rules and laws on others, but he won't follow any rules or laws, even those in the Constitution. It's tyranny, but handled with a post-everything flair as if abuse of power is a dot com thing like not having a business model. Using the IRS to suppress rival political organizations is treated like one of those new data management techniques. Just another clever out-of-the-box tool in a game of everything goes.
And why shouldn't everything go?
Government isn't really an institution anymore, it's a toolset. If you break the tools, they can be replaced. Fire some people, hire consultants to rebrand or rename an entire agency and then you're back in business. History doesn't matter. Neither does the public trust. Everything exists only to fulfill the goals of the moment.
In the old politics, maintaining the institutions of government was the greater goal. In the new politics, government is a means to an end. The end may still be government, but it isn't a thing of institutions, but of ideologues. It doesn't matter whether it's 200 years or 200 minutes old. The 200 minutes old one is more likely to be up on the latest trends in nudging people into the right corners.
Technocrat ideologues don't value existing institutions and the left justifies its existence by destroying whatever exists in the name of reform.
Forward! means that are constantly moving ahead without looking back, except when it comes time to blame some current shortcoming on George W. Bush and his evil regime. It means that we are constantly destroying in the name of building. Everything must go so it can be remade in the more perfect image of the Harvard professors who know just how to do everything even if they have never done a thing in their life.
Obama is not a creature of the old partisan politics of a balance of power. He prefers imbalances. He chooses chaos. By exercising power he destroys and in his ideological sphere, that destruction is creative. Destroying health care will usher in national health care. Destroying public trust in government will usher in an even more oppressive government.
There is nothing American about the new partisan politics. They are purely Post-American, a breath of hot air from the coming system that will have no rules except power and no law except force. And this game is one in which the lack of a binding ideology is fatal.
To assume that your opponents have any decency, as the Republicans habitually do, is to be left behind in Politics 1.0. In Politics 2.0, the utter lack of decency is proof of integrity. To truly believe, you must have no ethics. To truly care about people, the environment, little children in the ghetto, polar bears, recycled rubber shoes, corporate welfare and LGBT workplaces, you must not have any standards when it comes to what you do.
In Partisan Nation, you would use the IRS against your enemies because it's there. And what else is it good for except reminding you that the taxpayers don't have enough money to cover a new light rail system across the country or free bikes for all? In Partisan Nation, trust doesn't matter because the default assumption is that everyone can be lied to non-stop or barraged with so much propaganda that they will do what they are supposed to. In Partisan Nation, America doesn't matter, winning does.
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http://www.fox19.com/story/22380127/reality-check-exclusive-cincinnati-agent-giving-orders-in-irs-scandal
:o :o
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329067/Congress-hosts-IRS-bloodbath-slamming-tax-authorities-partisan-targeting-conservatives-official-refuses-answer-questions.html
Fall out continues
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http://cnsnews.com/news/article/irs-misses-filing-deadline-fails-comply-congressional-demand-all-communications-wh
>:(
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Moved the office to WHITE Plains, NY right near the NYS Supreme Court, Westchester County.
trying to move to Fairfield CT w the GF
Hey 333, I don't understand why you didn't sell your shithole when property values were skyrocketing at the end of the Bush Administration
Why did you wait until Obama's 2nd term when the collapse of the nation was fully underway and real estate values had crashed
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http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/16/embattled-irs-official-lois-lerners-husbands-law-firm-hosted-an-obama-campaign-organizing-meeting
Obama = sludge
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http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/16/embattled-irs-official-lois-lerners-husbands-law-firm-hosted-an-obama-campaign-organizing-meeting
Obama = sludge
so what if her husbands law firm hosted a campaign organizing meeting?
I'm still curious why you waited until the collapse of the nation was underway and real estate values had crashed before you sold your shithole
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so what if her husbands law firm hosted a campaign organizing meeting?
I'm still curious why you waited until the collapse of the nation was underway and real estate values had crashed before you sold your shithole
LOL - im netting in profit what i paid for it moron
Me = winning
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/22/rep-issa-accuses-irs-misleading-congress-and-ameri
Great!!!1
Send obama to kenya and in jail
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LOL - im netting in profit what i paid for it moron
Me = winning
you would have made so much more if you had only sold when values were skyrocketing at the time Bush left office
you're really taking a bath by having waited until Obama collapsed the nation and destroyed the real estate market
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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/22/Democrats-Turning-on-IRS-Compare-IRS-Scandal-to-Totalitarian-Regimes
even the Demos see that obama = tyranny
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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/22/Democrats-Turning-on-IRS-Compare-IRS-Scandal-to-Totalitarian-Regimes
even the Demos see that obama = tyranny
I assume you're pissed at Darrell Issa right?
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329067/Congress-hosts-IRS-bloodbath-slamming-tax-authorities-partisan-targeting-conservatives-official-refuses-answer-questions.html
IRS lying to congress - nice
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329067/Congress-hosts-IRS-bloodbath-slamming-tax-authorities-partisan-targeting-conservatives-official-refuses-answer-questions.html
IRS lying to congress - nice
Republican Darrell Issa must be in on the scam since he let Lerner get away without forcing her to testify
BTW - what's up with Dictator Obama even letting Issa hold these phony hearings
We elected Obama to be our dictator so when is he going to start acting like one. How about throwing some of these Republican Senators in jail (or even worse). That's what a real dictator would do
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http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/darrell-issa-irs-lois-lerner-91755.html?hp=t3_3
Issa calling her back for her lies
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http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/darrell-issa-irs-lois-lerner-91755.html?hp=t3_3
Issa calling her back for her lies
when is Obama going to start acting like a Dictator and not a democratically elected POTUS
what kind of dictator would tolerate this kind of thing
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when is Obama going to start acting like a Dictator and not a democratically elected POTUS
what kind of dictator would tolerate this kind of thing
Thugbama is like Edi Amin or Papa Doc
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Thugbama is like Edi Amin or Papa Doc
right, because both of those guys would allow an opposing party in their country, much less an opposing party that can hold hearings, etc..
that makes perfect sense
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right, because both of those guys would allow an opposing party in their country, much less an opposing party that can hold hearings, etc..
that makes perfect sense
Thugbama is already stealing phone records, etc from people.
congrats - you voted for this tyrant moron
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LOL
Obama Refuses Justice, seeks a trial...
dude seriously this is some of the funniest shit ive read... and the fact that you cant even acknowledge the pure irony in this title with out going on some hate filled rampage about jay z and golf makes it even that much funnier
stay angry my friend
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Thugbama is already stealing phone records, etc from people.
congrats - you voted for this tyrant moron
LOL @ Tyrant
you must be scared of your own shadow if you think Obama is a tyrant
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STFU - your racial kneepadding is beyond comical at this point.
LOL
Obama Refuses Justice, seeks a trial...
dude seriously this is some of the funniest shit ive read... and the fact that you cant even acknowledge the pure irony in this title with out going on some hate filled rampage about jay z and golf makes it even that much funnier
stay angry my friend
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LOL @ Tyrant
you must be scared of your own shadow if you think Obama is a tyrant
NYT and WAPO are even saying Obama is acting as a tyrant lately.
But to his cult of drones and sycophants he can do no wrong.
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NYT and WAPO are even saying Obama is acting as a tyrant lately.
But to his cult of drones and sycophants he can do no wrong.
can you post a link where they say he is acting like a tyrant
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can you post a link where they say he is acting like a tyrant
Go read the NYT editorial yesterday. Only a communist pos like yourself still supports this tyranny
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Go read the NYT editorial yesterday. Only a communist pos like yourself still supports this tyranny
just post the link where they say he is acting like a tyrant
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just post the link where they say he is acting like a tyrant
already posted - try to keep up. You ghetto crackhead communist messiah is being called out everywhere
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And the libs gave Bush such a hard time over the Patriot Act. ::)
(http://eriklundegaard.com/media/2/missmeyet.jpg)
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already posted - try to keep up. You ghetto crackhead communist messiah is being called out everywhere
I don't see it
post is again
make sure it's the one where they say Obama is acting like a tyrant
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Skip to comments.
SCANDALOUS: IRS WILL NOT RETURN 60,000,000 Medical Records It Stole From California Company
Gateway Pundit ^ | May 22, 2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2013 2:54:02 AM by 2ndDivisionVet
They stole 60,000,000 medical records – And won’t give them back.
Last week news broke that the IRS was facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges. In a case involving solely a tax matter involving a former employee of the company, these agents stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans, including at least 1,000,000 Californians. The lawsuit by John Doe Company against 15 John Doe IRS agents is seeking punitive damages for constitutional violations, as well as $25,000 “per violation per individual” in compensatory damages.
But the story does not end there. The IRS to this day is refusing to return the records including intimate medical records to the company. Courthouse News reported:
Even though defendants knew that the records they were seizing were not included within the scope of the search warrant, the defendants nonetheless searched and seized the records without making any attempt to segregate the files from those that could possibly be related to the search warrant. In fact, no effort was made at all to even try maintaining the illusion of legitimacy and legality.
After being put on notice of the illicit seizure, the IRS agents refused to return the records, continued to keep the records for the prying eyes of IRS peeping toms, and keep the records to this very day. The records may concern the intimate medical records of every state judge in California, every state court employee in California, leading and politically controversial members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild, and prominent citizens in the world of entertainment, business and government, from all walks of life…
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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IRS officials aren’t cooperating in probes at top or bottom
Lois Lerner, head of the IRS unit that decides whether to grant tax-exempt status to groups, listens at the start of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing to investigate the extra scrutiny the IRS gave to Tea Party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP
By Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman | McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Internal Revenue Service officials are not fully cooperating with efforts to learn who is responsible for targeting conservative groups, lawmakers learned Wednesday during the third and most tense, dramatic hearing on the scandal.
First, the director of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations at the heart of the scandal invoked her constitutional Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer questions during an appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Then, a Treasury Department inspector general told the committee that IRS employees in the Cincinnati office that handled applications for tax-exempt designations were not being fully cooperative in the investigation. He said the IRS employees have stymied efforts to learn who developed the controversial questions asked of conservative groups.
The inability to find out more about who authorized the special scrutiny of conservative groups frustrated lawmakers striving to find out more even as the IRS launches its own 30-day inquiry and the Justice Department is starting a criminal investigation. At the same time Wednesday, the White House press secretary acknowledged that there have been “legitimate” criticisms about the way he has explained what the administration knew about the scandal.
The most dramatic moment of the day came when Lois Lerner, a career government lawyer and longtime IRS official, appeared before the House committee.
“I have not done anything wrong,” Lerner said in an opening statement. “I have not broken any law. I have not violated any IRS rules and regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”
She then informed the committee she was invoking her right to not answer questions.
“One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals,” Lerner said, repeating her innocence amid allegations from lawmakers that she misled Congress.
“You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not answer questions,” insisted Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., furious and arguing to Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that Lerner effectively waived her rights by first issuing a statement.
Issa eventually excused Lerner and she left by a side door.
Later, J. Russell George, Treasury’s inspector general for the Office of Tax Administration, told the panel that he has not been able to find out everything he wants from IRS employees.
"We have had some difficulty in terms of getting clarity from some of the employees we’ve interviewed," he said, adding that further inquiries could make those employees more forthcoming.
Before going silent Wednesday, Lerner gave her work history, noting that she had worked at the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission before joining the IRS. She joined the tax-exempt division in 2001 and was promoted to head the division in 2006, overseeing roughly 1.6 million tax-exempt organizations with a staff of 900 employees and a budget of almost $100 million.
She’s a key figure in the scandal because George’s audit found that she apparently had knowledge of IRS employees flagging conservative groups for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status as social welfare groups. The audit said she instructed the Cincinnati office to back off the inappropriate code words used to flag applications from conservative groups.
Under questioning, George confirmed Wednesday that there were apparently other lists of groups to watch for, but he cautioned he could say no more about an ongoing and broadening investigation. George said he couldn’t rule out whether conservative taxpayers also might have been targeted for tax audits or other forms of scrutiny.
“The American people today should not have confidence that this is an isolated incident,” Issa said.
George also said that it was unusual when Lerner pre-emptively revealed the coming inspector general report during a scripted appearance before a group on May 10. George said he knew of no prior case where the IRS released information ahead of an audit. “It was a first during my tenure,” he told lawmakers, adding that a clearance process for releasing information about the audit was underway. “That clearance had not been completed by then.”
Lawmakers were especially tough on Doug Shulman, a Bush administration appointee who stepped down as IRS commissioner in November. Republicans found that Shulman visited the Obama White House 118 times in 2010 and 2011.
Shulman said he was “absolutely sure” he had no conversations at the White House about IRS targeting. He said he was there for a variety of reasons, including discussions about tax administration, the new IRS administrative role under the Affordable Care Act, and even the Easter Egg Roll with his children.
“You started targeting the very groups that came into existence because they opposed what you were talking about in the White House, 118 different visits there," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, charged, offering no proof other than the timeline. "You started targeting them the very month that the Affordable Care Act became law."
“I operated as a nonpartisan, nonpolitical person trying to implement the laws that were on the books,” Shulman said. “It would have been inappropriate, and nobody ever asked me.”
At the White House, Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged the criticism of what has been an evolving story about who in the White House knew about the investigation of the IRS and when they knew it.
Email: khall@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @KevinGHall; Email: dlightman@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @LightmanDavid
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/22/191935/irs-official-declares-innocence.html#.UZ2xa90YzjY#storylink=cpy
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STFU - your racial kneepadding is beyond comical at this point.
so is he refusing justice or seeking a trial....
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Coburn: Constituents link IRS audits to Mitt Romney donations [our whistleblower side is lit up]
The Hill ^
Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2013 12:55:52 PM by Sub-Driver
Coburn: Constituents link IRS audits to Mitt Romney donations By Daniel Strauss - 05/23/13 09:33 AM ET
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Thursday his constituents have suggested they were audited by the Internal Revenue Service because they donated to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.
Coburn made the charge during an interview on MSNBC. [Watch video]
"What I would tell you, is our whistleblower side is lit up," Coburn said Thursday on the news channel. "And I got a phone call yesterday and one of the things I want to know is, everybody that contributed to Romney, I want to know what their audit rate was because the indications out of Oklahoma are right now is if you happened to be a conservative and wealthy and gave to Romney, you had an audit where you'd never gotten an audit before.
"And so there are a lot of questions that still have to be answered," Coburn said. "Maybe that's untrue but that's certainly the implication from people that are calling me from Oklahoma."
Coburn's comments come as Congress is investigating the IRS's targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny. The IRS has apologized for inappropriately flagging groups for additional scrutiny because they had certain words in their titles, such as Tea Party.
There's been no evidence the IRS targeted people for audits based on their political donations, though some donors to Romney have drawn a link.
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) in a floor speech last week also said that a number of his constituents spoke of being audited during the 2012 presidential campaign for the first time.
“These folks believe the audits were conducted for no other reason than the fact that their groups were conservative. And they believe the questions they’ve been asked have more to do with their political views than their business activities," McConnell said.
Without a proper investigation, McConnell argued the truth would never be known.
Earlier in the week, Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio) said that people have come to him saying the IRS targeted them for criticizing the Obama administration. Tiberi recounted how a former colleague told him about a radio host who received an audit from the IRS after he criticized the Obama administration.
"And this is not a national guy, this is a local talk show host in a city outside Ohio, and he's been very critical of the administration and as soon as he started being critical of the administration, coincidentally, he got audited and he got audited by the Cincinnati office,'" Tiberi said.
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Even the most leftist of hacks like Chris Matthews realize this is very bad news for Obama.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/irs-scandal-letters_n_3349174.html
More evidence has emerged that the IRS' targeting of conservative groups extended beyond a few agents in a single city.
Back on May 14, a 48-page report by the IRS Inspector General cited that a few lower-level staff members from the Cincinnati office were responsible for the Tea Party flap, acting in an insubordinate fashion.
Two weeks later, the scope of questions surrounding the case continues to evolve beyond that one place. NBC News reported Thursday that letters show requests about conservative groups were made by other IRS locations.
Lois Lerner, the woman who was in charge of the IRS unit reviewing applications for these conservative groups, was among the signees listed in the NBC report. According to an appendix of a Treasury Inspector General report released earlier this month, Lerner was briefed in June 2011 about the matter. She was placed on paid administrative leave as of Thursday, the Washington Post reported.
Upon being called to testify before the House Oversight & Government Reform committee, Lerner vowed that she did nothing wrong, before invoking her 5th Amendment right to not deliver testimony. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who serves as chairman of the committee said Congress is "obligated" to bring her back because she chose to make statements prior to acting on that right.
Last Tuesday, ex-Cincinnati IRS official Bonnie Esrig expressed doubts to NBC News about the claim that low-level employees acted on their own. But regarding questions that partisan motivations were at play, Ersig doubted that charge -- and White House officials have paralleled her sentiment.
"The deputy secretary of the treasury was made aware of just the fact that the investigation was beginning last year," Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer said two Sundays ago. "But no one in the White House was aware."
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Confirmed Again: IRS Targeting of Conservatives Came From the Top in Washington
Town Hall ^ | May 29, 2013 | Katie Pavlich
Posted on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 9:13:41
We've known for weeks the argument made by senior IRS officials that targeting of conservative Tea Party groups was carried out by a "few low-level agents in Cincinnati" is bogus. Now, we have even more proof. NBC News reported last night that the signatures of senior level IRS officials, including that of IRS Tax Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner, are on documents that were sent to Tea Party groups asking for more information.
Additional scrutiny of conservative organizations’ activities by the IRS did not solely originate in the agency’s Cincinnati office, with requests for information coming from other offices and often bearing the signatures of higher-ups at the agency, according to attorneys representing some of the targeted groups. At least one letter requesting information about one of the groups bears the signature of Lois Lerner, the suspended director of the IRS Exempt Organizations department in Washington.
ay Sekulow, an attorney representing 27 conservative political advocacy organizations that applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status, provided some of the letters to NBC News. He said the groups’ contacts with the IRS prove that the practices went beyond a few “front line” employees in the Cincinnati office, as the IRS has maintained.
“We've dealt with 15 agents, including tax law specialists -- that's lawyers -- from four different offices, including (the) Treasury (Department) in Washington, D.C.,” Sekulow said. “So the idea that this is a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati is not correct.”
Among the letters were several that bore return IRS addresses other than Cincinnati, including "Department of the Treasury / Internal Revenue Service / Washington, D.C.," and the signatures of IRS officials higher up the chain. Two letters with "Department of the Treasury / Internal Revenue Service / Washington, D.C." letterhead were signed by "Tax Law Specialist(s)" from Exempt Organizations Technical Group 1 and Technical Group 2. Lerner’s signature, which appeared to be a stamp rather than an actual signature, appeared on a letter requesting additional information from the Ohio Liberty Council Corp.
Lerner has been put on administrative leave after refusing to testify before the House Oversight Committee about the scandal last week. She is still pulling a $180,000 per year, taxpayer funded paycheck. Lerner was the first to publicly admit IRS targeting of conservatives was in fact taking place.
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Outrageous
[ Invalid YouTube link ]
She was prob one of the ladies throwing bricks at civil right activists in the 60's....fuck her
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She was prob one of the ladies throwing bricks at civil right activists in the 60's....fuck her
I would throw bricks at them now as well - especially Jesse , Al, Ellison, Cummings, Sheila Jackson Lee, Harris Perry, etc
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http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/29/irss-shulman-had-more-public-white-house-visits-than-any-cabinet-member
Nice
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-agent-at-center-of-tea-party-probe-promoted/article/2530811
LOL - obama loves these thugs
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I would throw bricks at them now as well - especially Jesse , Al, Ellison, Cummings, Sheila Jackson Lee, Harris Perry, etc
of course you would
remind us again how you're not violent and don't hate your fellow Americans and don't wish violence on your fellow Americans
are you the same guy who was crying because we used drones to kill an American born terrorist piece of shit
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She was prob one of the ladies throwing bricks at civil right activists in the 60's....fuck her
Or maybe she walked with civil rights activists during the 60s. How the heck would you know either way?
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White House: No special prosecutor for IRS scandal, despite public support
Washington Post ^ | May 30, 2013 | By Aaron Blake
Posted on Friday, May 31, 2013 1:03:01 AM by Brad from Tennessee
Edited on Friday, May 31, 2013 8:07:26 AM by Admin Moderator. [history]
The White House will not be pushing for a special prosecutor to handle the IRS scandal involving the targeting of conservative groups, even as three-fourths of Americans are calling for one.
Asked aboard Air Force One about a Quinnipiac University poll that showed 76 percent of Americans want a special prosecutor to handle the case, White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration isn’t looking at that option.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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IRS agent Stephen Seok, who intimidated conservative groups, gets punished… with a promotion
The Daily Caller ^ | 05/31/13 | Jim Treacher
Posted on Friday, May 31, 2013 1:54:55 PM by
Through 2012, then-Exempt Organization Specialist Stephen Seok signed many of the intimidating letters sent to conservative nonprofits. For example, this January 2012 letter sent to the Richmond Tea Party demanded the date, time and location of all group events, as well as copies of all handouts provided at the events, and the names and credentials of all organizers…
According to WXIX-TV/Fox 19 in Cincinnati, Seok is no longer an exempt organization specialist. He has since been promoted to “supervisor IRS agent.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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This scandal runs deep.
New Claims: IRS Targeted Conservative Activists As Well as Groups
Friday, 31 May 2013
By Lisa Barron
The scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups is set to widen as evidence grows that the agency probed activists who connected to the organizations.
New congressional investigations and federal lawsuits are likely to reveal more about the extent and purpose of the targeting, beginning with a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Tuesday that will allow victims to testify for the first time, reports McClatchy.
Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general who is probing IRS activities, has acknowledged that he is looking into watch lists created by IRS employees, who allegedly asked for detailed information from groups applying for nonprofit status that had words such as "tea party" and "patriot" in their names.
McClatchy cites several cases of conservatives who claim the IRS treated them inappropriately, including a group of anti-abortion activists in the Coalition for Life of Iowa, a voters group in Texas and a Nebraska veteran who joined tea party groups after retiring from the military.
Sue Martinek of Cedar Rapids told McClatchy that she first sought tax-exempt status for the Coalition for Life of Iowa in 2008, contacting a woman in the IRS's Cincinnati office, which is at the center of the scandal, identified only as Ms. Richards.
In early 2009 Richards told her that the group's application had been approved but only on the condition that board members signed a letter promising not to picket in front of Planned Parenthood offices, Martinek recalled.
"I was sort of, 'If we have to, we have to, but this doesn't seem a good thing to do,'" she said, adding that her group focused on educational forums rather than protesting.
Catherine Engelbrecht of the Texas group True the Vote told McClatchy that her family and business were audited by the government after the voting-rights group sought tax exempt status.
Engelbrecht said that after witnessing what she called voter irregularities in the Houston area, she formed True the Vote, which aims to educate poll workers nationwide on spotting election fraud. She denies liberal claims that it is a conservative effort to restrict minority-voting rights.
Six months after applying for nonprofit status in the summer of 2010, Engelbrecht and her husband faced their first-ever audit. IRS agents "came to a small family farm, counted the cattle, looked at the fence line," she said.
Then, in February 2012, the IRS sent a letter with 39 questions, including a request for "all of your activity on Facebook and Twitter." Last week, with no decision yet on its application, True the Vote filed a lawsuit in federal district court asking for tax-exempt status.
Retired veteran Mark Drabik told McClatchy that he found the IRS challenging his church donations after he became active in and donated to conservative causes.
After retiring in 2009 from a long career in the military, Drabik said he took a job at the Strategic Command in Omaha and began taking part in conservative political activities, attending tea party events and donating to talk-show hosts Glenn Beck's 912 movement.
Then, Drabik says, he got an audit letter from the IRS, questioning him about church donations and deductions for family respite care prescribed by a doctor because of the stress of caring for his autistic son. He said he had claimed both for a decade without issue.
Drabik told McClatchy that he believes his political involvement triggered the audit, saying, "I am just a common citizen, who honorably served his nation for 23 years, who has not had this experience before and now honestly questions the actions and motivation of the IRS and how far they have gone in their actions." Drabik is now fighting the agency over a sum of roughly $20,000.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/conservative-activists-targeted-irs/2013/05/31/id/507353
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So Much for the “Two Rogue Employees” Line… 90 IRS Agents Were Involved in Scandal
Gateway Pundit ^ | May 31, 2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on May 31, 2013 7:49:01 PM EDT by blueyon
Two weeks ago Steven Miller, former Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, claimed just two “rogue employees” were involved in the scandal targeting conservative groups.
NOT TRUE.
NEARLY 90 IRS agents were involved in the massive scandal targeting conservativs, pro-Israel activists and Constitutional groups. FOX Nation reported:
The Internal Revenue Service has told House GOP investigators they have identified 88 IRS employees who may have documents relevant to the congressional investigation into targeting of conservative groups, according to a congressional source familiar with the investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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The lies and obfuscations from the administration and the President keep getting smashed to pieces.
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JACKPOT!… Obama Deputy Campaign Manager: I Attended White House Meetings With IRS Chief (Video)
Gateway Pundit ^ | 6-1-2013 | Jim Hoft
Posted on June 1, 2013 10:08:49 PM EDT by servo1969
Yesterday, Stephanie Cutter, Deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, appeared on Jake Tapper’s show The Lead on CNN.
During the segment Stephanie Cutter admitted she had attended meetings with then IRS Chief Douglas Shulman at the White House:
“A couple of facts here that I think are important for us to stick by, number one, the only reason we know about these visits is because the president makes everything public. Number two, what we’re really looking at some of these visits… What we are looking at the number of times that Mr. Shulman was cleared into the White House. It doesn’t necessarily mean he went to a meeting. Number three, many of those meetings were for healthcare implementation. I was in them with him. So there’s nothing nefarious going on.”
Jackpot brother.
[video]
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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IRS turns over to Congress video of employees line dancing
Fox News ^ | 6/01/13
Posted on June 2, 2013 8:37:32 AM EDT by Libloather
The latest recording cost about $1,600 and was produced to be shown at the end of a 2010 training and leadership conference held in Anaheim, Calif., said IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge. At a time when most government agencies are coping with across-the-board spending cuts by furloughing workers and finding other savings, that conference has become the target of a report a Treasury inspector general plans to release next week.
The report, called "Collected and Wasted: The IRS Spending Culture and Conference Abuses," will be the subject of a hearing Thursday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that panel said Friday.
"Whether it is the tens of thousands of hard-earned taxpayer dollars spent to produce frivolous entertainment for agency bureaucrats, or the IRS’s own admission that it targeted the American people based on their personal beliefs, the outrage toward the IRS is only growing stronger," Boustany said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/tax-collectors-irs-video-92100.html#ixzz2V47hyy51
Unreal. 49 million in conferences over the last 3 years.
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Wife of Former IRS Chief Campaigned for Obama, Questioned Romney's Taxes
Breitbart Big Government ^ | Sunday, June 2, 2013 | Kerry Picket
Posted on Sunday, June 02, 2013 8:19:51 PM by kristinn
Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman is under fire from Congress for his agency's targeting of Tea Party and other conservative organizations. Shulman himself is under suspicion for his numerous visits to the White House compared to other administration officials. Additionally, Shulman's wife Susan L. Anderson reportedly works for the Washington D.C. based liberal organization Public Campaign.
In fact, according to Anderson's Twitter feed, she worked on the Obama campaign:
En route to airport after working 3 days 4 OFA, MiL just asks me If I know abt the Chrysler ads :) #Obama2012
Anderson tweeted about spending time with union members during the campaign.
After spending the day in East Dayton w/union folks working 4 Obama, this America's Future GM retirees' ad rings rather false. #Obama2012
The wife of the then Commissioner of the IRS also tweeted about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's taxes:
Ha! "@IvanTheK: If Romney loses the election, I bet he can file an amended return and claim the deductions he didn't claim.”
Reid calls on Romney to reveal his taxes - “@TPM: Romney calls on Reid to reveal his source: http://tpm.ly/QBWise ”
Romney in class by himself - see @SunFoundation charts comparing Romney's tax returns to other presidents. http://bit.ly/LQegqf ”
Folks go to Caymans to dodge taxes or dive reefs - wanna bet what Mitt was doing there? http://tinyurl.com/7zhlvtp
In this tweet she makes an innocuous reference to her husband, Douglas Shulman.
I have no idea what my husband is saying but all these tax + finance reporters are nodding their heads. #taxday
Anderson took part in a protests as well, according to her Twitter feed. She called on her Twitter followers to protest Karl Rove and his American Cross Roads group as well as a Republican fundraiser in Wisconsin.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/03/Former-IRS-Chief-s-Wife-Supported-OWS-Movement
Just wow
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The "rogue" employees who were thrown under the bus are apparently saying the orders came from DC. The plot sickens.
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IRS victims testify as new agency scandal emerges [New IRS commissioner blames Bush!!!]
yahoo.com ^ | June 4, 2013 | STEPHEN OHLEMACHER and ALAN FRAM
Posted on Tuesday, June 04, 2013 6:19:49 AM by grundle
One group, the National Organization for Marriage, says the IRS publicly disclosed confidential information about donors.
The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues. The additional scrutiny delayed applications for an average of nearly two years, making it difficult for many of the groups to raise money.
Instead, some of the 2,600 attendees received benefits, including baseball tickets and stays in presidential suites that normally cost $1,500 to $3,500 a night. In addition, 15 outside speakers were paid a total of $135,000 in fees, with one paid $17,000 to talk about "leadership through art," the committee said.
"I am absolutely appalled at the apparent waste of taxpayer dollars on frivolous conferences," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "It seems we have a new misstep every day at the IRS."
Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has called the conferences "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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Top IRS Official For Obamacare Implementation Placed On Administrative Leave
Sources say a key official in charge of overseeing health reform implementation, as well as another staffer, have been put on leave for accepting more than $1,000 in free meals and other items at a 2010 conference. posted on June 5, 2013 at 2:54pm EDT
John Stanton BuzzFeed Staff
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WASHINGTON — The IRS has put a top official in charge of implementing Obamacare on administrative leave after it was discovered he had accepted $1,162 in free food and other items during a 2010 conference.
In a statement, the IRS confirmed that two employees have been placed on administrative leave — which is paid — and have begun the process of removing them.
“[Acting IRS Director] Danny Werfel learned of the situation last night and immediately asked his leadership team to take action. He has also been in contact with key congressional committees about the situation,” the service said in the statement.
“When I came to IRS, part of my job was to hold people accountable,” Werfel said. “There was clearly inappropriate behavior involved in this situation, and immediate action is needed.”
The IRS informed congressional staff investigating the agency that Fred Schindler had been put on leave for accepting the gifts. A second unnamed staffer in the division was also put on leave for accepting the gifts, the aides said.
According to congressional sources, the food was provided by an event planner organizing the conference during an “after hours” party. One source says the incident was referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution but it was not acted upon.
An IRS spokesman declined to comment on whether the issue was sent to DOJ.
Schindler is the deputy for Sarah Hall Ingram, who is heading up implementation of the Affordable Care Act for the IRS. Ingram has come under scrutiny recently because she oversaw the division of the IRS which targeted conservative organizations seeking nonprofit status.
According to congressional sources, the suspensions appear to be the first examples of employees being punished as part of a separate scandal over the service’s spending on conferences. One congressional source said it also appears the free meals and gifts were accepted at the same 2010 conference during which participants filmed a Star Trek spoof video.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa is scheduled to hold a hearing on conference spending by the IRS Thursday.
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Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS official currently in charge of overseeing the agency’s implementation of Obamacare, has logged 165 recorded visits to the White House 165 times since 2011, according to an analysis of White House visitor records compiled by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
Ingram headed the IRS’ tax-exempt division in 2010 when the scandal-ridden agency began improperly targeting the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups.
Despite logging 165 visits, Ingram’s meetings never overlapped with those of former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, who, as The Daily Caller reported, has appeared in the White House visitor logs 157 times since September 15, 2009.
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The Franklin Center’s record of White House visits covers a period after Ingram had left the division at the center of the targeting scandal. The IRS has said she left to head the Affordable Care Act division in December 2010. It is not clear whether the Center’s record is of actual visits or scheduled visits that may or may not have occurred.
Ingram visited with President Obama six times, according to White House visitor logs. All of Ingram’s 165 recorded visits involved meetings with White House staff.
Ingram took many of her White House meetings with Jeanne Lambrew, deputy assistant to the president for health policy.
Considering that Ingram and Shulman never visited the White House together, the two IRS officials have been responsible for more than 300 public visits since the beginning of the Obama administration.
Ingram received more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/05/irs-official-sarah-hall-ingram-recorded-165-white-house-visits-never-overlapped-with-shulman/#ixzz2VOxN0Let
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Your tax dollars hard at work. ::) ::)
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THE IRS SCANDAL IS MUCH WORSE THAN ANYONE REALIZES
The Blaze ^ | 05/31/2013 | Wayne Allyn Root
Posted on June 8, 2013 12:11:22 AM EDT by SeekAndFind
I lived through a nightmare but am here to talk about it. I was one of those victims of the IRS scandal. As an outspoken critic of President Obama and his socialist anti-business agenda, the IRS targeted me for intimidation and persecution–not once, but twice. The first IRS attack started in January of 2011. After I won a victory in tax court in the summer of 2012, I was audited again 5 days later. FIVE DAYS. Tax experts have never heard of this happening- EVER.
But my nightmare is over. Just yesterday, I won again. My tax attorney just received official notice that my second audit is closed and I owe nothing…nada…zero. Again.
That might make me the cleanest taxpayer in America. I’ve now survived four years of IRS attacks under Obama and come out with a perfect record. After four years of IRS agents looking at every line of my returns…scouring my life to try to find something, anything…the IRS agrees that I don’t owe one cent.
I doubt there is one leftist talk show host in America who could survive four years of IRS audits and come out owing not one cent. Or in honor of Obama, not one red cent.
So my case is closed. I am living proof this was a witch-hunt against conservatives and Obama critics.
If IRS agents looked at every line of four years of my returns and found nothing out of place–not one cent owed–don’t you think that’s pretty strong evidence that this taxpayer should never have been audited in the first place? Don‘t you agree that the second audit…five days after winning a victory in tax court…was targeted malicious persecution? It should never happen again. No American should know the pain of being audited five days after winning the first audit.
But you’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of this IRS scandal. This is the Titanic of scandals. Attorney General Eric Holder should have been head of the IRS. They deserve each other. Obama’s henchmen are all cut from the same cloth- bullies. Intimidators. Mob enforcers. They are “made men” for the Obama Crime Family. They bug your phones, read your emails, try to silence critics, try to bankrupt the opposition, name reporters as criminals for simply doing their jobs, ask taxpayers what kind of prayers they believe in. Heck, they even use the IRS to go after groups that dare to believe in the U.S. Constitution. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Here’s the REAL crux of the Obama IRS scandal. This was never a few rogue agents from one office (in Cincinnati) going after Tea Party groups. I was the first individual to break this scandal- right here at TheBlaze. I was the first to have the courage to go public with my fears- even while under IRS attack at the time.
I knew back in the summer of 2012 that this IRS scandal went deep and went straight to the Obama White House. I knew that it involved a purposeful coordinated effort to punish, intimidate and silence individual critics of Obama, and GOP donors. Do you still think IRS agents acted alone? Even though we just found out that the head of the IRS visited the President more than 150 times in his first term- far more than any cabinet member.
How did I know this was a coordinated attack on conservative critics and donors? Because just in my small inner circle of friends, virtually every businessman that I met was getting hit with IRS audit notices only weeks after writing checks to the GOP and Mitt Romney. Strange coincidence, huh?
In one case, a friend of mine who is a hedge fund CEO attended the first major Wall Street fundraiser for Mitt Romney. Only a select few Wall Street big shots attended. After they went home, almost every one of them in the room that wrote a check to Romney later reported receiving IRS audit notices.
In another case, a friend of mine wrote a big check to Romney. He called me to report his suspicions when only weeks later he received an IRS notice. In another case, my next-door neighbor (who is a big GOP donor) reported being under vicious IRS attack. In another case, my accountant was suddenly audited only months after my first IRS attack. Even my publicist received an IRS audit notice.
Are you starting to see a pattern? Are you getting the picture? This is no coincidence. If you believe it is, I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. This is mafia-style intimidation. This is an attempt to make Obama’s opponents “sleep with the fishes.” And it should be met with prison terms and RICO statutes.
This IRS scandal was aimed at Jewish Pro Israel groups, beloved Christian ministers and men of God (Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, James Dobson), groups that believe in the U.S. Constitution, and even groups that help wounded veterans. Why is no one calling out this pure blatant religious profiling?
After my commentaries were published a month ago about this IRS scandal, I was contacted by a Mormon who told me that everyone in his circle of friends and neighbors had received audit notices since Obama’s re-election. He believed Mormons were being targeted to punish Mitt Romney’s biggest supporters.
But how could the IRS identify Mormons? He educated me that all Mormons tithe 10% of their income to the Church of Latter Day Saints. That charitable donation is clearly visible on every Mormon’s tax return. It’s actually easy for the IRS to target and persecute Mormons.
Knowing that the IRS under Obama came after famous Christian leaders and Jewish Pro Israel groups…do you doubt this persecution of Mormons could be possible?
What better way to target conservatives. Utah is the most Republican state in America. Almost every Mormon in Utah supported Romney. Why wouldn’t the same IRS that chose to go after conservatives like me, and Tea Parties, and Jewish Pro Israel groups, go after individual Mormons to gain revenge?
If this is true, it’s the biggest scandal in political history. It’s time for major investigations. It’s time to put people in prison. It’s time to start talking about Impeachment.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: irs; irsscandal; irsscandals; scandal; teaparty; Click to Add Keyword
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Your tax dollars hard at work. ::) ::)
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http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/IRS-Filmed-Mad-Men-Parody-CPE-Video-67065-1.html
IRS Filmed “Mad Men” Parody CPE Video
The Internal Revenue Service filmed a “Mad Men”-themed continuing professional education video last year featuring an actor patterned after the Don Draper character in the popular AMC cable TV series.
The “IRS Training Video” was part of a series called CPE FY 2012 and was uploaded to YouTube by the actor, Michael R. Davis, as part of his ActingReelMrDavis channel on YouTube. Davis narrates the film noir-like black and white video as jazz music plays in the background, dressed up like the Draper character, who is played by Jon Hamm on TV. Davis has also performed as Danny in the stage musical “Grease” and as the dentist in “Little Shop of Horrors,” according to The New York Times.
In the IRS video, the Draper character talks about the “classics” of CPE training, perhaps in reference to the American Movie Classics cable TV channel that airs “Mad Men.” At times, he pauses to introduce the director of IRS Field Assistance, who apparently has been edited out of the video.
“Imagine the brilliant colors of a painting, the haunting melody of music, or the hypnotic images of motion pictures,” he says at the beginning of the video, sitting on a sofa with an urban skyline shimmering in the background behind him. “The classics inspire our thoughts and challenge our senses. To effectively learn today, we must appreciate and understand the foundation of our past successes. That is why we are going back to the basics, to the cornerstone of our CPE training. We are taking what we have learned and building a framework for the future. Today I will be your instruction guide to our CPE 2012 training. Join me as we explore the classics and journey through our learning material. Welcome to CPE 2012.” Later he is shown in several other swanky apartment settings discussing the importance of customer service, seemingly with IRS field assistance employees as the intended audience.
The video has not yet caused much of an uproar like the “Star Trek” and “Gilligan’s Island” parody videos or the “Cupid Shuffle” music dance video that were shown to embarrassed IRS officials and ex-officials in a congressional hearing last week about excessive spending at IRS conferences (see IRS’s Mr. Spock Impersonator Apologizes for Inappropriate Parody and IRS Music Dance Video Released by Congress).One of them, the commissioner in charge of the IRS's Small Business/Self-Employed division, Faris Fink, admitted to playing the Mr. Spock character in the "Star Trek" spoof. Davis's acting in the "Mad Men" video is noticeably more professional than the IRS employees who lent their talents to the other videos.
The IRS's recently appointed acting commissioner, Danny Werfel, has pledged not to spend IRS funds on producing such videos in the future.
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http://cnsnews.com/blog/joe-schoffstall/fbi-director-testifies-he-doesnt-know-whos-leading-investigation-irs-case
>:(
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And the plot sickens.
Senior IRS manager invokes Fifth Amendment right before House committee
By Doug McKelway
Published June 26, 2013
FoxNews.com
For the second time in as many months, a senior IRS manager on Wednesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, fueling perceptions of an agency in crisis.
Greg Roseman, a Deputy IRS Director, spearheaded the awarding of the IRS's largest contract in history to a company owned by a close friend of his, an action that is prohibited under government contracting regulations.
The company is Strong Castle, Inc., owned by Braulio Castillo. Castillo won several contracts totaling almost $500 million for IRS IT services in part on the basis of his friendship with Roseman and by qualifying for two minority programs that allow disadvantaged applicants a better chance of winning lucrative government contracts.
Castillo qualified for one minority set-aside program by setting up his business in a disadvantaged area of northeast Washington D.C. The Small Business Administration program requires applicants to hire from within the economically disadvantaged community, but a House Oversight Committee report found that Castillo manipulated that requirement by hiring students from Catholic University. The school’s campus lies within the designated boundary, but its students are, on balance, far from disadvantaged.
He won entrance into another minority set-aside program run by the Veterans Administration that gives disabled vets certain advantages in federal contracting. His disability? An ankle twisted during football at the US Military Academy Prep School 27 years ago.
That prompted a sarcastic reaction at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing from a double amputee, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war vet. "I'm so glad that you would be willing to play football in prep school again to protect this great country. Shame on you, Mr. Castillo, shame on you," she said.
As evidence of their close friendship, the committee published text messages between Roseman and Castillo. The two men apparently found kinship in using homophobic slurs. One exchange reads, "Paging Dr. homo." The response reads, "Queerbait. How come u haven't called back? Ain't got all day. Lol."
Roseman is still employed by the IRS. That fact prompted a testy exchange between Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Beth Tucker, the IRS's Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support.
"Can you issue a statement by five o'clock today as to how someone who used this language in their official capacity as a government employee is still employed and drawing a paycheck?" Gowdy asked. "We are having discussions with our general counsel," Tucker responded.
On Friday, there will be more IRS focus on the Hill. The committee will vote whether it believes Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when she invoked that right, then abruptly proclaimed her innocence. It was a maneuver that some on the panel say amounted to waiving the right.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/27/senior-irs-manager-invokes-fifth-amendment-right/#ixzz2XSDlhaGj
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:D :D :D
And the plot sickens.
Senior IRS manager invokes Fifth Amendment right before House committee
By Doug McKelway
Published June 26, 2013
FoxNews.com
For the second time in as many months, a senior IRS manager on Wednesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, fueling perceptions of an agency in crisis.
Greg Roseman, a Deputy IRS Director, spearheaded the awarding of the IRS's largest contract in history to a company owned by a close friend of his, an action that is prohibited under government contracting regulations.
The company is Strong Castle, Inc., owned by Braulio Castillo. Castillo won several contracts totaling almost $500 million for IRS IT services in part on the basis of his friendship with Roseman and by qualifying for two minority programs that allow disadvantaged applicants a better chance of winning lucrative government contracts.
Castillo qualified for one minority set-aside program by setting up his business in a disadvantaged area of northeast Washington D.C. The Small Business Administration program requires applicants to hire from within the economically disadvantaged community, but a House Oversight Committee report found that Castillo manipulated that requirement by hiring students from Catholic University. The school’s campus lies within the designated boundary, but its students are, on balance, far from disadvantaged.
He won entrance into another minority set-aside program run by the Veterans Administration that gives disabled vets certain advantages in federal contracting. His disability? An ankle twisted during football at the US Military Academy Prep School 27 years ago.
That prompted a sarcastic reaction at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing from a double amputee, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war vet. "I'm so glad that you would be willing to play football in prep school again to protect this great country. Shame on you, Mr. Castillo, shame on you," she said.
As evidence of their close friendship, the committee published text messages between Roseman and Castillo. The two men apparently found kinship in using homophobic slurs. One exchange reads, "Paging Dr. homo." The response reads, "Queerbait. How come u haven't called back? Ain't got all day. Lol."
Roseman is still employed by the IRS. That fact prompted a testy exchange between Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Beth Tucker, the IRS's Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support.
"Can you issue a statement by five o'clock today as to how someone who used this language in their official capacity as a government employee is still employed and drawing a paycheck?" Gowdy asked. "We are having discussions with our general counsel," Tucker responded.
On Friday, there will be more IRS focus on the Hill. The committee will vote whether it believes Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when she invoked that right, then abruptly proclaimed her innocence. It was a maneuver that some on the panel say amounted to waiving the right.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/27/senior-irs-manager-invokes-fifth-amendment-right/#ixzz2XSDlhaGj
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IRS' Lois Lerner Demands Immunity For Her Testimony
Wednesday, 03 Jul 2013
By Sandy Fitzgerald
IRS official Lois Lerner has a price for her testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee: Immunity.
"They can obtain her testimony by doing it the easy way … immunity," her attorney, William Taylor told Politico Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the committee passed a resolution declaring Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights on May 22, when she delivered a statement denying she did anything wrong before she refused to answer questions that could incriminate her, reports Human Events.
The committee vote was along a straight 22-17 party line split, with House Democrats disagreeing that she should have to testify about her role in one of the largest scandals to hit the Obama administration to date.
And while the committee agreed that Lerner, the former head of the IRS department that has admitted targeting tea party and other conservative groups applying for tax exempt status, should testify, Taylor said he doubts a full House will vote to hold her in contempt for refusing to testify.
“None of this matters,” he said. “I mean, nobody likes to be held in contempt of Congress, of course, but the real question is one that we’re fairly confident about, and I don’t think any district judge in the country would hold that she waived.”
The committee says Lerner, who remains on administrative leave after she refused to resign, is now obligated to answer its questions.
“The committee is entitled to Ms. Lerner’s full and truthful testimony without further conditions,” said panel spokesman Frederick Hill. However, he said the panel is willing to listen to a plea for limited immunity in the case.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who is helping oversee the investigation on the IRS, said the panel still hopes Lerner will appear before the committee on her own and "gives us the truth and answers questions.
Jordan said it's too soon to think about whether Lerner could face contempt charges, but if Lerner comes in and asserts her Fifth Amendment rights again, "then you think about what the other options are."
Republicans on the Oversight Committee haven't decided when to call Lerner in.
If contempt charges are indeed filed, the matter will go to a federal judge, said Taylor. Criminal charges head to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and are not determined before Congress.
If the court finds Lerner didn't waive her rights, "then it's over," said Taylor. "And if the court finds that she did and orders her testify, then she goes to testify. There is no danger under any circumstances of her going to jail."
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/irs-lerner-demands-immunity/2013/07/03/id/513274
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:o
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Emails show IRS’ Lois Lerner specifically targeted tea party
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Newly released emails show that Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS scandal over special scrutiny of conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, specifically targeted tea party applications and directed they be held up in 2011 in order to come up with an agency policy.
The email, released by a House committee investigating the IRS, seems to counter Democrats’ arguments that tea party groups weren’t specifically targeted.
“Tea Party Matter very dangerous,” Ms. Lerner said in the 2011 email, saying that those applications could end up being the “vehicle to go to court” to get more clarity on a 2010 Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance rules.
In another email, from 2012, Ms. Lerner acknowledges that the agency’s handling of the tax-exempt applications had been bungled at the beginning, though she said they had taken steps to correct it.
“It is what it is,” she said in the email, released Thursday by the Ways and Means Committee. “Although the original story isn’t as pretty as we’d like, once we learned this [sic.] were off track, we have done what we can to change the process, better educate our staff and move the cases. So, we will get dinged, but we took steps before the ‘dinging’ to make things better and we have written procedures.”
That email suggests agency employees knew they had gone overboard in their scrutiny — despite top IRS officials telling Congress that there wasn’t any special scrutiny of conservative groups.
In another 2012 email, Ms. Lerner seemed to take sides in a battle between the Federal Election Commission and conservative group tax-exempt groups that were engaging in politics, saying that “perhaps the FEC will save the day.”
Ms. Lerner has been removed from her post at the helm of the tax-exempt organizations division, but has not been fired from the IRS.
She asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to testify to the House oversight committee earlier this year, though committee members argue that she may actually have waived that right and should be recalled and forced to answer questions.
In releasing the latest emails, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said they show a dangerous patter.
“There is increasing and overwhelming evidence that Lois Lerner and high-level IRS employees in Washington were abusing their power to prevent conservative groups from organizing and carrying out their missions,” he said. “There are still mountains of documents to go through, but it is clear the IRS is out of control and there will be consequences.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/12/emails-ois-lerner-specifically-targeted-tea-party/#ixzz2ehwcxzV4
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IRS Official at Heart of Tea Party Scandal Retires
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
Facing a possible firing, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency's tea party scandal retired Monday, ending one chapter in a ruckus that has engulfed the tax-collection agency since spring.
Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Lerner first disclosed the targeting at a law conference in May, when she was asked a planted question about IRS treatment of political groups. Less than two weeks later, she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, citing her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.
A day after the hearing she was placed on paid leave at the age of 62.
Lerner's retirement came as a review board was set to propose that she be fired, said a statement by Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
The board found "neglect of duties" during her tenure as director of the agency's exempt organizations division, and mismanagement consistent with an inspector general's report issued in May, Levin's statement said. The board, however, did not issue any findings of political bias or willful misconduct.
Lerner's lawyer did not respond Monday to a request for comment.
Republicans in Congress have repeatedly called for her to be fired. The IRS confirmed Lerner's retirement but said in a statement that privacy laws prevented it from commenting further about an individual employee.
Lerner is an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001. In brief remarks before she invoked her right not to testify before the House Oversight committee, Lerner expressed pride in her 34-year career in federal government, which has included work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission.
As director of the exempt organizations division, she oversaw 900 workers and a budget approaching $100 million.
Lerner's revelation at the May 10 tax conference set off a firestorm at the agency. President Barack Obama forced the acting commissioner to resign and much of the agency's top leadership was replaced. Three congressional committees and the Justice Department launched investigations.
"Just because Lois Lerner is retiring from the IRS does not mean the investigation is over. Far from it," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "In fact, there are many serious unanswered questions that must be addressed so we can get to the truth."
Lerner initially said the targeting was limited to agents working in a Cincinnati office that handled applications for tax-exempt status. Congressional investigations have since discovered evidence that IRS supervisors in Washington were aware that tea party applications were being delayed for years in some cases while the groups endured sometimes burdensome scrutiny.
However, investigators have released no evidence showing that anyone outside the IRS ordered the targeting or knew it was happening.
Levin said Lerner is "being held responsible for her gross mismanagement of the IRS tax-exempt division, which led to improper handling of applications for tax-exempt status, whether conservative and progressive."
"As has been the case in all aspects of the current IRS investigation, the IRS internal Review Board found no evidence of political bias in her neglect of duties," Levin said. "The basic overreaching premise of the Republicans that the IRS had an `enemies list' and was being influenced from the outside has been proven wrong again, as it has again and again."
On Monday, the IRS released a statement outlining some of the actions the agency has taken since the scandal erupted.
"Since May, the IRS has taken decisive actions to correct failures in exempt organizations management, replacing top leadership throughout the chain of command," the statement said. "In addition, IRS acting commissioner Danny Werfel created an accountability review board to fully review information to ensure proper oversight in handling personnel issues."
"The IRS is making important progress on fixing the underlying management and organizational deficiencies," the statement said. "Our goal is to restore the public's faith and trust in the tax system. We have sent nearly 400,000 pages of documents to Congress and facilitated dozens of employee interviews. We look forward to continuing to cooperate with Congress and other investigations."
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/23/IRS-official-at-heart-of-tea-party-scandal-retires
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IRS Official at Heart of Tea Party Scandal Retires
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
Facing a possible firing, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency's tea party scandal retired Monday, ending one chapter in a ruckus that has engulfed the tax-collection agency since spring.
Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Lerner first disclosed the targeting at a law conference in May, when she was asked a planted question about IRS treatment of political groups. Less than two weeks later, she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, citing her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.
A day after the hearing she was placed on paid leave at the age of 62.
Lerner's retirement came as a review board was set to propose that she be fired, said a statement by Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
The board found "neglect of duties" during her tenure as director of the agency's exempt organizations division, and mismanagement consistent with an inspector general's report issued in May, Levin's statement said. The board, however, did not issue any findings of political bias or willful misconduct.
Lerner's lawyer did not respond Monday to a request for comment.
Republicans in Congress have repeatedly called for her to be fired. The IRS confirmed Lerner's retirement but said in a statement that privacy laws prevented it from commenting further about an individual employee.
Lerner is an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001. In brief remarks before she invoked her right not to testify before the House Oversight committee, Lerner expressed pride in her 34-year career in federal government, which has included work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission.
As director of the exempt organizations division, she oversaw 900 workers and a budget approaching $100 million.
Lerner's revelation at the May 10 tax conference set off a firestorm at the agency. President Barack Obama forced the acting commissioner to resign and much of the agency's top leadership was replaced. Three congressional committees and the Justice Department launched investigations.
"Just because Lois Lerner is retiring from the IRS does not mean the investigation is over. Far from it," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "In fact, there are many serious unanswered questions that must be addressed so we can get to the truth."
Lerner initially said the targeting was limited to agents working in a Cincinnati office that handled applications for tax-exempt status. Congressional investigations have since discovered evidence that IRS supervisors in Washington were aware that tea party applications were being delayed for years in some cases while the groups endured sometimes burdensome scrutiny.
However, investigators have released no evidence showing that anyone outside the IRS ordered the targeting or knew it was happening.
Levin said Lerner is "being held responsible for her gross mismanagement of the IRS tax-exempt division, which led to improper handling of applications for tax-exempt status, whether conservative and progressive."
"As has been the case in all aspects of the current IRS investigation, the IRS internal Review Board found no evidence of political bias in her neglect of duties," Levin said. "The basic overreaching premise of the Republicans that the IRS had an `enemies list' and was being influenced from the outside has been proven wrong again, as it has again and again."
On Monday, the IRS released a statement outlining some of the actions the agency has taken since the scandal erupted.
"Since May, the IRS has taken decisive actions to correct failures in exempt organizations management, replacing top leadership throughout the chain of command," the statement said. "In addition, IRS acting commissioner Danny Werfel created an accountability review board to fully review information to ensure proper oversight in handling personnel issues."
"The IRS is making important progress on fixing the underlying management and organizational deficiencies," the statement said. "Our goal is to restore the public's faith and trust in the tax system. We have sent nearly 400,000 pages of documents to Congress and facilitated dozens of employee interviews. We look forward to continuing to cooperate with Congress and other investigations."
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/23/IRS-official-at-heart-of-tea-party-scandal-retires
She's not out of the woods yet. If they convict her of giving out that data, they can revoke her retirement.
Of course, with the Administration basically covering this up, nothing will probably happen anyway.
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Wait, I thought this whole fracas was nothing but a big nothing, a big overblown difference in opinion?
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Wait, I thought this whole fracas was nothing but a big nothing, a big overblown difference in opinion?
That is what Obama and his slaves want everyone to believe.
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A "phony" scandal would not have made her retire.