Drip, Drip, Drip: IRS Targeting of Conservative Organizations Happened Out of Cincinnati … Oh! and Washington, D.C. As Well
These revelations are coming hot and heavy, aren’t they?
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.
Pretty soon we’ll hear that, oh, by the way, this was all pursuant to a signed directive by Obama.
Boom.
Patterico (9c670f) — 5/13/2013 @ 6:52 pmThese low-level rogue IRS agents acted spontaneously after viewing a YouTube video.
Or something.
Elephant Stone (a59d01) — 5/13/2013 @ 6:54 pmNo point in putting anyone in jail. Barry will just pardon them.
glenn (647d76) — 5/13/2013 @ 6:55 pmYou conservatives historically don’t like the IRS agents due to the color of their black suits.
Or whatever.
Elephant Stone (a59d01) — 5/13/2013 @ 6:57 pmhe’s a crap president
what do you want me to tell you
happyfeet (c60db2) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:02 pmGreat quote from Jonah Goldberg on the media trying to make this look like a regional anomaly:
It’s NOT about Cincinnati…it’s about a predatory bureaucracy that will destroy any trust in government.
Panther 01 (fef457) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:05 pmI was friends with a Treasury agent for a time. He would point at businesses such as coffee shops that seemed unlikely businesses for the neighborhood and say “Bet that’s a laundry”. He liked earth tones, though.
nk (875f57) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:05 pmThis raises the question of why do we need a President who hasn’t a clue what is going on in his administration. Just what are we paying him for ? He has managed to wee-wee up just about everything. Shoot, Pee Wee Herman could do a better job.
It also raises the question … is the federal government too big ?
Are we really supposed to believe that the “smartest man in the room,” the “Chicago Jesus,” the “Mr Hope and Change” had some part of his administration running rogue for 3 years without somebody calling the White House to find out what was going on ? That he didn’t glean this straight from the minds of his minions ?
Yeah, if Barack Obama can’t manage it, nobody can.
Hey look, it’s “Recovery Summer IV” in the distance !!
Neo (d1c681) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:07 pmI guess next year, the Tea Party will invade DC wearing Guy Fawkes masks for “Recovery Summer V, for vendetta”
2.These low-level rogue IRS agents acted spontaneously after viewing a YouTube video
That was funny.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:09 pmearth tone suits are what you wear if you wanna dress like a democrat for whatever unholy reason you might have to do such a thing
happyfeet (c60db2) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:09 pmthat seems like it would make a good update to the post Mr. Panther
i’m glad you came by cause usually nobody tells me anything
happyfeet (c60db2) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:12 pmToday NPR interviewed one of the Washington Post writers of the linked artice and he did not hesitate in agreeing with the NPR commentator who stated that it clearly was “targeting”. Even NPR gets it.
Dana (292dcf) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:12 pmApparently the prior Director of the IRS and the President were the only people that did not know about this. Ironically, both of their lawyers were informed of this huge scandal, and never told their boss.
JD (b63a52) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:14 pmyup you can tell from the picture National Soros Radio for reals gets it
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/05/13/183680027/exactly-what-did-the-irs-want-to-know
i know my hat’s off to them
happyfeet (c60db2) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:14 pmVery funny, Elephant Stone.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:21 pmPretty soon we’ll hear that, oh, by the way, this was all pursuant to a signed directive by Obama.
Yes, but it will have been misconstrued. When Obama said “Ef them up, but good!” he was just speaking off-the-cuff, not officially.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:31 pmKevin M,
It will depend on what the definition of “Ef them up” means. These things are always in a state of flux with the left.
Dana (292dcf) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:33 pmIt gets better. The National Organization for Marriage which is opposed to redefining marriage to include SSM, says the IRS leaked its confidential financial data to the pro-gay marriage GLBT group Human Rights Campaign.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/13/the-irs-admits-to-targeting-conservative-groups-but-were-they-also-leaking/
So the IRS was leaking data on these groups finances and donors to leftist political groups.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:33 pmmore racism from you bitter clingy teabaggers that can’t stand have a smart black man as your president.
redc1c4 (403dff) — 5/13/2013 @ 7:43 pmHere are more vile racists h8ing on President Junior Miss for being black and smart.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/breaking-seal-parents-demand-obama-explain-why-their-son-was-allowed-to-be-desecrated-at-his-memorial-service-by-islamic-cleric-video/
So much racisty racism from these Klansmen and they’re Islamophobes to boot.
I guess we won’t be hearing about the absolute moral authority of a mom whose son’s been killed in combat like we did ad nauseam with Cindy Sheehan.
Still, that’s probably a headline that Obama wouldn’t want to see. But if it’s only on Fox then he won’t. Because of the racism, you know.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 8:17 pmI’m just tossing this out. It’s pure speculation on my part. But Obama got elected to the Senate because his campaign leaked to the Chicago Sun Times that there was damaging information about his primary and general election opponents in their sealed divorce and custody court records.
He knew where to go to slime Obama’s rivals, so he must have somehow gotten some advance knowledge.
As numerous people have pointed out Mitt Romney had no messy divorce records to put under a microscope. But he did have his tax records.
Anybody willing to bet against me that the Obama campaign was pushing so hard on that issue because they also had a sneak peek into those?
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 8:32 pmAxelrod was a former Tribune reporter, who had heard of both Blair Hull and Jack Ryan’s troubled divorces,
narciso (3fec35) — 5/13/2013 @ 8:48 pmThe sickening irony in all this is that for the past 4 years the IRS has been headed by a known tax cheat, referring to Timothy Geithner. In a way, his sleaziness — and that of his boss, and all of the equally scroungy minions around the boss — makes the bilge of the IRS and closely aligned White House not just far less surprising, but even to be expected.
Back in 2008 I sarcastically said that America, by putting into its presidency a person along the lines of Barry Obama, was becoming the world’s biggest Banana Republic. I don’t feel that comment is all that sarcastic today.
Mark (9ba6f2) — 5/13/2013 @ 8:59 pmThat’s right it was the Tribune that served as the Obama campaign’s hatchet man, not the Sun-Times.
Thanks for the assist, narciso.
But the Sun-Times did report that Ryan alleged that Obama supporters were exchanging emails with the Tribune about what they would find in those records. I do not see how even a former Tribune reporter would have that kind of information about sealed records in a California court. I doubt the custody proceedings were open to the public.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:08 pmThat’s probably true as well, and recall the Tribune is tied to the Daily Puppy Trainer, hence the Hollywood connection,
narciso (3fec35) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:19 pmthe never not charming kacey musgraves has a new song out today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEsEUpk5rU8
go ahead click she’ll make your day more better
happyfeet (8ce051) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:28 pmGood selection, pikachu.
narciso (3fec35) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:32 pmThe 1023 application process is miserable and expensive even when the IRS isn’t specifically jerking your chain. I can’t imagine the level of byzantine bureaucratic harassment they’d employ when they’ve specifically targeted you.
Adam B (0904cd) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:34 pmhttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/koch-industries-lawyer-white-house-how-did-you-get-our-tax-information-1
Drudge is relinking to some old article about the administration leaking confidential tax information to the MFM in a media smear campaign against the Koch brothers prior to the 2010 election. Even President Wonderful hisself got in on tossing around inferences about who was and wasn’t paying taxes.
President Gusty Call may have joked about targeting people for tax audits a little too much.
That lie about low level employees at a single office was doomed to fail in short order. People who seem to know what they’re talking about say that there are all kinds of safeguards to prevent low level IRS agents from doing just that. If a low level employee tries to snoop into his or her neighbor’s tax filings that sends off alarm bells. There’s no way one or two rogue agents could have had access or set up a system to flag all those groups with keywords like tea party or patriot in their names for abusive treatment.
Either all of them had to be colluding, or it had to involve high level officials.
But now it’s going to be difficult for the Obama administration to claim that this scandal was even confined to just the Treasury Department.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:36 pmThe divorce was a public record. Divorces have to be. The reporters went and looked at the file and saw from the docket sheets or the order that some portions had been put under seal. They did not necessarily need to know what was sealed to want them to keep on digging with the HOPE that they would find dirt.
nk (875f57) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:38 pmEach new piece of information points to more and FOIA requests can be more focused. Phony email addresses just add to the pot. In the next three years the cases will be building.
dunce (15d7dc) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:39 pmnarciso @24, I’ve wasted a little time trying to see what if any reporting was done on the Ryan divorce and custody battle at the time. I haven’t come up with a thing.
So while they may have been aware of it I don’t see how they would have known what was in it unless they had some source inside the court who could illegally find out for them.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:44 pmThe allegation didn’t have to be true, it just had to be in the file, the nature of which properly was not meant for public disclosure, which is the point of the exercise,
narciso (3fec35) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:53 pmYes, nk, but are custody disputes public proceedings? Because as I understand it the filings in the custody case were the records under seal. As I recall Ryan’s allegations the people in the Obama campaign who were pushing hard to get the Tribune to delve into those records (and the Tribune reporter who wrote the original piece in Blair Hull admitted it was the Obama camp that gave them the tip and was driving the story) had some knowledge of what they would find. It wasn’t just a fishing expedition that they hoped would turn something up.
Unless the custody case was somehow open to the public I don’t see how they’d have any specific information contained in those records. But of course if it had been public they wouldn’t have needed to sue to unseal those documents.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:56 pmOh, the allegations weren’t true. The judge dismissed them.
I’m just pointing out that Axelrod and other of Obama’s handlers apparently knew what the allegations were.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:58 pmR.I.P. Dr. Joyce Brothers
Icy (4b226c) — 5/13/2013 @ 9:59 pmIt’s probably pertinent to point out that Ryan had released his divorce records. So there wasn’t any need for anybody at either the LAT or the Tribune to pretend to be reporters and attempt any acts of journalism. Those records were served up to them on a platter.
Point being it’s Obama’s schtick to pretend to be above the fray while his campaign is using confidential records behind the scenes. Which is why I linked to that article about the Koch brothers. It certainly looks like senior administration officials had their confidential tax information.
Does anyone buy for a minute that the Preezy wasn’t in on all this crap his own campaign was pulling on his behalf?
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/13/2013 @ 10:09 pmR.I.P. Bangladeshi Factory Workers – Death Toll Over 1,100
Leviticus (17b7a5) — 5/13/2013 @ 10:29 pmI heard on the radio today the Syrian toll a year on is 80K.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 5/14/2013 @ 12:17 amany references to that number Gary, or did it just magically appear?
redc1c4 (403dff) — 5/14/2013 @ 12:32 amSome of the smaller groups who were awaiting 501(c) approval weren’t aware that they were not required to turn over the names of members and donors. So they did. And it’s starting to surface that some of those members and donors were subsequently audited.
This whole IRS scandal is just getting started.
Bets (717964) — 5/14/2013 @ 12:32 amTime to find a strong oak limb.
mg (31009b) — 5/14/2013 @ 2:44 amHugo Chavez lives!
Mitch (a61168) — 5/14/2013 @ 5:26 amMy wife likes to watch “Body of Proof”. I don’t. I’m reminded that we have zero as pres because of Jeri Ryan’s scruples. Or her choice in whom to marry.
Richard Aubrey (6c93a4) — 5/14/2013 @ 5:33 amOf course, given the situation, the allegations may not have been true. Apparently that happens.
He won the election. Nothing here will bring Romney back.
Once again, their attitude is: what does it matter?
Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 5/14/2013 @ 5:59 amNote how quickly Washington would throw Cincinnati under the bus.
Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:09 amMore foodstamps–more people on disability payments–more Pigford fraud to process–and more tax-exempts to deal with and attendant IRS audits to perform. And on top of it the the poor bureaucracies, they’re just so understaffed!!! Of course, mistakes will be made. Things will slip through. Staffing has slid. Budgets have been slashed.
Amid withering accusations the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party and other conservative groups with enhanced scrutiny, the agency faces another problem: It’s drowning in paperwork.
The IRS’ Exempt Organizations Division, which finds itself at the scandal’s epicenter, processed significantly more tax exemption applications by so-called 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations — 2,774 during fiscal year 2012 — since at least the late 1990s, according to an analysis of IRS records by the Center for Public Integrity.
Compare that to 1,777 applications in 2011 and 1,741 in 2010, federal records show. Not since 2002, when officials processed 2,402 applications, have so many been received.
Meanwhile, Exempt Organizations Division staffing slid from 910 employees during fiscal year 2009 to 876 during fiscal year 2012, agency personnel documents indicate.
In 2010, IRS officials projected exempt division staffing at 942 employees. But IRS officials cut the number to 900 after the agency began slashing its budget in response to fiscal woes affecting most corners of the federal government.
The agency said this weekend that a heavy workload prompted bureaucrats to “centralize” the “influx of advocacy applications” and, in the name of efficiency, scrutinize groups that contained more common phrases such as “tea party” in them.
Did you notice also the cute “withering accusations” meme instead of calling it what it is–withering admissions?
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/18238920-as-applications-swell-irs-nonprofit-division-overloaded-understaffed?lite
elissa (dba791) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:24 amPolitics is a nasty and dirty game? Who would have thought it?
Blair Hull was a slimeball. I wasn’t going to vote for him, anyway. I have done orders of protection against abusive husbands. The orders of protection his wife took out were no way confidential. They were known to judges, court clerks, sheriff’s deputies, and available to anyone who felt like doing a name search in the Cook County Circuit Court. If he had won the primary, Jack Ryan likely would have used them against him in the general election.
Jack Ryan is a little more complicated. I agree that there was good reason to seal the more sordid allegations in the divorce, and they should have been immune from collateral attack by a third party years later. A California judge disagreed. Ryan could have petitioned to have the judge’s order stayed pending appeal and by the time the appeal was heard the election would have been over. He chose not to appeal. He could have chosen to call his child’s mother a perjurer once the allegations were out. He could have chosen not to marry a dippy starlet with large breasts. He could have chosen to stay in Hollywood and stayed out of Chicago politics. He could have stayed in the race and took the heat. The Illinois GOP could have chosen a replacement candidate who was not a fruit loop. Meh. Get over it.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:28 amAnd then we wonder why they only have slimy nazguls like Durbin, rising out of Chicago politics, you were rationalizing the IRS’s witchhunt of the Tea Party the other day as I recall.
narciso (3fec35) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:36 amElissa – they forgot to blame the sequester.
JD (ee8414) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:39 amI like Dixon. And I owe him for a very big (to me) personal favor. I owe any opponent of his nothing.
I was not rationalization the IRS witchhunt of the Tea Party — I was wondering why the IRS wasn’t. And I was wondering how much the establishment GOP (think Specter clones) wants the Tea Party around really.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:48 am*I like Durbin* I liked Dixon, too, he lost his seat standing up for Clarence Thomas, but it’s Durbin I owe the favor too.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:50 amThey know they need to keep this in the public eye as something small, rogue, and confined to the evil tea-party. Just tax exempt scrutiny for “advocacy applications” and “so-called social welfare organizations” that went a little bit amok.
It’s the ferreting out and then the singling out of individual donors, even wealthy ones, for special IRS audits as a result of the work of the underhanded IRS special unit that will draw the ire of the American public across political boundaries and is something even the media is finding it cannot ignore.
The words “enemies list” may not mean much to lil Ezra and his young juice boxer friends or the millennial OFA drones. But there are millions of Americans who still react very, very badly to that phrase and what all it connotes.
elissa (dba791) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:05 amWell look at the criteria, it is an attempt to make certain political speech ‘doubleunplusgood’ it began with the tea party, but it expanded like the blob.
narciso (3fec35) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:09 amR.I.P. Bangladeshi Factory Workers – Death Toll Over 1,100
Was that non-sequitur in response to the post about Joyce Brothers’ passing? Whatever the case, the comment that comes to mind is Jay Carney saying “that’s old news” and Hillary yelping “what difference does it make!?”
And Bill’s wife, in turn, telling the mother of one of those killed in Benghazi that the US would hunt down and punish the film maker of the video posted to Youtube. I believe she said that right after dodging sniper fire on an airport tarmac.
But that’s okay. People like Hillary, Barack and those who staff the IRS bureaucracy are imbued with great compassion, wonderful tolerance, beautiful humaneness. Their hearts are so fabulous and bountiful, that all is forgiven.
Mark (9ba6f2) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:17 am==And I owe him for a very big (to me) personal favor. ==
It’s good to know that a personal favor by Durbin to one Mr. N.K. is apparently enough to mitigate and overlook all the damage Sen. Durbin has done to Illinois and to the national interest during his time in Washington DC as a Democrat leader. His lies couched in his always genteel honey-toned voice, coupled with his sincere puppy-dog looking eyes make Sen Durbin one of the more dangerous and insidious progs on Capitol Hill.
elissa (dba791) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:22 amAs is any semblance of the Mocha Messiah’s “Hopey-Changey” utopian fantasy.
If it is wrong to derive so much joy in the self-destruction of a group of people who were so thoroughly convinced in the righteousness of their cause that honesty and forthrightness were luxuries they simply couldn’t afford, then I simply do not wish to be right.
The really shitty thing is (and what should really be keeping the sycophants awake at night out of sheer resentment), is that The Lightbringer had almost two years in which to enact any piece of legislation his little Marxist heart desired. However, as we saw with the atrocity that was the “passage” of the Obamacare shit sandwich, while they may indeed have believed in the inevitability of the Progtard Revolution, they knew enough to know that to simply foist a litany of “transformative” intrusions upon of Proles would result in precisely the sort of wholesale electoral slaughter they ended up reaping in 2010. They were simply unwilling to walk the walk, pass their silliness, and let the chips fall where they may in November.
“No,” they said.” This is for their own good, and if we can’t get them to like it, we’ll destroy anyone who says otherwise.”
Many of us are far less surprised by this shitstorm then the rapidity with which the scales seemed to fall from the collective MSM. As for myself, the past four days have been nothing short of a celebration of everything I hold dear as an American, and I make no opprobrium.
Lesson learned? If you lack the courage of your convictions, you’re either ignorant, arrogant, or both. Whichever the case, you’re going to find yourself resorting to exactly the sort of bullshit we see them engaging in here. Such is the fate of any minority which grows weary of having to deal with messy, unpleasant things like, say, democracies. Like any common thug, that which they cannot it will not earn, they simply steal, or lie and/or intimidate into acquiring.
This isn’t their country. It’s ours. The difference being, and the core principle the LSM never saw fit to disclose, is that when we said, “We want our country back,” we were talking about them, as well. Believe it or not, I maintain we NEED liberals. It’s the self-serving douchebags I can do without. Conservatives and libertarians have never shied away from a public debate on the issues, settled upon at the ballot box.
Obama’s Left, predictably, has demonstrated an intense disdain for those who disagree with him, and has conducted himself accordingly. He is a cliche. He is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and yet another example of the futility of Alinsky, Frankfurt School “progressive” policies. Crime, it has been said, never really pays in the end. Especially if you weren’t particularly clever to begin with.
God bless and keep Jonathan Karl.
Again, I’d feel sorry for these people, we’re I not enjoying this so Goddamn much, and so certain they don’t particularly hold me and my friends in any regard worth noting.
My Sharia Moor (7ede7d) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:31 amI am beginning to suspect that I don’t always fit in.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 9:08 amNK,
C’mon, man, don’t you know that’s precisely how they oil the machine—by doing ‘favors’ for constituents, thereby expecting to endgender warm and fuzzy feelings toward them ?
By the way, isn’t Durbin the guy who several years ago famously made a Nazi comparison to our soldiers fighting in Iraq ?
Elephant Stone (65a34b) — 5/14/2013 @ 9:14 amIt was in reference to the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo. Here’s the full statement.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 9:55 amNo mention by him of soldiers fighting in Iraq or of servicemen at all for that matter. That was embellishment added by his critics. The freaks who conducted the
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 10:05 amtortureinterrogations in Gitmo were, I believe, civilians. CIA and contractors, including civilian psychologists who designed the interrogation protocols. But that came out later.nk,
I think I see where you’re coming from. I remember when I was young, and the OJ Simpson trial was going on out here in LA, and there were some people who would say, “I met OJ once–he signed an autograph for me, so he couldn’t really be such a bad guy, could he ?!”
Ha, ha, ha.
Elephant Stone (65a34b) — 5/14/2013 @ 10:05 amMaybe.
But on the other thing, I also don’t think that prisoners should be abused and neither does the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Durbin got Borked by the hawks’ “soldiers in Iraq” spin.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 10:14 amApparently we’d have been much better off with men who had gone through nasty divorces than a man who stayed married to his first wife in the 2004 Illinois Senate race. Somehow, it makes Mark Sanford look not quite as bad. 🙁
We could still use information from Jack Ryan concerning why the Doctor didn’t remove all of Seven of Nine’s Borg implants.
The sadly realistic Dana (3e4784) — 5/14/2013 @ 10:17 amErr, those are her two best features?
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 10:20 amThis “nk” fellow is quite hijacker, isn’t he?
My Sharia Moor (7ede7d) — 5/14/2013 @ 10:22 amI really don’t see what there is to get over as long it’s a pattern of behavior that continues to this day.
Which is why, for instance, Benghazi is important. BHO absolutely refuses to face facts in North Africa/the ME. That’s what got those people killed at that diplomatic facility, and again he continues to obstinately refuse to face facts.
More IRS allegations. If you recall the President made the mistake of allowing an experienced local reporter interview him during the 2012 campaign, instead of sticking to the sycophantic WH press corps or the ladies of the view. Like Joe the Plumber the reporter made Obama look bad. Guess what happened to the reporter almost immediately?
http://danaloeschradio.com/reporter-claims-irs-harassment-after-tough-obama-interview/
I’ve never believed Obama didn’t know what his campaign was doing on his behalf. He touted running his campaign as his sole example of executive experience. Not that I believed that, but I’d hold him to it. What’s he going to claim now, that he didn’t know what was going on in his own campaign while he claimed to be it’s CEO? Bernie Ebbers is in prison because that defense didn’t fly.
As an aside, since when is “conspiracy theory” a loony idea? The feds had advanced a “conspiracy theory” regarding the goings on at WorldCom, and the jury believed it. One of the charges that Ebbers was convicted of was conspiracy.
Given that Obama obviously regards the resources of the WH to merely be assets to be used for his permanent campaign, I’d hardly be surprised to find he used the resources of the IRS as just another tool to eliminate opponents. Like he used the assets available at the time, the Chicago Tribune chief among them, to eliminate his opponents Hull and Ryan.
http://danaloeschradio.com/reporter-claims-irs-harassment-after-tough-obama-interview/
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 11:06 amI think it’s a virtual certainty we’ll find that it wasn’t just the IRS targeting Obama’s enemies. And remember, that’s the word Obama himself used to describe his opponents and detractors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/floyd-abrams-sp-lawyer-us-downgrade_n_2623393.html
In 2012 Romney supporter Frank Vandersloot was singled out by the Obama campaign as some sort of unsavory wealthy type. In short order he was told he was being audited by the IRS, and investigated by the Dept. of Labor.
During the auto bailouts Obama’s henchmen called Chrysler bondholders “terrorists” for attempting to enforce their rights under existing bankruptcy law, and the overwhelming majority of car dealers they selected to close were Republicans.
We also now know the EPA threw up more roadblocks when conservative organizations submitted FOIA requests while liberal organizations received fee-waivers, etc.
And this is all just coincidence that executive branch agencies as well as the office of Obama’s “car czar” acted as blatantly partisan thugs? I don’t think so.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 12:04 pmHow could I have forgotten? Back in 2011 the WH came up with rules requiring contractors to reveal their political contributions if they were going bid.
http://fcw.com/articles/2011/04/20/white-house-political-contributions-disclosure-contractor.aspx
President “help me punish our enemies” wanted you to believe that his administration was just trying to be transparent. They were transparent. They are transparent.
They were clearly trying to reward their friends and deny contracts to their enemies.
Everything that’s coming to light now shows that’s how this President and his administration routinely operates.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 12:21 pmBy the way, given Obama’s preoccupation with Rush Limbaugh, I’d like to know if the IRS audited any of his tax returns or provided any information about him to third parties.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/14/2013 @ 12:54 pmIt looks like Senate Democrats had a hand in making sure the IRS investigated conservative groups in the run-up to the 2010 mid-term elections.
http://getliberty.org/senate-democrats-ordered-irs-in-2010-to-investigate-501c-groups-letter-shows/?utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Senate+Democrats+ordered+IRS+in+2010+to+investigate+501%28c%29+groups%2c+letter+shows&utm_content=http%3a%2f%2fgetliberty.org%2fsenate-democrats-ordered-irs-in-2010-to-investigate-501c-groups-letter-shows%2f
The letter is here:
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM176_100929_irs.html
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 1:57 pmAnd now we learn…they helped Pro-Publica!
The IRS’s Nonprofit Helper A tax-exempt charity disseminated confidential tax information / WSJ Best of the Web May 14, 2013
IRS Office That Targeted Tea Party Also Disclosed Confidential Docs From Conservative Groups by Kim Barker and Justin Elliott ProPublica, May 13, 2013, 5:40 p.m.
The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.
The IRS did not respond to requests Monday following up about that release, and whether it had determined how the applications were sent to ProPublica.
In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public. (We made six of those public, after redacting their financial information, deeming that they were newsworthy.)
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 5/14/2013 @ 2:32 pmAre Obama and Carney somehow clinging to some fantasy notion that the IRS made false confessions of targeting conservative groups with their “a lot has been reported, if the information turns out to be true” type statements? WTF?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/14/2013 @ 2:45 pm(Rush Limbaugh is audited every year by several states if not the feds. So it’s hard to say if he’s getting any particular attention that he wasn’t already getting before.)
luagha (5cbe06) — 5/14/2013 @ 2:56 pmThis doesn’t sound like Rush Limbaugh had been audited by the IRS as of June 2010, although he was expecting to be.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/14/2013 @ 3:05 pmI’ve observed that Obama has made people targets for audits and investigations by naming them by name, he’s joked about having the IRS audit his adversaries, and senior officials have briefed reporters about people like the Koch brothers that indicates the administration knows their confidential tax information. Consequently it’s going to be very hard for the administration to claim this IRS targeting scandal is even confined to the Treasury Dept., let alone confined to the IRS.
It appears others agree with me. ABC’s Trey Hardin gave an interview earlier today and he states with a very high degree of certainty that the West Wing of the WH knew about what the IRS was doing and more importantly approved it.
Here’s the audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne8tTAsP8I8&feature=player_embedded
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 3:13 pmThis is rich:
http://us.topnewstoday.org/US/article/5921318/
Baucus will lead investigation into IRS abuse of 501(3) groups; and this after his call in 2010 for them to investigate such groups.
On the bright side, he will most likely leave the Senate (end of 2014) before the investigation concludes, and it can be completed by a chairman who is not so ethically challenged, or at least one can hope so.
askeptic (b8ab92) — 5/14/2013 @ 3:39 pmaskeptic, we laugh at the UN because they produce headlines like this:
“Iran Defends Its Election As Chair Of UN Conference On Disarmament As U.S. Announces Boycott”
But our government isn’t really any better.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 4:16 pmAskeptic–do you think this IRS embarrassment and Baucus’ early vocal role about having the IRS “deeply investigate” such non-profits may be a factor in his deciding to retire? Or do you see it as merely a coincidence?
elissa (dba791) — 5/14/2013 @ 4:40 pmJust got polled by Rasmussen. IRS mess was first on their list. Gun control third on their list with multiple questions. Benghazi no questions.
elissa (dba791) — 5/14/2013 @ 4:54 pmelissa- i thought Baucus was one of the architects of Obamacare, which he recently called a disaster or some such, and he wanted to leave before the Obamacare hit the fan
but I could be wrong
or he could have multiple reasons
then again, he could repent and run as a repub and promise to undue his errors…
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/14/2013 @ 5:00 pmSo the IRS is either politically corrupt, horribly incompetent, or both.
Lovely.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:29 pmIt’s like they wanted to willfully disobey Citizen United’
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/exclusive-irs-to-tea-party-group-provide-details-of-your-planned-event-with-newt-gingrich/
narciso (3fec35) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:42 pmAs the alpha dog of a supposed tech savvy administration, 0bama operates like we’re back in time… before the golden age of radio or television… like we have no access to recordings of his words and actions.
Quite puzzling, until one takes the lapdog media into account. They (the media) have never been more about ideological advocacy and less about uncovering the truth than they are now.
Colonel Haiku (7aca33) — 5/14/2013 @ 6:47 pmI agree, Colonel Haiku, but I think Obama is also very good at stating general principles and he gets away with it because the media doesn’t press him for details. For instance, regarding the AP story, Obama/Carney said they believe in the First Amendment and they believe that leaking classified material is wrong. It’s hard to argue with either one, but the issue is where do we draw the line when principles like this clash.
Obama rarely addresses the difficult balancing that occurs when general principles intersect, other than to say we should use common sense — and who can argue with that? To make it worse, the press has not pushed Obama to address conflicts like this until recently. They still aren’t pushing very hard, but it’s a start.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:15 pmnarciso @83, what do you mean “it’s like?”
Clearly that was an attempt at humor. Do you see Obama’s unconstitutional NLRB tripping all over themselves to comply with the DC Circuit Court’s ruling?
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:15 pmCommon sense is uncommon in this administration, DRJ.
Colonel Haiku (7aca33) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:45 pmColonel, DRJ, I truly believe Obama is some sort of sociopath.
It all fits. He never learns from the consequences of his actions, nothing is ever his fault as he always assigns blame for his failures to everyone else, he’s inconsiderate and narcissistic. He holds a press conference after the Fort Hood shooting and he’s jocular and giving shouts out. He’s completely self-unaware how he looks to others. His utter regard for the truth is just one aspect of his sociopathy; he expects to be able to change his story at will and manipulate people to believe what he’s saying at the moment.
It works with some people. Recall the deer-in-the-headlights look on George Stephanapoulos’ face when Obama insisted his Obamacare “fine” that was to be collected by the IRS to fund an entitlement program wasn’t a tax, and George pulled out a dictionary and Obama told him “George, you’re reaching.”
Then the SCOTUS ruled it was a tax, and practically the next day Obama was back to denying it was a tax so he could claim to have kept his promise on taxes and the middle class.
George like a lot of people must not have experienced a sociopathic individual just lying to his face, fully expecting to get away with it. Either that or he’s easily manipulated.
You’ve to read the various accounts of how Obama treated former Astronaut Buzz Aldrin like an inanimate object.
http://www.examiner.com/article/buzz-aldrin-recounts-how-president-obama-snubbed-him
By “snubbed” the headline means they shoved Aldrin toward the back of Air Force One until they got to NASA, brought him up for the photo-op, then shoved him in back. Like the Newtown families, people are only worth something to Obama if they are useful props.
http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/05/08/moonwalker-buzz-aldrin-used-as-photo-prop-for-obama/
You’ll note Obama was a lot angrier Congress didn’t pass his precious gun control legislation so he could put one in the win column than he was his ambassador to Libya and four other Americans were killed. That was merely “not optimal” he explained. Not optimal, for him.
The point isn’t to provide a clinical diagnosis but simply to accept what this guy is so you know what to do about him. He’s not going to learn from the consequences of his actions, because he’s not going to face facts, he’s not going to take take the blame, he’s not going to tell the truth when the truth won’t serve as well as a lie, and he expects to get away with it. As he told Daily Beast contributor Richard Wolffe for his book “Renegade: The Making of a President,” Obama believes his own bullsh**. and he expects you to believe it, too. He really thinks he’s that persuasive; he can announce what he’s saying is bullsh** and he’ll start to believe it himself (hence the Benghazi talking points).
When you actually listen to the words coming out of Obama’s mouth, he’s really a pretty bizarre individual. You can’t work with him, you can only stop him.
Steve57 (9b1cdb) — 5/14/2013 @ 7:56 pmother than to say we should use common sense
That illustrates just how tricky and dishonest he is, because emotionally and ideologically, he, as a leftist, would tend to find common sense — the very phrase and meaning — to be a dowdy, unexciting, uninteresting, old-fashioned concept. It would be analogous to a conservative saying — in regards to a vicious murderer and robber — “I feel tremendous compassion and do-gooderism for the guy because his mother didn’t send him to a nice school and provide her kids with enough love.”
Mark (9ba6f2) — 5/14/2013 @ 8:02 pmGeorge like a lot of people must not have experienced a sociopathic individual just lying to his face, fully expecting to get away with it.
We’ve had the Clintons. But some experiences are so horrible that the mind just has to suppress the memory to remain sane.
nk (875f57) — 5/14/2013 @ 8:16 pmYou’ll note Obama was a lot angrier Congress didn’t pass his precious gun control legislation so he could put one in the win column
Never forget the true nature of the guy, or people like him (ie, their being the opposite of what they fancy about themselves and the socio-political philosophy they hold near and dear).
BTW, the following is a reminder that the “workplace violence” mentality of Obama not only was behind his dastardly-youtube-video response to Benghazi, it was at the core of his absurdly inappropriate “shout out” (don’t jump to conclusions, you meanies and bigots!) reaction to Fort Hood.
Mark (9ba6f2) — 5/14/2013 @ 8:25 pmI love how the people who caution us against jumping to conclusions were the same people who within hours announced with absolute certainty that the Benghazi attack was due to a spontaneous protest over a YouTube video.
Then when that started falling apart declared we couldn’t actually call them liars because we hadn’t gathered all the facts.
The same facts they didn’t have when they claimed as fact that everything was over a YouTube video.
Moving on to something more relevant to the post that started this thread:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/15/us-usa-irs-idUSBRE94E02J20130515/?dlvrit=992637&feedName=topNews&feedType=RSS
Now that the IG report has been released, it’s time for the FBI investigation undoubtedly followed by interminable internal reviews. Which of course the administration will be bound not to talk about, and certainly not to jeopardize by sharing any documents outside the executive branch with is entirely within their control.
Isn’t everyone, like me, feeling all warm and fuzzy that Eric Holder’s FBI has opened a criminal investigation that will no doubt continue well past the 2014 elections on behalf of the administration that just loves to blame this kind of crap on the low-level employees who couldn’t pull this crap no matter how much they wanted to?
I may have to revise my earlier statements about how the Obama administration wouldn’t be able to maintain this corruption was confined to the IRS or even the Treasury department.
I forgot I had John Boehner on my side.
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