IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups

[Casino67]

WashingtonPost:

 

 

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 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 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.

[clearvision]

Uh oh....

[clearvision]

some interesting info here at Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/irs-tea-party-media_n_3269698.html?1368502179

[Valin]

Forgetting Watergate's lesson

George F Will

May 14, 2013

 

He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to ... cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

 

-- Article 2, Section 1, Articles of Impeachment, adopted by the House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974

 

•

 

The burglary occurred in 1972, the climax came in 1974, but 40 years ago this week -- May 17, 1973 -- the Senate Watergate hearings began exploring the nature of Richard Nixon's administration. Now the nature of Barack Obama's administration is being clarified as revelations about IRS targeting of conservative groups merge with myriad Benghazi mendacities.

 

This administration aggressively hawked the fiction that the Benghazi attack was just an excessively boisterous movie review. Now we are told that a few wayward souls in Cincinnati, with nary a trace of political purpose, targeted for harassment political groups with "Tea Party" and "patriot" in their titles. The Washington Post reported Monday that the IRS also targeted groups that "criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution." Credit the IRS operatives with understanding who and what threatens the current regime.

 

Jay Carney, whose unenviable job is not to explain but to explain away what his employers say, calls the IRS' behavior "inappropriate." No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the IRS for political purposes is a criminal offense.

 

It remains to be discovered whether the chief executive is guilty of more than an amazingly convenient failure to superintend the excesses of some executive branch employees beyond the Allegheny Mountains. Meanwhile, file this under "What a tangled web we weave":

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

some interesting info here at Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/irs-tea-party-media_n_3269698.html?1368502179

 

IRS Abandoned Tea Party Probes Due To 'Concerns' Over Media Attention

 

 

Note: not because it was illegal...and wrong

 

 

 

kemahcw 560 Fans

 

2 minutes ago ( 7:50 AM)

I guess I'd feel better if all of this ruckus would have reared it's head in the IRS - NAACP scandal. As a matter of fact, the republicans and the media didn't even let it get to scandalous proportions! Just a flicker in the night and now all of the vitriol! Amazing how the republicans can twist and control the message!

 

 

I would try to figure out what this person means...but I'm afraid my head would explode.

 

 

LaughingTwo 89 Fans

18 minutes ago ( 7:33 AM)

End tax-exempt status for all - churches on up.

 

 

Putting my Libertarian Hat on...

Actually a good idea.

[Geee]

PROGRESSIVE GROUP: IRS GAVE US CONSERVATIVE GROUPS' CONFIDENTIAL DOCS

 

 

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.

The commendable admission lends further evidence to the lengths the IRS went during an election cycle to silence tea party and limited government voices.

ProPublica says the documents the IRS gave them were “not supposed to be made public”:

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... 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.)

 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/14/Progressive-Group-Says-IRS-Gave-Them-Confidential-Docs-On-Conservative-Groups

[Geee]

IRS INTIMIDATION FORCED FOUNDER TO SHUT DOWN TEA PARTY GROUP

 

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.

 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/14/IRS-Intimidation-Forced-Founder-To-Shut-Down-Tea-Party-Group

[Rheo]

Reporter Claims IRS Harassment After Tough Obama Interview

 

In that April 2012 interview, I questioned President Obama on several topics: the Buffet Rule, his public remarks about the Supreme Court before the ruling on the Affordable Care Act. I also asked why he wasn’t doing more to help Sen. Claire McCaskill who at that time was expected to lose. The Obama interview caught fire and got wide-spread attention because I questioned his spending.

 

I said some viewers expressed concern, saying they think he’s “out of touch” because of his personal and family trips in the midst of our economic crisis.

The President’s face clearly showed his anger; afterwards, his staff which had been so polite … suddenly went cold.

 

That’s to be expected, and I can deal with that just as I did with President George H. Bush’s staff when he didn’t like my questions.

 

Journalistic integrity is of the utmost importance to me. My job is to ask the hard questions, because I believe viewers have a right to be well-informed. I cannot and will not promote anyone’s agenda – political or otherwise – at the expense of the reporting the truth.

 

What I don’t like to even consider … is that because of the Obama interview … the IRS put a target on me.

Can I prove it? At this time, no.

But it is a fact that since that April 2012 interview … the IRS has been pressuring me.

[Valin]

[Rheo]

NAACP should have their tax exempt status revoked.

[Valin]

NAACP should have their tax exempt status revoked.

 

The left have their panties in a bunch because in 04 the NAACP was audited by the IRS. Evidently with their tax exempt status they are suppose to be non partisan (I know what a joke) and they were allegedly engaging in partisan politics. so that's the same exact thing the IRS is do now......and if you buy that, I've got a bridge.

[Casino67]

Julian Bond was always a partisan hack. Never one to be believed.

[Rheo]

The Question that Launched the IRS Scandal: Planted?

 

It struck me as odd that IRS official Lori Lerner would suddenly offer a mea culpa ex nihilo — on the sensitive subject of the agency’s targeting of political enemies — off the cuff while she was speaking at a tax conference organized by the American Bar Association. When she was asked about that during a telephone call on Friday, she said only that she was asked a question and answered it.

 

But there is a bit more to it than that.

 

The question at the ABA conference came from Washington-based tax lawyer Celia Roady, a lobbyist in the firm of Morgan Lewis. Roady is certainly well-versed in the issue at hand: She was named to the influential Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities in 2010 by Douglas Shulman, at that time commissioner of the IRS. Lerner is the director for tax-exempt organizations at the IRS. Roady was serving on the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities while tea-party groups and other conservative organizations were being targeted by the IRS. Not exactly a question out of the blue — Capitol Hill sources described the question as “planted” and say the IRS has informally admitted as much.

[Valin]

Julian Bond was always a partisan hack. Never one to be believed.

 

 

DARN IT!!! the secret is out. Ok, who's been shooting off their big mouth?

[Rheo]

IRS Asks for Reading List, Tea Party Group Sends Constitution

 

When Marion Bower decided to start her tea party organization in 2010, she didn’t know that it would take nearly two years for the Internal Revenue Service to approve her request for tax-exempt status.

 

The Ohio woman also did not expect that providing information about the books her group read would be part of the application process.

“I was trying to be very cordial, but they wanted copies of unbelievable things,” Bower told ABC News today. “They wanted to know what materials we had discussed at any of our book studies.”

 

She ultimately sent one of the books, “The Five Thousand Year Leap,” promoted frequently by Glenn Beck, to the IRS official handling her tax-exempt request in Cincinnati. She also sent a paperback copy of the Constitution.

“They wanted a synopsis of all the books we read,” Bower said. “I thought, I don’t have time to write a book report. You can read them for yourselves.”

[Valin]

White House throws IRS under the bus.

[Valin]

Michael Medved has just said the the IRS IG report out Thurs. will not be good news for this administration.

[nickydog]

Michael Medved has just said the the IRS IG report out Thurs. will not be good news for this administration.

 

Good.

[Valin]

Report: IRS targeted more conservative groups than thought

Allahpundit

5/14/13

 

Lois Lerner’s now infamous conference-call remark about not being good at math came in the course of an exchange where she claimed that 300 or so groups had been singled out by the IRS for special scrutiny, a quarter of which had “tea party” or “patriot” in their name and the rest of which were guilty of sins like criticizing the government.

 

The actual number may be …. higher.

 

(Snip)

 

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…

 

Given the advance knowledge of the program, Issa and Jordan voiced serious concerns about the honesty of top IRS officials and the lack of disciplinary action. The lawmakers said they’ve learned nobody has been disciplined and that one employee at the Cincinnati office where this program was supposedly started “received a promotion or ‘career enhancement.’”…

(Snip)

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

NY Times

 

 

 

[Valin]

2 points
A. Tingles may have found a clue...this could be a sign of the End Time!
B. If they've lost Tingles....

[nickydog]

The news is getting a little more fun.

[Rheo]

BOMBSHELL… ABC Analyst: West Wing Of White House Authorized IRS-Gate Targeting (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.”

--

Watch your back Trey.

[Valin]

[Valin]

Morning Bell: The IRS Wants to Know If You’re a “Patriot”

Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.

May 15, 2013

 

Across this great land, patriotic Americans are behaving subversively.

 

 

We’re quoting from our pocket Constitutions, starting reading groups to discuss our founding documents, even gathering together to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

 

Uncle Sam is not amused.

 

As leaders of tea party groups have been painfully aware for years, the Internal Revenue Service has given “special” attention to conservative groups.

 

(Snip)