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Conservative politics targeted by IRS

May 10, 2013

IRSPolitical groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in applications for tax-exempt status were “inappropriately flagged” for closer examination by IRS agents during the 2012 election cycle, an official of the agency has admitted. (Washington Post)

The admission was made Thursday by Lois Lerner, who heads the unit of the IRS which regulates tax-exempt groups. Additional reviews of returns was the most visible practice about which members of many conservative groups complained. Allegations that the groups were targeted for special review were numerous, according to agency officials.

Lower-level workers in Cincinnati initiated the practice, she said, and she conceded it was wrong.

Depending on the type of organizational designation, some groups can become involved in political activity, but to maintain the tax-exempt status, the political work must not be the group’s primary output.


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It’s not really “conservative” politics which is being targeted; it’s liberal (classical) which is being targeted.


More specifically, it is Libertarian politics which is being targeted.


Libertarianism is growing by leaps and bounds, and the elites want to squelch this.


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It appears as though a watchdog report has been released showing that senior officials knew about conservative groups being targeted:

“Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general’s report obtained by The Associated Press that contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.” (read more at link provided)


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Richard Nixon instituted IRS harassment of political ENEMIES

Andy Warhol


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Good point Ted. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It really doesn’t matter which party is in power. Those who get control of that power from either party have indebted themselves so much that they will use that power to pay off those debts by any means if they think they can get away with it. And they will use that power in any way necessary to stay in power.


This will continue to occur as long as it is necessary to spend huge amounts of money on propaganda to get elected. It will be necessary to spend that way as long as the American voter can be swayed by such propaganda. We, as voters, ultimately get the government we deserve for this reason.


rOy, I often agree with your points, but your belief in the right-wing version of the Benghazi affair makes me think you have been paying too much uncritical attention to that element in the media lately. They have been trying for months to make a mountain out of that molehill. It was a bad incident but the causes are not nefarious nor are they limited to the Dems. The “coverup” is mostly — though not totally — an invention of elements in the media that will use ANY excuse to bash the Obama administration. (If you want to get a critique of their position from the left, John Stewart did a strong one on the Daily Show recently. The video of the show is available on thedailyshow.com.)


This political gamesmanship is why I can not support the GOP nationally even though I have significant differences with Obama and Co. The Dems play the same game but do so with more subtlety.


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This was intended as a reply to Ted Slanders earlier response to rOy/racket.


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rOy, I often agree with your points, but your belief in the right-wing version of the Benghazi affair makes me think you have been paying too much uncritical attention to that element in the media lately. They have been trying for months to make a mountain out of that molehill…

All I will say is wait and see. I do not follow any ideological right nor left, generally, but I do have a background in national security, international affairs, and military intelligence… I’m just saying that this is REALLY bad, and even the watered down version of the “truth” as it will be presented is a helluva lot worse than “protests in response to a youtube video.” And I surely believe my friends at SOFREP beyond anything any administration will put out (especially as it involves special forces).


While I am not “blaming” Obama, I will say that his total lack of leadership and experience really help exacerbate this (and pretty much anything else he has a hand in). I’m sorry, but an empty suit is an empty suit, and while we can project our hopes and change onto him, I am constantly hearing people on the left wonder when they’re going to see this great leader they all projected him to be. Sorry if that ruffles some people feathers…


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He is an empty suit, deal with it. Me, I always thought Leon Panetta or Chuck Hagel would make a good president. Leon realized he couldn’t change anything and left, so will Chuck. Be nice if the Republicans could offer up something other than whack-job puppets of the corporate plutocracy and religious right.


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More accurately: “It would be nice if the media were not just biased, but completely in the tank for one party and it’s puppets.”


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ABC News broke the Benghazi story wide open. It is now being carried by all the major news sources and the BBC. Jon Stewart came on before the ABC story broke. ABC obtained copies of all 12 revisions. I have to congratulate ABC–what a revelation, from the revisions forced by the State Dept. scrubbing the truth to make way for Hillary Clinton’s cover up apology to the world for the “offensive video”. I don’t think it’s right for either party to lie about a terrorist attack for political reasons, in this case to protect Obama’s reputation right before the election.


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It is telling that 8 months have gone by since the terrorist attack on our consulate happened, the torture and murder of four Americans and disgraceful display of Ambassador Stevens mutilated body.Then the repeated WH lies about what happened, that it was not a terror attack and why there was no military assistance sent to save these people.

And even more telling is that no news agency except Fox even questioned any of this during the first few months leading up to the presidential election and the debates, now that the house is investigating this, the emails are being made public and whistle blowers are coming out to testify openly about what really happened only CBS and ABC have really done any investigating.

It is now becoming plainly apparent because of the house hearings, as to what really happened, who knew about it, what was not done (or not) and then the ensuing cover up lies to protect Obama during the election and S of S Clinton before she stepped down.

The walk back through time and the testimony of subpoenaed witnesses in the very public house hearings that has shown this scandal to be factual, is now why all the rest of the mainscream media is even mentioning any of this even, if for only a few seconds during their broadcasts…


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Everyone involved should be fired and forced to pay the cost that these organizations incurred defending themselves.


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Sorry, right or left aside, the IRS should not be political. It should be transparent. Stop this now.


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What country do we live in? Is this the kind of new outreach the I.R.S. has adopted? I wonder if this has anything to do with my audit from last year…I’ve given more than a few dollars to the Tea Party over the last three years.

Everyone on the right and the left should be very afraid of this kind of power. This is why we want a smaller federal government. Stop giving them more power or we will get much more of this Chicago style crap. And do not fall for the excuse that this was done by lower level IRS agents…that’s BS the White House is directing this new weapon of silence. Welcome to the new America Obama voters.


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I agree with you 100%, except blaming Obama for anything other than failure to enact “change”. Tea Partiers who rip Obama as the sudden cause of all that is evil in government have absent or selective memories. Deficits? Good under Bush (“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” – Dick Cheney). Bad under Obama. “Fast and Furious”? Conceived and developed by the Bush administration, implementation by the DOJ began under Obama. Again, Obama’s only fault? Failure to “change”. BTW, the government stores ALL information on evrybody’s online activity, oddly enough almost none on banking and finance. Face it, you are a fool who is distracted from reality by a football game in which you are cheering for red against blue, and it doesn’t really matter who wins.


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While I agree with much of your comment, I think that Obama’s “failure to enact change” was not solely due to opposition by the right. I still strongly suspect that much of the supposed “left” in DC are only posing as the left to get votes and doing as little as they can get away with to follow through on their promises. In some cases this isn’t a bad thing, because “change” is not inherently good or bad and can be worse than the status quo. But it goes to show the lack of integrity of those advocating it on the left.


In the case of the “Fast and the Furious” scandal, Obama’s implementation was an enhancement ( and a poor one) upon the Bush concept. This is a much more justifiable criticism of the Obama administration (especially Eric Holder) than the current hubbub about Benghazi, but few people outside the right wing elements take it seriously. (Perhaps the right wing media should ask themselves why their credibility is so poor that no one but the “choir” is taking anything they preach seriously.)


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Perhaps they should, but they won’t. There is no credible right given the Tea Party takeover. Eisenhower Republicans (against real government waste, like spending billions on corporate welfare for failed weapons systems the military DOES NOT WANT) have no choice but to vote Democratic.


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there are other parties


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Yes, there is the Libertarian party.


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yes, Independant, etc. at this point anything but dem/rep/rep/dem. we need to speak up


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Or best option yet: NO PARTY AFFILIATION AT ALL.


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Not ready to waste my vote quite yet.


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There was no “enhancement”, where’d you come up with that?. Oh yeah, Tea Party talking point in case the fact that it was a Bush administration program saw the light of day. Admit the sins of the Bush Crime Family and let’s move forward. Yeah, I understand Obama is in fact your anti-Christ, half-rican, Muslim. But that’s all you’ve got, and it’s getting old.


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What are you doing? Reagan? Bush? Cheney? Is this what helps you sleep at night? Your Ace in the hole? All of these boogie men from the right that paves the way for bad behavior from your political heroes? Obama is in charge. This is 2013. The IRS is being used as a political weapon and I guess you think its okay because of bad deeds by others.


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“Boogie men”? Yeah, I listen to Rush too, I know the Tea Party talking point, your blaming Obama for the burning bag of dog poop left on the porch. But now the Dow has doubled and is at a record high, 23 months of gains in housing prices, unemployment lower even as the Brandenburg group Republicans continue to import/export the commodity of labor to save productions costs (societal costs? ‘f ’em, they actually did a study that concluded there should be no middle class as it was unnecessary and too costly to sustain, only the poor and a 5% elite, the “Brazil model” (very economically successful, and hell, look at Tom Brady’s wife!).


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I don’t think I know what you said…I’m guessing it’s something about Tom Brady’s wife’s Bush


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Yep, you got. And I thought you were slow.


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You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.


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The difference between Wide Receiver (under Bush) and Fast and Furious (under Obama) is distinct. Wide Receiver, operated in conjunction with the Mexican government, stopped the guns at the border with the Mexican government waiting across the border to pick up these guns if they made it across. They found that it was too difficult to track the guns to the border and discontinued the program.


Fast and Furious allowed the guns to go across the border and was done without the knowledge of the Mexican government. The guns were supposed to be tracked to different drug cartels, a virtual impossibility without the cooperation of the Mexican government.


The guns were discovered only after incidents in Mexico. So, was this was a way of showing that the US was the main supplier of guns to Mexico? (Dianne Feinstein was waiting with gun control legislation). Or, was Fast and Furious just a program that couldn’t work and was instituted by incompetents? We don’t know.


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Oh what did you do, actually go and read what each program was? Psshah! We’ll have none of that! It’s all bush’s fault no matter what. Man, get it right.


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An interesting thought is, the IRS will be the enforcers of Obama care’s fines and penalties… Hmmm… more firepower for politicos to use against each other? Nah, I’m sure it’s an honest and integrity-filled entity.


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“Lower-level workers in Cincinnati initiated the practice, she said, and she conceded it was wrong.” so now what? Besides an apology.


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No way! You mean the people that probably orchestrated this are far enough removed to as have their hands clean? Yeah, I’m betting some “low level” people thought this up and executed it. Sure do!


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Another very good example of “human sacrifice.”


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Surprised?


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Not anyone without an agenda. Or who’s ideological world view is so narrow, they truly believe there is no left-wing bias in 99% of the media.


What’s next, recognition of Benghazi and the OBVIOUS, blatant lies and cover-ups? Probably not, but one never knows.


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r0y,


Just think, if we could only have gotten a complete investigation into the Bush administration and 911? Many hated the FACT that Obama didn’t go further in pursuing this investigation when he took office.


Years after the 9/11 catastrophe, the Bush administration cover-up of why the terrorist attacks were carried out, despite the White House, CIA and FBI being repeatedly warned of them, still to this day holds.


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Two different sets of rules, one for the Bush Crime Family, another for half-rican, socialist, muslim, Satan-incarnates like Barack Obama.


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Aren’t they BOTH equally evil?


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No, only OBAMA is evil. Dick Cheney is our lord and savior Jesus Christ.


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Yea Ted. Kind of like how the FBI had the recent dead bomber in Boston on their list uh? Yea your partisonship is showing and your bullshit don’t fly. If you are going to blame Bush, fine but lets’ weigh it equal with Obama.


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BTDT,


“If you are going to blame Bush, fine but lets’ weigh it equal with Obama.”


Okay, the Bush Crime Family has killed around 12,000 people in the fraudulent Iraq an Afghanistan wars, plus the 911 deaths.


Obama could live in years equal to Moses, 900 plus, and would never reach the amount of the dumbfounded George Bush’s killings.


Oh, and by the tone of your writing and such, uh, you’re not partisan? You’re funny.


Where else do you want to “weigh” this proposition?


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Bush killed the people on Sept. 11? Boy I would LOVE to hear how you spin that one.


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This is why most everyone just skips over Ted’s incessant ramblings. Feeding trolls and all that.


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At least the 9-11 Commission was formed and provided a report (whether people believe it or not, is besides the point). When “non democrats” ask for a hearing on Bengazi, where lives were lost (including an Ambassador), it’s considered politicking. Gotcha.


How about give this a “commission” as well… then a report can be put out that is either full of it, or not… for more debate. We cannot even get the media slightly interested in how a U.S. Ambassador was murdered… I mean, Nixon resigned over some hacks getting caught breaking & entering… sheesh, where the heck have we fallen to?


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EXCELLENT POINT Roy. The media has leaned so far to the left in their love affair, it is ridiculous.


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