President Barack Obama made clear today that he only learned about the Internal Revenue Service investigation of right wing groups on Friday, when it became a news story, and he strongly denounced such activity, whether against right wing groups now, or left wing groups under Republican Presidents, calling such activities “outrageous”!
There is no justification or excuse for such activity, and those who have engaged in it must be held accountable to the full extent of the law!
We are in a democracy, and just because one may disagree or oppose the objectives of various organizations is no excuse for pressuring or monitoring such groups, as long as they are working within our system of laws!
The Republicans are trying to make this a major issue, but they have their own history of abuse to consider before they cast stones!
Wire tapping the press now????
“The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.”
AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.
“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.”
“The attorney general must explain the Justice Department’s actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again,” said Laura Murphy, the director of ACLU’s Washington legislative office.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtains-wide-ap-phone-records-probe
This news is totally unacceptable, and must be explained and such interference MUST end! We do not have any disagreement about this matter, Juan! A full investigation is essential!
Guano Droppings alert!
Princess Leia, this news about the Associated Press is, indeed, very disturbing!
Professor,
Here’s why the DOJ is going after AP records: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/13/2005021/doj-yemen-aqap/?mobile=nc
Oh, ok, it looks more complex, and possibly a violation of national security by the AP. We shall see how this plays out!
From the WP.
“In the AP case, the news organizations and its reporters and editors are not the likely targets of the investigation. Rather, the inquiry is probably aimed at current or former government officials who divulged classified information.
But experts said the scope of the records secretly seized from the AP and its reporters goes beyond the known scale of previous leak probes.
“This investigation is broader and less focused on an individual source or reporter than any of the others we’ve seen,†said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists. “They have swept up an entire collection of press communications. It’s an astonishing assault on core values of our society.â€
Lucy A. Dalglish, dean of the journalism school at the University of Maryland, said she thought the scope of the seizure was unprecedented. “Unfortunately, the Justice Department does this now and again,†said Dalglish, former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “What’s very unusual is the scope of the subpoenas.â€
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/under-sweeping-subpoenas-justice-department-obtained-ap-phone-records-in-leak-investigation/2013/05/13/11d1bb82-bc11-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_print.html
Juan,
Read the Think Progress article I posted at 9:27 pm. It clearly explains why the Department of Justice is going after the AP records. The AP admittedly reported in the story that the CIA broke up the plot, which alerted AQAP that there was a possible mole in their organization. Had the AP had not named the CIA and just said, “An unidentified government source” or something to that affect, the DOJ would not be going to such lengths to find out who told what to whom.
Ok, thanks, Princess Leia!
IRS: http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/05/how-citizens-united-came-back-to-bite.html
As this article explains, the IRS situation is an effect of the Citizens United ruling.
Thanks again, Princess Leia!
Two words: Media Matters
Read and learn, that’s all I can say. http://www.landmarklegal.org/uploads/IRS%20IG%20Letter%20without%20attachments.pdf
“An emerging liberal narrative is that this tempest is all the Supreme Court’s fault: The Citizens United decision — that corporations, particularly nonprofit advocacy groups, have First Amendment rights — so burdened the IRS with making determinations about who deserves tax-exempt status that some political innocents in Cincinnati inexplicably decided to begin by rummaging through the affairs of conservatives. Ere long, presumably, they would have gotten around to groups with “progressive†in their titles.”-George Will Washington Post
Here is the entire article. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-irs-scandal-carries-echoes-of-watergate/2013/05/13/78f03660-bbf1-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html
“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.â€
— Article II, Section 1, Articles of Impeachment against Richard M. Nixon, adopted by the House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974
“The burglary occurred in 1972, the climax came in 1974, but40 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 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’s 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’s behavior “inappropriate.†No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the Internal Revenue Service 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 weaveâ€:
The IRS official in charge of the division that makes politically sensitive allocations of tax-exempt status said Friday that she learned from news reports of the targeting of conservatives. But a draft report by the IRS inspector general says this official was briefed on the matter two years ago.
An emerging liberal narrative is that this tempest is all the Supreme Court’s fault: The Citizens United decision — that corporations, particularly nonprofit advocacy groups, have First Amendment rights — so burdened the IRS with making determinations about who deserves tax-exempt status that some political innocents in Cincinnati inexplicably decided to begin by rummaging through the affairs of conservatives. Ere long, presumably, they would have gotten around to groups with “progressive†in their titles.
Remember, all campaign “reform†proposals regulate political speech. And all involve the IRS in allocating speech rights.
Liberals, whose unvarying agenda is enlargement of government, suggest, with no sense of cognitive dissonance, that this IRS scandal is nothing more sinister than typical government incompetence. Five days before the IRS story broke, Obama, sermonizing 109 miles northeast of Cincinnati, warned Ohio State graduates about “creeping cynicism†and “voices†that “warn that tyranny is . . . around the corner.†Well.
He stigmatizes as the vice of cynicism what actually is the virtue of skepticism about the myth that the tentacles of the regulatory state are administered by disinterested operatives. And the voices that annoy him are those of the Founders.
Time was, progressives like the president 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson, had the virtue of candor: He explicitly rejected the Founders’ fears of government. Modern enlightenment, he said, made it safe to concentrate power in Washington, and especially in disinterested executive-branch agencies run by autonomous, high-minded experts. Today, however, progressivism’s insinuation is that Americans must be minutely regulated because they are so dimwitted they will swallow nonsense. Such as: There was no political motive in the IRS targeting political conservatives.
Episodes like this separate the meritorious liberals from the meretricious. The day after the IRS story broke, The Post led the paper with it, and, with an institutional memory of Watergate, published a blistering editorial demanding an Obama apology. The New York Times consigned the story to page 10 (its front-page lead was the umpteenth story about the end of the world being nigh because of global warming). Through Monday, the Times had expressed no editorial thoughts about the IRS. The Times’s Monday headline on the matter was: “IRS Focus on Conservatives Gives GOP an Issue to Seize On.†So that is the danger.
If Republicans had controlled both houses of Congress in 1973, Nixon would have completed his term. If Democrats controlled both today, the Obama administration’s lawlessness would go uninvestigated. Not even divided government is safe government, but it beats the alternative.”
LOL @ the Guano Droppings today!
Excellent article regarding the “scandalsâ€: http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/05/the-last-play-in-playbook.html
DOJ/AP Regressive reaction: http://chipshirley.blogspot.com/2013/05/if-w-did-it-they-would-be-proud.html
Tea Party and IRS facts: http://chipshirley.blogspot.com/2013/05/tea-party-and-irs-facts.html
Some info about the media reaction regarding DOJ/AP: http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/05/looking-bit-deeper-into-dojap-story.html
Thanks to blogs such as The People’s View, Smartypants, etc. for putting things into perspective.
And we continue. Now we know that the IRS leaked info on conservatives to media!
“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.” From the progressive group ProPublica: http://www.propublica.org/article/irs-office-that-targeted-tea-party-also-disclosed-confidential-docs
So not only did the Obama administration target and harassed conservative groups but also leaked confidential information to progressive groups so they could write hit pieces! Imagine that!
Even targeting news anchors because they dared to ask Obama tough questions! Amazing, but not surprising considering my experience with statist leftist governments.
“Larry Connors, a veteran local news anchor at KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, says that the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting him since an April 2012 interview he conducted with President Obama — a fact that he dismissed as coincidence until the recent reports about the IRS targeting conservative groups.
“Shortly after I did my April 2012 interview with President Obama, my wife, friends and some viewers suggested that I might need to watch out for the IRS. I don’t accept ‘conspiracy theories’, but I do know that almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me,” Connors wrote on his Facebook page late Monday night”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/kmov-anchor-the-irs-is-targeting-me-163945.html
Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny! This seems to be non-stop! From Politico. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/israel-related-groups-also-pointed-to-irs-scrutiny-91298.html
“The same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for tax-exempt status.
The trouble for the Israel-focused groups seems to have had different origins than that experienced by conservative groups, but at times the effort seems to have been equally ham-handed.
A leader of one of the organizations involved, Lori Lowenthal Marcus of Z Street, said Monday that she was convinced the added attention her group got was no accident.
“I can’t believe it was just about Z Street, because it’s a tiny organization,†Lowenthal Marcus said of the group, which has been critical of President Barack Obama for being too cozy with left-leaning Jewish groups like J Street and with pro-Palestinian entities.”
And we will continue LOL @ Guano Droppings!
Regressives obsessing over these “scandals” is taking the focus off job creation, the economic recovery, stronger gun laws, climate change solutions, infrastructure upgrades, transportation improvement, education reform and other important matters the American people are more interested in.
Haha. The GOP is shocked to learn that American people no longer trust them on national security: http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/05/open-thread-gop-shocked-to-learn.html
For my fellow progressives here, I second this message: http://www.politicususa.com/fellow-progressives-flee-so-called-irs-scandal-crock-fight.html
So the “state-run media” of ABC, Politico, Washington Post, CNN, AP are now somehow conservative ? ProPublic is a conservative group!? LOL!
Great post from The Political Pragmatic: http://thepoliticalpragmatic.blogspot.com/2013/05/holy-talking-points-batman-theyre-lies.html#more
Princess Leia…. You’re on a roll Girl!! Great work! Keep it coming. Maybe we can drown the guano droppings once and for all! : )
The media cares about nothing but cheap, shallow, profit-making sensationalism. “Scandal” is their dream, and they will manufacture it where they can. After all, reporting on real substantive issues is HARD.
I know it’s useless but here goes. The full text of the Inspector General’s Report on the IRS scandal. Truly unbelievable. But there is no answer as to who and why they came up with this criteria of targeting 100% of conservative groups. Only for those that are open-minded and can read. http://www.scribd.com/doc/141499802/Full-text-The-IG-s-54-page-IRS-tax-scandal-report
Thanks Maggie! 🙂
Haha! The IRS “scandal” is failing: http://www.politicususa.com/gop-scandal-falls-irs-targeted-liberals-2012.html
Yeah there really is an equivalent between 100% of conservative groups tax exempt application targeted versus 1 liberal group “targeted”. I wonder where the list of key words “liberal” “progressive” “Occupy” is? So far there is none! Its truly amazing the IRS itself apologizes for targeting conservative groups, THEY ADMIT IT! Yet Obama says “if” that happened blah blah blah and the “libtards” are roaming all over the web to find an excuse. That is so lame. But keep it up, I love it, cause you can’t recover from ridicule. And now, some libtards , the “spokes-dummy” Carney and the Obama administration are entering ridicule territory, that is the land of no return. Keep it up!
Totally agree with this: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/14-12
Bush did it too: http://www.politicususa.com/irs-targeted-liberal-churches-bush.html
Time for a Special Committee. Speaker Boehner are you listening? http://www.nationalreview.com/article/348258/why-we-need-special-committee
Haha! This special committee will spend millions determining if an “act of terror” is or is not a “terrorist act.” After that’s over, the House will go back to trying to derail Obamacare.
That’s the best thing they could do, derail the monstrosity of Obamacare! Otherwise we will have the same advance healthcare system as in Britain!
“Now we pull out our own teeth: Boom in DIY dental kits as patients cannot afford NHS fees”
“THOUSANDS of Britons are carrying out DIY dentistry, pulling their own teeth with pliers and using household glue to stick down fillings.” Oh yes , the wonders of socialized medicine! http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/399032/Now-we-pull-out-our-own-teeth-Boom-in-DIY-dental-kits-as-patients-cannot-afford-NHS-fees
Juan, dentistry is NOT covered under ObamaCare, unless I missed that fact, and I doubt it, so this is irrelevant!
But as it is, millions in this nation cannot afford dental care, which causes loss of teeth and shortened lives, but I guess that is alright, since you can afford dental care for yourself and your family. I can, also, but I am not self centered to only care about myself, as health care for all Americans advances the economy and the happiness and contentment of human beings, and if we are only here on earth for our own selfish reasons and motivations, then indeed mankind is very much not worthy of respect!
Excellent post Professor!
The report is out and the cliff note version is the auditors didn’t know the rules on what constitutes political activity. No outside influencing on who got audited. Really that’s it. That’s your big scandal and coverup. SIGH. Anyway here is the report:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/15/us/politics/15irs-inspector-report.html?_r=1&
With the release of this report, a mountain as big as Everest has now become not much more than a bunny hill.
As you know, Princess Leia, this is the manner in which the GOP acts, but they keep on losing public support, and the only reason they control the House of Representatives, is that they have gerrymandered districts, but fewer total popular votes nationally, but of course, that is also how George W. Bush came in, and did so much damage, losing the popular vote in 2000 by half a million, the largest deficit in votes of the four times the loser of the popular vote became President, with, of course, the consent of the majority of the Supreme Court, being activist which they claim to be against, but had to help a fellow Republican win power and fix the courts in his image, which he has done very well, with two corporate appointments, Roberts and Alito!
Excellent words of wisdom as usual Professor!
Leia : I don’t know why you post the report as some revealing news when I posted it hours before you did at 6:43!!! You gotta be kidding! The report leaves many questions unanswered, but in one part for example it puts the blame on a low level determination unit where one person, a determination specialist , was asked to search applications for tea party, (criteria conservative, tea party etc). But who asked this person or order him to do that? This is something Congress has to find out. See page 5 and 6. If this is true, that it doesn’t go higher that the determination unit (which I doubt) then we have a massive problem in the IRS. So what happened? A bunch of people got together in the determination unit and one said, “I got an idea! Let’s use Tea Party, conservative, patriots as a criteria and lets do that!” “Yeah that’s a good idea!” If this is true then the whole damn IRS is politicized and poisoned! So no Senior official or anyone outside the determination unit had no influence what soever! So all by itself low level people determined and decided over the life and death, over the survivability of organizations, they alone came up with this criteria targeting conservatives!?
The last paragraph of page 7 is dreadful!!! And I could go on and on..
Juan,
News about the report was breaking news at 10 pm last night.
Well I broke it at 6:43. But I guess you get your news from the backbenchers.
501(c)4 status is granted only to social welfare organizations, and lets them keep secret who their donors are. This is why the extraordinary scrutiny was applied by the IRS to organizations that common sense showed were not primarily social welfare groups.
Instead of attacking the IRS, we should be praising them for doing their job: http://www.politicususa.com/attacking-irs-republicans-praising-jobs.html
Leia: What the IRS did is unacceptable, they cannot do that to anyone, left or right. Even if they did it equally across the board, it was way out of bounds. So not only was it appalling because it targeted all 100% of conservative groups , but the act in itself even applied to all was harassment and abuse of power. Furthermore the IRS leaked personal and private information to left wing groups! None of this is worth of praise!!!
LOL! More Guano Droppings!
As the article says:
The status teabaggers, patriot groups, Karl Rove, and Koch brothers sought was approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that requires they engage in “social welfare†and not political operations. Under 501(c)(4) designation, groups like Rove’s GPS Crossroads, Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and various teabagger and anti-government groups do not have to pay taxes or disclose their donors like traditional political organizations and political-action committees. The only condition for receiving 501(c)(4) statuses’ tax advantage and secrecy is that the organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity like endorsing candidates, and it is similar to evangelical Christians receiving tax exemption and campaigning from the pulpit with impunity.
Basically, they pretended they were charities. Lulz.
IRS approved liberal groups while Tea Party in limbo.
“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.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/14/irs-tea-party-progressive-groups/2158831/
THIS IS WAR, IT IS WAR INFLICTED BY THE BUREAUCRACY ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM!
IRS ASKED FOR FACEBOOK POSTS, READING LISTS, PRIVATE THOUGHTS! THE THOUGHT POLICE!!! WELL “F” THEM ALL!!! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND DESPICABLE BUT NOT SURPRISING CONSIDERING THE ORIGIN, LEFT WING PROGRESSIVE LIBTARDS!
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/the-irs-wants-you-to-share-everything-91378.html
To counterbalance your misinformation:
The Chicago Tribune unearthed information that the liberal groups were denied their tax exempt status.
Juan, I would ask that you refrain from the term “libtards”, as it shows total lack of respect for the alternative view, and I and no one else has called you or those who believe your view to be “retards”! Let’s raise the level of dialogue, please, and stop using capitals, as that means you are shouting at us! Totally uncalled for!
Ron: I have no problem refraining from using the term libtards, it just that when I see the term “Teabagger” used I kind of feel insulted if you know what I mean.
A dose of your own medicine Juan. Your libtard comments irked me enough to use the teabagger word.
Juan, and Princess Leia, let’s declare a truce on use of “libtards” and “teabaggers”, ok! Shake hands on this! 🙂
I feel as if I am the referee in a “verbal” wrestling match! 🙂 LOL
Fine by me. I got no problem with that.
Fine by me too.