A New, More Sinister IRS Scandal

PJ Media ^ | April 17, 2014 | J. Christian Adams

[gaijin]

There are really great reasons why there is a TON of emphasis put on the IRS being non-political:

Lessay military guys suddenly said, “We only take orders from officers who are REPUBLICANS..” What would libs say? Would they say, “That’s OK” ?

Maybe they’d settle for NO ONE going to jail..?

NOT IN A TRILLION YEARS.

They’d scream non-stop and the media would run with the story NON-STOP.

[TigersEye]

“We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.” - Mob Tool Harry Reid

[jsanders2001]

The Obama administration is truly one of the most evil and corrupt admiinistrations the world has ever seen. I don’t even think we can imagine how much more evil he would have become if they had taken our guns away already.

[Mariner]

"I don’t even think we can imagine how much more evil he would have become if they had taken our guns away already."

If those darn rightwing crazies didn't have so many guns they'd all be in prison by now.

[gaijin]

Or suppose instead a tank platoon commander said:

“Guys, I have this pre-election address roster from the GOP. What we’re going to do is, we’re going to clickety-clack down mainstreet with this here sheet and every time before we pass an address appearing on the sheet as ‘Democrat activist’, well, I want you to track the turret onto that there house.

“Got it, guys...? And then I want you to FIRE into that house —just blow it up...”

WHAT THEN?

What would the libs say?

What would they say if the Republicans took a huge, supposedly non-partisan government entity that risked serving as the perfect political weapon (funded by the whole country) and then it worked for JUST ONE SIDE...?

Cuz that is EXACTLY what we have here.

[dhs12345]

Nothing to see here... move along.

[taxcontrol]

Time for a flat tax or at the very least, a tiered flat tax.

[Starboard]

The Obama administration is truly one of the most evil and corrupt admiinistrations the world has ever seen.

********
We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. The corruption and manipulation that has been exposed is only scratching the surface.

Its a cliche, but I’m not sure that Americans could handle the truth. Remember one thing: if its bad for America, Obama is for it.

[I want the USA back]

Right after the election, I saw quite clearly that the dems had their mind set on destroying normal people. It was obvious in everything they said and did.
This is one aspect of that.
They are despicable.

[kiryandil]

Get Eric Holder’s Justice Department on the case

You know that Lord Holder would have dropped EVERYTHING to jump on this persecution prosecution.

[skinkinthegrass]

deeper and deeper and slimier..the slime,
that is the 0'Muslim's IR$/N$A.
a corrupt Democ'rat's dream
..a country's nightmare.

[Alas Babylon!]

It was obvious with what they did to Joe the Plumber. That was before the 2008 election, wasn’t it, when Obama said to Joe that it was good to “spread the wealth around”?

How the HELL did he ever get elected!!??? Twice!?!

[Ann Archy]

Larry Noble was one of the KILLERS of the INNOCENT CHILDREN at WACO, I believe!!

[Mygirlsmom]

How the HELL did he ever get elected!!??? Twice!?!

Shovel-ready votes

[Ann Archy]

FLAT TAX....No TIERS, just PERSONL EXEMPTIONS!!! EVERYONE needs to pay SOMETHING to have some skin in the game.

[Chode]

IRS awarded contract to surveillance company that tracks license plates

A California-based surveillance vendor that sells access to license plate databases and the devices that indiscriminately collect that information has been reportedly cashing checks from the Internal Revenue Service and other federal offices.

According to procurement records seen by journalists at Bloomberg News, the IRS is among a group of United States government agencies that has awarded contracts to Vigilant Solutions, a seller of controversial license plate tracking technology that has attracted the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy proponents in recent years.

On Thursday this week, Kathleen Miller wrote for Bloomberg that the IRS, the US Forest Service and the Air Force’s Air Combat Command have since 2009 conducted off the radar deals with Vigilant that allowed the company to receive roughly $415,000 from Uncle Sam.

License plate readers and the systems that scour vast databases of vehicle details — particularly the kinds offered by the Livermore, CA headquartered company — have increasingly been scrutinized by civil libertarians as of late. Only this past February, in fact, the US Department of Homeland Security scrapped plans to build and maintain a national database of license plate information just days after the Washington Post published details about the proposed program.

“Ultimately, you’re creating a national database of location information,” Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Jennifer Lynch told the Post at the time. “When all that data is compiled and aggregated, you can track somebody as they’re going through their life.”

Just two months later, Lynch now tells Bloomberg that she’s befuddled as to why the a federal tax agency would need to acquire such technology.

“Especially with the IRS, I don’t know why these agencies are getting access to this kind of information,” she told Miller. “These systems treat every single person in an area as if they’re under investigation for a crime — that is not the way our criminal justice system was set up or the way things work in a democratic society.”

According to Bloomberg, the IRS awarded Vigilant a contract in June 2012 that for $1,188 provided the agency with “access to nationwide data.” Combined with contracts awarded to the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the Air Combat Command, Vigilant has received nearly half-a-million dollars from the federal government in the last five years

As RT reported earlier this year, Vigilant and a similar company based out of Texas called Digital Recognition Network (DRN) filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to issue a permanent injunction against a law in Utah that essentially abolished the sale and use of license plate readers by private companies and put restrictions on how long government agencies can store the data collected by those devices.

Todd Hodnett, the founder of DRN, told Utahls KSL news network at the time that the injunction “has already had a significant monetary impact on our corporation and our shareholders.”

And only this past week, a press release published on the Vigilant Solutions website accused civil liberties groups of “tak[ing] advantage of the growing national debate over surveillance” in order to spearhead “legislative onslaught” against surveillance vendors.

Indeed, Steve DelBianco of NetChoice, DC-based trade group that works with e-commerce companies, told Bloomberg this week that he thought the swelling complaints directed at vendors like Vigilant and DRN “is a knee-jerk reaction to Snowden revelations.”

“Our governments require us to display a plate on our cars, visible on the front and back in public, for a reason,” he said.

When Bloomberg’s Miller approached the IRS about why that agency in particular required such ability, however, she came up empty handed.

“The IRS uses a variety of investigative tools similar to other law-enforcement agencies to assist with criminal cases,” agency spokesperson Eric Smith told Bloomberg, likely referring to national policing agencies like the Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Marshals Service.

As far as tax agency goes, however, Smith “declined to say how the IRS used the records in its investigations,” Miller wrote.

According to the Bloomberg report, the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service awarded Vigilant a contract valued at over $7,000 in 2009 for use of its “CarDetector” system that scans local license plate numbers and attempts to match the tags against a master database. Then in August, the agency gave Vigilant another $7,500 for a subscription to its database and other services, according to Miller. Air Combat Command Spokesman Benjamin Newell told Miller that the $114,000 contract it awarded Vigilant in September 2011 provided them with readers that the military considers a “valuable tool” that makes base access “easier and more secure.”

[jsanders2001]

“I don’t even think we can imagine how much more evil he would have become if they had taken our guns away already.”
If those darn rightwing crazies didn’t have so many guns they’d all be in prison by now.

I think you meant “dead”

[jsanders2001]

> How the HELL did he ever get elected!!??? Twice!?!

I think he was appointed by Soros....: )

[Hostage]

A Flat tax never stays flat. The US has had several flat taxes in its history. Always the same result; grows into a monstrosity.

Go with the FairTax. And don’t criticize it until you’ve actually studied and understood it:

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=FAQs