Posted on 05/18/2013 1:07:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In the wake of one of the worst abuses of government power in recent history, many are rushing to frame the Internal Revenue Service scandal as simply an attack on conservative activists. That view risks creating a partisan political football and misses a fundamentally scarier abuse that exceeds the scandals of Watergate or any other prior government abuse.
The IRS has admitted that since May 2010 it targeted grassroots-conservative organizations that had applied for tax-exempt status, unfairly subjecting them to rigorous scrutiny due to their political leanings.
Such groups were told they were required to comply with IRS requests, no matter how absurd, in order to obtain non-profit status. Some were ask to provide book reports, names of family members, family members’ political affiliations, lists of donors and more. A report issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration this week begins to highlight the extent of misbehavior.
Following the admission, many have accused the IRS of misusing and misrepresenting its power for political advantage, and it’s true that silencing – or at least handcuffing – conservatives in the run-up to the 2012 election could very well have made an impact.
But this abuse extends far beyond the last or next election and strikes at the very core of the people’s relationship with their government.
The Washington Post’s editorial board wrote that, “A bedrock principle of U.S. democracy is that the coercive powers of government are never used for partisan purposes.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Not so much that the information was intrusive, as the degree of intrusion was selectively DIFFERENT for various groups. It the intrusion seemed too great, a complaint should have been sufficient to cause the inquiry to be curtailed or even dropped.
And if any of the more “progressive” applicants complained (assuming any even remotely similar request was made of them), the inquiry was either withdrawn, or at least made much less onerous.
But the really excessive TIME delays, where when even if the information was provided, the application was simply not acted upon, and perhaps worse, the information contained was forwarded to some agency whose purpose was to conduct opposition research.
The Staatssicherheit (Stasi) of East Germany used similar tactics.
The problem here is government itself. The IRS, EPA, you name the agency, will always be used by corrupt officials for political purposes. My grandfather tried to get hired on to a WPA project during the Great Depression, and he was told there would be no job for him until he changed his political party affiliation. He told them to go hell, and he and grandmother somehow managed to house and feed eight kids without FDR and his fascist/socialist programs. Until we force the current socialist/fascist government back into a state of true federalism limited by the Constitution we are going to have this problem.
It is time we start doing the ugly, and unpleasant work of reclaiming our country. Of course, you know this and so does most everyone else on this forum. I just needed to blow off some steam, even if I am preaching to the choir.
Hang in there friend I always enjoy your posts.
He has, after all, so very much to defend himself about, and so many crimes to hide.
Reminds me of an old Soviet Era joke:
A frightened man came to the KGB “My talking parrot disappeared.”
“This is not our case. Go to the criminal police.”
“Excuse me. Of course I know that I have to go to them. I am here just to tell you officially that I disagree with that parrot.”
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
Anybody remember Harry Reid saying that "he had heard" Romney had not paid any income tax? I wonder where that might have come from?
Mark
Obama probably didn’t have to make the IRS do anything. They got their marching orders from his speeches and the democrat hive mind of which they are a part.
They did it instinctively, automatically - a parasympathetic response. They put no more thought into it than you need to take a dump.
The time is coming.
[[How is that not at least as bad as the IRS abuses?]]
It is much much worse- iut was a VERY CLEAR MESSAGE by an ANTI-AMERICAN president that when our soldiers are i ntrouble, well, just screw them- He let it be known loud and clear that he coudl care less whether our citizens get murdered in muslim nations because he’s too afraid of offending muslims to lift a figner to stop them when they commit cold blooded murder on Aemricans- infact, He’s so contemptuoous of Americans that he BLAMED AN AMERICAN for weeks, and STILL blames him (the dude that made a video that had NOTHING TO DO with the coordinated, planned terrorist attack on good Americans that were there to help the scum-
[[The articles of impeachment that were drawn up against him says he ‘endeavored’ to use the IRS—but apparently there is no evidence that the effort ever went anywhere.]]
Aint it freaking amazing? He didn’t even use the IRS but suffered for an ‘attempt to use’ the IRS, and here we have a dearl leader now who DID use hte irs to punish his enemies, and a dear leade4r that ADMITS that evweryone that doesn’t agree with him is an enemy and shoudl be punished, and the press does absolutely freakign NOTHING to dethrone the tyrant- but by golly they absoltuely crusicifed nixon over an ‘attempt’ ?
I think one of the things that makes it far, far worse than Watergate was that, while Nixon targeted people in the political world for his “enemies list” or stonewalled to cover up for over-zealous spies who wanted to get the good on his political opponents, Obama and the IRS have targeted hundreds if not thousands of just regular Americans speaking their minds.
Everybody of any party should be truly frightened by this. Asking a little tiny handful of volunteer board members (who probably belong to nothing more extreme than the GOP) of a really insignifcant would-be nonprofit for their latest reading, the content of their prayers and how much money they have in their wallets is going way, way beyond anything Nixon ever dreamed of doing. Or, may I add, anything he would ever have done.
And the death count at Behghazi doesn't come close to the death count from Fast and Furious, that is, if you consider Mexicans people. I suspect Obama (peace be upon him) doesn't.
First, they came for the Tea Party…
o When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
• Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestierte.
—— Martin Niemöller
Not once but twice. The BOLO list was removed and someone reinstated it!
Not just siccing the IRS on people, but Department of Labor, and who knows what other agencies & entities?
We aren’t hearing much about that aspect. Yet.
Not so much that the information was intrusive, as the degree of intrusion was selectively DIFFERENT for various groups.
Who decided which specific questions were asked? Were they probing for donors and other private information which they could provide to progressive groups and the Obama campaign to target? U
sing a dept of the federal government to gather opposition intel for the dem party, not illegal?
we can onlky hope and pray that there is a smoking gun linking dear leader to the irs targettign conservatives and jews- Let’s hope and pray soemoen comes forward with wevidence so damning that it can’t be overcome- sad thign to hope for, but my goodenss, the corruption in thsi administeration is mind boggling and NEEDS to stop- now!
“It is much much worse- iut was a VERY CLEAR MESSAGE by an ANTI-AMERICAN president that when our soldiers are i ntrouble, well, just screw them- He let it be known loud and clear that he coudl care less whether our citizens get murdered in muslim nations because he’s too afraid of offending muslims to lift a figner to stop them when they commit cold blooded murder on Aemricans- infact, He’s so contemptuoous of Americans that he BLAMED AN AMERICAN for weeks, and STILL blames him (the dude that made a video that had NOTHING TO DO with the coordinated, planned terrorist attack on good Americans that were there to help the scum-”
I agree w this. & please note that the question that broke the IRS abuse scandal was planted. They admit it was planted. They wanted the focus on the IRS to deflect from Benghazi; that much is clear.
Why?
Because bad as it is, no one died in IRS-gate. But we have four dead Americans in Benghazi. We live in an age where people don’t care that much, unfortunately. But enough wd still care, if they knew Obama cd have saved at least some of these Americans & chose not to, to plunge Obama’s administration into a graveyard spiral.
So they opted to go w IRS-gate. After all, a lot of people dislike the Tea Party. & as I mentioned, nobody died. Win-win for Obama.
Agree that the Fast & Furious death count is far higher. The Obama regime fears Benghazi more, however. We still have Americans who don’t believe in standing by & watching, spectator/gladiator-Rome style, as Americans battle for their lives & end up losing.
If the truth of Benghazi were to become widely known, it wd drive a stake through the heart of the evil regime. They’d far rather deal w the IRS scandal, understandably.
What did the president know and when did he know it?
http://watergate.info/impeachment/articles-of-impeachment
“He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”
Sound familiar?
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