Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hey, Tea Party: How Does It Feel to Be Profiled?
Newser ^ | 05/21/2013 | By Kevin Spak

Posted on 05/22/2013 8:42:45 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd

Farhad Manjoo thinks the IRS scandal should teach the right something

Imagine you're an overworked IRS employee, charged with finding, in your massive stack of 501(c)(4) applications, the groups most likely to make electioneering their main focus. Wouldn't it make a little sense to focus on self-proclaimed Tea Party groups? Sure it would. And there's a word for that shortcut, Farhad Manjoo at Slate observes: profiling. By making decisions based on surface details like a group's name, "the IRS was acting like the TSA agent who pulls aside the guy in the turban."

Which is ironic, because the right has long advocated racial profiling, and they've found the moral argument against it "pretty hilarious." But Manjoo thinks the IRS scandal illustrates why profiling is wrong: it's unfair, and ineffective. Many of the Tea Party groups profiled turned out to be aboveboard, and some groups that weren't investigated proved not to be. "This is the Richard Reid scenario: Sometimes, a white guy tries to blow up a plane." Click for the full column.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: irsscandal; profiling; teaparty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-44 next last
Someone needs to explain to Asshat Manjoo what the term profiling actually means.
1 posted on 05/22/2013 8:42:45 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

There are big differences though.


2 posted on 05/22/2013 8:45:32 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

This reminds me of the black woman that called in to Hannity last week that was glad that conservatives/”republicans” (she meant “white people”) were being targeted by the IRS,
because it was “payback”.


3 posted on 05/22/2013 8:47:01 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

The insanity of the left has no boundaries.......


4 posted on 05/22/2013 8:47:32 AM PDT by Lakeshark (!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

This isn’t “profiling”.


5 posted on 05/22/2013 8:47:36 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

I guess the genius is also for the TSA’s treatment of the children and elderly.


6 posted on 05/22/2013 8:47:38 AM PDT by Gene Eric (The Palin Doctrine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl

>> There are big differences though.

No kidding.

The guys in the turbans earned their profiling by blowing people up. Over and over and over again. For decades!

Tea party, on the other hand, has no “track record” of electioneering, tax evasion, or such.


7 posted on 05/22/2013 8:47:58 AM PDT by Nervous Tick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Lakeshark

Exactly, and it quietly if not overtly supports the abusive actions.


8 posted on 05/22/2013 8:49:31 AM PDT by Gene Eric (The Palin Doctrine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Unfair profiling similar to what the IRS is doing to conservative groups would be picking someone like Fathead Mangy and taking him down to the police station for questioning because he had a Muslim-sounding name. Nobody supports doing that. This idiot can’t get his argument straight. But he’s not interested in fairness...he would like to conservative groups punished.


9 posted on 05/22/2013 8:49:43 AM PDT by driftless2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nervous Tick

Profiling is a preventative act that uses a set statistical data points showing a tendency toward criminal activities.

This is unconstitutional on several points.


10 posted on 05/22/2013 8:51:18 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

precedent has been set.

when the libs are out and conservatives are in... it’ll be interesting for libs when the health care system denies them services due to having an abortion, doing drugs, or participating in occupy hippie circles.

good times ahead


11 posted on 05/22/2013 8:51:58 AM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

The difference, Mr. Manjoo, is that nobody in the Tea Party is coming after you with a gun. At least so far.


12 posted on 05/22/2013 8:54:43 AM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd
"Asshat Manjoo" is completely ignorant. The "Tea Party" has been subjected to bogus ridicule and 'profiling' by the DNC-run media since its inception ....


13 posted on 05/22/2013 8:54:51 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

The profiling of passengers would be for the intention of stopping planes from exploding mid-flight, including any plane in which you are a passenger, Mr. Spak. The profiling of conservative groups is intended to punish political adversaries and effectively inhibit free speech. Do you really think these are the same?


14 posted on 05/22/2013 8:55:18 AM PDT by Texan Tory
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd
So using profiling as a tool to protect lives is analogous to profiling to rig an election?

Only in the fevered imagination of an idiot leftist.

15 posted on 05/22/2013 8:55:38 AM PDT by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl
There are big differences though

...have the TSA detain this moron up for 3 years while they demand all of his personal information, names of associates, and the content of his prayers - before allowing him to board an airplane - then we can talk.

16 posted on 05/22/2013 8:56:34 AM PDT by ghost of nixon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MrB

“Payback” rather than profiling, as you say, is at work here. Revenge and retribution are other words that come to mind. I’d likely agree with theIRS if they went after groups similar to ones that had abused the law in the past.

As far as I know, the Tea Party has been very observant of laws and regulations. Just might be because conservatives believe in the rule of law. A constitutional republic rather than the socialist tyranny we are slipping into is the conservative end.


17 posted on 05/22/2013 9:00:51 AM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Nervous Tick

my thoughts exactly.


18 posted on 05/22/2013 9:03:28 AM PDT by jaydubya2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Most people who hate the Tea Party have no idea what it is or what its members do, nor do they make any attempt to find out. They target the Tea Party as representative of “the enemy” and lump it together with the KKK. I saw an article the other day that said the Tea Party, by definition, is racist. Huh? Anyone can join their local TP.


19 posted on 05/22/2013 9:04:43 AM PDT by informavoracious (We're being "punished" with Stanley Ann's baby. Obamacare: shovel-ready healthcare.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

>> Profiling is a preventative act that uses a set statistical data points showing a tendency toward criminal activities.

Yeah, that’s the educated, articulate way of putting it.

But I like my emotional way better. :-)


20 posted on 05/22/2013 9:09:58 AM PDT by Nervous Tick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-44 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson