IRS: We Targeted Conservative, Tea Party Groups With Extra Scrutiny — 'Mistakes Were Made'

reply to post by beezzer

A government agency targeting a specific political ideology.

And without a "probable cause" requirement.
If you think this is limited to the IRS, you haven't thought this through.

The Civil Rights division of the DoJ has done this, and done it inreverse, ever since Holder took the reigns.
The NLRB has no "probable cause" restraints on their targeting, either.
Nor do the SEC and the EPA.

If you are not "one of us," you ARE a target.

The Obama adminstration has turned almost all of his administrative agencies into tools of political persecution.
Why? Because we LIKE you.

How does Congress reign-in such behavior?
They don't.

jw

reply to post by beezzer

Dear beezzer,

You forgot to mention that conservatives are all evil and greedy and drink jello shots off the stomachs of Fox News babes and worship Sarah Palin at the altar of Darth Cheney.

That's a campaign platform I can get behind. You've got a winner there. Now show me a 60 second commercial of all that happening, and I'm yours for life.

And what do the liberals have? Eating arugula off the stomachs of Nancy Pelosi, Barbra Boxer, Helen Thomas, and Maxine Waters, and worshipping Hillary at the altar of Al Gore.

Thanks for the mental images.

With respect,
Charles1952

I'm sure the fact that I just received an IRS "Notice of Deficiency" and the confiscation of my (minimal) 2012 refund is just a coincidence.
For 2008.
With no prior notice.
With no prior questioning of my 2008 return (for which I received NO refund).

This, despite the fact that my records are 100% solid, and that I took only the standard deduction.

I think they've seized upon the usual AGW advocates' "paid shill" mantra to assume unreported income.

My sevice as a local organizer of the 1st Indianapolis Tea Party rally wouldn't have anything to do with this, would it?

jw

The Time President Obama Made An Auditing Joke
www.buzzfeed.com...

Hmmm................ I wonder who told the IRS to target Conservative groups.



Bush did it first in 3...2...1

reply to post by sad_eyed_lady


Why does the IRS go after a measly 2 thousand dollars of the working poor (my son at $15.00 an hour) but doesn't bother the whole bunch of federal employees in the west wing of the presidential palace?

reply to post by beezzer


To say police and the TSA don't use profiling is ludicrous. They do, regularly, though all that tells us is that they are extremely weak investigators reading this made me continuing to do my taxes "legit." any investigative department who uses profiling essentially proves itself to be infantile and ineffective.

I disagree with its use by the TSA, the police, IRS as in this circumstance (and plenty of others they have used profiling in) - however, I don't disagree with profiling because I think its wrong to do so - in fact, as long as the "victim" of the profiling is simply 'suspected', but not ultimately accused if innocent, I feel it is not necessarily 'right' or 'ideal', but also really not that big of a deal.

The problem I have with profiling is that it is lazy and encourages failure, especially in the most serious circumstances. A couple examples, I believe should demonstrate what I'm referring to. Let's take the TSA, for example. While they uually try to do so subtly, they ABSOLUTELY DO Profile! In doing so, they are likely to spend some degree of time and effort watching and researching.bearded, brown Muslims. Meantime, when a terrorist oganization. gets a wmd

Originally posted by HauntWok
LOL, what was the IRS thinking? Conservatives have tax accountants and lawyers to legally hide all their shady work for them. What a waste. Everyone knows that.

They aren't mob bosses, these guys "pay" their taxes, they just "pay" them using loopholes, offshore accounts, fictitious deductions, and other legal wranglings so they don't have to pay a whole lot.

Course they will claim to the public that the government is bending them over backwards, and cause of that they can't be "job creators" lol

still love that "job creators" joke, that has got to be the funniest lie Conservatives have come up with.

So there is this one Democrat I know. Hard core, attending fund raisers kind of guy. He blabs on and on about whatever hot button issues are on the DNC daily talking points. He was particularly fond of the OWS movement (depsite being a hospital CEO). Funny thing is, every year at tax season, he is using those same lawyers and accountants to leverage those same loopholes to his advantage, too.

I don't care what party you are in....if you can get away by paying less in taxes, you are gonna do it. An undebatable fact, barring total stupidity.

Yep, same old stuff the IRS did under Bush, except under him the IRS targeted Ron Paul groups. When it was happening under Bush the lefties were all up in arms about it. But now that it's their guy doing it to another group that spawned up to advocate small government BAM! It happens again. Under Bush the mindless elephants around the country denied Republican involvement and all the Donkey's were so outraged. Now that it's happened under Obozo, the Elephants are now the ones all upset, and the Donkeys who were all so "outraged" under Bushie are now the ones excusing the same behavior occurring under Obozo.

It's not a Republican vs. Democrat issue; It's a big government vs small government issue. Right now small government has little to no representation, and the two big government parties do what they can to keep it that way. And all the little lemmings will always placate to the Republican vs. Democrat facade. The Republicans are Hulk-o-maniacs and the Democrats are Macho Man-iacs;and some day those who only care about paying attention so they can parrot the talking points need to grow up and realize wrestling isn't real and the American political paradigm of Democrat vs Republican is as fake as a Jimmy the Hart three count.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

The Associated Press ‏@AP 2h
BREAKING: White House: IRS actions against groups 'inappropriate,' thorough investigation expected. -SS

(AP Twitter Feed)

Lets make sure we follow up on the thorough investigation, is my thinking. I'm very interested to hear where it goes. After all, I agree with the White House for this. A determined and thorough investigation is 100% called for and the conduct here demands no less. I'm glad to see they are quick to lead the way.

I'll certainly be watching for follow-up.

The White House, via Obama in front of the UN no less, promised a thorough investigation into Benghazi. The White House also promised, via a Hillary Clinton visit to Mexico, that the White House would launch a full investigation into the Fast and Furious gun smuggling.

I don't need to "follow up" on this investigation. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. I now know that when this administration says "they are doing a full investigation" what they are really saying is "we are doing our best to cover it up".

That's the sad unfortunate reality in the Obomination.

Originally posted by beezzer

The Internal Revenue Service admitted Friday to targeting conservative and Tea Party groups with additional scrutiny during the 2012 campaign, the Associated Press first reported.

IRS spokesperson Lois Lerner said at a conference in Washington that the agency apologized for the special emphasis and scrutiny in applications for tax-exempt status.

According to the AP, she said that organizations containing the words "Tea Party" or "patriot" were targeted for additional review, blaming that on "low-level" workers in Ohio.

www.businessinsider.com...

So the TSA can't profile.
The police can't profile.


But the IRS did.

A government agency targeting a specific political ideology. I didn't see this anywhere on ATS and wanted to bring it up, although, I am sure everyone is aware. It's just that the usual Obama-apologists are probably too busy with Benghazi to focus on their administration targeting a rival political ideology and using the IRS to attack them. (speculation on my part)



But does anyone here really think that it was just the work of some low-level IRS pukes with nothing better to do?

lol Kennedy playbook obama isn't even original using the irs to attack his opponents

reply to post by beezzer


Honestly Beez, I'm just surprised it took us this long to find out they have been doing this.

I wouldn't be surprised if their isn't any other Agencies that are doing it.



S&F

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by seeker1963

 

When you break the law now, I guess all you need to do is say, "I'm sorry."

It's the "My Bad" clause.

Just out of interest, has a law been broken? If they placed extra scrutiny on certain groups with particular political affiliations then that may be classed as inappropriate (and in other circumstances it may not if group with particular political affiliations had earned themselves a reputation as requiring additional scrutiny), but is that actually breaking a law? I didn't read anything to say other groups got no attention or were merely rubber stamped.

reply to post by something wicked


I don't know.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by something wicked

 

I don't know.

But you seemed to be happy to agree with or at least to not question seeker1963 saying a law had been violated? Sorry, thought you were saying that as you believed a law had been broken.

reply to post by jdub297


I didn't know you were from IndyN I just moved from Plainfield to Texas a couple of months ago!
I lived in Plainfield, GreenwoodN and Mooresville, going on 12 years after moving from Cloverdale out in the country.

Originally posted by something wicked

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by something wicked

 

I don't know.

But you seemed to be happy to agree with or at least to not question seeker1963 saying a law had been violated? Sorry, thought you were saying that as you believed a law had been broken.

edit on 11-5-2013 by something wicked because: ETA - typo

edit on 11-5-2013 by something wicked because: ETA - lets make it actually readable this time and put glasses on next time I post

Something is wrong. Dunno what the exact law is, not in law enforcement, but something is really wrong here.

I may not be the sharpest bulb in the drawer, but even I can see that.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000
How in the heck can they investigate themselves? Yeah we will put together a panel and see what we can find.................... that we did. And we will get back to ourselves if we found we did something wrong.

These people crack me up.

The question of which law was broken may be irrelevant. Consider the three Nixon articles of impeachment. The first article was the break in.

The second contained this:

This conduct has included one or more of the following:
1.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.(emphasis added)

This, clearly, is what Obama has also done, and the IRS has admitted to.

And from the third article of impeachment comes:

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, contrary to his oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on April 11, 1974, May 15, 1974, May 30, 1974, and June 24, 1974, and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. (emphasis added)

watergate.info...

I hate to sound like a kook, but it appears that the only thing keeping Obama from being impeached is the lack of political will to do it, and not any legal problem.

Originally posted by charles1952
The question of which law was broken may be irrelevant. Consider the three Nixon articles of impeachment. The first article was the break in.

The second contained this:

This conduct has included one or more of the following:
1.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.(emphasis added)

This, clearly, is what Obama has also done, and the IRS has admitted to.

And from the third article of impeachment comes:

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, contrary to his oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on April 11, 1974, May 15, 1974, May 30, 1974, and June 24, 1974, and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. (emphasis added)

watergate.info...

I hate to sound like a kook, but it appears that the only thing keeping Obama from being impeached is the lack of political will to do it, and not any legal problem.

I would like to see the Tea Party Movement out in force on this one!



With what you have there, it looks like an impeachable offense. Good luck getting a Congress who cant pass a budget, to actually look into it.

This is sick.

Wonder if this is things to come;

The Tea Party members/organizations have been targeted for years, now by a government agency.

2 things people should also be aware of:

1. the current administration armed the IRS.
2. the care act was ruled a tax.

Makes me wonder if 'right wingers' will be specifically targeted for 'non compliance' while left wingers get off scott free.

I doubt conservatives 'were targeted by mistake' the usual excuse for an administration getting caught for doing things it shouldn't be.

For those who don't know past administration's have used the IRS to target conservatives before.