I am watching the IRS congressional hearing.....this is a joke

2seaoat wrote:President Bush made all the appointments of the folks who were in charge of the IRS and the auditing function..........when the screw up on the 501 c 4......yet folks are trying to blame Obama for the screw ups.......It was not even Obama's political appointments as Schuman was in charge, and that there was in fact targeting on both sides of the political spectrum being testified today......this is a joke with the type of questions. The inspector general who had authority to review the IRS was a Bush appointee. Citizen United created a duty for the IRS review. What is really funny as Fox covers this, they break away when a Democratic committee members who starts their questions by saying......was not the person in charge of the IRS at the time of the targeting....a Bush appointee......was not the person in charge of the auditing function a Bush appointee......the idea of attacking the president on this is stupid on steroids. They then go back to coverage when a republican begins asking questions......journalism has reached an all time low.

2seaoat wrote:This is incredible. Fox breaks away for a commercial break in the middle of a Democratic congressman, and then comes back for a republican speaker.......the Democrats are destroying this idea of some out of control government agency.....rather they are talking about an onslaught of 70k applications after Citizens United.......not enough staff, and no congressional rules on how the IRS was to deal with the political portion of the activity.......what is clear that a mistake was made in Cincinnati but that mistake was made under republican appointees,and that Democratic organizations were also targeted and they submitted the same into the record based on a bloomberg article. The litmus test was political activity......it cut both ways.........this idea that only conservative groups were targeted is patently false as discussed in this mornings committee.

501 c 4.........no disclosure of donors..........really an important point.....and Fox breaks away again........I have never seen more bias in media than this morning. As a far minded person.....this entire IRS thing is a joke.....the real question is why the sob's on this committee did not do their job and give further regulations which should include disclosures and rules on objective standards of percentage of political activity.....the pots are calling the kettle black.

Floridatexan wrote:

2seaoat wrote:This is incredible. Fox breaks away for a commercial break in the middle of a Democratic congressman, and then comes back for a republican speaker.......the Democrats are destroying this idea of some out of control government agency.....rather they are talking about an onslaught of 70k applications after Citizens United.......not enough staff, and no congressional rules on how the IRS was to deal with the political portion of the activity.......what is clear that a mistake was made in Cincinnati but that mistake was made under republican appointees,and that Democratic organizations were also targeted and they submitted the same into the record based on a bloomberg article. The litmus test was political activity......it cut both ways.........this idea that only conservative groups were targeted is patently false as discussed in this mornings committee.

501 c 4.........no disclosure of donors..........really an important point.....and Fox breaks away again........I have never seen more bias in media than this morning. As a far minded person.....this entire IRS thing is a joke.....the real question is why the sob's on this committee did not do their job and give further regulations which should include disclosures and rules on objective standards of percentage of political activity.....the pots are calling the kettle black.

It was reported that 70% of these 501(c)4 organizations did not qualify for that status. Some no longer exist...we used to call that "fly-by-night". Every single one of them should be audited, and the principals made to pay in cases of flagrant political use of funds...and the donors' names published.

2seaoat wrote:The IRS Commissioner said targeting the repugs wasn't illegal. LOL at you Seaoat for making up stuff. HOO HOO! Did I not say this man makes stuff and tries to bamboozle people?


Here comes the borderline input for the thread. Lets start with your definition of illegal. If illegal is in variance with the law, it can have a civil remedy or a criminal remedy. The IRS director is in no position to determine if the activity of IRS agents was criminal. That will be decided by review of the Attorney General. Criminal culpability would have to show a high level of intent, and dots being connected which clearly can back up that those people who were initiating those audits and had broken Criminal statutes, which might involve illegal payments for the donor lists, or payment for denial of a particular groups non profit status.

Now one of the folks who a congressman said was audited had damages from the audit, and had numerous other agencies which investigated her business. If that person filed a civil action against the IRS and its agents and was able to show that the classification system did not meet the rational basis test, and that some of the agents were acting with malice, the tort immunity act would not provide cover, and in fact those plaintiffs could argue illegal denial of their fifth and fourteenth amendment rights to due process, and could get money damages for the United States illegal classification system which caused Plaintiffs damage.

Now if you want to tell us what Dream's illegal means.......this should be another rollercoaster ride of enlightenment.

PkrBum wrote:Hatch Act: Prohibited actions of Federal and DC employees:

use official authority or influence to interfere with an election

solicit or discourage political activity of anyone with business before their agency

solicit or receive political contributions (may be done in certain limited situations by federal labor or other employee organizations)

be candidates for public office in partisan elections

engage in political activity while: on duty in a government office wearing an official uniform using a government vehicle

wear partisan political buttons on duty

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/05/15/184246228/ten-things-we-learned-from-the-irs-inspector-general-report

PkrBum wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/fbi-irs-investigation_n_3278230.html

Miller's ouster came five days after an IRS supervisor publicly revealed that agents had improperly targeted groups with "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications for tax exempt status. It came a day after an inspector general's report blamed ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen for more than 18 months.

The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues, resulting in delays averaging nearing two years for applications to be processed.

Miller's departure hardly ends the matter. Three congressional committees are investigating, and the FBI is looking into potential civil rights violations at the IRS, Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier Wednesday.

Other potential crimes include making false statements to authorities and violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities, Holder said.

PkrBum wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/fbi-irs-investigation_n_3278230.html

Miller's ouster came five days after an IRS supervisor publicly revealed that agents had improperly targeted groups with "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications for tax exempt status. It came a day after an inspector general's report blamed ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen for more than 18 months.

The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues, resulting in delays averaging nearing two years for applications to be processed.

Miller's departure hardly ends the matter. Three congressional committees are investigating, and the FBI is looking into potential civil rights violations at the IRS, Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier Wednesday.

Other potential crimes include making false statements to authorities and violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities, Holder said.

Dreamsglore wrote:

PkrBum wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/fbi-irs-investigation_n_3278230.html

Miller's ouster came five days after an IRS supervisor publicly revealed that agents had improperly targeted groups with "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications for tax exempt status. It came a day after an inspector general's report blamed ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen for more than 18 months.

The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues, resulting in delays averaging nearing two years for applications to be processed.

Miller's departure hardly ends the matter. Three congressional committees are investigating, and the FBI is looking into potential civil rights violations at the IRS, Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier Wednesday.

Other potential crimes include making false statements to authorities and violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities, Holder said.

I can guarantee you that's a bunch of trumped up horseshit just like Benghazi.

Dreamsglore wrote:

PkrBum wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/fbi-irs-investigation_n_3278230.html

Miller's ouster came five days after an IRS supervisor publicly revealed that agents had improperly targeted groups with "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications for tax exempt status. It came a day after an inspector general's report blamed ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen for more than 18 months.

The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues, resulting in delays averaging nearing two years for applications to be processed.

Miller's departure hardly ends the matter. Three congressional committees are investigating, and the FBI is looking into potential civil rights violations at the IRS, Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier Wednesday.

Other potential crimes include making false statements to authorities and violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities, Holder said.

I can guarantee you that's a bunch of trumped up horseshit just like Benghazi.

Sal wrote:

2seaoat wrote:President Bush made all the appointments of the folks who were in charge of the IRS and the auditing function..........when the screw up on the 501 c 4......yet folks are trying to blame Obama for the screw ups.......It was not even Obama's political appointments as Schuman was in charge, and that there was in fact targeting on both sides of the political spectrum being testified today......this is a joke with the type of questions. The inspector general who had authority to review the IRS was a Bush appointee. Citizen United created a duty for the IRS review. What is really funny as Fox covers this, they break away when a Democratic committee members who starts their questions by saying......was not the person in charge of the IRS at the time of the targeting....a Bush appointee......was not the person in charge of the auditing function a Bush appointee......the idea of attacking the president on this is stupid on steroids. They then go back to coverage when a republican begins asking questions......journalism has reached an all time low.

Get used to it.

This will not be going away anytime soon.

Not because there's any substance to it, rather because it plays into the wingnut's perpetual persecution complex and fits neatly into their favorite narrative of the big bad gubament putting its boot on the neck of the liberty loving patriots.

There will a long parade of professional victims brought before Congress to lament the tyranny and brutality of the IRS asking them to answer a few questions and fill out some additional paperwork.

Oh, the humanity!

It's going to be a long, hot summer of outragegasms from the crazies.