When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
Incompetent Establishment
Donald J. Trump
Corporate Malfeasence
We are for:
Global and Econmoic Security
Social and Economic Justice
Media Accountability
THE RESISTANCE
A series of IRS documents, provided to journalists under the Freedom of Information Act, appears to contradict the claims by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that only Tea Party organizations applying for tax-exempt status “received systematic scrutiny because of their political beliefs.” The 22 “Be On the Look Out” keywords lists, distributed to staff reviewing applications between August 12, 2010 and April 19, 2013, included more explicit references to progressive groups, ACORN successors, and medical marijuana organizations than to Tea Party entities.
The IRS provided the heavily-redacted lists - after nearly a year-long search. From the earliest lists through 2012, the “historical” section of the lists encouraged reviewers to watch out for “progressive” groups with names like “blue,” as their requests for 501(c)(3) charitable status might be inappropriate. Their inclusion in this section suggests that the concern predates the initial 2010 list.
Explicit references to “Tea Party,” included in the “emerging issues” section of the lists, also began in August 2010 — but stopped appearing after the May 10, 2011 list. From that point on, the lists instructed agents to flag all political advocacy groups of any stripe. The documents instructed the agents to forward any “organization involved with political, lobbying, or advocacy” applying for 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status be forwarded to “group 7822″ for additional review. Groups under both categories are limited in the amount of of lobbying and political activity each can undertake.
Other types of groups received explicit scrutiny for longer than “progressive” or “Tea Party” organizations. These included applicants involved with “medical marijuana” but not “exclusively education” (19 appearances in the “watch list” section of the lists), which were to be forwarded to a “group 7888″ and groups believed to be possible successor-groups to ACORN, the now-shuttered Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (12 appearances on the “watch list” section). Those applications were also to be elevated to managers for further review. All 22 documents also flagged applicants with Puerto Rico addresses and certain types of “Testamentary Trusts.”
Last year, the IRS acknowledged that it had improperly flagged groups applying for tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny if they contained common Tea Party keywords in their applications. Rather than addressing the very real problem of political committees masquerading as 501(c)(4) groups to evade public disclosure laws, this approach instead delayed the process for several groups purely on the basis of their names. President Obama and members of both parties in Congress all agree that the IRS acted improperly in singling-out certain groups for more scrutiny than others.
In Issa’s committee’s recent report, “Debunking the Myth that the IRS Targeted Progressives,” the Republican majority staffers wrote that while the Be On the Lookout lists’ language was “changed to broader ‘political advocacy organizations,’ the IRS still intended to identify and single out Tea Party applications for scrutiny.” The report goes to great lengths to distinguish the different types of scrutiny provided to each of these types of flagged group. But the actual IRS records indicate that at least some additional scrutiny was required for groups of all types that had names that sounded political — and that the explicit heightened scrutiny for left-leaning groups was even longer-standing than for Tea Party groups.
IRS disclosure manager Bertrand Tzeng noted, in a letter, that these 22 released documents “constitute the set of criteria that were used by IRS employees and which were produced to the investigating congressional committees.” Tzeng added that while his office has been informed that “draft versions of some of these documents may also exist, we understand that such drafts would be exempt from disclosure under FOIA exemption” as simply part of the agency’s deliberative process.
Groundswell Group Stoked Scandals with Help From GOP
When David Corn broke the Groundswell story last week, the general reaction among the politerati was a shrug and a giggle. Even influential NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen called it "no big deal."
"WHO ME"
But audio of a May Groundswell meeting obtained by C&L from a source who wishes to remain anonymous reveals Groundswellers met with top Congressional leaders to lobby for a select committee endowed with subpoena power to investigate the White House. Lobbying may be too mild a term, since they really are plotting with those same leaders to invent very real scandals with very real investigations in order to sink the country into a mire of inaction and sabotage the remaining years of President Obama's term.
C&L AUDIO
Catherine Engelbrecht "facilitated" the May 8th Groundswell meeting. Engelbrecht is the president and founder of True the Vote, a Texas group dedicated to challenging voting rights among the poor, students, and minorities. In addition to their regular work attacking sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act via lawsuits, Engelbrecht was the media go-to person for the media on the phony IRS scandal. That story broke on May 9th, after the Benghazi hearings had more or less fizzled out the previous day.
There was wave after wave of headlines about these so-called scandals. Some people wrote about what an awful week the White House had. It wasn't coincidence. It was orchestrated and planned by this group of people, who had the will and the power to secure the participation of people like Darrell Issa, John Boehner and more.
True the Vote led the charge to sue the IRS and serve the highest-profile plaintiff among the "aggrieved" groups. Yet this audio recording shows their president "facilitating" a clearly partisan, right-wing activist group meeting of people who claim to be fighting a "30-front war." No big deal? When is the last time anyone you know could ring up the Speaker of the House and the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee and take a face-to-face meeting in the wee hours of the evening with approval from the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice?
In the first 20 minutes of the meeting, a lot of ground was covered. The audio of the final hour or so is available, but the quality is not clear enough at this time to publish it. However, they helpfully provided handouts at the meeting relating to their voter suppression efforts discussed later on. Here are some highlights from the audio and then parts that came later.
Benghazi "Scandal"
At 3:45, Jerry Boykin advises the group of the meetings he and Frank Gaffney had with Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa concerning Benghazi on the evening of May 7th about how the Benghazi investigation is progressing. This was the night before the last Congressional Oversight Committee hearing was held on Benghazi, where the so-called whistleblowers were to testify.
In the late-night meeting with Gaffney and Boykin, Boehner advised both that they needed to allow the regular order of committee meetings to play out before he would push for a select committee. Issa told him the same thing. Boykin and Gaffney reported this to the group, along with a promise that there "would be answers." Both reiterated that they and former Rep. Allen West were very concerned about the lack of a military response and assured the group that "what we'll find today is that Hillary Clinton made some egregious decisions and the president was basically absent from his post and did not make the decisions that as the Commander-in-Chief he should have been making...because he was focused on some other things."
They further assured the group that they weren't backing away from their demands, but instead they "kind of have a pledge from...Issa and the Speaker."
Future Debt Ceiling Battles
Just past the Benghazi discussion, the group received a report about upcoming debt ceiling negotiations, where they are advised that a survey has gone out to conservative lawmakers to see "what they're looking for in exchange for their votes raising the debt ceiling."
Of course, you'd never know from the press they get that there was any intention of raising the debt ceiling at all. Now we all can see that they will in fact do it reluctantly, as Shonda Weery reports when she advises that it's "not a vote they'll want to give without getting back something in return." Let the horse-trading begin.
Voting Rights
During the meeting, True the Vote made a presentation (document below) about their plan to attack groups who are actively working to protect voting rights around the country, particularly after the Supreme Court gutted most of the protections. Code-named "Hydra", True the Vote argues that the left is undermining voting rights, and must be stopped, by hook or by crook.
Let's review that timeline.
On May 8, 2013, True the Vote is a facilitator and presenter at a meeting where Ginni Thomas and others are key players. TTV presents their plan to attack "the left" for daring to register voters. They're committed to stopping them from challenging any and all efforts to disenfranchise voters. Or as they describe it, securing the vote. Others might call it democracy corrupted.
On May 9, 2013 the IRS "scandal" breaks after Lois Lerner plants a question in a conference Q&A about IRS "targeting."
On May 21, 2013, True the Vote, represented by ActRight Legal Foundation, sues the IRS for not granting their tax-exempt status and targeting them for their beliefs. ActRight Legal Foundation uses Cleta Mitchell as one of their consulting attorneys. Mitchell is a well-known and very high profile litigator on behalf of conservative causes. There are very few conservative nonprofits that don't have Mitchell's fingerprints all over them.
True the Vote goes all over conservative media with their tale of woe. Their message: The IRS was used as a tool by the liberal president to target conservatives and suppress their free speech rights. Until True the Vote was a victim of the terrible IRS, they were under Congressional investigation for voter suppression, by the way.
In fact, the IRS had ample reason to believe they were a partisan, political group who was not simply acting on behalf of voters everywhere. But that did not stop Engelbrecht from pushing forward with her anti-voter initiatives while simultaneously leading the charge against the IRS.
But wait, there's more. True the Vote wrote a letter in opposition to the nomination of Thomas Perez for Secretary of Labor, complaining that "Mr. Perez, through political appointment and action, has made clear his intent to ignore key functions in federal election law – namely Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA)."
In TTV's document entitled "Hydra with Footnotes", the battle lines are drawn with very partisan rulers. After making their case that the "Organized Left is preparing a massive campaign to promote 'Universal Registration' and threatening to block citizen observers from the polls," TTV vows to target those groups however they can and defeat the terrible lefty Hydra by "attack[ing] the source of its strengths", which they view as the usual right-wing targets: unions, the NAACP, Common Cause, Project Vote, Demos, Center for American Progress, The Nation Foundation, and more.
While this flurry of organizing and activism is happening, TTV is front and center in the press with loud, strident claims that the IRS "targeted" them.
Another active member of Groundswell, J. Christian Adams, contributes content to the True the Vote site on issues such as whether any fix to the Voting Rights Act is possible after it was gutted by the Supreme Court in June. Adams serves as counsel to the Election Law Center, yet another right-wing effort to suppress the vote.
The efforts of this group should not be marginalized, given that what they are saying is repeated in the halls of the House and the Senate on a daily basis. It isn't just right-wing crazy people being crazy. These are activists with contacts in high places who are using those contacts to strip people of their rights, to invent scandals to undermine the President at every turn, and to marginalize Hillary Clinton if she should choose to run in 2016. Those are just a few of their goals. They have power and they're not afraid to use it.
Group members are the water-carriers and action arm of the billionaires' tea party. Listen to the full 20 minutes of that audio, or read the transcript here to see just how destructive they intend to be.
This is the first of a two-part series. Tomorrow, I'll look more closely at Ginni Thomas' involvement to see whether Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas engaged in unethical conduct or colluded with his wife and her associates.
True The Vote's Hydra document presented at the meeting:
This story is very revealing about the lengths that the American Taliban will go to - to undermine the president. Make no mistake his is planning for a coup, it is directly organizing activities, not to win an election, but to destabilize a sitting government - and it is being led by Christian deconstructionists, radical teabaggers, and the talibangelicals.
How many different kinds of disgusting do you have to be to conduct this kind of business?
This is war. And you don't win war by challenging the way your enemy fights in court. You win it by fighting the same way. Instead of watching the poll watchers, progressive groups need to be poll watchers and challenge the voting rights of suspect individuals. Like, oh, old white men. What's needed is several weeks' worth of right-wing outrage ginned up by television footage of dark-skinned people challenging the right to vote of traditionally Republican voters -- especially in heavily Republican precincts. Imagine the gloriousness of it all: New Black Panther Party poll watchers demanding old white Teabaggers provide proof of their right to vote -- and all in accordance with the very laws. True The Vote is so desperate to implement.
Who knew? Who knew that Darrell Issa was a lying schmuck? You didn't have to be Einstein to know that as time went on - that this IRS scandal would backfire on the American Taliban.
And just like with the Benghazi emails, the full transcripts have been released, [an oh shit moment for Issa] and they reveal that there was absolutely no testimony or evidence that supports the right-wing lie that the White House was behind these actions.
NEVER LET FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY
Video Courtesy of MSNBC
Darrell Issa, in typical deceiving GOP fashion, knew this. That’s why he continued to delay the release of these transcripts, which decimated every conspiracy Republicans have tried to levy against the President.
Even the fallacy that there was an overwhelming number of “conservative groups” targeted was a lie. Thisgraphshows that only 96 of the 298 groups listed were “conservative groups,” totaling about one-third within this investigation. But when you heard it from the American Taliban, this was some kind of direct attack against the tea bagger, even though there’s no evidence supporting this whatsoever.
In fact, there is an over abundance of evidence to show that Issa knowingly tried to conceal specific pieces of evidence from being released, while allowing specific comments to be “leaked” by his staff, perpetuating his lies that the White House was behind this.
Just like with Benghazi, the real story is much less eventful than what the American Taliban wants Americans to believe. And just like with Benghazi, the possible criminal activity doesn't come from the White House, but from within the American Taliban. Their concealment of factual information which easily debunks the lies which they were using to mislead the American public is now public, for all to see.
Benghazi’s “conspiracy” really stems from who edited the initial emails that the GOP used to build their attack on President Obama and Hillary Clinton, while the IRS “conspiracy” seems to be about why Issa continued to perpetuate a lie - a lie that had no merit and zero factual backing to support his claim.
The American Taliban cares little about facts —their number one mission, to point blame at the African American in the oval office. No matter what the cost, "pin the tail on the donkey"!
One has to wonder why Issa was so eager to keep this information from public view?
It's going to take some time to review the transcript in detail, but at this point, it looks like the IRS controversy, which was on shaky ground before, has almost completely been flushed down the toilet..
If, upon further review, these transcripts reinforce the perception that Issa tried to mislead the public, it's the California tea bagger and not the Obama administration, that will have some explaining to do!
Rachel Maddow last night tore into Fox News for jumping the smoking gun on the IRS scandal, and the Republican party for being too focused on their personal concerns over ACORN and Obamacare to pursue actual policy. Even though people may view people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly as GOP leaders, Maddow said the party needs to be more concerned with policy than the media it embraces, declaring the right to have a “nonsense problem” and the GOP to be “unsuited for policy at this time.”
Maddow brought up how Fox News (O’Reilly, Hannity and company) is now pouncing on a report that former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House 157 times during his term, immediately lumping it in with other smoking guns conservatives have touted as the one thing that would finally topple Obama’s house of cards. Maddow explained how the report was debunked, and yet O’Reilly continues to report on it as if it was never corrected. Maddow even mockingly suggested O’Reilly was too busy watching videos of marching penguins to notice the new information.
Maddow noted that in a report released about the GOP’s youth voter outreach, when people were asked about who they think the Republican leaders are, they identified people like O’Reilly and Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. She linked this to how actual Republican leaders in Congress seem more gung-ho about things like defunding ACORN (which doesn’t exist anymore) and repealing Obamacare rather than focusing on actual policy.
Maddow said it’s hard to predict what will happen when Republicans are forced to talk about “real things,” citing Mitch McConnell linking Obamacare to rising student loan rates.
“The Republican party has a nonsense problem when it comes to policy, and it comes right from the top. If you do not like policy, that’s fine… but in Washington, the fact that one of the two parties is just unsuited for policy at this time–it is not their strong suit–that right now is a problem.”
There is a reason why Fox News viewersare the dumbest in our land. Maddow debunks the bullshit artists yet again. When do viewers of Faux News understand that they are being fed a huge heaping steaming pile of dog poo?
If you want to become a master of bullshit - there is no better place to hone your skills than watching endless hours of Faux News.
This, the final week before leaving The Daily Show for the summer, Jon Stewart took another swipe at the IRS for the ongoing scandal over the targeting of tea party groups.
Stewart expressed mock sympathy for the IRS and indulged in a little schadenfraude, asking “Where’s your receipts, assholes?” Stewart wryly remarked, “Sucks to get audited, doesn't it?” and proceeded to mock-audit the IRS for its own ridiculous expenses.
Stewart brought up how former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman was at the White House over 150 times, remarking that meeting with the president to scheme against his political opponents “should really only take about one meeting, two tops!” However, Stewart did liken President Obama to a mobster who only summoned Shulman to ask, “Did you take care of that thing?”
Stewart continued to turn the tables on the IRS with some devastating commentary on their actions:
“You may have perfectly reasonable explanations for every action that you took, but that doesn't mean we don’t need you to go back home and dig through another couple of shoeboxes until we get just that one document that we really need to see before we can be okay with your reasons. Why? Fuck you, that’s why.”
Stewart slammed the agency for a dance video that cost $1600 (“How the fuck did that cost $1600? Did the guy recording it drop his iPhone three times?”) and the $50 million that was spent on a little over two hundred employee conferences. Stewart told the IRS, “I don’t care… if you kept the receipts,” and gleefully suggested they use Tax Masters to sort out their troubles.
Does anyone really like the IRS/? Probably not. My problem with the holier than thou American Taliban ers screaming "we are being picked on", where was the outraged when under the George W. Bush regime, when they targeted the NAACP, not nary a tea bagger invoked, "corrupt government", or "impeach the President". HMMMM!
At the end of the day, tea baggers seeking 501 (c) (3) status was wrong - as their organizations do not fit "social welfare" status!
As you see below, the American Taliban and has a hard time selling the tax free status - and the IRS had a problem with the influx of tea baggers seeking this status - that they where/are not entitle to, while the IRS may have gone about the process wrong, the tea bagger is in err for seeking claim to something they should never be entitled too.
Exemption requirements: 501(c)(3) organizations To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are commonly referred to as charitable organizations. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3), other than testing for public safety organizations, are eligible to receive tax-deductiblecontributions in accordance with Code section 170.
The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization's net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. If the organization engages in an excess benefit transaction with a person having substantial influence over the organization, an excise tax may be imposed on the person and any organization managers agreeing to the transaction.
Section 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct. For a detailed discussion, see Political and Lobbying Activities. For more information about lobbying activities by charities, see the article Lobbying Issues; for more information about political activities of charities, see the FY-2002 CPE topic Election Year Issues.
So, which is the true scandal, extreme radical political lobbyist seeking tax exempt status, or the IRS hand picking them for further investigation?
I guess that Benghazi thing isn't panning out so well for the American Taliban, they don't care about spying on the AP, and the IRS scandal is losing steam. So on to the next one! But ... is there anything more stupid than this? This umbrella thing is nothing but pure unadulterated racism. Not matter how its sliced and diced, how you spin it, it's racism, to the very core.
On the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Senate impeachment hearings that eventually brought down President Richard Nixon, the right-wing has found yet another “Watergate” to try to pin to Obama. Not the Benghazi attacks, or even the IRS targeting scandal–but it does involve water.
Republicans and right-wing talkers, gleefully embracing every bit of scandalous news they might be able to peg to the president, picked yet another issue to badger President Obama on Thursday.
TEA BAGGER UMBRELLA-GATE
OTHER SMEAR TACTICS OF THE AMERICAN TALIBAN
His umbrella.
Specifically, his decision to have a Marine hold an umbrella for him while he spoke at a press conference alongside Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan Thursday.
Pundits like Sean Hannity and Eric Bolling used the moment as a metaphor to bash the president on Obama again. “ Wouldn't it be nice if he had them covered the way they have him covered?” Bolling asked. Hannity said, “They were protecting him and maybe in this case he should have been protecting them and the people in Libya.
Why paint the president as a gracious host when you can paint him as a lazy elitist instead?
TWITTER RACIST
TWITTER HATE MAP
Where are the Racist, Hateful Tweets Coming From?
"Twitter has the capacity to ignite revolutions and enable small acts of kindness, but there's also a darker side to the micro-blogging network.
Floating Sheep, a group of geography academics, created the "Geography of Hate," which maps racist, homophobic and ablest tweets in the U.S. "
Where are the most hateful, racist, homophobic tweets coming from? A "Geography of Hate" map can tell you, and probably dishearten you in the process. Are people comfortable with making hate public?
If you study the map GOP, states [red] are the ones that contain the most red, which are the most racist and homophobic states we have. Surprised? I am not.
Since the election of President Obama, the American Taliban has been OCD [Obsessive-compulsive disorder] with scandals and conspiracies. The list of darts to throw at the President on any given day is a plethora if you are a GOPer.
If you spend every hour of your working life inventing new ways to attack Barack Obama or the government [or both], this is a very good week for you — or at least it should be. After wallowing through the deserts of Benghazi and Fast and Furious for four years, trying to extract any tiny drop of scandal from stone, now suddenly comes gold from the heavens, courtesy of the IRS and its misguided attempt to prevent political groups from taking advantage of the non-profit tax code. Then, even before your salad is done, the Department of Justice snoops on reporters. Hallelujah to the Republican God Ronald Reagan! The Promised Land of Impeachment can’t be far off.
Three scandals in a period of seven days, the mother load has cometh for the American Taliban.
Unfortunately, as with most of these stories, same ole shit just a different political party. Before we start urinating our pants and dancing in the streets with "we got him this time", let's autopsy what we know.
As we have written over the past few weeks, Benghazi is the story that never was. Yes 4 Americans died, and that is a tragedy, but making up shit so that you have something against the President doesn't work, because as always, facts out trump bullshit any day of the week. 74% of the American Taliban think that Benghazi is worse than Watergate and Iran - Contra. The kicker to this stat is - that 39% of the 74% cannot tell you where Benghazi is. Really? If your going to call bullshit, shouldn't you at least know where bullshit is?
In breaking news: the Benghazi "Scandal" - Jack Tapper of CNN exposed ABC - as an email found by Tapper shows that ABC edited their content to make the President look bad. Here is the Tapper release as it was sent out last night.
This latest bit of information shows just how low the American Taliban will go to discredit the President, and this disgusting signal, is as disturbing as the party itself. Of late, the American Taliban's motto is, if we can't hit the goal, move the goal post so that we can hit the target. A disgusting pattern of shoot first and ask queries later.
Epic Failure by the American Taliban!
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Let's be clear readers, jeopardizing National Security is a dangerous game to play, [First amendment to the constitution or not]. On MSNBC last night Rachael Maddow explains the complexities of "freedom of the press"
Nope, I'm not going to defend the IRS, which appears to have acted in ways wholly inconsistent with their mandate for unbiased investigations into, in this case, whether certain political groups should receive tax-exempt status. It is unclear how high up the chain of command these untoward actions went, but this morning'snews suggests it wasn't just a few rogue auditors in Cincinnati.
The problem wasn't that the agency scrutinized these so-called "social welfare" organizations -- as I'll emphasize in a moment, tax law in this area is an accident going out to happen. It's that they violated neutrality, investigating conservative groups by searching on "tea party" and "patriot."
Republicans will of course try to pin this on the president, despite the fact that since Nixon used the IRS to target his enemies, the president's been barred from even discussing this kind of thing with the agency.
No, the problem here isn't the president. It's the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and subsequent tax law written by Congress that gives these groups tax exempt status (under rule 501(c)(4)) as long as most of their activities are primarily on educating the public about policy issues, not direct campaigning.
Of course, the ambiguities therein are insurmountable. Many of these groups, especially the big ones, spend millions on campaign ads mildly disguised as "issue ads," and under current law they can do so limitlessly and with impunity.
The tax code states that 501(c)(4)'s must operate "exclusively" to promote social welfare, a category that excludes political spending. Some court decisions have interpreted that language to mean that a minimal amount of political spending would be permissible. But the I.R.S. has for years maintained that groups meet that rule as long as they are not "primarily engaged" in election work, a substantially different threshold.
Nowhere do the rules specify what "primarily engaged" means...
Again, I see no way that a government agency could fairly interpret and enforce these instructions. What is "primarily engaged"-at which point does an issue ad cross the threshold into campaign ad -- what kind of "education" is GPS Crossroads providing and how is it promoting "social welfare?"
Weirdly, the IRS hasn't seemed particularly interested in going after the big fish here, like Rove's Crossroads GPS on the right or Priorities USA on the left. Instead, they appear to have systematically targeted small fry on the far right. If so, not only is that clearly biased and unacceptable -- it's also ridiculous given the magnitude of the violations of tax exempt status by these small groups relative to the big ones.
At the end of the day, we should really ask ourselves what societal purpose is being served here by carving out special tax status for any of these groups. If anyone can show me any evidence that the revenue forgone is well spent, that these groups are making our political system and our country better off, please do so. If not, then no one's saying shut them down -- they've got a right to speak their minds. But not tax free.
Fact: Mitch McConnell used to be suspicious of the same 501(c)(4) groups that the IRS targeted.
Dear Tea Baggers, It sucks when you're unfairly treated because of prejudices about your name and appearance - see how things tend to come full circle?
All three of the scenarios above also happened on G.W. Bush's watch. The problem with the comparisons are, that under Bush, not a republican raised an eyebrow to complain, to impeach, nor did they attempt to drag any senior government official through the mud.
If I had advice to give to the tea baggers, I would say - number one rule in maintaining your narrative in a political stance, Stop accepting new information when the tide of facts turns contrary to your agenda.
At the very least the American Taliban suffers from Bushnesia, at its worst, they are the diabolical party that we see on Cable news on a nightly bases, lying, deceiving, hypocrisy of the highest order. The key to all these "scandals and conspiracies" is to dissect facts from bullshit, let the whole story play itself out before jumping the C&S freight train!
The IRS has always been a deviant entity, whether under Democratic rule or the American Taliban - freedom of press, its been a source of problematic issues since our countries inception, hence why the founders addressed it in the first amendment.
At the end of the day the American Taliban has what they want, "lame street medias" attention, Obama is engaged and taking action. The time for the narrative of "media bias" is no more, at least for the IRS and AP stories.
A saying here at the NFTOS horseshoe is "what these scandals need are a good conspiracy theory".
