Democrats Justify Using IRS to Target Political Opponents

The targeting of conservatives by BIG GOVERNMENT and it's apparatus the Democrat Party is on full display in the I.R.S. scandal.  The perpetual leftist propaganda campaign against the Tea Party and the left's astro-turf distraction Occupy were just a few of the overt tactics used to control the messaging  and target it's 'opponents'. Chicago gutter politics always borders on criminal and we all know that borders mean nothing to the left. Winning the election means amnesty from prosecution. Speaking of Illinois.   

From The Hill:

Durbin: No regrets calling out Crossroads to the IRS

Durbin: No regrets calling out Crossroads to the IRS 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday defended his decision to single out a key GOP group in a 2010 letter to the IRS.

Durbin said Crossroads GPS, co-founded by Karl Rove, had been boasting about how much money they had been raising, and the role they were playing in the 2010 midterms.“Citizens United really unleashed hundreds, if not thousands of organizations, seeking tax-exempt status to play in political campaigns,” Durbin said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Durbin said he didn’t mention any liberal groups in his letter because an IRS examination into Crossroads would have put organizations across the political spectrum on notice.

During the current IRS scandal, Democrats like Durbin have said there need to be broader questions raised about how and if political groups like Crossroads and Tea Party groups should be allowed the tax-exempt status reserved for social welfare groups.
“There is no basis for targeting within the IRS,” Durbin said. “What we basically need to say is all groups need to have the law applied to them equally.”

From The Atlantic:

Congress Put Pressure on the IRS to Investigate Conservative Tax-Exempt Groups

" Peter Welch is a Democratic congressman from Vermont and sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by California Republican Darrell Issa. Welch's March 2, 2012 letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman explicitly called on the IRS to crack down on 501(c)(4)s: "

"In a statement accompanying the letter, Welch's office urged the IRS to "investigate whether nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations affiliated with Super PACs—such as Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed group spending millions of dollars in campaigns across the country—are in violation of federal law and IRS regulations.' " Congress Put Pressure on the IRS to Investigate Conservative Tax-Exempt Groups

 From The Hill:

Report: IRS leaked confidential documents to investigative media

Report: IRS leaked confidential documents to investigative media

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) leaked confidential materials submitted by some conservative groups to investigative journalists at ProPublica, the group reported on Tuesday.

Last year, ProPublica, an investigative journalism outlet, was researching “how dozens of social-welfare nonprofits had misled the IRS about their political activity on their applications and tax returns.”

As part of the investigation, “ProPublica regularly requested applications from the IRS’s Cincinnati office, which is responsible for reviewing applications from nonprofits.” According to the report, the same IRS office in Cincinnati that has admitted to targeting conservative groups provided confidential documents submitted by some of those nonprofit organizations to ProPublica.

“In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups,” ProPublica reports. “Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public. (We made six of those public, after redacting their financial information, deeming that they were newsworthy.)”

Among the applications sent to ProPublica was one for Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed group and one of the biggest spending conservative groups in the 2012 election cycle. Applications are supposed to remain confidential until a group’s status has been determined.
ProPublica says it followed up with the IRS at the time to find out why it had been provided the confidential materials. The IRS responded by saying it would be illegal for ProPublica to publish the documents.

ProPublica published the materials but redacted some financial information.
The ProPublica report expands the scope of what has become a political firestorm in Washington. The IRS apologized last Friday for targeting conservative groups, including those with the words “Tea Party” and “patriot” in their names, for extra scrutiny when determining whether they were eligible for tax-exempt status.

Call for an investigation of your political opponents and then leak the private information. Nothing to see here? A special prosecutor INDEPENDENT of the partisan Eric Holder's Justice Department is required to investigate the I.R.S. and those involved in the abuse of power and corruption. 

Largest Ever Lego Model Unveiled in Times Square

The largest ever LEGO model is  unveiled in Times Square

 

H/T Calgary Herald

42-foot long - 44 foot wingspan 'Star Wars' X-wing 

 

 

 

IRS Scandal - Lois Lerner SPUN as Bush APPOINTEE

Lerner gets 4 Pinocchios in Fact Check.

  The I.R.S. scandal hits the press and the left needs to provide cover for Barack Obama. Lois Lerner headed the division of the I.R.S. that targeted conservative groups. Lerner's previous testimony and the Obama Administration's story doesn't appear to be completely honest.  Denials and distractions are in order. What talking points will the Left use?

 

 

Does Bush Appointee Lois Lerner Have A Political Agenda?

 Surprising headlines from foxnewsradio.com ? Not so surprising to find out it is empty-suit
leftist Alan Colmes's posting.  It starts....  

"Sarah Jones at PolticusUSA makes the case that Republican blocking of Obama appointees keeps Bush appointees in place and that is what can be wrecking havoc."

Alan Colme's first sentence sends us out into the LEFTIST Blogosphere to PoliticusUSA- Real Liberal Politics.  The Obama propaganda machine relies heavily on Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) to push most of their 'message'  Five years into Obama's presidency, the dear leader's agenda and 'legacy' is to be protected at  ANY cost.  The leftist spin machine churns out the progressive pablum for consumption by the collective.  Intellectual dishonesty is a hallmark of the 'new left'. Only reality can inoculate an individual from BDS, thus explaining the pandemic in the left wing.

The POTUS does not appoint lower level employees to jobs. Lois Lerner WAS NOT APPOINTED by Bush to her Job.

Lois G. Lerner Selected as Director of IRS Exempt Organizations Division

IR-2005-148, Dec. 22, 2005
WASHINGTON — Lois G. Lerner has been selected as the director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service. In this position, she will be responsible for administering and enforcing the tax laws that apply to more than 1.8 million organizations recognized by the IRS as exempt from tax.
“Protecting the integrity of tax-exempt organizations is an important part of our enforcement program,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “Lois’s background, including her work for the Federal Election Commission, qualifies her for this new assignment.”
Before this appointment, Lerner had been the director of the Exempt Organizations Rulings & Agreements Division, where she was responsible for the EO determinations letter program, public guidance and technical assistance for IRS agents conducting examinations of tax-exempt organizations. Lerner came to the IRS in 2001 from the Federal Election Commission, where she was Associate General Counsel for Enforcement and Acting General Counsel. She replaces Martha Sullivan, who will retire from the IRS at the end of December.
“Lois is an integral part of the EO team and has successfully increased the IRS presence in the exempt community,” said Steven T. Miller, Commissioner of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, of which EO is a part. “Her integrity, skills and judgment are exceptional and will allow us to continue to provide improved service and enhanced enforcement of the tax laws.”   Lois G. Lerner Selected as Director of IRS Exempt Organizations Division

The site called 'Daily Progress' phrases it like this:

Lerner was appointed in 2005 to her job by the IRS commissioner, the agency's top official, appointed by the president.   IRS director signed letters to tea party 

You really mean appointed by the guy who was appointed by the president, sort of a Presidential appointment once removed.

Invoke the Fifth

White House tries Damage Control

Obama's IRS Targets Conservative Groups-Leaks Info

IRS's Lois Lerner Makes Statement-Loses 5th Amendment Right

Darrell Issa: IRS's  Lois Lerner Lost Her Rights

By RACHAEL BADE | 5/22/13 3:15 PM EDT @Politico
Excerpted:

"House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said embattled IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights and will be hauled back to appear before his panel again.

The California Republican said Lerner’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination was voided when she gave an opening statement this morning denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government service.

“When I asked her her questions from the very beginning, I did so so she could assert her rights prior to any statement,” Issa told POLITICO. “She chose not to do so — so she waived.”

Lerner triggered the IRS scandal on May 10 when she acknowledged that the agency wrongly targeted conservative groups applying for a tax exemption. Her lawyer told the House committee earlier this week that she would exercise her Fifth Amendment.
She appeared before Issa’s committee this morning under the order of a subpoena and surprised many by reading a strong statement to the panel.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee.”

Read More At Politico Politico

Obama's IRS Targets Conservative Groups-Leaks Info

IRS Released Confidential Info on Conservative Groups to ProPublica 

excerpt:

"ProPublica on Monday reported that the same IRS division that targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 election cycle provided the investigative-reporting organization with confidential applications for tax-exempt status.
That revelation contradicts previous statements from the agency and may represent a violation of federal guidelines. Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS sector that reviews tax-exemption applications, told a congressional oversight committee in April 2012 that IRS code prohibited the agency from providing information about groups that had not yet been approved.
Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) had asked Lerner in March 2012 to provide a list of all organizations that the IRS had subjected to special scrutiny.

(Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

Lerner replied that she could not legally reveal information about groups that were not approved and that identifying targeted applicants that were already approved would require additional work, specifically a “manual review of each file.” She did not identify any of the organizations.
Below is an excerpt of Lerner’s response:

“Section 6104(a) of the Code permits public disclosure of an application for recognition of tax exempt status and supporting materials only after the organization has been recognized as exempt. Consequently, we cannot provide a list of organizations that have received [additional scrutiny] from the IRS, until those applications have been approved.”

ProPublica reported that the Lerner’s division released “nine pending confidential applications of conservatives groups” in response to a request from the investigative-reporting organization for the applications of 67 nonprofits in November 2012. "

Soros's Open Society Funded Propublica

Planted question gambit backfires on IRS officials

excerpt: 

"It was an unusual way to deliver bad news, even in a town known for its selective leaks, Friday-night news dumps and wag-the-dog distractions.

The Internal Revenue Service, apparently determined to get out ahead of an inspector general report critical of its handling of tax exemptions for Tea Party groups, came up with a plan: Lois Lerner, the official responsible for the tax-exempt division, would publicly apologize in response to a question at the American Bar Association conference in Washington.
Details of the now-infamous planted question emerged Friday after acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller admitted the gambit under questioning from members of the House Ways and Means Committee.
STORY: IRS chief denies politics drove Tea Party screening
It was the day after Lerner had testified to Congress last week, failing once again to disclose the extent of the Tea Party targeting even under direct questioning. The damning inspector general report would come out any day, and Lerner and Miller wanted to figure out a way to disclose the news publicly.
Miller testified about the thought process behind the release strategy Friday. "Now that the (inspector general) report was finalized, now that we knew all the facts, now that we had responded in writing and everything was done, did it make sense for us to start talking about this in public," he said.
The plan, he said, was to simultaneously notify Congress, but that never happened."

IRS cases were referred to ‘Group 7822’

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/18/194248/irs-cases-were-referred-to-group.html#storylink=cpy

By David Lightman and Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Washington Bureau - Tuesday, June 18, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service diverted applications for tax-exempt status from tea party and like-minded organizations to a special track known as Group 7822 for special scrutiny, according to transcripts of an interview by congressional interrogators with a key IRS official.

The lengthy interview with John Shafer, a senior manager in the screening department of the IRS division in charge of tax-exempt designations, was shared with reporters by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Staffs from several congressional committees have been interviewing employees in the Cincinnati-based IRS office that handles applications for exempt organization status.
Cummings’ aim was to refute assertions by the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that the special scrutiny was part of a Washington-based conspiracy. Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, said the transcript of five hours of interviews on June 9 “debunks conspiracy theories about how the IRS first started reviewing these cases.”

Issa said he was “deeply disappointed” in Cummings. He said Cummings “has wrongly argued that questions about IRS conduct are somehow not legitimate. His own previous release of excerpts from this very same transcript undermines his claims that the committee is somehow trying to keep some specific revelation from public view.”
The IRS transcript helped fill in blanks about information that was generally known but not well understood. For example, Shafer confirmed that his boss, Holly Paz, was present when a Treasury Department auditor queried him about treatment of tea party applications. “I wasn’t sure why she was there,” he said. Shafer said her presence did not change his answers.

Shafer described himself as a conservative Republican and explained how applications that met criteria that the IRS has since called inappropriate were selectively screened. The criteria included buzzwords such as constitution, Bill of Rights and other tea party themes referring to the Founding Fathers. These words caused applications to be pulled aside and sent to what’s called Group 7822. He did not say how the criteria were developed or by whom.

He said the tea party cases were called “emerging issues” by agency officials, apparently because they had received media attention.
“Each case is again reviewed and the determination is made on the facts and circumstances within that case,” he said. Asked what caused an emerging issue, “I 100 percent do not know, OK?” he answered. “What I would do is go into the electronic system and I would transfer these cases to Group 7822.”

Other Blogs on the IRS Scandal

Democrats Justify Using IRS to Target Political Opponents

Targeting Conservatives: An IRS Political Timeline 

The RNC Benghazi Attack Ad that Never Ran

The RNC Benghazi Attack Ad that Never Ran

Obama and Clinton Won't Lend a Hand in Benghazi

Obama campaign merchandise 2012

 May 9, 2013 4:03pm by Jonathan Karl @ABC NEWS

"It was the Benghazi attack ad the Republican National Committee created but never aired."


"The video of the Benghazi attack used in the ad includes the sound of gunfire and what appear to be voices of people speaking a foreign language as flames engulf the consulate.
A source familiar with the creation of the ad says the RNC leadership approved the ad but it was scrapped at the last minute because of objections from the Romney campaign, which was concerned the ad would distract from Romney’s efforts to focus on the economy.

Picture of bloody fingerprints at the Benghazi mission

While the ad borrows from Hillary Clinton’s efforts to raise questions in 2008 about Barack Obama’s ability to lead the country through a crisis, Republicans are now pointing to the Benghazi attack and the way it was handled to raise questions about the leadership of Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attack.
Democrats will likely point to the un-aired commercial as evidence that Republicans are raising concerns about the Benghazi attack to score political points."

How Did Hillary Clinton handle the 2 AM phone call, Benghazi time?

Harry Reid calls Sen. Ted Cruz a ‘schoolyard bully’- Video

 Reid calls Sen. Cruz a ‘schoolyard bully’

 By Erik Wasson

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called freshman GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a “schoolyard bully” during a contentious exchange Monday on the Senate floor.
The two senators bickered as Cruz rose to object to Reid’s motion to appoint conferees to a House-Senate budget committee. Cruz said he was concerned that the conference report—which cannot be filibustered—would be used to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. He asked that Reid amend his motion to go to conference to make out of order any provisions raising taxes or raising the debt ceiling. Reid said Cruz had a chance to amend the Senate budget—which raises $975 billion in new tax revenue from tax reform—when it was considered on the floor.
He said Cruz’s request to eliminate all taxes in a final House-Senate budget was absurd.
“The senator from Texas was on the losing side…now he wants us to adopt the losing side’s view or we cannot go to conference,” Reid said.
“My friend from Texas is like a schoolyard bully,” Reid added.

"He pushes everybody around and is losing and instead of playing the game according to the rules, he not only takes the ball home with him, but he changes the rules that way no one wins except the bully who tries to indicate to people that he has won."
Cruz, a Tea Party darling whose rhetoric has sometimes raised eyebrows among Republicans, shot back that “I wasn’t aware we are in the schoolyard.”
Reid cut him off saying “enough.”
Cruz is a rising GOP star whose speaking engagements have some thinking he is plotting a presidential run in 2016.
This is the second time Republicans have blocked an effort to go to conference on the budget.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) last month objected to a conference on behalf of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee.
“Why are my Republican colleagues so afraid?” Reid asked Monday in making his request. “We have our differences but Democrats aren’t afraid to work out those differences.”
Reid accused the GOP of “whining” about the Senate not producing a budget for four years and then refusing to bring about a conference.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that he wants a framework agreement before convening a conference committee. Such a framework could facilitate a down payment on the debt, he said.

Ramsey Cox contributed to this story.

Harry Reid on Raising the Budgets and the  Debt Ceiling 2006

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid- The Obstructionist