Highly Questionable IRS Actions

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Col Haiku

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I suspect this may turn out to be a criminal investigation and not just a fairly serious breach of conduct. Time will tell...
"A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011.
The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted. ….
That report says the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups learned that groups were being targeted in June 2011. It does not say whether Shulman was notified."
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...-targeting-tea-party-report-article-1.1341393

What has been reported seems to contradict the initial admission/ apology when the spokesperson said the “absolutely inappropriate” actions by “front-line people” were not driven by partisan motives:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...6a0ada-b987-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
 
The federal income tax and the entire federal government is "highly questionable" and has been for along time. This doesn't change any of that. I highly doubt this will amount to much of anything.
 
You may be right

But the use of the IRS against political opponents was one of the articles of impeachment used against Richard Nixon.

Update... a timeline of IRS Tea Party harassment:

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Appendix VI and Appendix VII.PDF

Democratic bureaucrats did this under Clinton, too, and didn't need instruction on how to do this.

"The Clinton "enemies" audited included Clinton paramours Gennifer Flowers and Liz Ward Gracen, sexual assault accusers Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick, and fired White House Travel Office Director Billy Dale."
 
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Again, we shall see what - if anything - comes of this, Benghazi, etc. What passes for journalism these days seems to be the "paleo-media" covering stories with a pillow, until they stop moving.
 
Or making a mountain...

Col Haiku said:
Again, we shall see what - if anything - comes of this, Benghazi, etc. What passes for journalism these days seems to be the "paleo-media" covering stories with a pillow, until they stop moving.
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out of a molehill. If this is quashed news , I would hate to see it's opposite. Of course nothing delights the right wing in this country like a good scandal-real or not. But, then they don't care much if it's one of their own-Mark Sanford!! All is forgiven, you liar and cheat!

Well, the IRS thing is actually a very important issue and depending on exactly what the nature and extent of the abuse (if that is what it is )turns out to be-head should roll even if that means one of them rolling out 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.. But I cannot imagine Obama having allowed himself to be compromised like that-especially with so little to gain by it and everything to lose. He is not the sort of damaged personality that Nixon was.
But, at the more philosophical level it sure shows just why we should have a simpler-dead simple- tax code without any possibility of exempt status being there to tempt any public official to use taxation as a means of specific reward or punishment. In the list of official abuse of power there aren't many (maybe an executive order of attainder-see drones) that stack up against turning the tax authority on your enemies. I wish the GOP had enough insight and cohesion to go after the tax policies on this basi but then their main constituency is rewarded out of all proportion by the tax code, aren't they?
 
That's exactly right. When something like this happens the "other side" just uses it to score political points when we really need to be dismantling the government power that facilitated the corruption in the first place. But, both sides want their political power and the destruction of the other side's because people who don't believe in nor want political power rarely seek it for the purpose of dismantling it.
 
It's very difficult...

to see how we could move to a simple-abuseproof- tax system, but I can think of no other single thing that has more potential for the good of the democracy and the economy than such a change.

Maybe the national VAT would be better. I can imagine some simple mechanism for adding the equivalent progressivity into it-and, frankkly that is probably the biggest single issue with it. Ditto the flat tax.
But who in the world in either of the dominant parties would really champion such a thing and have even the remotest chance of success?
 
I don't know about the dismantling piece, but we do need a simple tax code structure, more accountability from elected officials and a media that knows its role/responsibility isn't as a lapdog, cheer leading member of the same team as those in power, but an independent, truth-seeking body that goes wherever the story leads, whoever it impacts.
 
Boy, you don't expect much...

Col Haiku said:
I don't know about the dismantling piece, but we do need a simple tax code structure, more accountability from elected officials and a media that knows its role/responsibility isn't as a lapdog, cheer leading member of the same team as those in power, but an independent, truth-seeking body that goes wherever the story leads, whoever it impacts.
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do you!!?? When in the history of the world has there been a journalistic situation like that? And how precisely is truth to be determined in some prima facie way? Press freedom is intended to operate in a free market of ideas and in this country there are more than enough contending views and press biases to ensure most ideas get an airing. The idea that there is some hermetically sealed 'mainstream liberal media' is nonsense, especially when you hear that nonsense primarily from the tounge waggers on the most successful news network in the country - FOX.
 
Polling consistently documents the public detects a liberal bias by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, all "tounge" wagging aside.
 
I think there is a "left" leaning bias overall but it's not like all views aren't out there competing. Just the nature of journalism and the type of people it attracts will usually mean at least a slight "leftist" bias. I think that is why Fox is so successful. There is naturally a "left wing" bias so Fox came along and took advantage of that. That's the free market at work. Really there is strong statist bias and that includes Fox News. But of course that is because there is a strong statist bias among the general public as well.
 
Polling conducted by whom?

Col Haiku said:
Polling consistently documents the public detects a liberal bias by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, all "tounge" wagging aside.
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And how, in the absence of any unbiased benchmark for such an assessment, can it be determined what is liberal bias, conservative bias and just plain no bias? The whole idea is ludicrous a priori.
 
One can detect bias in how they (CBS/NBC/ABC/CNN) cover stories that they are eventually shamed into covering, but also in what they choose to ignore. A journalist should be dedicated to unearthing truth, exposing dishonesty. Ideology should never take precedence over detached judgement. Goal should be determine the truth, not ideological advocacy.
 
I certainly hope the "mountain out of a molehill" comment...

...wasn't regarding Benghazi. I would take extreme exception to that...as would the family and friends of the Americans who were killed on 9/11/12.
 
If one espouses the free-market theory, then any liberal bias is simply responding to what the majority desires, right? :clap:
 
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