In the next election will the IRS again target conservative groups for intrusive scrutiny?

IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.

Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.

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"Oops, we're sorry the most feared government agency in the country harassed you inappropriately during an election, we didn't know anything about it."

Want to bet not one person got fired over that? If anyone targeted the left wing groups you know they would have been calling for heads to roll.

Karen Tumulty with WaPo has already tweeted that there will be no disciplinary action. .

Wasn't that one of the articles of impeachment for Nixon ? I think it was.

Watergate Articles Of Impeachment

Read article 2... most of the stuff Nizxon was Impeached for Obama openly engages in doing...

Including using the IRS to get even with his opponents...

Also notice the Similarities in Filegate Hillary was the center of.

Article 2

Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional 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 disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.

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.

2.He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of electronic surveillance.

3.He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the office of the President, financed in part with money derived from campaign contributions, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in covert and unlawful activities, and attempted to prejudice the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial.

4.He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavoured to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive, judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and the cover-up thereof, and concerning other unlawful activities including those relating to the confirmation of Richard Kleindienst as Attorney General of the United States, the electronic surveillance of private citizens, the break-in into the offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding, and the campaign financing practices of the Committee to Re-elect the President.

5.In disregard of the rule of law, he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division, and the Office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, of the Department of Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Adopted 28-10 by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.

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Originally Posted by tomder55

wasn't that one of the articles of impeachment for Nixon ? I think it was.

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I think that's a yes.

Wake up from your right wing fantasy.

Obama isn't a god.. and he's not above the laws of man... and he certainly isn't better or superior to Nixon... in fact Nixon was a far better President and man and did far more and far better things than Obama ever has and ever will.

In fact Hitler had far more Positive accomplishments than Obama has.

After all nobody died in Watergate... in Benghazigate 4 people died... if people got impeached and went to jail over something as minor as Watrergate was... there should be mass exicutions for Benghazigate.

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Originally Posted by talaniman

Wake up from your right wing fantasy.

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Yeah, if the IRS was targeting leftist groups you'd have a much different tone. Doesn't matter how corrupt this administration is, you don't give a crap.

To be accurate I don't give crap about your conspiracy crap! From the link supplied,

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In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

The IRS statement said that once applications were chosen for review, they all "received the same, even-handed treatment."

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale," the IRS said in a statement. "We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system."

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At least spare us the crying until the investigations are done.

Your paranoia knows no bounds

Tal, take the blinders off. It's sad watching you defend such obvious corruption.

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Originally Posted by paraclete

your paranoia knows no bounds

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Its not paranoia when they (the IRS) came out and publicly admitted they were targeting Conservatives specifically for harassment themselves.

That makes it a proven fact it was happening..

So there are no democrats in the IRS?

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Originally Posted by talaniman

To be accurate I don't give crap about your conspiracy crap! From the link supplied,



At least spare us the crying until the investigations are done.

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Ummm... if they weren't intentionally targeting conservative groups ,there would've been no need for an apology when they got caught. This is at the very beginning of the probe now that the rock has been over-turned and the roaches are scattering . Time for demands for FOIA releases of internal documents and e-mails to find out the extent of this conspiracy to persecute Tea Party groups for their political views. I'm specifically interested in determining if this was just a group of over zealous functionaries ,or if they got direction further up the food chain. I suspect the later .

You should take a look at the scope of overreach in the info demanded of these groups. Issa highlighted 16 areas.

http://media.aclj.org/pdf/issa-jorda...tionnaires.pdf

According to your link, conservative groups were targeted one of four out of 300. Do you have facts that show the Tparty was exclusively picked out?

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Originally Posted by speechlesstx

You should take a look at the scope of overreach in the info demanded of these groups. Issa highlighted 16 areas.

http://media.aclj.org/pdf/issa-jorda...tionnaires.pdf

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Looks like standard house investigation instructions to me.

Uh, according to my first link the IRS ADMITTED to targeting "about 75 groups." Get your head out of the sand.

Where do you think they are going to look? They are going to target the rich guys because they are the tax evaders, so they happen to be republicans, go figure, some one has to be at the head of the list. You think it is a lottery?

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Originally Posted by paraclete

Where do you think they are going to look? they are going to target the rich guys because they are the tax evaders, so they happen to be republicans, go figure, some one has to be at the head of the list. You think it is a lottery?

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They weren't targeting George Soros and left wing organizations... they weren't targeting Hollywood... they weren't targeting Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry... or Barrak Obama...

LOTS of money in those places. Lots of socialists there so those should be at the TOP of the list.

Your link said 300, a fourth were Tparty, who were the rest? 150 have been investigated and approved for applied status. Who were they?

Why is it that only you guys were victims(?). Why is it you think only republicans can investigate everybody else, and NOT be investigated?

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Originally Posted by smoothy

They weren't targeting George Soros and left wing organizations...they weren't targeting Hollywood....they weren't targeting Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry...or Barrak Obama....

LOTS of money in those places. Lots of socialists there so those should be at the TOP of the list.

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Maybe you know of the other 3/4 of the groups being investigated are? Share the list please.

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Originally Posted by talaniman

Maybe you know of the other 3/4 of the groups being investigated are? Share the list please.

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Unless you can prove they weren't other Conservative groups... we can assume they were based on their targeting Criteria used to oppress the conservatives... this is far from over... Obama was behind this... and should suffer the same fate because of it that Richard Nixon did.

YOU can assume all you want. I rather have the facts before shooting off at the mouth.

Got any FACTS?

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Originally Posted by talaniman

YOU can assume all you want. I rather have the facts before shooting off at the mouth.

Got any FACTS?

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IRS admitted they were violating the constitutional rights of conservatives... they never admitted to violating the same rights of liberals.

The only assumptions being made here are by you.

Want facts... look at the admissions of th IRS... there are plenty of sources for that... none of which I can be accused of altering.

That's a fallacy on your part because no such admission of civil rights violations exists by the IRS on this matter.

Show me the links because the one provided has no such apology in it.

Tal, I don't know what planet you've been on but my first post on this said who and how many were inappropriately targeted and gave the apology. You want more facts? This wasn't just low level flunkies, IRS leadership knew about it and lied to Congress. This administration just keeps finding ways to manipulate the election, issue false talking points and lie about it. 

Senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups: report  - NY Daily News

When are you going to get your head out of the sand?

Wait until the next Republican President decides to to tell the IRS to target Lefty groups and organizations for audits...

I've sure they left will think that's just as fair and legitimate as what has been done here.

What goes around comes around

Hello smoothy and all you righty's:

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I've sure they left will think that's just as fair and legitimate as what has been done here.

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I hate to bust your balloon, but as a left winger, I'm OUTRAGED at the IRS. If it can be proven that Obama was involved, he should be impeached. If it was low level employees, then that's just so.

The IG will investigate. I'll wait for his determination.

Excon

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello smoothy and all you righty's:

I hate to bust your balloon, but as a left winger, I'm OUTRAGED at the IRS. If it can be proven that Obama was involved, he should be impeached. If it was low level employees, then that's just so.

The IG will investigate. I'll wait for his determination.

excon

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Lets hope the heads roll over this... because this is one of the things Nixon WAS impeached for... lets see how many democrats jump under the bus to save Obama from this same fate.

Nobody has been fired yet... and its clear someone specifically gave the orders to do this. And its clearly Political in nature to punish anyone who has had any activity in speaking out angainst "The Kenyan Messiah"

If you work in banking and take it upon yourself to even LOOK at someone's bank account you are not actively working with... you would get fired. There is no way they can be poking around randomly and it NOT being a fireable offence.

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello smoothy and all you righty's:

I hate to bust your balloon, but as a left winger, I'm OUTRAGED at the IRS. If it can be proven that Obama was involved, he should be impeached. If it was low level employees, then that's just so.

The IG will investigate. I'll wait for his determination.

excon

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Obama is engaged in a war on IGs so I don't expect anything there, Congress needs to do this. IG after IG has found problems with this administration and time and again the White House has fired, abused, silenced and otherwise intimidated them for doing their job, not to mention the fact that he tends to leave those posts vacant. I reported on another just last week that claims the admin is trying to silence him, because heaven knows Obama's image can't be tarnished.

So are you really pi$$ed or just waiting for another IG to suffer abuse and hope it goes away while blaming those darn Republicans for another witch hunt?

So shoot the messenger, typical political game

Part 1 today of a rare event, I agree with Dennis Kucinich...

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Former Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich slammed the unethical targeting of conservative Tea Party groups by the IRS on Fox News Sunday’s panel, unequivocally suggesting that this was political targeting at its worst.

After dropping the disclaimer that he is a “liberal Democrat” and does not celebrate Tea Party politics, Kucinich firmly claimed politics has no place with the IRS:

“We can not have a condition in America where peoples politics are the basis for IRS attacks.”

Asked by Chris Wallace whether he buys the IRS claim that this was just an isolated bureaucratic offense by select IRS agents in Cincinnati, Kucinich said the buck stops at the top.

“The tone is set from the top,” Kucinich said. “We are in a hyper-partisan, intensely partisan condition in Washington. The polarization is damaging to our country.”

Wallace countered, asking if Kucinich thought the IRS’s missteps were straight up political targeting:

“How can it not be?” Kucinich concluded.

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This admin is in deep doo doo and it's about time people are talking about the corrupt sham that is the Obama administration.

By the way, on that IG report you're waiting for? It's already been leaked to the media and it's much worse than they let on last week. It's clear that the 'dishonest' apology as Issa called it, was an attempt to spin the report before it was released this week.

Not only did they target Tea Party groups, the IRS has been "tracking groups who’s goals included, quote “limiting government” and “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights” and that, “criticize how the country is being run” since 2010, and senior IRS officials have known for at least 2 years as I mentioned in another post.

Goodness knows we can't have anyone wanting limited government, teaching people about the constitution or *gasp* criticizing how the country is being run.

So while you guys were busy accusing conservatives of racism for criticizing Obama's policies (and if you can't see why we're critical yet after the last few weeks I can't help you) , the IRS - OUR GOVERNMENT - was harassing Americans exercising their rights.

This is CHILLING, an egregious betrayal of government trust.

P.S. It appears the IRS also may have targeted Jews and pro-Israel groups.

I ask again who were the rest of the IRS's targets for this investigation of there tax status?

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Originally Posted by talaniman

I ask again who were the rest of the IRS's targets for this investigation of there tax status?

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Do you not think the IRS investigates others? The only thing that matters here is they specifically targeted and harassed conservatives, have been doing so since 2010 while senior IRS officials have known for at least two years AND lied about it to congress. That they investigate others in the course of business is a given, what matters is they targeted only those with a conservative bent. What are you missing here about how disturbing, corrupt and ILLEGAL this is?

Show me where they ONLY targeted conservative groups?

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Originally Posted by talaniman

Show me where they ONLY targeted conservative groups?

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I give up, I tried.

Again this is captain obvious material . The IRS would not be specifically apologizing the right wing groups if they were being even handed.