Photo Credit: APThings got awkward during the House Oversight Committee’s second IRS hearing on Wednesday when Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI), while seemingly making a larger point, couldn’t get former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman to acknowledge certain amendments to the Constitution…
“You know those amendments. The Constitutional amendments,” Bentivolio said matter of factly. “You know the First, you know the Second, and you know the 19th.”
“I don’t necessarily have the Constitution memorized, sir.”
“Okay, well, they’re pretty general in what each one is. Like the First Amendment is the freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment, right?”
“I really can’t recite the Constitution, sir,” Shulman concluded.
Photo Credit: WNDRep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, says he needs to know who has been ordering the Internal Revenue Service attacks on conservative organizations.
“The main point here is this: Someone is giving out marching orders for these agencies and these employees to do these things. The question is, who is giving out the marching orders?’ Poe said in an interview with WND.
The head of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt organizations office, Lois Lerner, appeared before a U.S. House committee Wednesday but refused to answer questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Poe is particularly concerned about IRS targeting of the King Street Patriots, a tea party group founded in Houston by Catherine Engelbrecht.
The congressman compared the IRS scandal to the Fast and Furious gun-tracing scandal: “Who is the person who decided to smuggle guns to Mexico? We still don’t know.”
Photo Credit: APBy Kate Grise. Tea party members gathered outside the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to protest the targeting of conservative groups that had identified themselves as “tea party” or “patriots” on applications for tax-exempt status.
Led in a chant by a man dressed as George Washington, about 75 protesters expressed their discontent with the Internal Revenue Service and the current administration with shouts of “Audit the IRS” and “Indict Obama”…
The flash rally was a part of a larger group of more than 100 nationwide protests organized by Tea Party Patriots. Read more from this story HERE.
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Top IRS official to invoke 5th Amendment, decline to testify at House hearing
By Barnini Chakraborty. Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS division that singled out conservative groups, is expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment Wednesday when she appears before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Fox News has learned.
That means Lerner, head of the exempt organizations division, probably won’t answer any questions on what she knew about IRS agents going after Tea Party-related groups. That also means she probably won’t say why she sat on the information for so long before it became public.
Lerner’s attorney William Taylor III asked committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in a letter if she could skip Wednesday’s hearing since she would be pleading the Fifth. Read more from this story HERE.
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Video: Former IRS Chief Refuses to Apologize
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“The IRS Thing, It’s Not America, We’re Sick of It”
By Dionne Searcey. About 300 people gathered Tuesday for a short, angry rally outside the federal building here that houses the unit of the IRS embroiled in a scandal over workers improperly scrutinizing the charity applications of politically conservative groups.
Holding signs that said “Internal Rigging Service” and “Tyranny” and shouting chants of “You work for us!” and “IRS! KGB!” the group included many members of the local Tea Party organization who demanded punishment for those who were involved.
“Heads have to roll here,” said one protester, Kevin Tinsley, who works in advertising sales and said everyone from President Barack Obama down to the lowest level workers in the IRS determinations unit must be held accountable for the targeting of tea party groups.
“The IRS thing, it’s not America, and we’re sick of it,” Mr. Tinsley said before letting loose with a string of swear words. Read more from this story HERE.
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Why Were DHS Agents Seemingly Monitoring Multiple Tea Party IRS Protests Across the Country on Tuesday?
By Jason Howerton. There were multiple reported sightings of agents with the Department of Homeland Security at several Tea Party-led IRS protests in states like Missouri, Florida, Illinois and Indiana. The rallies that occurred across the country on Tuesday were sparked by the IRS’ unfair targeting of conservative groups — one of the several scandals the Obama administration is dealing with.
What is unclear though is why federal officials felt the Tea Party presence required more than the attention of local law enforcement.
These photos, one showing “armed” DHS guards, were reportedly taken at the St. Louis IRS protest:
Read more from this story HERE.
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For Tea Party Groups, Shades of 2010
By Trip Gabriel. They are getting the band back together.
In the well-burnished legend of its founding, the Tea Party movement sprang to life at grass-roots rallies, a spontaneous protest against government overreaching that grew and grew until it stunned Democrats and many moderate Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections.
On Tuesday, rallies across the country to protest the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status recalled those glory days, drawing colorful crowds in three-cornered hats, with members singing patriotic songs and waving provocative signs like “Fire the Liars” and “I.R.S.S.” — the last two letters drawn like the lightning bolts of the Nazi SS.
Leaders of the Tea Party movement hope outrage over the I.R.S. inquiry will rekindle grass-roots activism that in many places went dormant after big Republican electoral defeats of November 2012. They aim to link the current scandal to other government programs they consider overweening — principally the rollout of the health care overhaul law — and generate a Republican wave in the 2014 midterm elections reminiscent of 2010’s. Read more from this story HERE.
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Christians Claim IRS Harassment in Election
By Jerome R. Corsi. During the 2012 election year, the Internal Revenue Service delayed the application of a conservative Christian group in Ohio that was seeking 501(c)3 tax-exempt status to register Christians to vote and to oppose the ACLU in court in First Amendment cases.
“We have suspicion that the IRS delayed our application for nearly 13 months due to the selective targeting of Ohio conservative groups that Congress is now investigating in both the House and Senate,” stated Chris Long, president of the Ohio Christian Alliance, told WND.
Long said his group’s original application made it clear that the new organization would go into Christian congregations with a non-partisan effort to register voters in the battleground state of Ohio during the 2012 presidential election.
“The IRS knew we would be registering conservative church-goers and weighing in on the 2012 presidential election,” he said.
Long pointed out that the non-partisan Ohio Christian Alliance Educational Fund, operating as a 501(c)3 organization, would have registered both Democrats and Republicans. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-22 02:48:172016-04-11 11:20:35IRS Protests, IRS Refuses to Apologize, IRS Official Claims the 5th, and Other Developments (+video)
Photo Credit: TownHallOne of the bizarre permutations of the ongoing IRS scandal is the manner in which the agency made the story public. As you’ll recall, the revelation came in the form of IRS official Lois Lerner’s response to a question asked at a public Q&A session with the American Bar Association.
National Review’s Kevin Williamson quickly surmised that the question itself may have been coordinated in advance to give the appearance of an “unplanned,” and therefore forthright, public mea culpa. His suspicions were confirmed by acting IRS commissioner Stephen Miller during last week’s House hearings.
The source of the supposedly impromptu question has since copped to her role in the scheme as well. But what remained unresolved, though, was the issue of who dreamed up the secretive plan. Until today. Take it away, Stephen Miller:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-22 02:40:232016-04-11 11:20:36Suspicions Confirmed: IRS Planted Question, Intended to Reveal Illegal Targeting. Now the Question is, ‘Why?’ (+video)
Photo Credit: Adam GlanzmanAnyone still question whether or not IRS abuse exists? The IRS has been too onerous and too powerful for much too long. But you haven’t seen anything yet! As Obamacare unfolds, tax collection will become subordinate to information gathering but will remain the mechanism for intimidation and bullying used by the ‘service’. Recently they asked us, some of us, for the content of our prayers. Here’s what’s in my prayers Mr. Taxman, I pray to God that the IRS dies as we know it and is replaced with a simple fair tax structure requiring little if any oversight.
Who is tasked with ensuring that Obamacare is implemented? That’s right, the IRS. Obamacare was designed as the most powerful weapon to date to be used by the government against the people! The House of Representatives has voted 37 times to repeal Obamacare but the Speaker would have us believe that nothing can be done, ”its the law of the land”, another martini please. The fact is that defunding Obamacare or ‘Obamatax’ is possible. If we don’t defund and then repeal Obamacare soon, great hardship awaits us all, compliments of the IRS!
No one in support of or supported by the Obama administration purports to know much of anything about the various scandals they’ve created, especially not our darling President! Be it the present IRS scandal, Fast and Furious or Benghazi, Mr. 0 says he’ll get to the bottom of ”it” so that ”it” never happens again. What this means is that ‘low’ and ‘high’ level officials in his administration whether guilty or not of wrong doing will be re-assigned, promoted, offered early retirement or otherwise NOT be held accountable in any meaningful way for anything. This while innocent lives are lost due to the ignorance, ineptitude and corruption of the fools running Washington DC. What will it take to alert Americans smitten with this ‘cool’ President to the fact that he and his socialist crooks are burning this country to the ground! America is changing into something we’ll all regret if we don’t reverse course soon!
Which rights were sabotaged by the IRS? Surely rights declared in the first and fourth amendments to the US Constitution were. In the first amendment, freedom of speech was sabotaged. Oh we could speak, but an IRS audit was initiated based solely upon key words we used such as ‘Tea party’ and ‘Patriot’. These and other triggers were used to target specific conservative groups and individuals for audits and other nefarious purposes, any of which should be abhorred. As for the fourth amendment, the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures was sabotaged. In the electronic age though, there’s no need for any IRS goon to come knocking at your door. Agents simply commit sabotage through the internet or postal service.
Many of us paying attention to the various scandals brought to us by the Obama administration may be asking ourselves, what’s next? Which new scandal will erupt and temporarily overshadow the previous one? Don’t people working at the IRS recognize what we see? All of this results from either stupidity and ignorance, or worse. We the people aren’t going to allow the destruction of America at the hands of foolish, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-22 02:33:522016-04-11 11:20:37Exclusive: Inalienable Rights Sabotaged
Photo Credit: Barack Obama/flickrGiven last week’s revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, it’s worth recalling President Obama’s Ohio State University commencement address. The president decried “voices” warning “that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.”
It’s no longer lurking. It’s here.
Testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee by the outgoing acting IRS commissioner, Steve Miller, as well as numerous statements by individuals claiming they have been harassed and intimidated by IRS agents, reveal a government agency out of control, or more precisely, under the control of political hacks. It’s doubtful this was a freelance operation. J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified he knew as early as June 2012 that the IRS was targeting conservatives, but did nothing to stop it during the presidential campaign. Who else knew?
The delay in tax exemption approval prevented some conservative groups from donating money to the Romney campaign or to groups supporting his candidacy. The IRS even asked one tea party group in Richmond to identify all of their financial donors and volunteers.
There is a simple way to restrain the IRS so this type of intrusion doesn’t happen again: get rid of it. That’s what Steve Forbes proposed in his run for president in 1996 and 2000. So did former presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Forbes proposed a flat tax of 17 percent and a simple tax code. Individuals could file their tax returns on a post card.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-22 02:09:582016-04-11 11:20:38Tyranny Is No Longer ‘Lurking’
Photo Credit: APSen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday that a pro-life group in Iowa was told by an IRS agent that its application would not be approved until the group’s board of directors swore it would not protest Planned Parenthood.
“This comes directly from Iowa, one of my constituents attempted to establish 501(c)(3) charity called Coalition for Life of Iowa. She told my staff that an IRS agent told her ‘Your application’s ready to go. However, it will not be approved until you send a letter signed by your entire board under penalty of perjury saying that you will not protest at Planned Parenthood,’” Grassley said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-22 01:55:322016-04-11 11:20:39IRS Told Pro-Life Group to Swear It Would Not Protest Planned Parenthood (+video)
Photo Credit: The Smoking Gun Entrusted with a government credit card, an Internal Revenue Service worker allegedly used the plastic for a years-long Amazon.com shopping spree that netted her hundreds of items, including a chocolate fondue fountain; Bollywood movies; Pampers; Harlequin romance novels; Omaha Steaks; Apple Bottoms skinny jeans; mango body wash; and a Ginsu knife set.
Yetunde Oseni, 37, was named this month in a U.S. District Court felony complaint charging her with embezzling government funds. Oseni has worked since 2000 as a secretary in an IRS office in Lanham, Maryland.
According to a court filing, Oseni was given a Citibank MasterCard for the “purchase of office supplies for her business unit.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-22 01:48:192016-04-11 11:20:41IRS Worker Used Federal Credit Card For Amazon Buys
Photo Credit: Beverly & PackThe standard police warning about con men applies to politicians, as well: When they tell you something that sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
So it goes with the White House claim that it knew nothing — nothing! — about the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service.
Of course the White House knew. And we already have the first piece of evidence.
The Friday hearing on what amounted to political profiling of anti-Obama groups took a huge step toward demolishing White House efforts to distance itself from the scandal. The agency’s inspector general testified that he told his bosses at the Treasury Department in June 2012 about his ongoing audit of public claims that the IRS was engaging in blatantly unfair treatment of conservatives. One of those he told at Treasury was Tim Geithner’s top deputy.
To believe the deputy, Neal Wolin, didn’t tell Geithner about such abuses, in the middle of a presidential campaign no less, is to believe they were all too busy to focus on politics. And to believe that Geithner didn’t warn the White House is to believe the IRS agents just made honest mistakes that coincidentally helped the incumbent president.
Photo Credit: Daily Caller By Charles C. Johnson. The “charity” run by President Barack Obama’s half-brother that was fast-tracked for IRS tax-exempt status is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website.
The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based.
The Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama.
As first reported by The Daily Caller, the foundation was speedily approved for IRS exemption by Lois Lerner, the IRS senior official at the center of the targeting of conservative organizations that have waited over two years to receive tax exempt status.
The charity was even given retroactive tax-exempt status despite never having bothered to apply for it. And its history of soliciting donations before receiving tax-exempt status was apparently overlooked. Read more from this story HERE.
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Ron Paul: Fix IRS by shutting it ‘once and for all’
By David Sherfinski. Former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas called the recent IRS fiasco troubling — but writes that the only way Congress can protect the freedoms of Americans from a long pattern of suspected IRS abuse is to “shutter the doors” of the agency “once and for all.”
The longtime GOP congressman writes that IRS agents in the 1930s were essentially “hit squads” against opponents of the New Deal, and that allegations of IRS abuse spanned the administrations of Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Clinton and George W. Bush.
“The bipartisan tradition of using the IRS as a tool to harass political opponents suggests that the problem is deeper than just a few ‘rogue’ IRS agents — or even corruption within one, two, three or many administrations”…
