Tax Attorney Destroys Obama Over Continued IRS Targeting Scandal (Video)

By Susan Duclos

Tax attorney Cleta Mitchell absolutely destroys Obama's lies to the American people when he claimed that bone-headed bureaucrats in some remote office was responsible for the targeting of Tea Party, Patriot and conservative groups by the IRS.

She makes three clear points, then expands and proves her case in front of Congress in the video below.

Everything Obama has uttered in regards to this massive IRS targeting scandal has been a huge lie and the people of the US need to hear it, know it and act accordingly.

Via the video details:

"I want to make three primary points here. First, the IRS scandal is real. It's not pretend, it's real. Number two, the IRS scandal is not just a bunch of bone-headed bureaucrats in some remote office contrary to what the President of the United States told the American People on Sunday. And, number 3, the IRS scandal is not over. It is continuing to this day. And, the Department of Justice Investigation is a sham. It is a nonexistent investigation."

v

Cross posted at Before It's News

Tea Party wants to 'Exempt America' from the Obamacare Train Wreck

(Iron Mill News Service) – The Tea Party Patriots and ForAmerica made a stop on the steps of the State House in Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday. The multiple state tour, leading up to a major rally at the U.S. Capital on September 10 called ‘Exempt America’ , is designed to bring awareness about Obamacare exemptions provided to big business, labor unions and even congress and their aides, but continue mandated health insurance for individuals. The group believes that if ObamaCare mandates are not good enough to those who pushed the bill, that all of America should be exempt from the mandates as well.

 Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said that South Carolina Senators Graham and Scott have voiced opposition to the Affordable Care Act but have yet to sign Senator Mike Lee’s letter that states a commitment not to fund Obamacare. Martin urged Senators Graham and Scott to sign the commitment.
Martin related, “If Obamacare is not ready for big business, big labor, and even congress, it is not ready for America at large.” She related that the major framer of Obamacare, Max Baucus has called this law a “train wreck”. The bill is so bad that congress and their staff members don’t want any part of the Affordable Care Act and held a closed door session to exempt themselves and staff from the Obamacare mandates.

She further stated that the Internal Revenue Service, who is to enforce compliance with the law, doesn’t want any part of it for themselves. Most Americans want to delay the bill, “In order to delay it, the spending must stop. We will make sure Congress hears this message loud and clear,” Martin said.

The next individual to speak was L. Brent Bozell best known for his Media Research Center and his frequent appearances on Fox News talking about media bias. He has headed up a group called “ForAmerica” who says they want to “reinvigorate the American people with the principles of American exceptionalism: personal freedom, personal responsibility, a commitment to Judeo-Christian values, and a strong national defense.”

Bozell said that Obamacare is unaffordable, so much that major labor unions including leader of the Teamsters Union has said that Obamacare will lead to the destruction of the forty hour work week. The law will do harm to millions of union employees, he said. Bozell further related that exempting some and not others is illegal.

Everyone should be treated the same with regard to the Obamacare mandate. That is the reason he has urged congress to stop giving lip service to their constituents, while getting a personal exemption themselves, but to fully defund the bill and exempt all Americans from Obamacare.

Three local Tea Party leaders also spoke at the news conference. Joe Dugan, Chairman, Myrtle Beach Tea Party, Diane Belsom, Founder and President of Laurens County Tea Party and Jack Hatfield, Chairman, Columbia Tea Party. They were cheered throughout their comments by a rather vocal crowd.

Painlessrisen: Those 'White Crackers' Were Part Of Your Party Mr. Rangel (Video)

By Susan Duclos

Painlessrisen creates video commentary on current events from the point of view of an African American with "independent thought."

In the video below he educates Charlie Rangel (D-NY), who recently told The Daily Beast that the Tea Party "is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police."

Painlessrise reminds Rangel that those "white crackers" of old, were members of the Democratic party. The same Democratic party that uses gullible African Americans like "Two-dollar whores" every four years, saying that is the "legacy of the Democratic party as it pertains to African Americans."

He goes on to say Rangel preys on the ignorance of many of these people.

(Note- I suggest you listen but do not watch because the sound is a couple seconds off and looks like one of those badly dubbed foreign films from decades ago!)

Tea Party, Patriot, Pro-Life And Other IRS Victims To Testify To Congress Tuesday

By Susan Duclos

As part of the House Ways and Means Committee investigation into the IRS targeting conservative groups , the victims of that targeting will be testifying before the committee on Tuesday.

The list of victims scheduled to testify today are listed on the Committee website, the include heads of Tea Party, Patriot, pro-marriage and pro-life groups.

Some of these witnesses have already spoken to the media about the invasive and inappropriate questions they were subjected to, but their testimony will now be part of the public record and official investigation.


Witness List

Mr. John Eastman
Chairman, National Organization for Marriage

Ms. Diane Belsom
Laurens County Tea Party

Ms. Becky Gerritson
Wetumpka Tea Party

Ms. Karen Kenny
San Fernando Valley Patriots

Mr. Kevin Kookogey
Founder and President, Linchpins of Liberty

Ms. Sue Martinek
Coalition for Life of Iowa

Reminder- That last witness named, Ms. Martinek, previously said that  the tax exempt status for  Coalition for Life of Iowa was threatened unless she signed a letter promising not to picket in front of Planned Parenthood offices.

Focus Of The Hearing

The hearing will focus on organizations that were targeted as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s practice of discriminating against applicants for tax-exempt status based on their personal beliefs.


AP:

The leaders of six conservative groups were scheduled to tell lawmakers Tuesday about their mistreatment at the hands of IRS agents. Several of the groups say their applications for tax-exempt status were delayed while agents asked intrusive questions that the IRS has since acknowledged were inappropriate. One group, the National Organization for Marriage, says the IRS publicly disclosed confidential information about donors.

Leaders of the groups were scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee. Ways and Means is one of three congressional committees investigating the IRS' treatment of such groups. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation.

For more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, IRS agents in a Cincinnati office singled out tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they sought tax-exempt status, according to a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration.

The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues. The additional scrutiny delayed applications for an average of nearly two years, making it difficult for many of the groups to raise money.

(Read embedded- Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Report)

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit will be attending the hearing  with representatives of the Tea Party Patriots.

Be sure to keep an eye over at Gateway Pundit for details of the victims' statements.

 See- Excepts of the Ohio IRS employees' interviews with Congress, saying that contrary to what the IRS had previously stated about "two rogue agents" being responsible for the targeting of conservatives, their orders came from Washington.

Giving credence to their claim are reports that as part of the internal gathering of documents for Congress, IRS officials collected documents from 88 employees.

Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.

Video- Dem Congressman: If IRS Continues To Dodge Questions, Will Lead to Special Prosecutor

By Susan Duclos

Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Mass), during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's hearing into the IRS scandal, where it has been confirmed that the agency targeted conservative groups, informs the witnesses that if they continue to dodge the committee's questions it will lead to an independent investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor.

[WATCH]


Key Quote: "There will be hell to pay."

Videos of the hearing can be found at GOP Rapid Response's YouTube page.

Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.

Sarah Palin On IRS Scandal- Time To Say 'Enough Is Enough'- Video, IRS Lois Lerner Pleads The 5th

By Susan Duclos

Sarah Palin has an excellent piece over at Breitbart, which accurately portrays the IRS scandal where the agency, since 2010, were deliberately targeting conservative groups, Tea Party groups, Patriot groups, 9/12 groups and many, many other organizations that were part of Barack Obama's enemies list.

Two of those groups that were targeted, have filed lawsuits against the IRS and the Treasury Department, on Tuesday.

Via Palin:

Yesterday, we also learned that the top IRS official involved in the targeting scandal is planning on pleading the Fifth during her Congressional hearings. That's keen – she’ll be able to enjoy her Fifth Amendment rights in a hearing about how her intimidating organization denied Americans the ability to fully exercise their First Amendment rights.

Lois Lerner,  the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, did, indeed, plead the fifth this morning in a hearing before Congress. (Video below)




Palin also makes a point I and others have been making since Obama attempted to tell Americans that he knew nothing of what was happening in his own administration, on multiple occasions about a variety of issues. (See my May 14, 2013 post- "Is Obama The Least Informed, A Liar, Or Just A Figurehead President?)

Palin:

For the president to deny any knowledge of what was brewing and to claim to know nothing about the Benghazi cover-up or anything about anything White House-related lately, he’s either a liar or a hugely incompetent CEO. You decide.

Neither option looks good for Obama.

Palin concludes:

These atrocious government actions are bigger, uglier, and much more dangerous than “a few rogue employees.” It’s time for all Americans to stand together and join in the growing outraged chorus that looks at our out-of-control government and says, “Enough is enough!”

Those quotes were just snippets of Palin's piece, read the whole thing, here.

Other IRS scandal news today, via Memorandum:

The New York Times calls this the "Sleeper Scandal" that has awakened for Obama, reminding readers how media outlets ignored it when complaints of conservative targeting first arose,  treated them like "conspiracy theories from the fringe," but now, are paying attention.

Doug Welch from Fox 19 offers a reality check over the assertion of IRS blaming "lower level employees," and how that lie is completely falling apart.

Wall Street Journal points out that a catfight (Guys love this right?) is in the making over the assertion that the IRS targeting could have been in response to Obama's "Dog Whistle," if the orders for the targeting didn't actually come directly from him.

Last, for the moment, but not least, CNS News points out that "IRS Misses Filing Deadline: Fails to Comply With Congressional Demand for All Communications With WH About Targeting Conservatives."

 Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.

NorCal Tea Party Patriots Sues IRS for Violation of 1st and 5th Amendments and Privacy- Complaint Embedded

By Susan Duclos

The first lawsuit has been filed by a Northern California tea party group against the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Department of the Treasury, and current and former employees of the Internal Revenue Service, identified as John Does 1-100, for the deliberate targeting by the IRS of conservatives groups associated with the Tea Party.

(Lawsuit complaint will be embedded below the post.)

"The IRS and its agents singled out groups like NorCal Tea Party Patriots for intensive and intrusive scrutiny, probing their members' associates, speech, activities and beliefs," the suit contends.

This contention is supported by the official  Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Report, released recently, and which the lawsuit references on page 5, item 15, of the embedded complaint below the post.

The group is seeking unspecified damages for "suffering years of delay and expense while awaiting the exemption and spending valuable time and money answering the IRS' questions. The result was a muffling and muzzling of free expression.," according to the lawsuit.

It took two years for the IRS to finally approve their tax-exempt status after applying in March of 2010.

The lawsuit asserts two violations: (1) violation of the Privacy Act of 1974; and (2) violation of the First and Fifth Amendments under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971)(“Bivens”)

Norcal v IRS.pdf uploaded by Susan Duclos

Related:

Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.

IRS and AP Phone Scandals: Video - Piers Morgan Admits Obama Admin Showing Tyrannical Behavior

By Susan Duclos

I am a little late posting this video but after watching the 3:12 minute clip there are a few points made that are noteworthy.

First Morgan admits that despite his laughing at Second Amendment supporters when they say the right to bear arms is inherent to the ability to protect against governmental tyranny, because he used to think that was a "ridiculous" argument, the IRS scandal where the agency deliberately targeted conservatives (the list is still growing) and the AP phone scandal where the DOJ seized reporters' phone records, is "vaguely" and "bordering" on tyranny.

There is more, like the discussion on how liberals say "the Republicans are going to be all over this," then admitting they should be as should every Democrat.

[WATCH]



Makes you wonder if Morgan has the integrity to call each and every one of those people he "laughed at" and called "ridiculous" when they spoke of protection against tyranny, and apologize for his arrogant dismissal of their very real points.

Maybe making a public apology for comparing Tea Party supporters to "Hitler and Mussolini" followers?

Heh, yeah, those were rhetorical questions because that would take some kind of honor.

George Soros Gave $6.1 Million To Groups That Pressured IRS To Target Conservatives

By Susan Duclos

Another tidbit of information since the release of the  Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, confirming that the IRS targeted conservative groups such as "Tea Party, Patriot and 9/12" groups, among others, delaying their applications in some cases for over two years, asking highly "inappropriate" questions and delaying their approval process, leaving them in limbo as they fast tracked liberal applications..

Liberal billionaire George Soros has reported given $6.1 million to groups and organizations that pressured IRS to target conservatives non-profits.

Via CNS News:

While the first reported instances of extra IRS scrutiny for conservative groups began in Cincinnati in March of 2010, the attacks began to gain momentum on a national level soon after Soros-funded groups began firing off letters to the IRS in October of that year - following the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.

The talking points of these groups then bounced around a carefully created progressive "echo chamber," until they eventually made their way into established media outlets. Key IRS policy changes about how it investigated conservative groups took place soon after it received three separate letters sent by Soros-funded liberal organizations.

Several Soros-funded groups including the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, the Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones and Alternet have worked to pressure the IRS to target conservative nonprofit groups. The subsequent IRS investigation flagged more than 100 tea party-related applications for higher scrutiny, including applications that included the words "Tea Party" and "patriot."

The IRS scandal can be traced back to a series of letters that the liberal groups Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Democracy 21 sent to the IRS back in 2010 and 2011. Both groups were funded by George's Soros's Open Society Foundations. The CLC received $677,000 and Democracy 21 got $365,000 from the Soros-backed foundation, according to the Foundation's 990 tax forms.

Timeline Shows Influence of Soros-Funded Groups

• Sept. 16, 2010: TIME article "The New GOP Money Stampede" quotes Wertheimer;
• Sept. 23, 2010: DISCLOSE act, a campaign finance disclosure act specifically targeting a Tea Party group, in the writing of which the CLC participated, fails in the Senate;
• Sept. 28, 2010: Democrat Senator Max Baucus writes a letter to the IRS, citing the TIME article;
• Oct. 5, 2010: Democracy 21 and Campaign Legal Center petition IRS, Wertheimer writes HuffPo article;
• Oct. 7, 2010: Legal brief from HoltzmanVogel PLLC against the Democracy 21 petition;
• Oct. 14, 2010: Dick Durbin asks IRS to investigate American Crossroads, HuffPo coverage;
• June 27, 2011: Second petition to the IRS by CLC and Democracy 21;
• June 29, 2011: IRS senior agency official Lois Lerner briefed on efforts to target groups which "criticize how the country is being run";
• Sept. 28, 2011: CLC and Democracy 21 petition IRS again, this time about four conservative groups;
• Oct. 31, 2011: CPI "investigation";
• Nov. 18, 2011: Mother Jones article;
• Nov. 21, 2011: Alternet repost of Mother Jones Article;
• Dec. 29, 2011: New York Times oped;
• Jan. 15, 2012: IRS targeted groups focusing on limiting government or educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights;
• February 2012: First articles promoting this issue appear in New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times

$6.1 Million in Soros Funding Since 2000
Center for Public Integrity: $2,716,328
Campaign Legal Center: $677,000
Media Consortium: $675,000
Mother Jones: $485,000
Democracy 21: $365,000
ProPublica: $300,000
Alternet: $285,000
Human Rights Campaign: $600,000

There was a concentrated effort on the part of liberals to deliberately target conservative groups, Romney donors, pro-Israel groups and others and with each new revelation, the scandal becomes much bigger and far worse.

Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.

KMOV Anchor, Larry Conners: The IRS is targeting me

By Susan Duclos

H/T Politico, It seems Larry Conners, anchor for KMOV, believes the IRS has targeted him after he conducted an interview with Barack Obama.

Via his Facebook page:

Shortly after I did my April 2012 interview with President Obama, my wife, friends and some viewers suggested that I might need to watch out for the IRS.

I don't accept "conspiracy theories", but I do know that almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me.

At the time, I dismissed the "co-incidence", but now, I have concerns ... after revelations about the IRS targeting various groups and their members.

Originally, the IRS apologized for red-flagging conservative groups and their members if they had "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their name.

Today, there are allegations that the IRS focused on various groups and/or individuals questioning or criticizing government spending, taxes, debt or how the government is run ... any involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the constitution and bill of rights, or social economic reform/movement.

In that April 2012 interview, I questioned President Obama on several topics: the Buffet Rule, his public remarks about the Supreme Court before the ruling on the Affordable Care Act. I also asked why he wasn't doing more to help Sen. Claire McCaskill who at that time was expected to lose. The Obama interview caught fire and got wide-spread attention because I questioned his spending.

I said some viewers expressed concern, saying they think he's "out of touch" because of his personal and family trips in the midst of our economic crisis.

The President's face clearly showed his anger; afterwards, his staff which had been so polite ... suddenly went cold.

That's to be expected, and I can deal with that just as I did with President George H. Bush's staff when he didn't like my questions.

Journalistic integrity is of the utmost importance to me. My job is to ask the hard questions, because I believe viewers have a right to be well-informed. I cannot and will not promote anyone's agenda - political or otherwise - at the expense of the reporting the truth.

What I don't like to even consider ... is that because of the Obama interview … the IRS put a target on me.

Can I prove it? At this time, no.

But it is a fact that since that April 2012 interview ... the IRS has been pressuring me.

Via Politico:

UPDATE (1:36 p.m.): Conners emails POLITICO:

I’m sorry, but I just was told … Corporate does not want me to do any interviews.  Sorry.

Related:

Ways and Means to Hold Hearing on Internal Revenue Service Targeting Conservative Groups

Washington IRS Office Involved In Conservative Targeting; BONUS- IRS Illegally Discloses Confidential Docs

Is Obama The Least Informed, A Liar, Or Just A Figurehead President?

IRS Targeting Timeline Goes Back To March-April 2010

IRS Knew Tea Party Was Targeted In 2011- What About Romney Donors, Pro-Israel Groups?

More WH Spin: IRS Also Targeted Pro-Israel Group To Determine If They Contradict Admin Policies

July 2012- IRS Really Is Obama's Gestapo Now - IRS Targets Romney Donor After Obama Publicly Targets Him

Ways and Means to Hold Hearing on Internal Revenue Service Targeting Conservative Groups

By Susan Duclos

Announcement on the Committee on Ways and Means website about the IRS targeting conservatives:

Congressman Dave Camp, (R-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee, today announced that the Committee will hold a hearing on the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) practice of targeting applicants for tax-exempt status based on political leanings.  The hearing will take place on Friday, May 17, 2013, in Room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 9:00 A.M.

Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Steve Miller, and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, J. Russell George, will be the only witnesses at the hearing.  However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.

BACKGROUND:

Since June 2011, the Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating whether the Internal Revenue Service discriminated against taxpayers based on political opinions.  News reports indicate that the agency is now admitting this past practice.

In announcing the hearing, Chairman Camp said, “The American public expects the Internal Revenue Service to be apolitical in its enforcement of our tax laws.  News that the agency admits it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both astounding and appalling. The Committee on Ways and Means will get to the bottom of this practice and ensure it never takes place again.”

In announcing the hearing, Ranking Member Sander Levin said, “The American people must have the fullest confidence that organizations requesting tax exemption receive completely unbiased treatment from the Internal Revenue Service and are never singled out by name or political views.  The nation deserves a complete understanding of this matter, and as Chairman Camp and I discussed this morning, it is essential that there be a thorough and bipartisan investigation and effective remedial action.”

FOCUS OF THE HEARING:

The hearing will focus on the Internal Revenue Service’s practice of discriminating against applicants for tax-exempt status based on the political leanings of the applicants.

DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit written comments for the hearing record must follow the appropriate link on the hearing page of the Committee website and complete the informational forms.  From the Committee homepage, http://waysandmeans.house.gov, select “Hearings.”  Select the hearing for which you would like to submit, and click on the link entitled, “Click here to provide a submission for the record.”  Once you have followed the online instructions, submit all requested information.  ATTACH your submission as a Word document, in compliance with the formatting requirements listed below, by the close of business on Thursday, May 30, 2013.  Finally, please note that due to the change in House mail policy, the U.S. Capitol Police will refuse sealed-package deliveries to all House Office Buildings.  For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-3625 or (202) 225-5522.

FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

The Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.  As always, submissions will be included in the record according to the discretion of the Committee.  The Committee will not alter the content of your submission, but we reserve the right to format it according to our guidelines.  Any submission provided to the Committee by a witness, any supplementary materials submitted for the printed record, and any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below.  Any submission or supplementary item not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

1. All submissions and supplementary materials must be provided in Word format and MUST NOT exceed a total of 10 pages, including attachments. Witnesses and submitters are advised that the Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.

2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased.  All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.  A supplemental sheet must accompany each submission listing the name, company, address, telephone, and fax numbers of each witness.

The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities.  If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four business days notice is requested).  Questions with regard to special accommodation needs in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as noted above.

Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.waysandmeans.house.gov/.

 Related:

Washington IRS Office Involved In Conservative Targeting; BONUS- IRS Illegally Discloses Confidential Docs

Is Obama The Least Informed, A Liar, Or Just A Figurehead President?

IRS Targeting Timeline Goes Back To March-April 2010

IRS Knew Tea Party Was Targeted In 2011- What About Romney Donors, Pro-Israel Groups?

More WH Spin: IRS Also Targeted Pro-Israel Group To Determine If They Contradict Admin Policies

July 2012- IRS Really Is Obama's Gestapo Now - IRS Targets Romney Donor After Obama Publicly Targets Him

Washington IRS Office Involved In Conservative Targeting; IRS Illegally Discloses Confidential Docs

By Susan Duclos

After the IRS publicly apologized for specifically and "inappropriately" targeting conservative groups, a firestorm of information starting coming out, showing that when Lois Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, told reporters Friday that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions were undertaken by “front-line people” working in Cincinnati to target groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names.... she neglected to mention that those conservative group investigations reached all the way from Cincinnati to Washington DC and continued into 2012, at least.

Wapo:

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.

IRS employees in Cincinnati told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications, according to interviews with the activists.

Lois G. Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, told reporters Friday that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions were undertaken by “front-line people” working in Cincinnati to target groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names.

In one instance, however, Ron Bell, an IRS employee, informed a lawyer representing a conservative group focused on voter fraud that the application was under review in Washington. On several other occasions, IRS officials in Washington and California sent conservative groups detailed questionnaires about their voter outreach and other activities, according to the documents.

The exact quote in the letter sent to  Mr. Bell, on page one, says "The Cincinnati office is waiting for a response from the Washington, DC office."

The letter linked above, to Bell, was dated November 2011.

The Office of Inspector General's timeline shows that  senior IRS officials in Washington were made aware of the targeting by August 4, 2011. On that date, the chief counsel of the IRS met with the agency's Rulings and Agreements unit 'so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue.'

(IG time line shown in a previous WuA piece here)

So, months after Washington became aware of the targeting of conservatives, True the Vote was still being targeted.

In January 2012, more than two years after applying, the Richmond Tea Party was still being targeted. (IRS 11-page letter to the Richmond Tea Party, Dated January 9, 2012, found here, PDF)

If anyone thought that the IRS scandal could not get any worse or bigger, they were wrong and Pro-Publica reports the IRS illegally disclosed confidential documents from conservative groups.

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. 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.)

As James Taranto pointed out yesterday, in an op-ed for WSJ in 2009, Glenn Reynolds, made note of a joke Barack Obama told:

At his Arizona State University commencement speech last Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree, citing his lack of experience, and the controversy this had caused. He then demonstrated ASU's point by remarking, "I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.

Taranto headlines with "Nobody's Laughing Now."

No, we are not.



Related:

Is Obama The Least Informed, A Liar, Or Just A Figurehead President?

IRS Targeting Timeline Goes Back To March-April 2010

IRS Knew Tea Party Was Targeted In 2011- What About Romney Donors, Pro-Israel Groups?

More WH Spin: IRS Also Targeted Pro-Israel Group To Determine If They Contradict Admin Policies

July 2012- IRS Really Is Obama's Gestapo Now - IRS Targets Romney Donor After Obama Publicly Targets Him  

Video-- Tea Party Patriots Co-Founder: IRS Apology 'Simply Is Not Enough'

By Susan Duclos

Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, told Fox News that an apology from the IRS for targeting conservatives, specifically Tea Party, Patriot and 9/12, groups, "simply is not enough."

Video below-



In another appearance, Martin expands on that statement, reports The Hill:

“A simple apology on a conference call is not enough by a long shot,” Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, told Fox News. “Congress needs to investigate this and find out how many more lies the IRS is telling.”

Keli Carender, the group’s national coordinator, echoed that sentiment.

“This is chilling,” she told CNN. “This is what happens in other countries when government agencies target and harass particular groups based on their ideology. That is deserving of so much more than just a mere apology.”

On Friday, the IRS apologized for singling out 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.

Martin said the Tea Party Patriots were one of the groups targeted by the IRS.

“We applied for our 501(c)(4) and a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, and we still have not heard back,” she said. “The IRS has asked questions of us, like they wanted to know every single post on Facebook, every comment that any person who is a fan of ours on Facebook had ever made, all the congressmen and Senators that our supporters ever spoke to, very intrusive questions.”

Martin said her group was meeting with lawyers about potentially recouping the money they spent in the application process.

Should they decide to sue, they will not be the only ones, as another group, Z-STREET, already has a lawsuit pending in regards to being targeted by the IRS in 2010. (Complaint here)

B. Z STREET brings this case because, through its corporate counsel, Z STREET was informed explicitly by an IRS Agent on July 19, 2010, that approval of Z STREET’s application for tax-exempt status has been at least delayed, and may be denied, because of a special IRS policy in place regarding organizations in any way connected with Israel, and further that the applications of many such Israel-related organizations have been assigned to “a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization's activities contradict the Administration's public policies.” These statements by an IRS official that the IRS maintains special policies (hereinafter the “Israel Special Policy”) governing applications for tax-exempt status by organizations which deal with Israel, and which requires particularly intense scrutiny of such applications and an enhanced risk of denial if made by organizations which espouse or support positions inconsistent with the Obama administration’s Israel policies, constitute an explicit admission of the crudest form of viewpoint discrimination, and one which is both totally un-American and flatly unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Z STREET v IRS was recently scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, July 2, in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia.



Related:

IRS Targeting Timeline Goes Back To March-April 2010

IRS Knew Tea Party Was Targeted In 2011- What About Romney Donors, Pro-Israel Groups?

More WH Spin: IRS Also Targeted Pro-Israel Group To Determine If They Contradict Admin Policies

July 2012- IRS Really Is Obama's Gestapo Now - IRS Targets Romney Donor After Obama Publicly Targets Him  

IRS Knew Tea Party Was Targeted In 2011- What About Romney Donors, Pro-Israel Groups?

By Susan Duclos

[Update- 5/13/13] IRS Targeting Timeline Goes Back To March-April 2010 

Original post below

Quick Recap

On Saturday I pointed out that the apology offered by Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, for "inappropriately" targeting conservative groups with the words "Tea Party" and "Patriot," did not include any reference to other such complaints from Pro-Israel groups that were targeted for addition scrutiny based on whether their ideology contradicted the administrations policies. Lerner's apology also did not reference Romney donors that were targeted publicly on Obama's campaign website then became a target of an IRS audit.

I also pointed out that in White House spokesman Jay Carney's daily press briefing which turned into a frenzy of Benghazi questions, the first two questions were about the IRS scandal and in answer to both, he claimed the IRS an independent enforcement agency with only two political appointees.

QUESTION: Even if the president was critical of some of these groups both in 2010 and 2012, isn't it natural for the public to think that these things are politically motivated? What assurances (inaudible)?

CARNEY: Well, I think that, first of all, two things need to be noted, which is IRS is an independent enforcement agency, which I believe, as I understand it, contains only two political appointees within it. The individual who was running the IRS at the time was actually an appointee from the previous administration. 

In an AP exclusive on Saturday, it was reported that while the Lerner's apology is new, the knowledge of specific targeting based on political ideology, had been known, by Lerner, in June 2011.

But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.

The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. In a statement to the AP, Beck suggested that the revelations were hardly news to him and other conservatives.

"In February 2012, TheBlaze first reported what the IRS now admits to — that they unfairly targeted conservative groups including the 9/12 project," Beck said, citing his website and TV network. "It is nice to see everyone else playing catch-up and finally asking the same questions that TheBlaze started raising over a year ago."

Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately," the report says.

The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.

Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS' Rulings and Agreements office "held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue."

On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement," the report says.

 As it turns out, over 75 Tea Party and/or Patriot groups were targeted, according to Politico.

The Internal Revenue Service is in the process of confirming when its leadership was informed, according an IRS statement released Saturday.

“IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing. The timeline does not contradict the Commissioner’s testimony. While Exempt Organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail,” the statement reads.

The revelation about senior leadership adds fuel to the agency’s admission Friday that at least 75 conservative groups were flagged for extra review because their tax documents contained the words “tea party” or “patriot.”

The House Ways and Means Oversight Committee has already issued a letter to the IRS commissioner demanding the IRS turn over all communications that contain the words “tea party” “patriot” or “conservative.”

The findings of an internal investigation will be included in the  Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report set to be released next week.

The report will also confirm that the IRS asked unnecessary questions of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status from the agency, the source said, and that there were delays in processing applications for conservative applicants and other c(4) groups.

TIME's Joe Klein- "Previous Presidents, including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don’t think Barack Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is."

 What we are not seeing, is any answers on the pro-Israel group targeting, or the "coincidental" Romney donor IRS audits, but if one set of the president's "enemies list" was targeted by the IRS, it is not a leap in logic to think the others were as well.

As to Jay Carney's assertion that the IRS is independent,  and Lerner's claim that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions by “front-line people” were not driven by partisan motives, I call BS.


Related

More WH Spin: IRS Also Targeted Pro-Israel Group To Determine If They Contradict Admin Policies

July 2012- IRS Really Is Obama's Gestapo Now - IRS Targets Romney Donor After Obama Publicly Targets Him

IRS Apologizes For Inappropriately Targeting 'Tea Party' and 'Patriot' Groups In 2012 Election

By Susan Duclos

[Update- 5/13/13] IRS Targeting Timeline Goes Back To March-April 2010 

Original post below
[Update] Follow-up post on WH spin on this story and the targeting of pro-Israel groups to determine if they contradict admin's policies. [End update]

Conservative groups that claimed they were being harassed by the IRS during the 2012 election season, were right, evidenced by the IRS publicly apologizing for inappropriately targeting conservative groups.

The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

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.

 Reason's Hit & Run points to a Fox News report at the time:

But Tom Zawistowski, of the Ohio Liberty Council, a Tea Party chapter, called questions about donors, volunteers and members' relatives "intelligence gathering."

"This has nothing to do with tax status," Zawistowski said. “It has to do with political affiliation. The questions are too close to home."

"It's very intimidating and people are scared," Owens said

Of course, Lerner claims it wasn't really their fault, because "the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias."

Riiiiiiight..... okay. Anyone believe that?

[Update] Best Twitter reaction yet "Another Day in the Obama-USA"

IRS had to apologize for targeting conservative groups, with DANGEROUS NAMES like "Tea-Party", and "Patriot".. Another day in the Obama-USA!
— David Higgins (@dhiggins63) May 10, 2013

Video- Senator Ted Cruz Full Speech: We Are Winning On Gun Control

By Susan Duclos

The video below is of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaking in front of a crowd at a meeting of the Tea Party group FreedomWorks.



Via the details on the YouTube page:

Speaking before a crowd at a meeting of Tea Party group FreedomWorks this weekend, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) laid out exactly how the Senate's gun background checks compromise died. From Cruz's perspective, it was the letter he sent, along with Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT), threatening to filibuster any gun control legislation that ultimately doomed the bill from passing.

Cruz began his speech by telling the FreedomWorks members in attendance that their ideology is "winning" in Congress. As an example, he pointed to the recent debate over gun control, specifically the background checks compromise from Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) that failed to garner enough votes earlier this month.

"A month ago in Washington D.C., guns was a done deal," Cruz said. "The president was out there every day, pounding on it. Taking grieving moms and dads who tragically lost their babies and treating them as political props." He then essentially took credit for stopping the "momentum" on the issue by sending that threatening letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Because of that letter, Cruz said, his fellow Republican senators were forced to face their constituents who were asking, "Why aren't you standing up for the Second Amendment? If these guys are fighting, what are you doing?"

Cruz went even further in his speech, belittling his more moderate Republican colleagues who were at least open to having a public debate on the issues. "Here was their argument," Cruz said of his fellow Republicans in the Senate. "They said: 'Listen, before you did this, the politics of it were great. The Democrats were the bad guys. The Republicans were the good guys. Now we all look like a bunch of squishes.' Well, there is an alternative," he said he responded. "You could just not be a bunch of squishes."

While Cruz did cast himself as hero in the fight to "protect the Second Amendment" and block any efforts to expand background checks, he also offered praise to his Tea Party constituents. He called the "involvement" of the American people in pressuring their senators "critical" to the eventual outcome. Thirty years ago, he said the big three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC "determined what was news and what wasn't." But now, he concluded, groups like FreedomWorks are able to "focus the attention of the American people."

Video- Rand Paul Tea Party Response to 2013 State of the Union Address

By Susan Duclos

Senator Rand Pauyl delivered the Tea Party response to 2013 State of the Union Address. The transcript can be found, via US News, and the video is below:




Senator Marco Rubio delivered the Republican response to 2013 State of the Union Address, video here.

The Tea Party News Network Goes Live

By Susan Duclos

TPNN, the Tea Party News Network goes live, although the official announcement of their launch won't be until tomorrow, November 1, 2012.

News links, videos and giveaways are listed and shown on the new Tea Party News Network and they will be providing live video on election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

"There are plenty of news websites out there, but there isn’t one that caters directly to Tea Party conservatives, providing activists with coverage and opinion that matters to them. The Tea Party News Network changes that," Todd Cefaratti, editor of the Tea Party News Network, said in a statement for the forthcoming press release.

As with many right-wing news sites, TPNN puts heavy emphasis on the anti-mainstream media message: "We don’t need our supposed betters in the mainstream media telling us which stories matter or what we should think. We don’t mindlessly mimic the talking points of Washington leaders. The Tea Party movement now has a home for news it can trust."

Bookmark them if you are a Tea Party member or even just a supporter.

Congratulations and good luck TPNN.

Related links:

TPNN Facebook
TPNN Twitter
DustinStockton.com
RightWingNews

TheTeaParty.net
The Right Scoop
Linkiest

Video- Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity Spank Juan Williams Over Occupy-Tea Party Comparison

By Susan Duclos

When someone is pushed to provide evidence of their assertions and they are forced to say the words "I have no evidence," it is a spanking pure and simple.

[WATCH]- Michelle Malkin and Sean Hannity spank Juan Williams on Hannity.




Via MediaIte, who describes the discussion:

Williams responded by bringing up the Tea Party movement. If I was on this show, he started, “and I said the racism in some parts of the Tea Party, or what about the Tea Party person—” before he was cut off by the question, “What racism?”

“Do not slander,” Malkin said firmly, as Williams went on to mention “jokes about monkeys and the president.” Malkin staunchly pressed, “Who? Name me one Tea Party person who said that.”

Amid their overlapping arguing, Malkin bluntly said, “Name it or retract it, Juan.” He responded he doesn’t remember, but advised Malkin to look it up. Nonetheless, Malkin asked whether that’s “tantamount” to calling for violence.

Williams insisted the movement is talking about fairness, because nobody is talking about fairness — to which Hannity remarked, “That’s all the president ever talks about.”

Hannity challenged Williams to give an example of Tea Party racism, mentioning that Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 for video evidence to prove Williams’ assertions.

Williams said, “I don’t have any evidence,” which, Malkin concluded, is the takeaway quote.

I would have to say, "indeed" to Michelle Malkin, that is the takeaway quote from the whole discussion."

H/T Hot Air who credits Gateway Pundit.

Video- Congressman On House Floor: 'Investigate IRS Harassment of Tea Party Groups'

By Susan Duclos


Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA) on the House floor speaks to the Obama' administrations focused harrassment of Tea Party groups using the IRS.

 [WATCH]



Text below:

Mr. Speaker,

A defining aspect of the American tradition is that groups of citizens band together for a wide variety of civic purposes. They recruit volunteers, raise funds and spend those funds to promote whatever project or cause brings them together.

For more than a century, our tax laws have recognized that such voluntary associations – non-profits, as we call them today – should not be taxed, because their proceeds are devoted entirely to improve our communities through education, and advocacy, and civic action.  Section 501 of the Internal Revenue code recognizes them today, and civic groups like Move.org, the League of Conservation Voters, the ACLU, the National Rifle Association and various taxpayer groups have always been included in this definition.

We don’t apply a political test to these civic groups – we recognize the fundamental right of Americans to organize and to pool their resources to promote whatever causes they believe in – left or right.  Indeed, whatever their political persuasion, these civic groups perform an absolutely indispensable role in our democracy, by raising public awareness, defining issues, educating voters, promoting reforms, holding officials accountable and petitioning their government to redress grievances.   Abolition, Women’s Suffrage, the Civil Rights movement – all would have been impossible without them.

In order to be recognized as non-profit groups, these organizations must register with the IRS – a purely ministerial function that , in the past, has been applied evenly and without regard to their political views. 

 At least until now.

It seems that Tea Party groups are today being treated very differently than their counterparts on the political Left.  For the last two years, many have been stone-walled by the IRS when they have sought to register as non-profits and most recently, they have been barraged with increasingly aggressive and threatening demands vastly outside the legal authority of the IRS.  Indeed, the only conceivable purpose of some of these demands could be to intimidate and harass.

A Tea Party group in my district is typical of the reports we are hearing from all across the country.  This group submitted articles of incorporation as a non-profit to the state of California, and received approval within a month.  Then, they tried to register as a non-profit with the IRS.  Despite repeated and numerous inquiries, the IRS stonewalled this group for a year and a half, at which time it demanded thousands of pages of documentation – and gave the group less than three weeks to produce it.

The IRS demanded the names of every participant at every meeting held over the last two years, transcripts of every speech given at those meetings, what positions they had taken on issues, the names of their volunteers and donors, and copies of  communications they had with elected officials and on and on.

Perhaps most chilling of all, the organizer of this particular group soon found herself the object of a personal income tax audit by the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, these are groups of volunteers who pass the hat at meetings to pay for renting the hall.  They give of their own time to research issues and pay out of their own pockets for printing fliers.

The donations made to them aren’t tax deductible, so there is no legitimate purpose in asking the names of their donors, let alone of their volunteers – unless – and this is the fine point of it – unless the purpose is to harass and intimidate.

Ironically, the same tactics we now see used by the IRS against the tea parties were once used by the most abusive of the southern states in the 1950’s to intimidate civil rights groups like the NAACP.

No such tactics have been reported by any similar civic groups on the political left, so the conclusion is inescapable – that this administration is very clearly, very pointedly and very deliberately attempting to intimidate, harass and threaten civic minded groups with which they disagree, using one of the most feared and powerful agencies of the United States Government to do so.

Mr. Speaker, these facts speak for themselves and need no embellishment or interpretation.  They should alarm every American of good will regardless of political philosophy, for if this precedent is allowed to stand, no one’s freedom is safe.  I bring these facts to the attention of the House today and ask that they be rigorously investigated; and if found accurate that those officials responsible be exposed, disgraced, dismissed and debarred from any further position of trust or power within our government.

H/T Big Government

Via The Hill:

 The American Center for Law and Justice is representing almost 20 Tea Party organizations across the United States in an effort to stop what they see is an attempt to intimidate these groups. ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow said last week that the demands for information from the groups are outside the scope of legitimate inquiry and violate the group's First Amendment rights.

"These organizations have followed the law and applied for tax exempt status for their activities as Americans have done for decades," Sekulow said. "The problem here is the IRS has gone beyond legitimate inquiries and is demanding that these organizations answer questions that actually violate the First Amendment rights of our clients."

The ACLJ is currently urging Congress to conduct hearings about the IRS actions involving the Tea Party groups.