The head of the IRS is a Bush appointee

[ProSense]

Tea Party Rejects IRS Apology, Republicans Vow Investigation
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irs-admits-targeting-conservative-groups/story?id=19151646#.UY2Mb0qsp7

This should be investigated. I'm glad these wingnuts rejected the apology. I can't wait to find out more about their activities.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) Pledges Investigation Into IRS

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is pledging to dig into IRS practices after the agency revealed that employeers in a Cincinatti, Ohio office had inappropriately targeted conservative non-profits for additional review.

“My subcommittee has been investigating the IRS’s failure to enforce the law requiring that tax-exempt 501(c)4s be engaged exclusively in social welfare activities, not partisan politics," Levin said in a statement on Friday. "Today’s announcement by the IRS raises a second issue: whether the IRS, to the extent it has enforced its rules, has been impartial in doing so. Both issues require investigation.”

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sen-carl-levin-d-mi-pledges-investigation-into

"The IRS, as you know, is an independent enforcement agency, with only two political appointees. The fact of the matter is what we know about this is of concern, and we certainly find the actions taken as reported to be inappropriate, and we would fully expect the investigation to be thorough and for corrections to be made," Carney said.

Carney pointed out that the IRS commissioner in 2012, Douglas Shulman, was appointed by President George W. Bush. Asked when the White House became aware of the extra reviews, Carney referred questions to the IRS.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irs-admits-targeting-conservative-groups/story?id=19151646#.UY2Mb0qsp7

Douglas H. Shulman (born 1967) was the U.S. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. His nomination was confirmed by the full U.S. Senate on March 14, 2008[1] and he was sworn in on March 24, 2008.[2] He formerly served as vice chairman of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (successor to NASD) and sat on the board at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).[3]

<...>

On November 11, 2012, Shulman finished his term as Commissioner.[7][8][9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Shulman

So let's get on with that investigation. It makes more sense than Benghazirama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022826668

[geek tragedy]

1. Dennis Kucinich was telling Fox that it's Obama's fault.

Who am I going to believe, facts or a sellout Fox News Democrat?

[ProSense]

2. Isn't it interesting that this fact gets lost is all the hype? n/t

[Whisp]

17. Kucinich - what a fucking disappointment that little shit has become.

ugh!

[geek tragedy]

18. Not a disappointment to me.

Former Congressman Kucinich is behaving exactly as I thought he would when he was Congressman Kucinich.

He has fewer career progressive accomplishments in Congress than Joe Lieberman.

[MADem]

21. Well, he's an idiot. Consider the source. Look where he's working. nt

[KharmaTrain]

3. As Usual...

...the rumors run around the world before the facts get their pants on.

The blurring of lines between "non-profits", politicians and corporate donors in this post Citizens United world should be investigated by the IRS. You have goons like Adelson, the Kochs and other high rollers attempting to buy elections and using the teabaggers to shield their activities. The FEC is now a joke...defanged by rushpublican obstruction...so I hope the IRS is keeping an eye on the funny money games that are going on.

This is a pre-emptive strike to maintain the rushpublican's big money train...funneled through "non-profits" and violating tax laws. No better way to take the heat off than to create a "controversy" based on emotion and not facts.

[ProSense]

4. Interesting point.

"This is a pre-emptive strike to maintain the rushpublican's big money train...funneled through 'non-profits' and violating tax laws. No better way to take the heat off than to create a "controversy" based on emotion and not facts."

Given Levin's statement, I do hope there is an investigation. It will likely expose these groups.

Still, I think all the bullshit accusations are designed to prevent discussion of the economy.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022836205

[KharmaTrain]

7. All One Big Distraction...

The economy and the budget games are definitely part of the diversion. This is total obstructionism on many levels. The legislative is a foregone conclusion, now it's to create the narrative that the Obama administration is corrupt or inept or regressive or anything but effective. It's to keep Democrats on the defensive and feed into discontent bred from the years of organized obstructionism. Of course when it's confronted then we're labeled "Obama apologists". It's bullshit on many levels...sadly there's lots of people now seem to enjoy that smell...

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

12. Yep, my thoughts, too...

... everyone knows these teabagger groups have astro turf roots. Follow the money, which is what the IRS is supposed to do. Random audits, proof of source on income, etc... it all is relevant to the IRS and under their jurisdiction.

I see the right wingers whining as nothing more than, "Oh, chit! I got audited and now I have to see my CPA, broker and psych-analyst".

[KittyWampus]

26. Kharma, this could end up biting the Republicans in the ass.

[warrior1]

5. maybe this bush appointee

did this to hurt the President.

[MADem]

23. Maybe he did it to cut off this quasi-third party Rand Paul nuttery that we are seeing rising.

Those Tea Party kooks are much more of a threat to the "Boehner Republicans" than they are to ANY Democrat.

In fact, in some areas of the country, the Tea Party nuts serve a very nice "divide and conquer" role for the left--there's always some crazyass wingnut jerk who just refuses, "on principle" to support their end of the spectrum, making their 'perfect' the enemy of their good--and those morons are helpful to us. They fire up third party candidacies, they take their balls and go home, they encourage others to stay the hell away from the polls.

[Ilsa]

24. I couldn't help but wonder about this myself.

That's why I think a new Pres should clean house, if able.

[Hubert Flottz]

28. Lets just call them Bushwhackers...

the Bush appointed and the Bush anointed, left behind to create dead falls, pitfalls, scandals and scams. The pubbies like Dick Armey, Mitch McConnell, the brothers Koch and John Boinger don't have a leg or a record to stand on, so they disrupt the government with pure old time bullshit in every form, that they think will stick to any wall anywhere. That wall the hypersonic bullshit, mostly sticks to, is the group that only tunes in to FOX. The FOXbot's hollow heads are the ideal place for the bullshit/propaganda to bounce around in forever and be vomited forth to anyone who will listen to total BULLSHIT, without ever considering anything about the source or the source's motivation.

I fault the president, for trusting any republican anywhere, anytime. You can't make deals with political terrorists and you damned sure can't make trustworthy friends of them either. Obama even kept on major players in the same DOJ, that used the DOJ, for a political pipeline. Reached across the isle and glad handed, slo jacked and even dangled Social Security and Medicare in front of the GOP's budget axes and all he ever got in return, was shit on.


How many people who are out of work right now, could have had a job by now, if the republicans had worked with the president? Politics is more important to the Republicans in Washington and in statehouses across the nation, than the working class people and those who depend on them? But instead of doing anything about the still lagging economy the GOP wants to spend the taxpayer's time trying to set up and crucify Obama, "Obama care," Medicare, Mrs. Clinton, Collective bargaining and even our national security.

[kentuck]

6. This is all part of the Republican political strategy, in my opinion...

They would like to keep the President and the Democrats on the defensive thru the next election cycle.

[ripcord]

8. I would like to see all of the Tea Party gone but......

how can this be part of a republican plan when the IRS came forward themselves?

[MADem]

27. They likely had a "Congressional inquiry" which led to an internal investigation, which led to a

report (property of We, The People) that acknowledged wrongdoing.

It was only during the Bush era that cabinet level agencies were expected to cover bad shit up!!!

[humbled_opinion]

9. This is a distraction

There was a huge swell of applications by teabagger 501C's because they were a new creature for the 2012 election remember there were not teabaggers in 2008 anyway the point is that if there is this huge influx of a new political group than of course it would be selected for more scrutiny it is simple MATH add a new variable and it must be sampled equally against the existing groups....

Nothing to see here except again a bunch of rightwingers screaming about ... What if it was Bush, this is watergate blah, blah, blah.... broken record

[bigtree]

10. you'd almost know this was coming

. . . I'll bet the hypocrisy gets even worse for republicans on this

[Ikonoklast]

13. Be awesome to see them grill one of their own...but they won't.

If the buck stops at the top, then it's a Republican holding the bag at the IRS.

Obama fires him, tells Congress that he will clean up the Republican appointees fuck-ups.

[bigtree]

14. I want to see the smoke clear and the focus land on these tea party groups violating the tax law

. . . the 501(c)4 tax-exemption that they regularly support and defend as it is their most effective political tool right now.

[Ikonoklast]

15. Never happen.

The abuse of tax-exempt status in this country is a joke.

As an aside, a friend of mine was actually thinking about forming a church after he researched what he woud need to do, it is ridiculously easy to scam the government out of tax revenues under the guise of 'religion'.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

19. Exactly

Unless the President specifically ordered it (which is what I'm sure what the paranoid right-wing fantasy is here) or aided/abetted it, then there is nothing here to see. Move along. And if it goes to the head of the IRS, well then, like you say, just get rid of him and appoint somebody new.

[MADem]

25. The appropriate thing is for the GOP appointee to RESIGN. If it happens on your watch, you are

responsible and accountable.

[toby jo]

11. Tea partiers

Originally they didn't want us unfairly taxed. Now, they oversee the transfer of wealth to an increasingly smaller group of people.

We fought a revolution to get away from concentrated wealth and power.

Hope this falls like shit in their lap.

[uponit7771]

16. Bush is like a rash that wont go away

[LuckyTheDog]

20. Hmmmm... a GOPer appointee?

Could he have been planting a time bomb of sorts for the Obama people to defuse?

[elleng]

22. Heard this on replay of a Sunday show, on C-SPAN,

and hoping for reaction.

'Enforce the law requiring that tax-exempt 501(c)4s be engaged exclusively in social welfare activities, not partisan politics,' is what they SHOULD do, so is it entirely INappropriate that they examine entities calling themselves 'tea-something' to determine whether they do what they're supposed to do under 501(c)4?

Napoleon said: Never ascribe to malice what which is adequately explained by incompetence.