21st Century Wire says…
To what depths would those currently occupying the highest seats in government sink in order to maintain their grip on power?
No we’re seeing just exactly how the current US administration is a lot dirtier and more ruthless than previously imagined. This admission has come from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) itself…
IT’S OFFICIAL: IRS employees working in the tax-exempt units selected groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names, and targeted them in an effort to marginalize and cripple those political organizations – all of whom just happened to be political rivals of the current White House power structure.
Were they instructed by the White House, or the Democratic Party leadership to pursue such groups in the run-up to the 2012 election. If we suspend political naivety for just a few seconds, we can see that the answer to this is most likely, yes.
Is this an impeachable offense? The answer, of course, is yes.
Initial reports say that this corruption took place out of the IRS Cincinnati office, but what about other offices? In Congressional Hearing, and even a Grand Jury should be in order to determine the full scope of this crime – in itself the worst kind of crime imaginable from government – commonplace in banana republic dictatorships.
Will the media dig further into this, which could easily be a nationwide scandal, or will they protect the White House instead?
We hope both the federal government and the 4th Estate will do its job on this one…
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IRS admits targeting conservatives for tax scrutiny in 2012 election
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By Zachary A. Goldfarb and
Karen Tumulty
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday acknowledged that it flagged political groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, an admission that is fueling long-held suspicions among conservatives that the agency has been singling them out for unfair treatment.
The IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, Lois Lerner, said the actions, although not motivated by partisan concerns, were wrong, and she apologized twice on Friday.
She said that between 2010 and 2012, about 75 of these groups were selected for extra screening as part of a broader review of political advocacy organizations that were seeking tax-exempt status. Front-line IRS employees working in the tax-exempt unit in Cincinnati selected groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names, she said, as a shorthand because of the proliferation of these groups in recent years.
The employees also requested donor lists from some of the groups and sent questionnaires seeking overly broad information, Lerner acknowledged.
“That’s absolutely inappropriate and not the way we ought to do things,” Lerner said in a briefing with reporters. “They didn’t do it out of any political bias.”
Lerner would not say whether any of the IRS employees involved have been disciplined, but she said that new policies have been put in place to prohibit this kind of screening and that, overall, none of the 75 groups have been rejected for approval so far.
The IRS apology did not mollify either conservative political groups or Republican lawmakers, who have been warning for more than a year about unfair treatment from the agency.
“I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not underway at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday. “An apology won’t put this issue to rest.”
One of the nation’s largest tea party groups, the Tea Party Patriots, said it rejected the IRS’s explanation and demanded the resignations of all officials involved. The group also called on President Obama to apologize for ignoring its groups’ concerns…
