Tea Party groups, Republicans slam IRS for flagging conservative groups

Well, what do you expect. Chad hates freedom.

From what I've read, the tax loophole they were taking advantage of was only for groups whose main activity was charity or social work or something, not political activism. In that context, I can see why groups with overtly political sounding names would be subject to further checks.

If you name your group "9/12 Tea Party Patriots" or whatever, you should be surprised when the IRS suspects you're not running a soup kitchen.

Accepting that premise, just for the sake of argument, the IRS put them through the gauntlet, said, "Okay, you're good."... and then did it again. That's where it's partisan bullshit for which they need to be collectively, metaphorically curb-stomped.

Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Because the activities of a registrant can't change over time, especially during an election year?

Hell, why not every week? At what point are you going to acknowledge that the IRS was behaving in an entirely inappropriate fashion? They have.

Hmm...
so the tax rule is there for non partisan/non political organizations, and a bunch of political organizations who are all about taxation got investigated for claiming it?
What next? Investigating NORML members for marijuana possession?

You realize you're protesting the innocence of a party who has already confessed to being guilty, right?

Seriously, man. For your own self-respect, stop. They've elected to take it on the chin. Stop flinching on their behalf.

See the issue here isn't that the IRS admitted they were bad actors.

The problem here is that they've admitted that these Tea Party groups were right, thus awarding them an edge in Red/Blue team sports for this round. That is why some here can't let it go, even after the IRS has admitted their wrongdoing. Team sports and partisan fist bumping is far more important than investigating the Kafkaesque behavior of one the most powerful federal agencies in the land.

Why make it an either/or proposition? I'm fully capable of taking perverse pleasure both in seeing the Income Raping Society's malfeasance exposed and corrected and seeing Statists find themselves on the business end of what they like to call "a teachable moment." Even the altruist in me can enjoy that, on the grounds that they just might get a glimmer of the idea that those to whom we lend authority can and do misuse that authority against us and, subsequently, can and should get their proboscides rubbed in their own shit for doing it.

Yes, this acknowledgement of guilt on the part of the IRS is satisfying and wholesome.

I'm sure this was all just a simple misunderstanding.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it was directed from the top, by the Obama appointee in charge of the IRS...

Because returns are generally filed annually.

Oh, so when Obama apologizes needlessly for everything else, he's being idiotic, but when there's an apology for this, it means serious business.

See? So you already knew why it was harassment to put these organizations through the gauntlet a second time.

You've lost me. Or maybe you've lost the plot. What has Obama apologized to the American people for?

Looks like the IRS has been used as a Gestapo-lite agency for at least a couple of years.

Well, actually, since its inception in 1862, but that's for another thread or two.

Looks like they went after Jews too.

And businessmen that supported Romney.

One has to wonder now if it was the IRS who leaked the information when Senator Harry Reid said on the Senate floor that a "friend" had told him that Romney had not paid taxes for years.

That darn Obama appointee ...

Doesn't take away from the fact that they have done what I said they did.

Doesn't take away from the fact that the IRS said what it said.

Ayep.

That's a weird way to interpret this. Here's how I interpret it:

Libertarians: "Hey, the IRS is playin' dirty pool over here!"
IRS: "No, we're not!"
Media: "These Libertarians are conspiracy loons! The IRS isn't misbehaving!"

A year later:

IRS: "Yyyyyyyyeah, turns out we were misbehaving and those guys actually weren't conspiracy nuts. Sorry 'bout that. Our bad."
Libertarians: "Fuckin' told you!"

This isn't about team sports. This is about liars being exposed as liars and the reputations of good people being cleansed of un-earned filth.

I think he referring to the folks who, despite the IRS' apology, insist no wrongdoing took place. You know, the folks who cannot get past rooting for their political team regardless of reality.

Because, of course, that's the only reason to disagree with your viewpoint.


Who's that guy that keeps complaining about others breaking everything down into Donkeys and Elephants?

When the IRS has already admitted they did it, what other reason would there be to disagree??

There is that possibility.

White Knight-ing for the abuser. Like Dayton's wife probably defends him until she's blue in the face, LeftForge will defend to the death Big Brother's "right" to abuse us all.

Heads should roll for this, but it'll probably only be the low level minions of the IRS, i.e. the ones responsible for putting conservative groups on za list.

And really the firings should end there. Minions use their power to harass political groups they disagree with, and honchos apologize and then fire them. That's the proper way to handle this. Yes, the honchos were the ones who hired these minions, but we don't know their political leanings and can't prove they did this on purpose. The fact that they apologized in the first place is already a shocker.

Being magnanimous is one thing, riding the fence on a waffle saddle is quite another!

This.

I'm confused. What did they admit? That they investigated groups that appeared to be violating the requirements of their tax status? So, doing their job? Yeah, I would hope they'd admit to that. The issue is that some people flipped out that the IRS was doing it's job, which is why other people laugh at the folks flipping out.

No, they investigated groups that had an opposing viewpoint to the administration and that is a gross violation of the IRS' powers.

They even investigated the 10th Amendment Foundation.