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IRS Admits, Apologizes For Targeting Conservatives During 2012 Election
Update: you can't make this up
The senior IRS official briefing the press just said: "I'm not good at math."
— Zachary A. Goldfarb (@Goldfarb) May 10, 2013
In her defense, the IRS official, explained: "I'm a lawyer."
— Zachary A. Goldfarb (@Goldfarb) May 10, 2013
Just because you are a conservative and paranoid, doesn't mean the IRS is not after you. And, assuming the AP was not hacked again, this is precisely what happened. In a stunning disclosure, the supposedly impartial Internal Revenue Service has admitted and apologized for flagging and subjecting to extra reviews, conservative political groups - those that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" - during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. No such privilege was apparently afforded to groups identifying themselves as "liberal."
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.
Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.
Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They said the agency asked them an inordinate number of questions to justify their tax-exempt status.
Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.
It does make one wonder, just how far the IRS goes to make the lives of conservatives a living hell: will all 2012 tax audits be those who on their facebook profile admit to liking Ron Paul? And just how far does the IRS invade personal privacy to determine how any one tax filer is indeed, a "conservative?" But don't worry - aside from the obvious persecutions, America is a free country for one and all.
One wonders: how long until "conservatives" engage in "tax-avoiding" blowback and really give the IRS reason to persecute them. Alternatively, one wonders the IRS is simply limited by logistical considerations, due to the notional difference in number of actual tax filings submitted by "conservatives" vs "liberals" and the prepondrance of one group over the other...
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Obama and democrast "politics all the time"! ZeroHedge better watch it.
We are in a sad state of affairs when the only thing startling about this malfeasance was its confession.
Confession? Read it again:
'Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati ...'
'Low-level workers' do not initiate potentially career-ending political attacks.
That stuff comes straight from the top: your Obamas, Axelrods and the like.
If we still had a Congress, an investigation would be starting now.
SHORT TREASURIES BITCHEZ!
short term, yes. The "bidder" will come back as the 10-year goes above 2%.
Sweet
As it should be. Conservatives disdain the Govt. and cheat by hiding. Liberals love the Govt, rob it blind and cheat OVERTLY...!!
Well good thing I am an Anarchist.
Anarchists just pay the standard rate
Banksters.
Surveillance state? What surveillance state?
Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris accuses JPMorgan Chase of running a robo-signing 'debt collection mill' that preyed on consumers.
"This time it’s California going after JPMorgan, suing the company over claims that it used aggressive and illegal tactics to collect credit card debt from thousands of consumers.
Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris leveled accusations against JPMorgan Chase of operating a “debt collection mill” that sent 100,000 lawsuits to court so quickly that consumers couldn’t fight back, reports the Los Angeles Times."
http://consumerist.com/2013/05/10/california-sues-jpmorgan-over-how-it-c...
Now the big fish start fighting, fuck California, and New York, both states have benefitted tremendously from Ben running the printing presses on high, the rest of the country really does not give a fuck. California why don't you claw back some of the money from those huge motherfucking pensions you have promised all your civil servants? Stupid, liberal douches.
Speaking of NY:
EXCLUSIVE: City Education Department cracking down on school kitchens’ use of butterButter was exiled from school cafeterias as far back 2008 in an effort to make meals healthier. But some school kitchen managers say they are being ‘bullied’ on how to prepare meals and threatened with ‘disciplinary action’ should they go against the ban.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education-department-cracks-butter-c...
Bullyburg
Vitamin A, Vitamin D, fats needed by the brain and body - dangerous stuff that Butter.
Feed the kids some whipped oil with a bunch of chemical additives - because it's "better".
Bloombdo: it's got the partially hydrogenated gobbledygook that kids crave!
This is just a shakedown of the diary industry.
"Blessed are the cheesemakers".
Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.
Nobody clawed back the billions in taxpayer-funded bonuses to the turds "running" the bailed out banks so why should public employees who _earned_ their pensions be subject to that?
I just beat the shit out of a junk debt collection lowlife attorney in court. Started as WAMU, then Chase said they were original creditor , then they dumped it with Midland Funding. Nothing but lies and fraud paperwork.
Even better than judge ruling in my favor , was in mediation before trial , telling the fat slob of the tribe , to go fuck himself and the mediator straight off the boat from India telling him we have a problem here. LOL
I filed a complaint with my AG (Massachusetts) almost two years ago for the exact same cause of action. Nothing.
The Banking Cartel own everything and everybody.
The difference between organized crime and the government is organized crime is more honest and is jealous of the government's business model.
The AMT also disproportionately confiscates wealth from individuals who make large charitable contributions. Not that those are definitively "conservatives," but I doubt there are a lot of "liberals" who donate any material % of income to their local house of worship.
Sue their asses...harrassment, conspiracy, etc...
...the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati...
Right. Just another spontaneous event. No doubt inspired by all those reprehensible youtoube videos that profess our dear leader is a fucking piece of shit.
Low level employees in Cincinnati my ass. Obummer is a lawless man and his wickedness is extended into every arm of government. Forward, comrades!
IRS and the Federal Reserve were created at about the same time. Nice way for the banksters to funnel taxpayer funds into their personal accounts.
"END THE FED and the IRS"
It's spot on.
Diversity baby. Any wagers?
Not touching that bet with a ten foot spear.
help help i'm being repressed.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!
Better than what we got now: Kleptocracy above, Lootarchy below.
So a lame ass apology is all it takes to get away with criminal activity?
OK, I'll play.
Start decorating streetlights with IRS crooks, we'll apologize later, I promise!
;)
The GOP and a portion of the Tea Party voted FOR the IRS, Depts. of Education, Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, Housing and Urban Development and for Empire. So no complaints from them I'm sure..
"initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati"
Should read - initiated by LOW LIFE workers in Cincinnati
If you believe that, then you probably believe Oswald was the lone gunman.
Obviously someone got proof and was moving "forward" with it.
13 is truly an unlucky number because in 1913 the Federal Reserve was established, and the Income Tax instituted.
That's right, 101 years ago there was NO INCOME TAX.
At the current pace of printing, it seems redundant to have both income taxes and the Fed.
I think for a short period during the Civil War there was an income tax. You know, when Lincoln took us off the gold standard. In fact, that is what gave the greenback "value". You could only pay your taxes with government issued greenbacks.
Lincoln was a viscous bastard.
+1
All hail to the first American dictator. And what a great example of revisionist, progressive history - the government indoctination camps (aka, 'schools') have painted Honest Abe' as quite the cultural hero.
http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=207
NOBODY WAS FIRED OR RESIGNED.
Gee, just like Benghazi???
WHATDIFFERENCEDOESITMAKE?!?!?!
Exactly.
Say???...........who are all those people being loaded on rail cars?????
Flat tax or Fair Tax Bitchez!
Dissolve the IRS and jail the criminals in the Fed (I would normally call for short rope and tall lamp posts, but I am in a charitably good mood today).
And fuck you too DHS...
Can you say "limited hangout"? They're admitting this to sidetrack our attention from whatever larger cauldron of shit is boiling over at the moment.
The IRS is used as a tool of political vengeance just as the KGB was. Hell, the IRS IS the American KGB. That they're admitting it makes me wonder what they're actually hiding.
I thought the same thing when I read this. Also made me wonder how bad this story may really be if they are trying to get ahead of it with an admission of guilt. Must be pretty bad if they think they can't get sufficient cover from Obama's fifth column in the fourth estate.
Conservative? All you need to be is someone that the government doesn't like. Look at Al Capone. And more recently, Jim Bell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bell
What a shock. government agencies being used as political weapons.......................not.
Welcome to the former United States of America.
"'It's the worst hell. The goddamnedest hell. They've bugged everything. That's why we're using Duke's car. Mine's bugged. Everything's bugged. Can't use the phone. Mail intercepted.'
"We rode for miles in silence. As we turned into Ketchum, Ernest said quietly: 'Duke, pull over. Cut your lights.' He peered across the street at a bank. Two men were working inside. 'What is it?' I asked. 'Auditors. The FBI's got them going over my account.'...
In the 1980s, however, Hemingway's FBI file was released following a Freedom of Information request by Jeffrey Myers, an academic then at the University of Colorado. The file demonstrated a keen interest in Hemingway, including his wartime attempts to set up an anti-fascist spy network called the Crook Factory, and the interest persisted until he entered the Mayo Clinic in 1960.
Indeed, in January 1961, the special agent tasked with following him dutifully reported to Hoover in January of 1961 that Hemingway "was physically and mentally ill". [source]
Before you get too worried about "IRS = Liberals", I'll point you to Operation SNOWWHITE. The IRS were flagging the Koch + Tobacco trail, they really don't like people crashing their party. "Low level" operatives *ahem* *ahem*
It's never about the little people, you're just collateral damage. (Not just an American issue by the way.)
On a related note:
Charitable Organizations in the US are notorious for being tax avoidance schemes & slush funds. And guess what? The old Left / Right issue is nothing to do with it, as ever. (Hint: in that top 10, the Rep/Dem split is roughly 6:4).
Let's go to the man on the street for his reaction. Sir, what do you think of this stunning disclosure by the IRS?
"Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a."
You can't be a conservative if you work for the subsidized private, the public sector or if you are on minimum wage. Who are the Conservatives???
In this context "conservative" means bearing the appearence of oppposing the Left.
Listen up to a self-employed bloke here.
Income tax isnt just immoral, it is also illegal and unjust. These bastards are printing the money from thin air any how and could easily cover our share with a few more key strokes.
It is every citizens duty, no matter how small to deprive the monolithic beast that needs its fucking head cut off to stop making payments into the nefarious system around it.
Tax avoidance should be mandatory for any right thinking individual.
Starve this fucker, and start now folks.
Inthemix96 said:
'strewth, every last word.
The ForthStooge-ing,
You know it makes sense mate, act on it, and act on it now. Its the smallest most intrusive part of civil dis-obedience you can do.
God damn mother fuckers, we will cut this bastards head off, we just need the know how and the will to pull it off.
...and dull potato peelers.
BTW, I know that what Americans refer to as a flashlight the Brits call a torch. I'm just wondering, what do you blokes call a stick with a kerosene-soaked rag tied to the end and set alight?
Cheers, mate!
Never mind my blunt tattie peeler Stooge,
You should be well afraid of my kerosene-soaked rag, tied to the end of a stick.
We call them LETHAL devices 'Torches', be afraid friend, be very afraid, cos' we be coming.
;-)..................................
Add to the printing that the govt (i.e. joo run US Treasury) recapitalises insolvent banks with the fiat (even though banks send guys like you BK every day), plus it then puts the bank's bad debts on to your tax bill.
hahahhaahah!
As one of their tribe once said, " ... not that there's anything wrong with that ... "
Congratulations, you just make it that much worse for the Rest of Us by advocating tax evasion.
That and you act as if it's a badge of honor to be more unstable than a damaged nuclear reactor in terms of your employment arrangements.
Seth son,
Tax evasion is against the law.
Tax avoidance is perfectly legal friend, you just have to understand the RULES. Now run along and find out how, google is your friend, its not up to folks like me to school you.
And remember, different places have different RULES, follow them.
I do NOT advocate tax EVASION, as it is against the LAW.
Fuck the LAW, and the HORSE IT RODE IN ON.
96 :-)
Inthemix96, conducting a lesson in proper English, said:
Correct, and precisely so.
Stooge, you had me in a laughing fit there, cheers.
Its up to you, or them, or they if they want to find out how to minimise their collective tax take, not me, I only advocate to pay as little as fuck all if you can.
You can do it if you want to, take care, and keep on keeping on friend.
240 years later, the British finally seem to get it.
Agent P,
My accountant is long standing school friend who is a one of 'Us' a fellow ZHer.
I have never willingly paid HMCR one more penny than needs be.
Fuck 'em, fuck them all.
You are The Man.
At least you told the truth, IRS. There there. Accidents happen. Just try harder next time.
If the IRS's reputation is to be followed, an accident is sure to follow.
Comrades!
We should support our Supreme Soviet and the Genius of Our Glorious Revolutionary Leader!
I am reporting all malcontents to the NKVD!
Only the little people pay taxes
That's it! It's personal now! (are all irs employees unlisted?)
No no no, you are just a crazy conspirationist. But the most funny is that very few people will react. Welcome to USSA.
Switch sides, work from the inside
Boy, its a good thing thay can't read our emails....what, they have the authori-tey to read our email?!?!?!?!?!?!
Under Bretton Woods the IRS works for the IMF - the UN, a foreign entity. The BATF is the IRS tax collecting gestapo, not an American entity. Ron Paul proposed ending Bretton Woods and his bill was killed by the traitors in the financial affairs committee. Now the unelected, unaccountable G20 has a 'reinventing Bretton Woods' working group?
Wonder if Turbo Timmy will write about this directive in his book.
Hopefully someone will ask about this before he becomes Chairmen of the Federal Reserve.
At the sametime it was reported most liberals in DC haven't paid their taxes. Hypocrisy knows no bounds with these jackboot thugs.
Sack her and replace her with someone whose ability to do their job at the IRS isnt compromised. The IRS isnt a government agency for the weak-willed.
That goes for any political direction whether its Nixon or Obama.
Lois needs to be fired for not identifying these people, bringing them forward and stopping these actions while they were taking place and “We the People” of the Declaration of Independence (the ongoing cover picture on the IRS's 1040 instructions) need to bring charges against 2012 IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman on whose watch these crimes were committed.
The IRS isn't a government agency.
Damn Treasury Department!
If I go rub the Tubbs Jones statue in Cleveland, will that get me off the hook of an audit?
Yes there is a Tubbs Jones statue in Cleveland. I believe EBTers worship it every week and leave KFC in the hopes of greater benefits.
Someone blew up The Thinker statue outside the Cleveland museum of art in the '60s. That gives me an idea.
Fuck, I just guaranteed an audit with the thought didn't I.
I live and work 10 minutes from the IRS Cincy offices - I'm waiting to see if this gets any local coverage. I'm guessing not.
stateside
Honestly, it probably had nothing to do with IRS Cincy.
They were just the regional office that Obama and Timmah and Axelrod picked to be the fall guys ... safely distant from the Oval Office where the crime was committed.
After all, it's hard to blame those errant audits on Turbo Tax!
Thanks for the article! And isn’t it time we stop identifying agencies by their name such as the IRS instead of the force that puts the individual people in positions of authority so that they can exercise this tyranny?
IOW, isn’t it time to name names; not the employees hired by the legions to occupy the bureaucracies but the money power that puts people like Obama in office and directs him to dismantle a free enterprise society and replace it with a welfare socialist state?
And in naming names, the most important names are the private individuals who own and operate the NY Federal Reserve Bank. For it is these people who have corrupted our society, who have taken over root, branch and leaves of the tree of freedom, stealing its fruit every single second while we are awake and while we sleep.
Isn’t ironic that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman did not seek another term, stepping down on Nov. 9, and that it was under his Jewish watch these crimes were committed.The key here is to follow this chain of command from the Obama employees who made these decisions through Shulman to the administration that appointed him…but don’t stop there. The chain goes to the Federal Reserve System which provides the juice for a remarkably incompetent corrupt president to operate.
Where does this chain end? We now know; it is the Federal Reserve Bank of NY - the controlling entity of America’s private tyranny. It was only this week that a ZH contributor called Ben Bernanke the most powerful man in the world. But of course he isn’t. The most powerful men in the world are the men who give Bernanke his instructions. These are the men in whose hands the currency of the United States is held; they decide its worth – even if it's in a savings account, they decide who gets it - particularly if it's themselves.
That’s Mayer Amschel Rothschild’s overriding principle which states: “Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws.”
It appears IRS's Lois Lerner in that article is herself one of said tribe - purely coincidental though.
And, of course, the current administration had nothing to do with this. It's always "low level" actors, never anyone accountable. I believe that. Just because the groups targeted may have been actively opposing Obama's reelection doesn't mean there is anything to see here. Move along.
As per my comment on the "Tax Haven" post: Fuck the IRS and this government in general.
So it might as well be a preemptive non-apology to divert blame.
Pure speculation here:
If, conservative organizations are probably the most honest wtih their deductions/taxes/etc.
Then, the ROI for the IRS going after conservative organizations isn't worthwhile.
Conclusion: Political Harrassment
Creative/Deceptive interpretation of the tax code along with concealment dont look like they're part of honestly reporting taxes. Advertising that you're a group that does such activity is only going to make it easier to justify an audit. The only unclear thing is that we dont know who gave the order to do this.
Now who is likely to both follow it in spirit as well as letter? That seems like it'd point towards no particular political group.
Lois Lerner, you better quit or else we have a guillotine with your name on it.
And, now, the big question: Who is Lois Lerner?
Because I had other things to do today, I spent about 10 minutes looking for biographical material on Lois Lerner. And it’s a bit suspicious if you ask me that a new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Serivice does not merit media or biographical information. When they say the people are sheep, and that they will accept even a wolf as the yard manager, they must be fairly close to being correct.
This is enough to make you want to fly an airplane into an IRS building.
Oh wait....
Joe Stack already did that.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-6221343-504083.html
AUSTIN, Texas (CBS/AP) Joseph Andrew Stack, a Texas man with a serious grudge against the Internal Revenue Service, has left a lot of innocent people in his wake, according to Austin authorities.
Photo: Echelon Building in Austin, Texas Feb. 18, 2010.
PICTURES: Austin Plane Crash
Authorities said Thursday that 13 people were hurt - two critically - after Stack deliberately flew a small plane into a building where the Internal Revenue Service had about 200 workers.
"It felt like a bomb blew off," said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk. "The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran."
Photo: Joe Stack.
PICTURES: Austin Plane Crash
Firefighters worked Thursday afternoon to put out the blaze at the Echelon Building located on the side of a major Austin thoroughfare.
Authorities said that Stack worked alone. He was presumed dead, and police said they had not recovered his body.
The FBI believes that Stack left a twisted suicide note / bomber's manifesto on the Web two days before the crash in which he ranted against the IRS, the Catholic Church, tax loopholes, bailouts and his own sorry state of affairs.
"Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the page read.
He talked about the "storm raging in my head" and railed against taxation without representation. "Anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a 'crackpot', traitor and worse," the page said.
Stack was angered by a "handful of thugs and plunderers (that) can commit unthinkable atrocities" including bailed out GM executives and the drug and insurance companies who "are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple."
He hoped that the "the American zombies wake up and revolt," and at times expressed that he was at a breaking point.
The guy made is point.
Shades of Alberto Gonzales. This is no way for governent to behave and heads should roll.
So you're saying that government workers, whose livelihood comes from theft (read: taxation), don't like people who want smaller government and less theft? This would also imply that government workers tend to back one political party that serves their needs and desires.
There is no conflict of interest between the government and the people. Please move along.
Total lawlessness.
END THE IRS -- JUST ANOTHER GSE!
Richard Nixon only went after his close political opponents. I'd say this latest stunt is worse.
I knew everyone was aganst me. Now I can justify a wide range of immoral actions.
They came after me once for a large sum. When it was over they asked, "did you learn your lesson?" No shit. And the funny thing is that I owed them nothing at all and paid them nothing at all. So...lesson?
That's like blaming the Border Patrol for "targeting" people who look like Mexicans crossing the Mexican Border.
"Tea Party" nuts are well known for their antipathy to paying taxes, and people using their "name" are fraudulently raising money in all sorts of scams targetting angry old people in the trailers, that aren't "political" at all, but rather scams.
What a horrot the IRS is using common sense to do tax audits.
I attended two Tea Party events along with other middle aged, middle income folks who gave every impression of being ordinary but gainfully employed patriotic Americans.
On the other hand, if your political bias is oriented toward those young, low-income, debt ridden or otherwise self-identified "victims" who never pay income taxes, I can see your fantastical point of view.
Sound like an ACORN apologist.
Nothing low level foot soldiers enacting far reaching major policy agenda for the IRS. Two terms come to mind. "Plausible deniability" and "Intellectually dishonest".
Post constitutional USSA, EST 1913.
Well if you didn't contribute to the Obama for King campaign, you are probably being chosen for an audit.
Why is the left which always touts "Freedom" to choose is nearly always the first to come for your rights.
It is time to just disappear when the Chicago mob is this obvious. It is full court criminal now.
Don't answer questions or answer them blandly. Give them nothing to hang their hat on.
The IRS enforces Obamacare, and now we learn it enforces the progressive agenda. Before long, it will enforce Federal gun laws.
After all, "it's just a tax".
- Chief Justice John Roberts -
WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU THERE IS EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW???!!!!! WHO??!!! whose law?
We have a legal system not a justice system.
Whom should we the people TARGET?
Again no prosecutions just an apology how heart warming.
something tells me we wont even get apologies in the near future. scary times
"Low-level workers in Cincinnati" were the problem according to the IRS. They are probably being blamed for Benghazi, gold's 14% two day drop, and twice as many Afghanastan U.S. military casualties under Obama (in 4 years) than Bush (in 6 years), too. The real problem is the "low-life liberal politicians in Washington". As Socrates said, "likeness to truth is not the same as truth". America's mainstream media should take note. Perception is not the same as reality but too many Americans are drinking the Obama cool-aid.
After the GOP won the House back after the Clinton regime passed the "Assault Weapons" ban, Clinton had his revenge, he siced the IRS on the NRA, the NRA, although found absolutely innocent, still had to pay several million dollars to defend itself from the IRS audit. The left plays hardball, all the time, they mean BUSINESS.
Both sides play hardball, constantly, and without end.
It's their version of having fun.
Conspiracy Fact.
All those posting here should expect an audit.....