While CNN runs with the two-rogue Cincy scoundrels! whitewash theory, certain British papers with real journalistic skin in the game do some actual reporting. The Daily Mail:
Letters from the IRS to tea party-related organizations in Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, New Mexico show that IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C., and two satellite offices in California, were directly involved with sending harassing letters to conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status.
The IRS has acknowledged only the involvement of its Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati, Ohio, which typically makes most decisions about granting or denying tax-exempt status to non-profit organizations.
And Wednesday afternoon, CNN cited a congressional source in reporting that the acting IRS Commissioner – whom President Obama fired later in the day – had identified two ‘rogue’ employees, both in Cincinnati, whom he thought were responsible for targeting right-wing organizations with tactics that were not applied to left-wing or non-political groups.
— to interject, let us be reminded that Miller’s stint was up in early June, and that he has himself claimed that is why he left. So this “firing” was for appearances, and to give Obama something concrete to show he’d done during his brief public statement last evening.
Steven Miller then the acting IRS Commissioner, described the two employees as being ‘off the reservation,’ according to the CNN source.
Miller, added CNN, had emphasized that the problem was not confined to just two staffers.
Tuesday’s report from the IRS Office of Inspector General, however, focused exclusively on the Cincinnati office.
This IG’s review, according to the report ‘was performed at the EO [Exempt Organizations] function Headquarters office in Washington, D.C., and the Determinations Unit in Cincinnati, Ohio.’
The Washington staffers involved, the IG report continues, were in charge of reviewing materials prepared in Cincinnati. ‘As part of this effort, EO function Headquarters office employees reviewed the additional information request letters prepared by the team of [Cincinnati] specialists,’ the report reads.
Nothing in the report describes letters sent by IRS employees in California or the District of Columbia.
Yet an April 21, 2010 letter to the Albuquerque Tea Party organization, containing a preliminary list of 10 questions, came from the IRS’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division in Washington, D.C. The group responded on June 10.
Seventeen months passed before the IRS responded on November 16, 2011. That letter, similar in scope and tone to other intrusive IRS letters that have drawn national attention, also came from the Washington, D.C. IRS office. It included an additional 28 questions.
A separate letter came to Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now (PECAN), a Redding, California conservative group, from an IRS office in the Orange County, California town of Laguna Niguel.
That letter, dated January 31, 2012, asked 55 questions, including a demand for ‘complete copies of the organization’s website that is accessible to members only.’
It also asked a series of pointed questions about PECAN’s relationship to the Redding Tea Party Patriots, an overtly political organization.
Look. There isn’t anyone with a speck of sense who truly believes this scandal was confined to a sub-unit in Cincinnati, and to a pair of previously-punished rogue employees. But like the “spontaneous demonstration to a YouTube video” cover story that the Administration used to buy time on the Benghazi disaster, attempts are being made within the government — and once again, with the help of either a credulous or complicit media invested in Obama and progressivism — to pretend that what is an institutional failing is in fact the work of some shadowy characters acting alone.
Sadly, the glory hounds in Congress — in both parties — enjoy using the IRS to harass those who cross them, so the institutional pressure to truly get to the bottom of the scandal isn’t there, particularly if a dozen or so operatives can be sacrificed on the altar of showy justice.
After which, things will return to “normal” — which history shows us is more of the same: a politicization of the IRS that is both institutional and specifically at times directed by Presidents and members of Congress. To that end, I worry about parts of Obama’s statement last evening, particularly where he noted that the rules need to be fixed — which immediately had me concerned that he’d use this scandal to try to figure ways to re-configure the political landscape after Citizens United.
But that’s just me being paranoid and unhelpful and Visigothy.
In any event, if you remember back to when Obama was droning on about people being forced to “pay their fair share,” my counsel to Republicans and conservatives at the time was to call his bluff and push hard for a fair tax or flat tax — noting as they did so that not only would such a system create the ultimate conditions for “fairness,” but it would have the salubrious secondary effect of significantly weakening the reach and powers of the IRS, which is nearly as unpopular with the American people as is Congress. (For a while, recall, Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 was popular simply in a general sense because it promised some kind of real reform).
Sadly, we nominated a non-conservative pragmatist who did what such people do and sought to try to split the baby, coming up with a proposal for tax reform that didn’t seem to please anyone.
Well, here we are again: by highlighting the history of IRS abuses and the political nature of its internal leadership (employees, including high level management, give considerably more in campaign contributions to Democrats), Republicans are in a position to usurp Obama and the left’s stranglehold on “fairness,” which the progressives have bastardized to mean something opposite of fairness as it is traditionally understood (turning it into a call for wealth redistribution), and return the word to its proper place: a fair tax, eg., takes the power to use the IRS to punish perceived enemies away from those who have the power now to direct it to do so. It levels the playing field. It removes the politics from the equation.
It is fair. And equal. And non-discriminatory.
A golden opportunity exists for the GOP here. But if they are who I’ve been saying they are, they don’t want any such arrangement. It is the ruling class vs. the rest of us. And we’re going to see that play out here. Scapegoats, fallguys, and prosecutions, without any real attempt to change the culture that routinely over the decades has produced similar scandals.
It’s who they are. It’s what they do. And it’s up to us, we, the people, to stop them. Because lord knows they won’t stop themselves.
The Cincinnati Guy who woke up to find himself an unfortunate character in a Kafka story.
certain British papers with real journalistic skin in the game do some actual reporting
You’ve noticed this, too? It’s sad, but despite the fact that Britian’s gone even further left than we have, they still have better journalism.
Some call him the Gangster of Love.
So does this mean that when the Inspector General blamed poor supervision, what he really meant was that management failed to make sure that these “out of control” employees knew how to not get caught at what they were doing?
Mondamay, I think part of that is their libel laws. You cannot make outrageous claims in the press (e.g., “Mitt Romney is a Felon!”) unless you have bona fide proof that Mitt Romney is indeed a felony or you are subject to monetary punishment and perhaps jail-time.
Our press, on the contrary, loves to make stupid and outrageous claims such as the one above, and then print a retraction on page A-25.
– The legal nimrods don’t want libal laws with teeth because it would cut down on the case load.
Cincinnati Reds begins to take on another coloration altogether,eh wot?
Orange, that is. What, you thought Commies?
– One thing thats puzzeling. Since the politboro outed him anyway, why didn’t Patraeus sing.
Leigh, while there are very strong libel laws in the UK, it doesn’t stop the British press being crap; there are frequent huge payouts.
Yes, SW. We can ask our girl Rebekah, she of the wild red hair, about that, eh?
– I’m reffering to the emails in which he objects to the concockted video lies. He never mentioned his objections during his testimony at the time, and they had already leaked his affair to the press.
This must have really hurt, leigh.
– Bumblefucx next show of statemanship and strong agressive leadership will be to fire all the hat check girls in the house cloakroom.
– Boner will reach across the aisle and demand background chex for all future employees if they’re not illegal immigrants.
Strangely, just as the Tea Party became ascendant, the IRS didn’t grant any Tea Party applications for 27 months (March 2010 – May 2012). Coincidentally, there was an election ramping up at that same time…
That article about their loss of the case gave them the opportunity to state their allegations again without fear of reprisal.
“I am
SpartacusJustin Binik-Thomas!”Anyone want to give me odds the GOP was aware of the IRS going after the TEA party and purposely decided to let it go?
FWIW: ABC Analyst: Someone “very close to Obama” authorized IRS
Anyone want to give me odds the GOP was aware of the IRS going after the TEA party and purposely decided to let it go?
Too late to bet on, isn’t it? That is, Charles Boustany already proves your case.
Valerie Plame likely authorized the IRS. That’s her style.
Jarrett?
Obazm blathers mouth blathering platitudes about Benghazi today, while welcoming his Islamist best friend Erdogan to
take overvisit the US (and continue fucking Israel in the ass). The families of the dead of Benghazi will no doubt be appreciative of his grind-stoning efforts.sdferr, I just tossed that out there, without having run across anything that indicated otherwise.
That said, I’m not surprised. Nor, I’m sure, is anyone else.
The IRS scandal has allowed the face of tyranny to be exposed. Watch as the powers that be try to convince everyone that it is a kind and fatherly face, merely trying to look out for everyone and sometimes, mistakes are made.
Jarrett?
Naah, he’s the guy what sells turkey sandwiches for Subway.
– Jarrette? – Bingo.
they still have better journalism.
About U.S. politics, in which fight they have no dog.
In that time frame it could also have been Axelrod, but I think Cass Sunstein fits the bill even better.
“I’ve got 60 thousand troops in Afghanistan,” sez the C-in-C, just so we all know who belongs to whom.
Those 60 thousand heard Eric Nordstrom loud and clear regarding their situation though: “You’re on your own.”
My money is on Jarrett throwing the CIA under the bus on Benghazi. In which case, she’s going to rue that say.
I want to hear what Petraeus has to say when he testifies.
Just wait. Things will get even worse, for us, soon.
Welcome to the brave new world of progressive dreams.
say = day
Benghazi – 9/11/12 Amb. Stevens meets with Turkish consul general just hours before he died.
Today – Obama holds his Benghazi press conference with Turkish PM in tow. Coincidence?
to the brave new world of progressive dreams.
Which even if it only turns out to be another hole into which to dump money the government doesn’t have — being abandoned faster than Solyndra one day — will remain a great success for all that.
Jeff G. is doing a class in intentionalism on Twitter. 50 parts.
Why can’t you people just shut up and stop questioning everything?
Wingers.
/teasing newrouter impression
I could also have gone with Roger Simon puffs himself up and lets loose his
barbaricGoldsteinian YAWP! too, I suppose.wrong close tag
For a bit of refreshing clarity at a time when clarity has gone missing in the USA: “. . . he will risk forfeiting his regime . . .”
h/t Legal Insurrection
Yeah, I meant Jarrett.
I’m not all that bright.
@Jeff, yes “both parties — enjoy using the IRS to harass those who cross them” but the game has changed under President Obama’s watch. Targeting the private citizen is possible because of their internet identifiability. President Obama’s campaign use of data mining has seeped into controlling the message
what they’re documenting in all this stuff that they’re being forced to release is that the Tea Party was indeed very very very much a grassroots movement
not manufactured by the Koch Bros like the fascists like to allege
By the way, Obazm likes to promote a “journalist’s shield law”. We ought to like to say “Absolutely not.”
they’ll define journalist as their guys and leave not-fascists what report stuff out in the cold
So… Skynet, Harold Finch’s “machine,” or something else?
what it means is people would no longer have to apply for food stamps and other fascist perks
these would become push programs
Jeff G. is doing a class in intentionalism on Twitter. 50 parts.
That would be lovely to see written up at Volokh. It would fry a few brains.
Daily Caller: Did the IRS give Romney’s tax returns to Harry Reid?
What this scandal has shown California, apparently, is that the people aren’t stupid enough yet.
L.A. to the rescue!
Oh, don’t worry little Louie, you’ll become something alright. Not just stupid, but aggressively stupid.
I gotta say though, it’s touching Quintero, Garcia and Martinez are concerned about the defiantly stupid African American ones…
How many days was the Abu Ghraib story on the front page of the NYTs? Reckon the Times is going to front page the stories of these offended tax-exemption seeking organizations day after day after day for a couple of months in duration? There are only many multiple hundreds of them.
[…] “Documents: IRS letters harassing conservative groups came from Washington, DC headquarters an… […]
The word’s out that Harry Reid conspired with an IRS agent to obtain Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Let him prove that he didn’t, because he did.
“It’s very disturbing, what we’re seeing” says the Real Clear Politics headline quoting Bob Schieffer from his interview with Charlie Rose and Nora O’Donnell.
But really, what a silly thing to quote from an interview that included this gem:
That’s the story. Real Clear should do itself a favor and wake up to pertinence.
See? All is forgiven.
That’s that, then.
See? All is forgiven.
I guess we’ll know next week, if the steady drip continues.
If the Washington Post says the scandals are falling apart, I guess they are.
Yup.
Oh but Silver Whistle, it’s hardly conceivable that Ezra could be getting ahead of himself, since after all he has his finger on the pulse of the nation and — by golly — the World.
I don’t like to think about what pulse Ezra’s got his fingers on, sdferr.
speaking of which this is how you beat the snake
Obama: “I’ve got 60 thousand troops…”
Tony Stark: “We have a Hulk.”
“See, the thing about government scandals is that sooner or later, the government tells you that everything is fine, and there’s no really scandal to worry about, so then everyone can go back to ignoring the terrible things the government is doing to them.”
Thanks a bunch, Captain Juicebox.
[…] turn you over to Professor Jeffrey ‘Hermeneutics’ Goldstein, Dean Of Outlaws at The American Republic […]
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