If Bush were our President now, the backlash would be 10 times what we see. Benghazi cover up should be worse than Watergate was for Nixon.
Covering up Benghazi helped decide an election. It's not the fact that people were killed, it's the fact that the reason and response was spun to influence the election.
The IRS harassment and the intrusion into the AP are the icing on the cake. This president has lost control. We can only judge a leader by results and he has failed. It's time for him to go. And I don't mean ride off into the sunset at the end of his term and go back to the speaking circuit and community organizing. I mean impeachment.
If these atrocities aren't addressed by congress and corrected, we are a short slide away from becoming Russia.
Alabama tea party groups targeted by IRS (updated)
http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/05/alabama_tea_party_groups_targe.html#incart_m-rpt-2Print
By George Talbot | gtalbot@al.com
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on May 13, 2013 at 1:14 PM, updated May 13, 2013 at 8:52 PM
At least two Alabama tea party groups said they were singled out by the Internal Revenue Service over their applications for tax-exempt status.
Both the Common Sense Campaign, a Mobile-based tea party group, and the Wetumpka Tea Party said they were targeted by the IRS, which apologized Friday for what it called “inappropriate†reviews of conservative political groups.
Pete Riehm, a co-founder of the Common Sense Campaign, said the IRS blocked his group’s application to be recognized as a 501c4 non-profit organization.
“We were never audited, but we were certainly harassed,†Riehm said today.
A House bill introduced today would make it a crime punishable by jail time if IRS agents are found guilty of discriminating against political groups.
Riehm said his tea party group submitted its initial application to the IRS in the summer of 2009, along with an $850 filing fee. He said the campaign spent nearly two years and at least $2,000 in legal costs dealing with the IRS’ questions about the application.
Riehm said the group faced repeated delays and was told on at least two occasions that its application had been lost, forcing Common Sense organizers to restart the application process.
Riehm said his group was asked to provide a list of its donors – a violation of IRS policy. He said the agency additionally asked for information about people who posted comments on the campaign’s web site.
The group’s efforts to comply with the IRS only brought new rounds of requests from the tax agency, he said.
Riehm said his concerns peaked in early 2011, when the IRS asked the campaign to identify the employers of its campaign donors and board members.
"They were definitely trying to scare us." - Pete Riehm, a co-founder of the Common Sense Campaign
“That’s when I knew we were being targeted. It had a chilling effect on our ability to raise money,†he said. “They were definitely trying to scare us.â€
Becky Gerritson, president of the Wetumpka Tea Party, said her group faced similar delays after applying for tax exempt status in October 2010. After months without any response from the IRS, she said the group received an 8-page letter in February 2012 requesting extensive details about its activities.
"They wanted copies of any communications with legislators. They wanted the names of our volunteers and anyone who'd spoken at our events. They even wanted actual copies of the speeches," Gerritson said. "It was very disorienting."
Gerritson said her group declined to provide the information based on legal advice from the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington-based law firm that represents about 30 tea party organizations.
The IRS informed the group in July 2012 that its application had been approved, Gerritson said.
Riehm said the Common Sense Campaign, frustrated by mounting legal costs, chose to drop its application in 2011.
“We decided to just pay the tax and quit fighting the bureaucracy,†he said. “It was obvious they weren’t going to recognize us†as a tax-exempt organization.
Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, said Friday that about 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.
The agency — led at the time by a Bush administration appointee — blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.
That explanation wasn’t good enough for members of the Wetumpka Tea Party.
“Our group was targeted by the IRS,†the group said in a message posted on its Facebook page. “ We have a hard time believing this was an ‘accident’ by low level IRS people.â€
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