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2013-05-22 Government

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Posted by Pappy 2013-05-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 But, but but no one at the WH knew! Excellent product. Thanks Pappy.

special prosecutor n. an attorney from outside of the government selected by the Attorney General or Congress to investigate and possibly prosecute a federal government official for wrongdoing in office. The theory behind appointing a special prosecutor is that there is a built-in conflict of interest between the Department of Justice and officials who may have political or governmental connections with that department. The most famous special prosecutor was law professor Archibald Cox, originally chosen to investigate White House (and President Richard Nixon's) involvement in the Watergate scandal. President Nixon demanded that Attorney General Elliot Richardson fire Cox who was being aggressive in his investigation, and Richardson resigned rather than comply, as did Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Deputy Attorney General Robert Bork finally discharged Cox.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-05-21 05:14|| 2013-05-21 05:14|| Front Page Top

#2 Doesn't explain the 'True the Vote' case where the ATF, FBI, and EPA were involved in harassing the woman who filed and her husband's business in an effort to shut her down (and protect the illegal voting going on).

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-05-21 09:11|| 2013-05-21 09:11|| Front Page Top

#3 Re. True the Vote - the harassing agencies were able to find violations, which 'proves' their investigations were righteous. Of course the codes are now so Byzantine I don't believe it is even possible to not be in violation of one in order to comply with another.

Posted by Glenmore 2013-05-21 09:18|| 2013-05-21 09:18|| Front Page Top

#4 Right.... they all decided on their own to investigate her husband's business -- multiple times. Happens all the time...

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-05-21 09:20|| 2013-05-21 09:20|| Front Page Top

#5 As I was told repeatedly yesterday, it's not illegal and even if it's improper, they're all civil servants and immune. Besides, shut up and you're racist.

Posted by Glenmore 2013-05-21 09:32|| 2013-05-21 09:32|| Front Page Top

#6 Was also informed that we (our Tea Party) will not protest our IRS office because to do so requires a permit, which takes significant lead time to obtain (not sure, but probably fees too.)

Posted by Glenmore 2013-05-21 09:39|| 2013-05-21 09:39|| Front Page Top

#7 Due to a tweak Congress makes to the tax code, more than 400,000 nonprofit groups around the country are threatened with an automatic loss of tax exemption, forcing them to re-apply for exemption.

That part is incorrect - exempt org's of all stripes either had to start filing Federal tax returns (990, 990-EZ, 990-PF or 990-T / postcard filing) or lose tax exempt status. It only applied to exempt org's that weren't filing tax returns. The IRS said 'start filing and you're fine; otherwise your exempt status will be revoked'. More details here.

That time entry has been struck, pending re-verification of the cited source.

Posted by Raj 2013-05-21 11:01|| 2013-05-21 11:01|| Front Page Top

#8 nice work, Pappy

Posted by Frank G 2013-05-21 11:36|| 2013-05-21 11:36|| Front Page Top

#9 Doesn't explain the 'True the Vote' case

No, it doesn't and it won't.

Frankly, the 'True the Vote' is a separate case; covering it at this point would dilute the timeline and cause me to spend a lot of time and effort running down yet more trails. Look at what happened to Ken Starr (not that I'm comparing myself to him -hardly) and his primary investigation when he was tasked (deliberately imnsho) to do other, 'related', investigations.

I'm not going to rework or add to the timeline to cover that. Feel free to work the 'True the Vote' case on your own.

Posted by Pappy 2013-05-21 12:24|| 2013-05-21 12:24|| Front Page Top

#10 A clarification on my 11:01 post - I only meant the bolded part - 'forcing them to reapply for tax-exempt status' portion was incorrect. I agree with the rest of that sentence, and my link substantiates that, so you may reconsider the strike to that part of the sentence only.

Also - while I'd have to do some digging (can't do it now, as I'm working on preparing a 990 right now!) I don't believe that 'thousands of applications' were the result of this change of the tax law.

Posted by Raj 2013-05-21 13:04|| 2013-05-21 13:04|| Front Page Top

#11 Raj, I don't have access to my notes right now, but "thousands of applications" was in the referenced articles. Possibly hyperbole or 'excuse' but it was in there.

I'll modify the entry.

Posted by Pappy 2013-05-21 17:03|| 2013-05-21 17:03|| Front Page Top

#12 Pappy - it's possible (but not likely - see below) that some of these non-filing org's still didn't file by the deadline (May 15, 2010) and would then have to re-file the application, but any CPA worth their salt would have advised them to file the returns because it's way easier.

I even did a side project to get me some exempt org. clients, sending out about 100 snail mails and follow-up phone calls to non-filing org's in my area that the IRS published as non-filers. Turns out the overwhelming majority of those 100 org's (I'd say 75% to 80%) were no longer active, so you could say I have pretty solid first-hand knowledge about this issue.

Posted by Raj 2013-05-21 17:57|| 2013-05-21 17:57|| Front Page Top

#13 Agree Pappy you can easily get lost in the maze of corruption....Good work on the timeline.

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-05-21 20:05|| 2013-05-21 20:05|| Front Page Top

#14 Also - great job on this timeline, Pappy!

Posted by Raj 2013-05-21 20:28|| 2013-05-21 20:28|| Front Page Top

#15 Raj, here it is. From the New York Times:

In recent years, the offices biggest headache was not the rising tide of political groups seeking tax exemptions or the growing calls from Washington lawmakers, chiefly Democrats, demanding closer scrutiny of big-spending political operations claiming tax-exempt status. The office was consumed with a different problem: a tweak Congress had made to the tax code that threatened more than 400,000 nonprofit groups around the country with an automatic loss of tax exemption, potentially putting some out of business, according to a report by the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which handles complaints about tax cases. Tens of thousands of such groups had reapplied for exemptions, overwhelming the office with queries and paperwork.

Posted by Pappy 2013-05-21 20:43|| 2013-05-21 20:43|| Front Page Top

#16 2 words: Independent Counsel

They can go after the AG office and the entire executive branch as well as congress, and Holder cannot fire them. All the GOP needs to do is find their testicular fortitude and appoint the counsel - current law is already in place.

Posted by OldSpook 2013-05-21 23:36|| 2013-05-21 23:36|| Front Page Top

#17 Thanks Pappy, good work.

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-05-22 09:47|| 2013-05-22 09:47|| Front Page Top

#18 Thank you, Pappy.

An key question as we slide into the 2014 elections is: what if they get away with this? Oh. I'm sure the janitor at the Cincinnati office will be fired and many harsh editorials will be written, but suppose they are no serious consequences for the WH or the senior IRS bureaucrats? They will have very publicly made the point that at minimal cost to themselves they can use the IRS to punish you for donating to conservative candidates or otherwise speaking out against Champ and his crew. And perhaps that's the point of the whole exercise.

Posted by Matt 2013-05-22 16:31|| 2013-05-22 16:31|| Front Page Top

#19 Pappy was 48 hours ahead of the Post.

Posted by Shipman 2013-05-22 18:12|| 2013-05-22 18:12|| Front Page Top

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