But it now turns out there may have suppression of the vote after all. “It looks like a lot of tea-party groups were less active or never got off the ground because of the IRS actions,” Wisconsin governor Scott Walker told me. “Sure seems like people were discouraged by it....
At least two donors told me...At least!
...they didn’t contribute to True the Vote, a group formed to combat voter fraud, because after three years of waiting the group still didn’t have its status granted at the time of the 2012 election. (While many of the targeted tea-party groups were seeking to become 501(c)(4)s, donations to which are not tax-deductible, True the Vote sought to become a 501(c)(3).)I desperately wanted to save America from the ravishments of the Kenyan Pretender, but I was afraid I wouldn't get a tax deduction on my substantial intended donation to yahoos in colonial lederhosen, so I figured let him go ahead and ravish her.
It won’t be easy to discover whether the “voter suppression” engaged in by the IRS was malicious and political.Boy, and here I thought I was going to have to supply my own bullshit-quotes.
But we have to make every effort to find out before the American people start losing confidence in the integrity of our elections.I'm beginning to think the strategy now is really just to create a saving-remnant narrative to help wingnuts keep the faith over the next few years, because no normal person is gonna believe that the 2012 Presidential election --which was not close and largely turned on the votes of black people unlikely to be sympathetic to the tax deduction concerns of rich conservatives -- actually hung on whether tricornered crackpots had enough money to pretend they were a grassroots movement.
UPDATE. Commenter D. Johnston:
Wait, 501(c)(3)? By what standard could these goobers claim that that status? According to IRS standards, an organization has to be dedicated exclusively to (if I may quote) "Religious, Educational, Charitable, Scientific, Literary, Testing for Public Safety, to Foster National or International Amateur Sports Competition, or Prevention of Cruelty to Children or Animals." What were they claiming, that they were "educating" the public on how the black guy in office is a Marxist? Preventing the cruelty of an adequate standard of health care to children?I can see a "religious" angle, in the sense that these guys proceed on faith unsupported by reason.
They didn't let our social welfare groups keep the blax from voting!!!11!
ReplyDelete~
By the time the 2012 election rolled around, the Tea Party was about as popular as irritable bowel syndrome, about as charming too.
ReplyDelete"But we have to make every effort to find out before the American people
ReplyDeletestart losing confidence in the integrity of our elections."
Because Bush v. Gore was such a booster thereto.
Funny thing. The IRS had mostly failed to enforce the gift tax rules on 501(c)(4)s for years, and when they did, effective with 2008, Congress got all political on them and threatened the IRS deputy director. Gift taxes only apply to the fatcats that can give $11000 or more at a crack, and those are the people with political axes to grind, and who expect to gain politically and financially from throwing big dollars at political action groups.
ReplyDeleteSo, Congress, in effect, was protecting the political nature of those 501(c)(4)s that weren't supposed to be political.
The enormity of the chutzpah is boggling.
Wait. I though the tax-exempt thing was only for groups not engaging in direct political activity. So I can't see how they can say ...
ReplyDelete... oh, fuck it. Let's all agree that IRS thugs busted up Tea Party gatherings with ax handles.
While many of the targeted tea-party groups were seeking to become 501(c)(4)s, donations to which are not tax-deductible, True the Vote sought to become a 501(c)(3)
ReplyDeleteWait, 501(c)(3)? By what standard could these goobers claim that that status? According to IRS standards, an organization has to be dedicated exclusively to (if I may quote) "Religious, Educational, Charitable, Scientific, Literary, Testing for Public Safety, to Foster National or International Amateur Sports Competition, or Prevention of Cruelty to Children or Animals." What were they claiming, that they were "educating" the public on how the black guy in office is a Marxist? Preventing the cruelty of an adequate standard of health care to children?
Honestly, if there were Teabagger groups trying to claim that status, then maybe they needed extra scrutiny.
Yep, 501(c)(3) organizations are prohibited from supporting or campaigning for candidates (though they can technically lobby officials for issues related to their purpose). 501(c)(4) can engage in political activity, so long as that's not the group's primary function. The intention was for that status to go to civic organizations such as unions and neighborhood groups, but Citizens United has opened it up to some marvelous new abuses.
ReplyDeleteThere are about 225 million people in this country eligible to vote, and if we can get 110 million of them to the polls in a major national election, it's a pretty good turnout, notwithstanding all the various efforts of the right wing to disenfranchise the voters that don't like them.
ReplyDeleteI'd say from that there's already a majority lack of confidence in the "integrity of our elections." And in the integrity of our politicians.
Maybe Fund should just try to keep up with current events instead of writing about them.
I'm beginning to think the strategy now is really just to create a saving-remnant narrative to help wingnuts keep the faith over the next few years,
ReplyDeleteAnd there you hit the nail on the head, Roy. The IRS scandalette is part of the narrative justifying the impeach-Obama drumbeat. And the idea of impeachment - making Barry Soetoro a one-and-a-half term president - is for the consumption of the rubes. Much like the assurances that he was a goner in the last election when every scientific poll showed him substantially ahead.
Their charm offensive fulfilled the last part, at least.
ReplyDelete"Effects of Transparent Absurdity on Wall Street Journal Readership."
ReplyDeleteControl group consisted of like-minded people. 50% were administered placebo (bullshit). The other 50% too.
See, the problem is that Mitt Romney didn't have enough money to win.
ReplyDeleteTwo elections in a row.
ReplyDelete" Is that Choot's paw in yer pants or are you simply overjoyed to see me."
ReplyDelete...
Much like the assurances that he was a goner in the last election when every scientific poll showed him substantially ahead.
ReplyDeleteI think I see your problem. When discussing a crew for whom "science" equals witchcraft, yet believe that our lives are hung from the balance held by an invisible sky buddy...wait, yes, I see, move along...
...
Bush v. Gore was a confidence boost--to those despondent asshats who were on the verge of surrendering democracy to the common voter.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a couple of right-wingers in 2000 who explained how when you look at things clearly, Bush obviously won the popular vote. Or PO'd conservatives in my former home town whining that Clinton "was never elected by a majority of the American voters." For a lot of Repubs, the delusion is that they're divinely appointed to run a one-party state so they cannot possibly have lost fairly.
ReplyDeleteThere there, brave wingnuts... don't cry, you'll still be able to call Obama a Kenyan Usurper Socialist Muslim America-Destroying Alinskyite, you just won't get a tax exemption for doing it.
ReplyDeleteJohn Fund and Scott Koch whimpering that an organization whose semiofficial name is "Taxed Enough Already!" is getting extra scrutiny from the IRS.
ReplyDeleteYeah, chutzpah.
I really have to admire how the republicans have managed to completely kneecap so many critical federal agencies so that GOP pundits and politicians can point at those agencies and screech about how government doesn't work. The IRS scandal is just the latest in the hit parade where an agency was stripped of of funds and personnel, then handed vastly expanded duties outside its nominal mission. To nobody's surprise, failure on a mass scale followed. Which was taken as proof positive that government is the problem.
ReplyDeletePerfecto!
Fuck the nuanced complexities of Benghazi: 501(c)(4)s vs 501(c)(3) is definitely the scandal that the average American can get their head around.
ReplyDeleteHey, leave the Flying Spaghetti Monster out of this!
ReplyDeleteIt's a universal solvent--Works for public education and housing, as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is "failure on a mass scale"?
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think the strategy now is really just to create a
ReplyDeletesaving-remnant narrative to help wingnuts keep the faith over the next
few years
Can I get a Schwarzgestohlenmythe? A Negerbetruglegende?
the IRS investigations of Tea Party groups
ReplyDeleteLet's not fall into the same misinterpretations as the rest of the punditocracy. The IRS was not investigating Tea Party groups, it was simply requiring them to provide more comprehensive information in their applications.
What set the groundwork for all of this was the GOP's long-term efforts to strip the IRS of resources. Manpower was cut to the bone over the last 12 years. Meanwhile, Citizens United gave rise to all these Tea Party "social welfare" groups. The Federal Elections Commission, which had also been stripped of manpower, was effectively barred from looking into the election activities of these groups. That left the under-funded IRS to figure out of Americans For Zero Government was a real "social welfare" group or just another PAC trying to hide as a non-profit, or even just a money-making grift scheme. With hundreds of these groups popping up all over the country, it was, indeed, failure on a mass scale that they could not all be investigated and approved/disapproved in a timely and non-partisan manner.
ReplyDeleteThey just refuted their own argument. If True the Vote's application was to become a 501(c)(3), then none of the contributions to it should have had any affect on the election, since 501(c)(3)s are not supposed to engage in electoral politics.
ReplyDeleteRequiring paperwork from voter suppression groups before allowing donations to be deductible is voter suppression!
ReplyDeleteBut it now turns out there may have suppression of the vote after all.... At least two donors told me they didn't contribute to True the Vote
ReplyDeleteSure sure, but did they vote?
"Testing for Public Safety" is my guess, since these people believe that having a black man in the White House is inherently dangerous; his body count is in the seven figures, after all.
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ReplyDeleteAs noted in the last thread, some basic reportage on the topic would be helpful. But scandal-pimping is our press' brand these days, so the average yokel will never hear any facts such as whose applications were slowed down with requests for additional information, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis whole non-scandal could be put to bed immediately with just the simple expedient of asking the involved IRS staffers to testify, and asking them why certain groups were targeted, where the order for targeting, if any, came from, the type of additional information requested, and the impact it had on the length of time it took for tea party groups to get their applications for bogus non-profit status confirmed (because they are all bogus - here's a group calling itself a political party - though it's really just the most reactionary wing of an existing party - trying to get tax-exempt status as a charitable organization, when its entire raison d'etre is supporting and advancing a radical political agenda and the candidates who promise to implement it). Instead of holding show trials and questioning IRS supervisors, the White House press secretary, et al, Congress could just go directly to the source and ask the actual staffers involved these questions.
The fact that they haven't tells you everything you need to know about this non-scandal: nothing illegal happened, and no one was ordered to do it. And ultimately, a bunch of blatantly partisan groups were able to get approved as charitable organizations for tax purposes; it just took them a bit longer in a few cases. It's just like the Holocaust, in other words.
Well, in all fairness, these groups should get the ACORN treatment, then they wouldn't have to file any paperwork at all.
ReplyDeleteCould you imagine the harassment and threats that any named IRS employees would receive from the 'baggers?
ReplyDeleteWait 'til those halfwits find out how many people a real free market will kill. It'll be bitter amusement, but that's about all can expect from this lot.
ReplyDeleteAffecting the election? Fund seems to be admitting that those organizations were strictly political after all.
ReplyDeleteTaxes, regulations, workplace standards..those things are for the little people.
ReplyDeleteWait 'til those halfwits find out how many people a real free market will kill.
ReplyDeleteWhich will occur at half-past-never. David Koch could be personally shitting in their faces as his goons bulldoze their homes and (more directly) murder their families, and they would still blame Obama and the Democrat Party.
But enough about Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants, but only if you can deduct it.
ReplyDeleteGood point; I hadn't thought of that. But on the other hand, it's not like they're going to get to the bottom of anything by grilling the president, his press secretary, or the IRS person who first released the information. Of course, that's not the goal anyway, because nothing illegal happened - the show trials and questioning of only people who WEREN'T involved is how they plan to keep the "scandal" simmering. They don't really want answers - they just want an excuse for their continuing grievance.
ReplyDeleteThat's why they are called movement conservative, it's about the irritable bowels.
ReplyDeleteAt least two donors told me...
ReplyDeleteYa know, I appreciate the desire to gain maximal results with minimal effort. And I realize that the professional American Right long ago realized that even pathetically stupid stuff would soar like a parrot of liberty in the fevered brains of their fuckwitted followers. But how about just the tiniest smidgen of pride in one's work?
"More than one donor told me..."
"Several donors told me..."
"The sentiment among donors was..."
Any of those would have done the trick of achieving at least marginal plausibility. But "at least two"? What, he lost count after one? (It is John Fund, but still.) All that's missing is to have those two-or-more donors driving cabs at the time. Sheesh.
They don't really want answers
ReplyDeleteOh, come now. Orrin Hatch had some questions for the IRS, and Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller answered them in writing April 26th. The
answer to the very first question explained that 501(c)(4) groups are allowed to self-declare their status without applying to the IRS at all. An IRS determination of tax-exempt status is useful if the status is ever questioned, but is not mandatory. So all of the savagely harassed teabagger groups were completely free to assert their 501(c)(4)
status at any time. Somehow, I missed Senator Hatch repeating that information, but I'm sure he must have. Perhaps he was upstaged by other GOP members of Congress, previously heard shouting about a secret pre-election conspiracy, admitting that they had been informed about this last year.
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Exactly. It's a pretty stupid admission. They're saying that the IRS corruptly thwarted their own corruption.
ReplyDeleteIt's kinda funny. If the IRS actually enforced the rules on churches staying out of politics, there wouldn't be a single limousine or private jet left in all of TV Evangelist Land.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Catholic Church in America would have to move to Uganda.
They think he's the one with Body Count?
ReplyDeleteGuys, a quick tip. Barack's the one in the White House. Ice-T's the one on Law & Order: SVU.
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“It looks like a lot of tea-party groups were less active or never got
ReplyDeleteoff the ground because of the IRS actions,”
They weren't supposed to be active if they were approved as tax exempt. Is he saying they were waiting to be disapproved before engaging in political activity?
Schobhinunterunserekehlen!
ReplyDeleteThe problem here is that the wingers are barely smart enough to realize that while Da Avrege 'Murrkin can't distinguish between a (c)(3), a (c)(4), and Shinola, they CAN get their heads around "Gubmint Thug's Trynna Shut Us UP", and that's how they're playing it.
ReplyDeleteIn the absolute vaguest sense of the term, they're an educational organization teaching the public about all the voter fraud that goes on (and the fact that it's apparently perpetrated by Democrats, the poor and people of color is just a coincidence).
ReplyDeleteI suppose sidling up to politicians and shouting "Will no one rid me of these turbulent socialists?" to nobody in particular isn't really political.
in 2012 i was working with a former state legislator here in the square state who had started a non-partisan organization that backed candidates who didn't take pac money. we ended up getting involved in two primary races - a dem in aurora (same district as the midnite theatre massacre) and a paulite republican in a rural area north of denver, where there's lots of drought misery and of course fracking.
ReplyDeletewe were successful in the former (a margin of about 50 votes) and ended up getting blown out of the water in the latter race. the candidate who opposed the republican we were backing was almost completely funded by the rocky mountain gun owners association pac - indeed, the candidate's wife worked for the group (the rmgo was started by a guy who - and this is no joke - feels that the nra is far too compromised. he wears an ar-15 lapel pin, the same weapon adam lanza and james holmes used)
anyway, over the course of the election, we noticed that the rmgo wasn't filing campaign finance material. not that they were late, they weren't filing the paperwork at all. scuttlebutt was they were in fact being investigated by the irs. they ended up being sued by a gay couple in new jersey because rmgo used their image in a mailer they sent around weld county.
but here's the thing - the reason these groups were being investigated by the irs is because by and large they're breaking the law. and they don't give a shit. they don't consider campaign finance law to be valid, especially under the kenyan usurper. it's a point of pride for these assholes, to be flouting the law. the other thing is, they've got the money to pay these fines. it's not
like joe teabagger got up one morning and decided he was gonna take his
country back from socialism and put out his shingle for 501c4 status;
rmgo had a million dollars to play with in the primary, which typically
ran between $10-$20,000.
and there's a reason that the irs was having to do this work in a few places - a few years ago, when scott gessler, the dickhead secretary of state here in colorado who is now running for governor first took office, he closed the books on every campaign finance violation from right-leaning groups by summarily fining them $50; many of them had fines running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
and if they really want this showdown between them and the jackbooted thugs they always think is coming, they should've just gone and camped out on wall street and protested neoliberalism. nobody's apologizing to those kids.
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