The Republican Thread

[Balta1701]

So why can't is scare them into enforcing BOTH sides equally? If it is a cultural thing inside the agency, then fire them all and start over. You have rules, enforce the rules. For everyone. Otherwise you are as bad as NBA refs.

The end result of that is literally "IRS demands increased scrutiny from groups that use the phrase Tea Party" in their name...which is literally this entire scandal.

 

They have to judge based on very little information whether their primary purpose is political. They basically have their names to go on. They target political sounding phrases, "Progress Texas", "Tea Party Patriots" and ask for detailed information about their political activities.

 

That is the basic gist of this scandal.

[mr_genius]

Actually I think it was one woman, Sarah hall, who just got PROMOTED to head the Obamacare dept at the IRS instead of being fired.

 

more corruption

[StrangeSox]

Actually I think it was one woman, Sarah hall, who just got PROMOTED to head the Obamacare dept at the IRS instead of being fired.

Actually that is wrong. That woman ran the department, but there was a different single individual that reviewed flagged applications through December 2011.

[EvilMonkey]

Actually that is wrong. That woman ran the department, but there was a different single individual that reviewed flagged applications through December 2011.

Then she should be fired for gross incompetence. it really doesn't matter, she should not in any way, shape or form be employed by the IRS anymore. And you keep bringing up that it was a 'single individual' that did this, while ignoring the many many individuals, like her, that ignored the wrong doing and/or tried to cover it up.

[StrangeSox]

Then she should be fired for gross incompetence. it really doesn't matter, she should not in any way, shape or form be employed by the IRS anymore. And you keep bringing up that it was a 'single individual' that did this, while ignoring the many many individuals, like her, that ignored the wrong doing and/or tried to cover it up.

I brought up the under-staffing point when you asked why the rules for tax-exempt organizations aren't better enforced. It wasn't in relation to who is or isn't responsible.

[EvilMonkey]

I brought up the under-staffing point when you asked why the rules for tax-exempt organizations aren't better enforced. It wasn't in relation to who is or isn't responsible.

If you can say with a straight face that politics played NO part in the extra scrutiny that conservative groups got, you are simply beyond hope. Short staffed or not (and I call bulls*** on the IRS being short staffed), decisions were made that had political ramifications all the way thru. BEYOND whatever 'one' person did as you keep claiming. Did that same one person cover it up until well after the election? No, there were a lot more people that helped with that. All should be gone. All.

[StrangeSox]

If you can say with a straight face that politics played NO part in the extra scrutiny that conservative groups got, you are simply beyond hope. Short staffed or not (and I call bulls*** on the IRS being short staffed), decisions were made that had political ramifications all the way thru. BEYOND whatever 'one' person did as you keep claiming. Did that same one person cover it up until well after the election? No, there were a lot more people that helped with that. All should be gone. All.

 

I think I misread your original question:

 

So why can't is scare them into enforcing BOTH sides equally? If it is a cultural thing inside the agency, then fire them all and start over. You have rules, enforce the rules. For everyone. Otherwise you are as bad as NBA refs.

 

I read that as "why don't they do a better job of enforcing these tax-exempt rules in the first place," to which I answered because there was literally one guy doing it and it was seriously understaffed. That doesn't mean that this one guy should be enforcing the rules unevenly.

 

[Cknolls]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare...31f9_story.html

 

 

Hmmm. Just a guess, but I bet this is another case where Narcissus knows nothing.

[StrangeSox]

Sorta odd to see Republicans complaining about invasions of privacy from various government investigative institutions.

 

These laws suck, but it doesn't appear that they've done anything remotely illegal. Congress could change these laws they implemented at any time, but they don't.

[Cknolls]

Sorta odd to see Republicans complaining about invasions of privacy from various government investigative institutions.

 

These laws suck, but it doesn't appear that they've done anything remotely illegal. Congress could change these laws they implemented at any time, but they don't.

 

 

This guy could s*** on live tv and you would say he is just fertilizing the rose garden. Gimme a break.

[Cknolls]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/3487...an-kay-melchior

 

I'm sure this was just a coincidence.

[Balta1701]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/3487...an-kay-melchior

 

I'm sure this was just a coincidence.

Yeah, I know. Why on Earth would anyone ever think that an organization calling itself "True the Vote" might have lied on its statement when it declared that its "primary purpose" was not political?

[StrangeSox]

True the Vote has gotten in trouble for years for knowingly spreading false and misleading information to poll watchers.

[StrangeSox]

This guy could s*** on live tv and you would say he is just fertilizing the rose garden. Gimme a break.

1) What have they done that's not 100% legal here? The media's freaking out because they were targeted, but it'd have been nice for them to be so vocal over the past 5-7 years.

 

2) That what they did is 100% legal sucks and shouldn't be. Not because I'm buying into the media's pity story at this point, but because any actions like this should be reviewed by a judge and not done solely at the discretion of the executive branch. Obama has been s***ty in this area, and his administration has really gone after whistleblowers and leakers. But Congress gave the executive these powers, and they can take them away.

[StrangeSox]

For whatever it's worth, a Texas judge ruled this year that King Street Patriots, one of the two groups founded by Catherine Englebrecht, does not meet the 501©4 requirements.

[Cknolls]

Yeah, I know. Why on Earth would anyone ever think that an organization calling itself "True the Vote" might have lied on its statement when it declared that its "primary purpose" was not political?

 

 

What exactly does that have to do with the alphabet soup showing up at thier door?

[StrangeSox]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare...31f9_story.html

 

 

Hmmm. Just a guess, but I bet this is another case where Narcissus knows nothing.

Got around to reading this, this is more troubling than the AP thing. The charges the DoJ were mulling over would essentially make news gathering illegal. At least they thought better of it in the end.

 

Is it supposed to be a bad thing though if the White House is isolated from the day-to-day operations of DoJ, IRS, DHS, etc.? I would think we'd want those agencies kept at arms-length from any administration for exactly the alleged reasons here.

[Jenksismyhero]

"Toy guns are just a gateway to using real guns."

 

http://gawker.com/elementary-school-launch...ogram-512276709

 

Elementary School Launches Toy Gun Buyback Program

 

The principal of an elementary school in the San Francisco Bay Area offered students a chance to trade in their toy guns for a book and a chance to win a bike as part of the school's first toy gun "buyback" program.

 

"Playing with toys guns, saying 'I'm going to shoot you,' desensitizes them," said Charles Hill of Strobridge Elementary School in Hayward, "so as they get older, it's easier for them to use a real gun."

 

At the Strobridge Elementary Safety Day on Saturday, kids were invited to hand in their toy guns in exchange for a ticket good for one free book and a raffle ticket entering them in drawing for a free bike.

 

Local police and fire department representatives were also on hand to talk to the children about gun and fire safety.

 

A spokesman for the gun-rights group Responsible Citizens of California took issue with the event, saying "playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians" was "a normal part of growing up."

 

"While the intentions are obviously good on the part of the school administration," said Yih-Chau Chang. "Guns are used in crimes, but they are more often used in defensive ways which prevent violent crime from occurring in the first place."

 

Chang went on to note that most toy guns are painted bright colors "that make it virtually impossible for an officer to mistake it for a real gun."

 

In response, Hill pointed to a recent incident where a little boy in Kentucky killed himself while playing with a pink gun he thought was a toy.

 

Oops:

 

Edited June 17, 2013 by Jenksismybitch

[Jake]

"Toy guns are just a gateway to using real guns."

 

http://gawker.com/elementary-school-launch...ogram-512276709

 

 

 

Oops:

 

 

I'm pretty sure every person quoted in that article is a complete idiot.

 

I think children can be taught that the way we play with toy guns isn't the way we play with real guns nor the way we treat people that aren't playing games with us.

 

Likewise, the gun rights group pretending that there are many more people using guns in defensive ways than in crimes is stupid. That is only true if I pretend that my dad's gun cabinet is stopping a home invasion every few days just by being there. They could have just said what I said about toy guns and not turn it into some pro-gun mythmaking session.

 

People like to be dumb.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Jake

[cabiness42]

"Toy guns are just a gateway to using real guns."

 

I used to absolutely LOVE candy cigarettes as a kid and never once have I ever smoked a real cigarette.

 

I also loved Big League Chew gum and never once have put actual tobacco in my mouth.

 

I used to whack stuffed animals with a toy golf club as a kid and never once have a hit a real animal with a real golf club.

[Balta1701]

The 2 year old son of a member of Bush-41's security detail has leukemia, and Bush-41 shaved his head in solidarity with the kid.

[StrangeSox]

[farmteam]

Class move.

[southsider2k5]

Well it looks like one party is still after Corzine...

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/02/...E97118220130802

 

Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine winces as he testifies before a House Financial Services Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the collapse of MF Global, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, December 15, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

By Douwe Miedema

 

WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 2, 2013 7:18pm EDT

 

(Reuters) - A group of Republican lawmakers called on Friday for a criminal investigation of Jon Corzine, the head of failed futures broker MF Global, saying he may have committed perjury when speaking before Congress in 2011.

 

Corzine, a Democrat who previously served as New Jersey's governor and senator, headed MF Global when it collapsed in October 2011 in one of the 10 biggest U.S. bankruptcies.

 

Customers were left reeling when it was discovered that about $1.6 billion was missing from their accounts. That money turned out to have been used as stop gaps, which is illegal and caused public outrage.

 

Corzine maintained during several Congressional hearings that he did not know what happened to the money. But recorded conversations unearthed by MF Global's regulator showed otherwise, the members of the House of Representatives said.

 

"There is no way Mr. Corzine could have been "stunned" to learn of hundreds of millions of dollars of missing client funds," they said in the letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that was dated August 1.

 

Corzine used that expression when he appeared before the Senate Agriculture Committee on December 13, 2011, the letter said.

 

A civil complaint from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in June containing recorded conversations showed that Corzine knew more than he said, the letter added.

 

A Justice Department spokesman said it would review the letter after receiving it through official channels.

 

The 18 signatories of the letter, all Republicans, urged Holder to reopen a criminal probe into Corzine's actions, and to investigate whether he committed perjury by misrepresenting what he knew about the missing money.

[Balta1701]

So...what we really need to get the Republicans on board with dismantling the organized crime system that masquerades as the modern financial industry is to convince them that the people on Wall Street are all Democrats?

 

Hmm....