They're From The IRS And They're Here To Apologize

Fortunately, this happened under Obama. If something similar happened under Bush, the sidewalks would be unsafe due to leaping Libs descending from above:

IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out.

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The IRS Commissioner at the time was a Bush holdover.

As to why it won't happen again, well, nobody at the top knew anything the first time, so waddya gonna do?

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.

Left unanswered - are these "low-level" IRS workers in a union (presumably the NTEU)?

MORE: As Prof. Jacobson notes, the IRS is the enforcer for ObamaCare as well. No politicization to worry about there, either. Giving more power to unsupervised partisans - wonderful.

Comments

[Gus]

George Costanza moment.

Was that wrong??? Nobody told me targeting Conservatives was wrong!

[NK]

Shulman abruptly resigned as IRS Commissioner on a saturday 2 weeks after the election -- my friend of 33 years was appointed as "interim" Commissioner... and here we are. This morning, I had the rare tact to not CC the "Interim" Commissioner with my obnoxious email about this abuse to the other 2 cronies in our group.
Rare Tact?... or I didn't want to be audited for the past 7 years?

[MikeHggns]

Hmm... Use all aspects of the State as political arms and enforcers of the current political leadership; e.g., the Justice Department, the IRS, the Media, National Security organizations, the State Department, etc., etc. It seems like I've heard of this before. Hmm... I wonder where that was?...
Nope, I'm drawing a blank.

Low-level workers, my a**.

[bgates]

Lerner said the practice [of inappropriately flagging conservative political groups because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications] was not motivated by political bias.

Of course what she meant to say was that the practice was not motivated by partisan bias; hatred of America is still a political bias.

And of course if she had said that she'd still be lying, because love of America and the principles upon which it was founded is no longer a nonpartisan position.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.....Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.--

Of course not.
They were motivated by their dislike of the football team in Foxboro and the proclivities of little girls with tea sets.

How about not insulting our intelligence next time, Lois?

[Captain Hate]

... That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review,"

Except when we do...

[centralcal]

O.M.G. From Z. Goldfarb on Twitter:

The senior IRS official briefing the press just said: "I'm not good at math."

[TMLutas]

Right now, partisan GOP hacks are looking at the reaction to see if this is something that they can get away with the next time they control the IRS.

Fire them and prosecute them to send a message to both sides.

[centralcal]

ACLU on IRS apology: "about as constitutionally troubling as it gets"

[Thomas Collins]

"tea party" or "patriot"

"Jihad" probably attracted no attention.

By the way, it is not unusual for a nonprofit organization to be subjected to a process resembling autopsy without benefit of death when it applies for tax-exempt status. However, subjecting conservative organizations to extra scrutiny is a scandal whether or not higher ups sent down the word to do this. If higher ups really didn't know, it most likely means that the Obama Administration and MSM has managed to infect certain IRS workers with an anti-conservative bias.

I have represented clients before the IRS for over 30 years. Overall I have found IRS personnel, both in the field offices and in DC, to be high caliber people who focus on the tax law, not politics. So these shenanigans especially burn me up.

Then again, we have seen evidence of this bias in the Department of Homeland Security, so it most likely permeates the Federal Government at the moment.

[Paul]

Personally I say good. I'm glad the IRS came clean. That is far better than stonewalling it.

Maybe the IRS top cheese is deciding to jump off the Obama ship and has the courage to do what needs to be done (like show where the bodies are buried.)

[Thomas Collins]

"low-level workers in Cincinnati"

The questionnaires Cincinnati workers send out in response to applications for tax-exempt status depend on protocols set at IRS policymaking levels. If the personnel who set the protocols view "tea party" or "patriot" as indicative of an organziation deserving of more scrutiny than, say, one with "combatting global warming" in its application, anti-conservative bias is the only logical explanation.

[centralcal]

They didn't just "come clean" - their is a IG report due soon, per Issa and Jordan:

Ahead of an impending report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the Internal Revenue Service today disclosed that it had targeted certain tax-exempt organizations for their political beliefs. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., requested the IG look into allegations of political retaliation last June. In response to the today’s disclosure and apology by IRS, Issa and Jordan issued the following statement: “The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable. The Committee will aggressively follow up on the IG report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”

[pagar]

Just another attempt to knock the Benghazi story off the front page, IMO.

[centralcal]

Maybe more breaking news today?

A paramedic who was one of the first on the scene of a massive explosion last month at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, was arrested early Friday and charged with possession of a destructive device, The Dallas Morning News reported.

[NK]

Paul-- the current Toppest Cheese at IRS is an Obama supporter and HUGE Dem. Very smart man, very honest man, very Big Dem. He won't lie for the Dems, but he'll be a good little soldier and implement Obummer policy.

[Rob Crawford]

Maybe the apology is just a cover for something more. Maybe the "low-level employees" were OFA?

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN for a summary indicative of how the IRS typically determines what areas of exempt organization law are in need of extra scrutiny (with a link to the larger report). It is inconceivable to me that the line people in Cincinnati weren't getting guidance from people higher up in the chain of command. I think it is important for an investigation to be conducted in which it is brought out into the open what words trigger extra scrutiny as to possible abuse of tax-exempt status for political purposes.

[daddy]

I am watching FOX and they have some FBI spokesman on and he is saying that the dead Boston Bomber may have been radicalized as early as 2011.

Well anyone paying attention to this story even briefly, knows that he has an American wife and a 3 year old kid, so he has been married to her or with her for at least 3 years.

Yet his former girlfriend, (obviously prior to 3 years back) has said that the guy was a religious whacko from way back:

Former girlfriend of Boston bomber reveals he slapped her and beat her head against a car for wearing shorts

Nadine Ascencao said Tamerlan Tsarnaev raged at what she was wearing...

Ms Ascencao told Inside Edition that Tsarnaev, a former amateur boxer, attacked her after she wore a tank top and shorts to a pool party.
She said he screamed at her 'what are you wearing' and then became violent.
She said: 'He literally grabbed my jaw and he was telling me "you are not going to wear this, do you understand what I'm saying" and he kept pushing my head until I hit the car and it hurt and that made me really upset and he just slapped me across the face. But that right there just made me so furious'...

In previous interviews, Ms Ascencao said her boyfriend, who she met at high school, became increasingly religious and was angered if she wore Western clothes.
He later went on to marry Katherine Russell, who converted to Islam.

Do you hink I should give a tip to the FBI that Tsarnaev was "Radicalized" way, way back, or is banging the snot out of your girlfriends because she wore clothing offensive to Sharia Law not the definition of "Radicalized" to the FBI?

[Rob Crawford]

daddy -- the FBI doesn't consider expressions of Muslim faith to be "radicalized", no matter how extreme.

I'm pretty sure their criteria for "radicalized" depends on the person planting a bomb or pointing a gun.

[Thomas Collins]

"Maybe the "low-level employees" were OFA."

RC, although I doubt the OFA types were in direct contact with the line people in Cincy, given how the Obama Administration operates, it wouldn't surprise me at all that OFA types influenced the policymakers in the development of protocols for the line people.

It is now clear that this Administration successfully covered up a September 11, 2012 al-Qaeda attack (I say "successfully" because although the facts are now coming out, the goal of keeping things quiet until after the election was achieved). So it's not surprising that they would send long questionnaires to conservative groups.

[Andy Freeman]

Surely the pigford precedent applies - every affected group and anyone who looks like them should get $50k.

[daddy]

Don't know if anyone is watching Megyn's Show but she just had on some great parents of the dead Seals and they were outstanding at calling out the doofus Joe Biden for stupidly leaking info that lead to the identification of Seal Team 6, and they are attacking that useless POS and his boss foe the deaths of their son, rightly and righteously.

They are as tough if not tougher than their dead son and his comrades. Will we see that segment over and over and over again.

Don't know if this is the dam breaking and our Right Wing Cindy Sheehan's finally getting airtime, but it might be.

[centralcal]

And, per NRO it was NOT a localized problem in Ohio:

Moreover, if the IRS claims this was a localized problem, we had voluminous communications with IRS offices in California, Washington D.C., and in the Ohio office that was the alleged source of the problem.

[Thomas Collins]

I hope more public figures follow Mitch McConnell's leade and classify this activity as thuggish. See LUN.

[Frau Eulenspiegel]

daddy, Joe couldn't buy a pair even if Frau Doktor Jill took him by the hand. The word "gravitas" will never recover.

[daddy]

A hypothetical, but thought I'd ask it anyway.

This Ariel Castro monster. If we suspected he had abducted other young women and was keeping them in some other unknown location, and assuming that they were kept in the same horrible conditions of chains and darkness and malnutrition as is obvious he ket the rescued girls. If that was the situation, would we be remiss to use coercion such as water-boarding to get the information out of him as to the location of the other women or would that be out of line because we are not that type of people and put up with allowing them to slowly wither and die?

Just asking.

Me personally, I want him and Jodi Arias, and Gosnell, and the remaining Boston Bomber all publicly executed together on the same day and damn quick.

[Thomas Collins]

Putting "gravitas" and "Biden" in the same post. Frau, thankfully my coffee wasn't near the keyboard! :-))

[Frau Eulenspiegel]

...the current Toppest Cheese at IRS is an Obama supporter and HUGE Dem. Very smart man, very honest man, very Big Dem. He won't lie for the Dems, but he'll be a good little soldier and implement Obummer policy.

Related to Jack Lew?

[Frau Eulenspiegel]

TC - it must have been a typo; originally, Joe and gravy train were synonymous.

[bgates]

Very smart man, very honest man, very Big Dem.

Pick any two.

[centralcal]

The other thread is dead, but you all should really be outraged - Carney delayed the daily press briefing because he has invited a select few reporters to an "off the record" briefing on Benghazi.

Sounds like the most loyal and devoted media minions are being given their marching orders behind closed doors.

[Frau Eulenspiegel]

Why is the widow of Suspect #1 no longer Mrs. Tsarnaev? Was there a special escape clause in "till death do us part" that released her? For her blind stupidity, she should wear that name till she has it *legally* removed.

[Boatbuilder]

Were the low level employees fired? Banned forever from government employment? Or just temporarily reassigned?

[daddy]

Steve Hayes will be on with Megyn in 3 minutes to discus the latest on Benghazi. I have a feeling this will be an excellent segment.

[Rob Crawford]

Sounds like the most loyal and devoted media minions are being given their marching orders behind closed doors.

They'll relay what they're told through Journolist 3.0.

[daddy]

Megyn's Show.

Sec State John Kerry says today that he has not learned anything new from the latest hearings and revelations on Benghazi.

Hayes says Jay Carney is either lying, or using actually very precise words that allow him to say "no one at the White House", meaning the definition of Is is kind of meanings. (Sort of like saying "I won't harm a single hair on his head", and then killing the guy by harming more than a single hair on his head). Linguistically correct but totally dishonest. Hayes thinks either Carny is lying on doing the second linguistic trick.

[Rob Crawford]

Sec State John Kerry says today that he has not learned anything new...

...since he learned treason pays.

[gmax]

Not partisan? Like Ohio was not a battleground state and every dollar spent on legal fees defending was not a dollar diverted from trying to punt Zero to the curb? These Democrats, they don't lie very very well just only everytime they open their traps...

[Rob Crawford]

gmax -- Cincinnati isn't purely an Ohio city. Lots of Kentuckians work there, and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't find a "Progress Kentucky" link.

[Frau Eulenspiegel]

Do the LIV have their own union or does being a Dem make that unnecessary?

[Porchlight]

Linguistically correct but totally dishonest.

Like when Petraeus said post-Benghazi that "no one at the CIA gave a stand down order," meaning someone somewhere else gave the stand down order(s).

Clintonspeak, how surprising.

[daddy]

I am way behind today and having even read half of TM's posts, but for latecomers like me, here is what Megyn is saying was removed in some of the initial Talking Points before they settled on the Videomaker as culprit talking point by Version 12:

Terms Removed at the request of the State Department:

---"Jihadists"
---"Islamic extremists"
---"Threat of extremists linked to Al Qa'ida in Benghazi"
---"at least five other attacks...in Benghazi"
---"previous surveill[ance]"

[Captain Hate]

Sec State John Kerry says today that he has not learned anything new from the latest hearings and revelations on Benghazi.

Of course he didn't; Reporting for Doody has access to all the info.

[Jane -]

Someone should go to jail.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

daddy,
Don't forget Terms added at the Request of the IRS:
---"patriot"
---"Tea Party"

[daddy]

Jim MIller,

If you are up.

Mark Begich has made a statement on Obama's proposed NPR-A oil cleanup scam that I posted about yesterday, and Begich's comments show that my guess was correct about what Obama was trying to do:

Begich: Sen. Mark Begich echoed Murkowski's Tuesday skepticism about federal proposals to use Alaska's share of NPR-A revenue for the cleanup, adding that he spoke Wednesday with Bud Cribley, BLM-Alaska's region director.

“There is no way that Alaska is picking up the bill for the NPR-A legacy wells,” Begich said. "To me, this budget proposal cooked up in Washington is just a gimmick and I told them as much.”

Link.

[Rob Crawford]

Via HotAir: NO disciplinary action against IRS thugs.

[Thomas Collins]

Daddy, is Carney's noone at the WH comment related to a stand down order? A day or two ago there was a discussion on a thread about a Navy Seal PJM article stating that for a cross border rescue, the absence of a stand up order would have resulted in the mission being called off. So, as regards a cross border rescue, it may be the case that noone at the WH did give a stand down order. All Obama had to do was nothing (very easy for him in this case).

[gmax]

All Obama had to do was nothing

After years of practice why am I quite certain of his ability to vote "present"?

[Clarice]

were these the same low level self-starters who accessed joe the Plumber's govt records and made them public?

[gmax]

How about John Boehner announcing that if the perpetrators are not purge and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, that a major sequester of funds for the IRS is going to happen starting in October of the next fiscal year. The IRS is not someone the Democrats are going to want to protect, especially going into an election year AND it will send a strong message to stop this spit...

[daddy]

Wow. We also have a paramedic who is involved with the big fertilizer plant explosion in Texas arrested this morning in possession of pipe bombs.

And George Zimmerman discusion was just on Megyn's Show discussing 3 points his attorney's want in regard to the upcoming trial.

Too big a news day and too many threads.

No more coffee for TM.

And again for Jim Miller or whoever is interested:

The NPR-A scam I mentioned yesterday is impossible to find in the ADN today. I can only find it by hitting my link from my post yesterday: It still it has zero comments after being posted over 1 day again, so it looks to me like since it was detrimental to Obama and would harm Alaskans, (and their opinion of Obama), if it was explained in understandable English, that it was buried as quick as possible by ADN---McClatchey.

Later.

[Melinda Romanoff wrackin']

Clarice-

That's a very sensible question.

[daddy]

is Carney's noone at the WH comment related to a stand down order?

No TC. What Hayes and Megyn were going after was Carney's very specific statement back when this Benghazi questioning first started, when Carney refuted charges in a WH Press conference that the White House had changed or ordered changed any of the verbiage in the Talking points that came from the Intel folks. Carney said specifically that ll that the White House changed was 1 word, something like changing the word "Embassy" to Consulate", in order to be more precise when they released that info to America.

Megyn and Hayes say his comments are demonstrably false, and Hayes was saying yes they are, unless he was doing the linguistic dishonesty trick I mentioned above, by actually telling somebody to type the new sentences on a typewriter over at some other physical location than the White House. Thats what it referred to.

[Rob Crawford]

were these the same low level self-starters who accessed joe the Plumber's govt records and made them public?

Wasn't that out of Columbus?

Same mindset, though.

[Thomas Collins]

OK, thanks, daddy. Then I suspect Carney was told a lie and he happily repeated it.

I suspect that in the off the record briefing today to the selected press mucky-mucks, the national security card was played (that is, they were told that the WH wasn't concerned about the election, but about keeping the guns to Syria via Turkey operation under wraps).

[gmax]

McClatchy approaches Occupy on the moonbat scale. They own the Ft Worth Star too, and I never even pick it up for that very reason...

[MarkO]

That Obama is truly a nasty little man. Felon. Killer.

[centralcal]

TC - now the WH is claiming it is not "off the record," but rather "deep background."

Apparently the media can report on it, but cannot attribute it. ::eyeroll::

[gmax]

Just got notice of this from a Tea Party group, did not verify it actually happened. File under: Miracle, News Organization does it job and reports the facts

ABC News has issued a news report indicating that they have evidence that the Obama administration deliberately changed CIA-informed talking points to hide the truth from the American people about the Benghazi terrorist attack

[Clarice]

Claims of Localization of problem are vigorously disputed:http://nationalreview.com/347956/re-mistakes-were-made?fb_action_ids=10151602407034564&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=

[Clarice]

TC--While this off the record for my friends presser is going on the wires ae reporting that the military in Libya have been placed on alert due to the deteriorating security situation there. I think Obama's soft shoe routine is about to get the hook.

[MarkO]

Is Obama going to shoot a rocket through a tent?

[gmax]

SO, is it just me or did Zero have a really bad April to be followed up by batting 0 for May so far? Not even Josh Hamilton whiffs this many times! LOL

[Thomas Collins]

Wait a minute. Sun Tzu Choomer's leading from behind in Libya destabilized the situation there and in surrounding areas? Can't be! He's cool and he's hip and he uses a Blackberry. Oh, that's right, that's so 2008.

[Jane -]

Jay Carney is on TV right now, lying thru his teeth.

[sailor]

How does Jay Carney live with himself? Am watching his briefing on television.

[MarkO]

Did you see Carney just choke on his own words. I can't listen to it. I enjoy the elegant lie, but he's just lying, vagrantly, without any means of support.

Obama is a liar.

[centralcal]

A "little sherbet" as Clarice calls it:

‏@tedcruz

In light of President Obama’s TX visit to talk job creation, I thought I’d meet w/ Rahm Emanuel in Chicago to share tips on bullying.

[Rob Crawford]

TC - now the WH is claiming it is not "off the record," but rather "deep background."

Wasn't that the title of a movie?

[Rob Crawford]

Jay Carney is on TV right now, lying thru his teeth.

The second clause is redundant.

[henry]

"deep background."

if that's a movie, it must have been filmed in a SF bath-house.

[MarkO]

Starring Jay Loveless.

[Jack is Back! (On his iPad)]

Vanna White is the new Press Secretary. I have never seen such spin in all my years. Baghdad Bob has nothing on her. Anyone know when she started to part her hair and wear glasses and a tie?

[sailor]

It is amazing to watch. Will any reporters REALLY stand up and ask real questions? Hope springs eternal.

[Rob Crawford]

Has Carney started balancing plates on sticks yet?

[Melinda Romanoff smackin']

Mary Katherine Ham-"All right, who let all these rich, middle-aged Chik-fil-a lovers into the press briefing room?"

[Corn-fed conservative (southern strategy version)]

Here we go again. BENGHAZI !!!!

If only you had another blue dress. Endless pyrrhic hearings with attendant shrieks of poutrage. Anything to obstruct revovery, eh?

[maryrose]

We have them on the ropes now. No amount of spin will save them
Yesterday my sister said Nuland looked "guilty as sin" in her initial broadcast. Now we know why. The person who changed the talking points and the ones who approved it should all be fired-no benefits. Still need to know Bammy's whereabouts that evening. Will some brave soul step forward and rat him out? Hillary is toast after this. Even the "Big Dog" and Kerry's foolish utterings can't save her now.

[Gus]

The more Carney lies about Benghazi, the more the MFM hears him lie about Benghazi. At some point a reporter will go "rogue" and tell the truth.
I hope.

[DoT on iPad]

Anything heard from the ACLU re State invoking an international treaty to order that website to take down its material about the 3D pistol? That used to be known as prior restraint, and it's strictly forbidden by the 1st Amendment, which cannot be touched by any treaty.

[Melinda Romanoff shruggin']

Ew.

Splashed with the spittle of panicky desperation.

[MarkO]

I read that the 3D folks took it down voluntarily. You know how that call goes.

[MarkO]

The thing is, there is material for some best sellers in the Benghazi mess. Never underestimate the greed of WH reporters.

[Jack is Back! (On his iPad)]

Remember, these guys (IRS) are going to be the enforcement arm of Obamacare. Feel better?

[Gus]

When the IRS comes to your door, do they say whether they are LOW LEVEL employees or not?

[maryrose]

Marko:
I believe someone is going to figure this out anf finally begin to get the answers this WH has been concealing for the past 8 months. Everything they say ,just makes people want to know more about what they are hiding. Carney is a joke and should be treated as one. All of them have compromised their reputations and possess no integrity at all. We deserve better people than these liars.

[Corn-fed conservative (southern strategy version)]

Alabama and Missouri well on their way to 'nullifying' gun regs, cuz....James Madison. Might as well make us into the Balkans; a collection of Nation states.

Wait....that's your wet dream.

[gmax]

It would appear that the Administration has a problem, thus the Pitzer Putz shows up in a full spittle flecked lather ranting inanities about anything but the thread. In the words of Shakespeare "Methinks thou dost protest a bit too much." LOL DOUCHEBAG

[Melinda Romanoff slappin']

Nixon already sold out MO. Jeanyus.

[Thomas Collins]

Meanwhile, see LUN for an article reporting that the misunderstood lone wolves from the Religion of Peace may have executed a cold blooded murder on September 11, 2011.

[gmax]

When your own appointees at the IRS are issuing statements echoing Tricky Dick you just know it wheels off time at the White House. I bet three packs of Camels have gone up in smoke today!

Mistakes Were Made!

[Thomas Collins]

Make that three September 11th cold blooded murder.

[Gus]

Dana Gilbert Ward got shitcanned from Pitzer apparently.

[Dave (in MA)]

The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Friday afternoon document dump.

[gmax]

As much as the narcissist hates to be criticized, what are the odds of Val Jar finding Zero curled up in a naked ball, Ray Nagin style, sucking his thumb surrounded by three empty Camel packs?

[Captain Hate]

Has Carney started balancing plates on sticks yet?

Has he ever ridden his bike without training wheels?

[maryrose]

gmax:
This is only the beginning of the trainwreck. Baucus: Obamacare-trainwreck
Benghazi-Hillary-trainwreck
Kerry-foreign relations-trainwreck
Immigration reform gang of 8-trainwreck
2016-Hillary as dem candidate-trainwreck

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--How does Jay Carney live with himself?--

On our dime.