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Did the I.R.S. actually do anything wrong?

(The New Yorker) - The stories began to come to light on Friday, when the Associated Press reported that a draft report by a Treasury Department inspector general had found that the I.R.S. subjected certain Tea Party-affiliated groups to undue scrutiny. Lois Lerner, head of the I.R.S. tax-exempt-organizations division, said the agency was “apologetic” for what she termed “absolutely inappropriate” actions by lower-level workers.

It’s important to review why the Tea Party groups were petitioning the I.R.S. anyway. They were seeking approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This would require them to be “social welfare,” not political, operations. There are significant advantages to being a 501(c)(4). These groups don’t pay taxes; they don’t have to disclose their donors—unlike traditional political organizations, such as political-action committees. In return for the tax advantage and the secrecy, the 501(c)(4) organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity, like endorsing candidates.

If that definition sounds murky—that is, if it’s unclear what 501(c)(4) organizations are allowed to do—that’s because it is murky. Particularly leading up to the 2012 elections, many conservative organizations, nominally 501(c)(4)s, were all but explicitly political in their work. For example, Americans for Prosperity, which was funded in part by the Koch Brothers, was an instrumental force in helping the Republicans hold the House of Representatives. In every meaningful sense, groups like Americans for Prosperity were operating as units of the Republican Party. Democrats organized similar operations, but on a much smaller scale. (They undoubtedly would have done more, but they lacked the Republican base for funding such efforts.)

So the scandal—the real scandal—is that 501(c)(4) groups have been engaged in political activity in such a sustained and open way. As Fred Wertheimer, the President of Democracy 21, a government-ethics watchdog group, put it, “it is clear that a number of groups have improperly claimed tax-exempt status as section 501(c)(4) ‘social welfare’ organizations in order to hide the donors who financed their campaign activities in the 2010 and 2012 federal elections.”

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Read the full article, it kind of sums up what my thinking on this has been since the story broke.

“If left-leaning organizations were disguising their true purposes to obtain 501(c)(4) status, the I.R.S. should have turned them down, too.”

Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow Tells Tea Partiers They’re Like “Slaves” Ready To “Revolt”

(Media Matters) - Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow told a Tea Party rally that they’re like “slaves” who have become “enslaved by the notion of ever-increasing taxes,” health care reform, and gun laws. Ablow told the crowd that those grievances “can’t stand, because slaves always revolt.”

Ablow spoke at an April 13 Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Boston. In a video of the speech posted to YouTube, Ablow, who was billed as a “FOX NEWS expert on psychiatry,” attacked President Obama as someone who is psychologically damaged because he was “abandoned” as a child (a frequent critique by Ablow).

Near the end of his remarks, Ablow invoked slavery.

read more and watch the video

Number one, funny how this guy gets billing related to Fox News at a Tea Party rally, yet the right loves to vehemently deny that Fox is the PR arm of the right.

Second, it seems to me like these guys LOVE alluding to violent revolution, but do in such a way that they always have some kind of ‘out’ if you will, when one of their own commit a violent act.  

The founder of a tea party group in Oklahoma was charged with two felonies on Tuesday for allegedly sending threatening emails to a Republican lawmaker after he refused buy in to the notion that the United Nations was conspiring to transform the country into a communist dictatorship.

(Raw Story) - According to the Oklahoman, 54-year-old Sooner Tea Party founder Al Gerhart faces up to five years in prison for blackmail and violating the state computer crimes act.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation determined that Gerhart admitted sending an email to state Sen. Cliff Branan (R) “that was intended to threaten and intimidate him.”

Gerhart had been angry because Branan refused to allow a vote on a bill that would have ensured Oklahoma cities do not participate in Agenda 21, a United Nations initiative to promote environmentally sustainable development. Conspiracy theorists on the right have long thoughtthat Agenda 21 was a “conspiracy to transform America from the land of the free, to the land of the collective” through “a mind-control” tactic called the Delphi technique.

Although the Oklahoma state House had passed House Bill 1412, Branan refused to bring it up in the state Senate because he said it was based on a “fringe conspiracy.”

“Branan, Get that bill heard or I will make sure you regret not doing it,” Gerhart wrote in the email. “I will make you the laughing stock of the Senate if I don’t hear that this bill will be heard and passed. We will dig into your past, yoru [sic] family, your associates and once we start on you there will be no end to it. This is a promise.”

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The Tea Party sure does love them some conspiracy theories, don’t they?

Slick, Paranoid Tea Party Video Aims for Violent Insurrection

(AlterNet) - Attendees at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) were reportedly thrilled by a short sci-fi video depicting a dictatorial near-future government and the underground “Movement on Fire” that springs up to resist it. The video, a thinly veiled advertisement for violent insurrection from the “Tea Party Patriots” group, boasts professional acting and Hollywood production values. But underneath its bright, professional sheen lurk dark overtones of End Times paranoia that will resonate with millions of American fundamentalists. Its apocalyptic imagery is as ancient as Revelations, its glossy look as modern as a Revlon ad, and its near-subliminal barrage of rapid-cut imagery rings with the terror-fueled sermons of 1,000 preachers.

Read more and watch the video

This was shown at CPAC. CPAC. THE conservative conference. 

This isn’t just the fringe element of the right, it IS the right. This kind of thing is becoming more and more mainstream with them and it’s quite frankly horrifying. 

Tea Partiers Are Boycotting Fox News: Activists have a list of demands for the conservative network they believe is “turning left”

(The Daily Beast) - Is Fox News going soft?

For those of you keeping score at home, the Tea Party has accused gays, Jews, President Obama and Karl Rove of being Nazis this week.

After Tea Party Nation founder and walking Godwin’s Law example Judson Phillips compared liberals to Nazis last week, the National Jewish Democratic Council called on Tea Party senator Rand Paul to denounce the attack.

In Phillips’ opinion, that could only mean one thing: The folks at the National Jewish Democratic Council are Nazis, too.

In a deranged email to supporters, Phillips explained that by denouncing him, the NJDC “actually proved my point. Liberals do not want to discuss or debate issues. They want to silence those who disagree with them.”

“So did the Nazis.”

“Like the book-burning Nazis of the 1930s, the left wants to suppress all dissenting opinion,” Phillips added. With this latest outburst, Phillips has now labeled both his gay and Jewish critics as National Socialists. If any communists have something to say about Tea Party Nation, now would be the time.

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Had Koch Been Planning Tea Party Since 2002?

(Daily KOS) - Shattering the public perception that the Tea Party is a spontaneous popular citizens movement, a new academic paper provides evidence that an organization founded by David and Charles Koch, attempted to launch the Tea Party movement in 2002.  

The peer-reviewed study appearing in the academic journal, Tobacco Control and titled, ‘To quarterback behind the scenes, third party efforts’: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party, shows that the group Citizens for a Sound Economy launched a Tea Party movement website, www.usteaparty.com, that went live in 2002.

According to the website DeSmogBlog.com, who broke this story earlier today, CSE was founded in 1984 by the infamous Koch Brothers, David and Charles Koch in 1984. David Koch sat on the board of CSE for many years and the group’s first president, Richard Fink, went on to become a senior VP at Koch Industries.

The common public understanding of the origins of the Tea Party is that it is a popular grassroots uprising that began with anti-tax protests in 2009.

Here’s a screenshot of the archived U.S. Tea Party site, as it appeared online on Sept. 13, 2002:

The site is described as, “In 2002, our U.S. Tea Party is a national event, hosted continuously online, and open to all Americans who feel our taxes are too high and the tax code is too complicated.” There is also “Patriot Guest book” available for visitors to voice their support and write a message for CSE and the U.S. Tea Party movement.

The US Tea Party site is no longer online and appears to have been taken down sometime in mid-2011. A DNS registry search, finds that the web address www.usteaparty.com is currently owned by Freedomworks, an organization heavily involved in Tea Party organizing today.

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Rove Appears On Fox News To Defend New Anti-Tea Party Group From Conservative Critics

(Media Matters) - Karl Rove appeared on Fox News’ Hannity to defend his new group, the Conservative Victory Project, against complaints from fellow conservatives that it would undermine the Tea Party movement. Rove, a Fox News contributor who regularly appears on the network advance his political agenda, insisted that the group is not an attempt to protect the GOP establishment over Tea Party candidates, but to promote “the most conservative candidate that can win.”

The New York Times reported on February 2 that the Conservative Victory Project , which is backed by Rove and his allies who were also involved in his American Crossroads super PAC, is “the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party.”

During the February 5 edition of Hannity, host Sean Hannity noted that Rove’s new effort has “drawn the ire of conservatives and the Tea Party,” who are “accusing Karl Rove of putting the establishment ahead of conservative principles.” Indeed, conservative media figures have been vocal about their opposition to Rove’s new anti-Tea Party project.

Hannity expressed his own concern about the group, saying to Rove: “My fear is, is that if Karl Rove is fighting the Tea Party and conservatives are battling establishment candidates … I am concerned that we’re going to lose.”

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The GOP was more than happy to co-opt the Tea Party back when the movement was was a popular bandwagon to jump on.

They (the Tea Party) have been spewing the same ignorant, hateful BS all along, it’s just that now that they are more in the eye of the public and the media (and have had a chance to enact their policies) a lot more people are starting to see them for what they really are.

Thing is, the shit the Tea Party spews is basically just more of the same shit that conservatives have been spewing for years. Just louder, with more bile and, in my opinion, with more honesty about their true motivations.

This has always been how the GOP was, it’s just more in the spotlight now, and folks like Rove are starting to feel the heat of that spotlight.

RedState Calls Tea Party Brand “A Cancer,” Urges Name Change

(Crooks and Liars) - The RedState trike force has finally noticed that America hates the Tea Party.

The Tea Party brand has been effectively destroyed. After three years of demonizing the Tea Party as ‘racist,’ ‘extremist,’ and ‘radical,’ the brand has become a cancer.

It is now a drag on the candidates it supports, with the Left (and GOP establishment types like Karl Rove) gleefully labeling conservative candidates as “outside the mainstream.”

Yeah, it’s “the Left” and Karl Rove that has destroyed the Tea Party. Not all the ugly demonstrations, offensive signs at book burningsprotests, the clownish and racist leaders, or the non-stop parade ofembarrassing, losing candidates.

In the meantime, while the Tea Party had once enjoyed 24% popularity, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, only 8% of Americans now identify themselves as members of the Tea Party. […] However, insofar as it has been branded and is now associated with negativism, the brand itself must change in order to build and grow again.

These people are a little slow on the uptake. Two years ago, the Teabaggers were less popular in the US than socialism. And three years ago, they were 14 points underwater.

So, the Tea Party is toast. I’m not surprised at all — this was entirely predictable.

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These people think everyone is as stupid as them. Change the name to anything you want. As long as the policies are the same and they keep spewing the same ignorant bullshit and bigotry, they are going to remain just as unpopular.

It astounds me that they can’t see that it’s their hateful bullshit, conspiracy theories, and bigotry that is the root of the problem.

Tea Party Absolutism: The High Cost Of Hating Government

(The National Memo) - The tourniquet applied by the outgoing Congress to the economy allows a two-month breather before we are consumed by the next deadline. The president and his party can allow themselves a brief moment of celebration for imposing higher taxes on the richest Americans, but the next stage in fixing the nation’s fiscal problems may not be as easy. By the end of February, lawmakers must find enough cuts in public spending to allow the debt ceiling to be raised. Two more months of uncertainty will prevent businesses and consumers from making spending decisions that would bolster the economic recovery.

The devil is not so much in the detail of the arguments to come as the big picture that frames the debilitating running debate. While the difference between the sides is ostensibly over taxes and public spending and borrowing, the more profound division is over where government should begin and end. For many of the Republican Party’s Tea Party insurgents, the choice is even more fundamental: whether there should be a government at all. Their unbending position, demanding an ever-diminishing role for the federal government, has levied an enormous unnecessary cost on everyone else.

Since Republicans regained control of the House in the 2010 midterms, when the Tea Party tide was in full force, they have attempted to freeze the size of government, coincidentally putting a brake on economic recovery. They have vetoed attempts at further economic stimulus, encouraged America’s economy to be downgraded by the ratings agencies by threatening not to extend the debt ceiling, and tried to veto any and every tax increase in the fiscal cliff talks. Their aim is to shrink government by starving it of funds. Such uncompromising absolutism has led to the dampening of business confidence and investment that would have created jobs.

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I originally ran across this article because of something it mentions on the second page; The average cost of American health care is $8,233 per person per year, the most expensive in the developed world. In comparable Western countries such as France, which has a private health insurance mandate administered by the state, it is $3,974. In Britain it is $3,433.

FreedomWorks - a powerful Tea Party group - bills itself as a grassroots outfit, but it’s bankrolled mostly by big-money donors.

Powerful Tea Party Group’s Internal Docs Leak—Read Them Here

(Mother Jones) - FreedomWorks, the national conservative group that helped launch the tea party movement, sells itself as a genuine grassroots operation, and for years, it has battledaccusations of “astroturfing”—posing as a populist organization while doing the bidding of big-money donors. Yet internal documents obtained by Mother Jones show that FreedomWorks has indeed become dependent on wealthy individual donors to finance its growing operation.

Last month, the Washington Post reported that Richard Stephenson, a reclusive millionairebanker and FreedomWorks board member, and members of his family in October funneled $12 million through two newly created Tennessee corporations to FreedomWorks’ super-PAC, which used these funds to support tea party candidates in November’s elections. The revelation that a corporate bigwig Stephenson, who founded the Cancer Treatment Centers of America and chairs its board, was responsible for more than half of the FreedomWorks super-PAC’s haul in 2012 undercuts the group’s grassroots image and hands ammunition to critics who say FreedomWorks does the bidding of rich conservative donors.

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Can anyone say smokescreen?