The Right Wingers Who Cried "Wolf!"

For years, the right wingers have been trying to portray themselves as martyrs.  Radio squawkers like Charlie Sykes and Vickie McKenna and propaganda groups like Media Trackers or MacIver Institute have been feeding the same lines to the handful of people that actually pay attention to them that the right wing has been the victims of government overreach.

The two things that they love to mewl the most about are how the Walkergate investigations are partisan witch hunts and that President Barack Obama has been abusing the powers of his office by having the IRS target them.

Jeff Simpson has already shown their ridiculousness about the Walkergate investigations by pointing out that some of the District Attorneys behind the investigations are Republicans, that the GAB who called for the investigation consists entirely of Republicans and that the special prosecutor in the case had actually voted for Scott Walker.

Now, via Anomoly at FreakOutNation, their claims about being targeted by the IRS has been shown to be nothing more than crying "Wolf!":

A series of IRS documents, provided to ThinkProgress under the Freedom of Information Act, appears to contradict the claims by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that only Tea Party organizations applying for tax-exempt status “received systematic scrutiny because of their political beliefs.” The 22 “Be On the Look Out” keywords lists, distributed to staff reviewing applications between August 12, 2010 and April 19, 2013, included more explicit references to progressive groups, ACORN successors, and medical marijuana organizations than to Tea Party entities. [...]

[T]he actual IRS records indicate that at least some additional scrutiny was required for groups of all types that had names that sounded political — and that the explicit heightened scrutiny for left-leaning groups was even longer-standing than for Tea Party groups.

That the right wing squawkers and propagandists would lie about this is not surprising. It is what they do. And even though the evidence shows that that they are the lying liars that lie, they will continue to lie about these things, because again, it is what they do.

What makes it even more egregious though is the fact that these would be martyrs are so damn hypocritical about it.  Even as they are trying to play the victim, they are the ones that are constantly practicing McCarthyism and trying to smear anyone and everyone on the left, no matter how much they have to conflate and confabulate things.

The Real IRS Scandal

From the talented Stuart Carlson:

More About The IRS "Scandal"

By Jeff Simpson

The IRS "scandal" is starting to dwindle and now the righties are desperate.  They want something, anything to stick on the president to cover up their own incompetence.  However its just not working. 

Let's take a look at some real History that they keep leaving out.

First thing is " NOT Just right wing hate groups were "targeted"....

Of the 298 groups subjected to additional review, 72 were “tea party” groups, 11 were “9/12″ groups and 13 were “patriots” groups, according to the inspector general’s report.

 
Secondly.....really no one knew how to be vindictive and attack your opponents using the full force of OUR Government better than Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W Bush:

4. The Bush Justice Department Targeted Democrats for Prosecution. Back in 2007, the House Judiciary Committee investigated charges that attorney general Alberto Gonzales singled out prominent Democrats for prosecution, specifically Pennsylvania Democrats -- an assertion that was backed up by Dick Thornburgh, the attorney general under Reagan and Bush 41.
5. The Attorney Firing Scandal. Of course there was the attorney firing scandal in which the Bush Justice Department fired a slate of U.S. attorneys for strictly partisan reasons, either because the attorneys were prosecuting too many Republicans or because they weren't prosecuting enough Democrats.
6. The Bush IRS Audited Greenpeace and the NAACP. Not only was the NAACP suspiciously audited during Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, but high-profile Republicans like Joe Scarborough had previously supported an audit of the organization even though he's suddenly shocked by the current IRS audit story. Also in 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported that the IRS audited the hyper-liberal group Greenpeace at the request of Public Interest Watch, a group that's funded by Exxon-Mobil.

 Third, according to Statistical guru Nate Silver, it doesn't make logical sense.

The point is, however, that even with no political targeting at all, hundreds of thousands of conservative voters would have been chosen for audits in the I.R.S.’s normal course of business. Among these hundreds of thousands of voters, thousands would undoubtedly have gone beyond merely voting to become political activists.
The fact that Ms. Noonan has identified four conservatives from that group of thousands provides no evidence at all toward her hypothesis. Nor would it tell us very much if dozens or even hundreds of conservative activists disclosed that they had been audited. This is exactly what you would expect in a country where there are 1.5 million audits every year.

IRS Quote Of The Day!

By Jeff Simpson


The fake selective outrage of the right is very tiresome, especially in this fake IRS issue.  When Karl Rove and the Bush Administration was actually using the IRS for political purposes we got a collective yawn.  

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Monday called for any investigation into the IRS not only under President Barack Obama but stretching back to the George W. Bush administration, while he also saying Obama should fire any staffers involved in inappropriately targeting conservative groups.

“If the IRS was selectively enforcing the law, then, yeah, absolutely heads need to roll,” Schiff said on MSNBC. “I wish there was more GOP interest when I raised the same issue during the Bush administration, where they audited a progressive church in my district in what look liked a very selective way. I found only one Republican, [Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C)], that would join me in calling for an investigation during the Bush administration. I’m glad now that the GOP has found interest in this issue and it ought to be a bipartisan concern. The IRS absolutely should not be picking winners and losers or picking political ideology. It ought to neutrally enforce regulations.”

The one good thing about having a Democrat in the White house is, after taking 8 years completely off, the republicans finally care about issues like dead Americans and privacy.     

 

 

 

 

Unbelievable!

By Jeff Simpson

The last two plus years have been challenging in WI.  We have dropped over 30 slots in job creation all the way down to 44th/50 in job creation.  Our job "creation" agency has burned through millions of dollars of taxpayer money, broken the law, handed out loans to board members, and have no jobs on the books to show for it.   The republican controlled Legislature has not advanced one single jobs bill in three years but have focused their efforts on social engineering.  

All of the problems and the help we need in WI and our Governor decides to spend his time writing a letter to the White House trying to advance a non-story.  

Directly from Charlie Sykes and WhiteWisconsin.  John Doe himself,  wrote a letter to the President demanding there be an investigation! 

Mr. President,

We write to you today disturbed after learning that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been unfairly targeting and applying added scrutiny to applicants for tax-exempt status based on their conservative beliefs. To be blunt, this is Big Brother come to life and a witch hunt to prevent Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights.

The First Amendment gives Americans the ability to freely express their opinions regardless of their political beliefs. The actions of the IRS are an attempt to gag the voices of Americans who may disagree with the policies and left-leaning ideology of your administration. Quite frankly, this is un-American.

This is a subversion of American liberty and a secret but direct attack against the U.S. Constitution. Immediate action must be taken to ensure this never happens again. Here are two steps that should be taken:

1. Fire any and all employees responsible for this situation.

2. Appoint a Special Prosecutor now to find out if laws were broken and if anyone committed crimes.

The bottom line is that regardless of one’s political beliefs, conservatives and liberals alike must be able to exercise their First Amendment rights without fear that the federal government will abuse them for having differing opinions.

Whats hilarious is that they think the Obama administration is "left leaning".  They are so extreme to the right they do not truly know what "left leaning" looks like.  

Apparently we should just leave the hate groups alone, what harm could come of that anyway?  
 

Marco Rubio Puts His Foot Down!

 

By Jeff Simpson

The Right Wing's Thirsty Golden Boy, Marco Rubio, let everyone know he was serious today.  After hearing that the IRS had targeted right wing hate groups to see if they were actually following their 501c4 rules, he was very upset. 

Rubio was so upset, that he took the time to fire off a letter to treasury Secretary Jack Lew demanding that the head of the IRS be fired immediately.  

“Furthermore, it is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership. Therefore, I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effectively (sic) immediately. No government agency that has behaved in such a manner can possibly instill any faith and respect from the American public.”

The problem?  There is no IRS Commissioner!

Douglas H. Shulman used to be the acting commissioner. He was appointed by the Bush administration in 2008. He already resigned this past November, showing us that Rubio is either unaware of what's going down in the IRS, or his demand for Shulman's resignation is so filled with outrage that it resonated into the past. Like a Flux Capacitor of anger.

Shulman's successor has yet to be appointed.

OOPS!  There is the rising star of the right doesn't have any idea what is happening at the IRS.  Might I suggest some quick research before he speaks next time?

Our inside sources tell us at CogDis that Rubio will also soon be asking for the resignation of the tooth fairy, the Great Pumpkin and the Kid President in order to fully revamp the office!