Obama Said Punish Our Enemies and the IRS Did [Archive] - Debate Policy

red states rule

05-16-2013, 02:58 AM

A detailed history lesson on Obama's past comments and how he views those who do not share his big government polices

and those people should be treated

snip

Like Henry II, Barack Obama never specifically asked that tea party groups and conservative be targeted. But by both his language and the “always campaigning” attitude of his White House, he certainly sent clear signals to Democrats with the power and ability to fight conservatives to engage as they could. Given his rhetoric against his political opponents, it is no wonder sympathetic Democrats in the Internal Revenue Service harassed and stymied conservative groups and, though little mentioned, pro-Israel Jewish groups and evangelical groups.

During Campaign 2008, Barack Obama famously told Democrats to take guns to knife fights (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/Obama_brings_a_gun_to_a_knife_fight.html).

He told a crowd of supporters to “argue with neighbors; get in their face (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCMDur9CDZ4).” By the way, watch the full clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCMDur9CDZ4) to hear Barack Obama say he will lower taxes and support the second amendment.

In 2009, the White House created an email address flag@whitehouse.gov and encouraged people to report their neighbors (http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2009/08/04/call-for-informants-if-you-oppose-obamacare-the-white-house-wants-to-know-about-it/) who might disagree with Obamacare. The DNC admitted the White House was engaged in collecting information on people.

(http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/08/20/dnc-admits-barack-obama-was-collecting-information-on-people-via-flagwhitehousegov/)

During August recesses in 2009, the Obama Adminstration told Democrats in Congress to (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25891.html) “punch back twice as hard” at Republicans.

In 2011, the Obama White House set up a ridiculous website called Attack Watch (http://www.redstate.com/aglanon/2011/09/20/attacking-attack-watchs-attack-on-my-attack-on-the-auto-bailouts/) to document and expose those hostile to them.

As I wrote in 2009, the Obama team brought back the politics of personal destruction (http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/06/16/the-return-of-the-politics-of-personal-destruction/). I noted then a Politico story that reported (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19846.html)

In 2012, the White House directly coordinated (http://www.humanevents.com/2012/03/09/white-house-works-to-influence-the-supreme-court-on-obamacare/#.UZKj5WJpl-s.twitter) with outside groups to influence the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision. About the time these meetings with “dozens of leaders of nonprofit organizations” were happening in the White House, tea party groups were suddenly getting inquiries from the IRS, bogging them down and distracting them from the fight at hand.

President Obama did not have to tell the IRS specifically to harass conservative, evangelical, and Jewish groups who might oppose him. His rhetoric on the campaign trail and in the permanent campaign of the White House operations made clear what he wanted. IRS agents not only harassed conservative groups, evangelical groups, and Jewish groups, but also leaked their confidential tax information (http://www.propublica.org/article/irs-office-that-targeted-tea-party-also-disclosed-confidential-docs) to left-leaning groups. The National Organization for Marriage and other groups had their donor lists leaked (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2013/05/the-national-organization-for-marriage-made-the-irs-enemies-list-do-tell.html) subjecting those donors to harassment. A Romney donor was harassed by the IRS (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/24/romney-donor-bashed-by-obama-campaign-now-target-two-federal-audits/). More than one person has emailed me to say that after they reported themselves to flag@whitehouse.gov they were audited by the IRS — in one case audited several times about just one tax year.

Obama went on the campaign trail in 2010 and told supporters to (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44476.html) “punish our enemies.” The IRS did just that. The need for specificity or explicitness was unnecessary, just like in 1170.

http://www.redstate.com/2013/05/15/will-no-one-rid-me-of-this-turbulent-group/

Kathianne

05-16-2013, 05:58 AM

formatting problems

Kathianne

05-16-2013, 06:24 AM

More of 'you were warned':

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123862834153780427.html

April 2, 2009

         The President Is 'Keeping Score'

Chicago politics has moved into the White House.

 By KARL ROVE (http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=KARL+ROVE&bylinesearch=true)

"Don't think we're not keeping score, brother." That's what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press.

A few weeks ago, Mr. DeFazio voted against the administration's stimulus bill. The comment from Mr. Obama was a presidential rebuke and part of a new, hard-nosed push by the White House to pressure Congress to adopt the president's budget. He has mobilized outside groups and enlisted forces still in place from the Obama campaign.

Senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and her chief of staff, Michael Strautmanis, are in regular contact with MoveOn.Org, Americans United for Change and other liberal interest groups. Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina has collaborated with Americans United for Change on strategy and even ad copy. Ms. Jarrett invited leaders of the liberal interest groups to a White House social event with the president and first lady to kick off the lobbying campaign.

...

Members of Congress should also worry about how Mr. Obama is "keeping score." He is steeped in the ways of Chicago politics and has not forgotten his training in the methods once used by Saul Alinsky, the radical Chicago community organizer.

Alinsky's 1971 book, "Rules for Radicals," is a favorite of the Obamas. Michele Obama quoted it at the Democratic Convention. One Alinsky tactic is to "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." That's what the White House did in targeting Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer. (The president's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, went so far as to lash all three from the White House press podium.) It may also explain Mr. Obama's comments to Mr. DeFazio.

After all, Alinsky's first rule of "power tactics" is "power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have." Team Obama wants to remind its adversaries it has plenty of power, and it does. The question is whether the White House will wield it responsibly. The jury is still out, but certain clues are beginning to emerge. "Don't think we're not keeping score, brother," even if said with a wink and a smile, isn't quite the "new politics" we were told to expect.

Its targets were initially Republicans, as team Obama ran ads depicting the GOP as the "party of no." But now the fire is being trained on Democrats worried about runaway spending.

Read the article to find all of the 'Democrat targets' at the time, for the most part now, they are either gone or on Obama's team...The targets were always the 'treacherous opposition.'

Kathianne

05-16-2013, 06:29 AM

Let's not forget his 'joke' a month later:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260113149028331.html

May 18, 2009

         Tax Audits Are No Laughing MatterA president shouldn't even joke about abusing IRS power.
By GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS (http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=GLENN+HARLAN+REYNOLDS&bylinesearch=true)Barack Obama owes his presidency in no small part to the power of rhetoric. It's too bad he doesn't appreciate the damage that loose talk can do to America's tax system, even as exploding federal deficits make revenues more important than ever.

At his Arizona State University commencement speech last Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree, citing his lack of experience, and the controversy this had caused. He then demonstrated ASU's point by remarking, "I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.

Our income-tax system is based on voluntary compliance and honest reporting by citizens. It couldn't possibly function if most people decided to cheat. Sure, the system is backed up by the dreaded IRS audit. But the threat is, while not exactly hollow, limited: The IRS can't audit more than a tiny fraction of taxpayers. If Americans started acting like Italians, who famously see tax evasion as a national pastime, the system would collapse.

...

Kathianne

05-16-2013, 06:42 AM

Back to the present:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578485341902603174.html?m od=rss_mobile_uber_feed

May 15, 2013, 3:42 p.m. ET

         Faith or Consequences"You should reject these voices," Obama said. He might have added: Or else.

smaller (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578485341902603174.html#)
Larger (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578485341902603174.html#)

 By JAMES TARANTO (http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=JAMES+TARANTO&bylinesearch=true)"One of the central goals" of President Obama's administration, Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson helpfully informs us, "is to rebuild faith in the federal government." A good example is this passage from the president's May 5 commencement speech at Ohio State University:

Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can't be trusted.

Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, it was on another college campus: "Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!" (Good thing Nicholas Kristof is on sabbatical, or he might write a column accusing us of trying to Otterize Obama.)

But seriously, Obama has a point here. If you hear those voices that try to gum up the works by warning of tyranny, whatever you do, block them out. You must have faith in the federal government. Not only is the federal government omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent, but it has a way of going all Old Testament on those who disbelieve, as Politico reports:

The Internal Revenue Service asked tea party groups to see donor rolls.

It asked for printouts of Facebook (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=FB) posts. FB -1.77% (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=FB?mod=inlineTicker)
And it asked what books people were reading. . . .

Some of the letters [from the IRS] asked for copies of the groups' Web pages, blog posts and social media postings--making some tea party members worry they'd be punished for their tweets or Facebook comments by their followers.

And each letter had a stern warning about "penalties of perjury"--which became intimidating for groups that were being asked about future activities, like future donations or endorsements.

In one instance, the American Patriots Against Government Excess was asked to provide summaries or copies of all material passed out at meetings. . . .

The Albuquerque Tea Party was asked about connections to other groups--Conspiracy Brews, Marianne Chiffelle's Breakfasts, Concerned Citizens for Limited Government, Concerned Citizens for Common Sense. . . .

Some were asked about any connection to Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit group backed by the Koch brothers that ironically never underwent the same level of IRS scrutiny.

And then they asked whether one group knew Justin Binik-Thomas.

Never heard of him? He's a former leader of the Cincinnati Tea Party, and clearly someone in the Cincinnati IRS office knew who he was.

Anne Hendershott, a professor at The King's College in New York, listened to the voices. She even repeated what some of them were telling her in a 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed criticizing self-described Catholic organizations that were campaigning for ObamaCare. And the voices sure gummed things up for her.

TheBlaze.com reports that the IRS selected her for an audit in 2010. The agency was specifically interested in her "business" activity, which is to say self-employment income from freelance writing. Her husband wasn't included in the audit although the couple filed jointly and he brought in the preponderance of household income:

The process was a grueling one, including many questions that Hendershott felt were political in nature. Numerous records were requested before the in-person meeting, as well as during and after.

"Every question had to do with bank deposits we made. Every single question," she said. "What is this money? And I didn't know a lot of it. We had to go to our bank and get deposits back. We had to get records showing where the money came from."

While asking about the deposits, the agent wanted to know if the monies came from groups and, if so, what the organizations' politics were.

She suspects she was targeted for articles she wrote about ObamaCare:

"I started writing articles like crazy saying these are fake Catholic groups," she said of the aforementioned organizations, noting that Korzen would often target her work and rail against her assertions.

Hendershott noted that the progressive leader once called into a radio show she appeared on to challenge her contention that he had accepted Soros money.

"I had the tax return in front of me and read off the amounts that Chris Korzen was getting paid from Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good--a Soros supported fake Catholic group," she told TheBlaze, noting that, through Catholics in Alliance, he had received $85,000.

While Korzen denied this on the air, Hendershott read from the 990 form in an effort to prove he wasn't telling the truth. This, she believes, may have sparked--or played a role--in spawning the IRS audit.

"He was getting paid by one organization and working for another," the professor said of Korzen. "The IRS should have gone after them."

Instead the IRS went after her. That's what happens when you listen to those voices. "Her writings for the Catholic Advocate soon ceased because, Hendershott admits, the IRS audit silenced her."

....

red states rule

05-17-2013, 03:22 AM

Libs hate it when R's are right
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BillyBob

05-17-2013, 10:06 AM

I just heard some guy from the IRS accept full responsibility for the IRS scandal. I assume he's the guy who was slated for retirement anyway.

Now what do you think the chances are that Eric Holder will prosecute and imprison him?

[I wonder how much money Obama paid him to fall on his sword]

red states rule

05-20-2013, 03:57 AM

http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/aria_c10932220130519120100.jpg