IRS conspiracies fall apart as BOLO list targeting ‘progressive’ groups revealed

IRS conspiracies fall apart as BOLO list targeting ‘progressive’ groups revealed

The words “occupy,” “progressive,” and “Israel” appeared on a “Be On the Look Out” (BOLO) list used by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, according to media reports.“When I got to the IRS, we started a more comprehensive review of the operations of this part of the IRS, have been looking at documents and business operations, and we did determine and discover that there are other BOLO lists in place,” acting IRS commissioner Danny Werfel told the Huffington Post. “And upon discovering that, we also found that we believed there continued to be inappropriate or questionable criteria on these BOLO lists.”
Werfel said he suspended the use of such lists immediately after becoming the acting IRS chief last month. An internal review has failed to find evidence of intentional wrongdoing, he told reporters, but is still ongoing.

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Awwww... it looks like yet another phoney outrage and manufactured story to make the Democrats (particularly Obama) look bad, unprofessional, deceitful and evil has gone up in smoke. Will Issa eat a whole ****ing humble pie for himself, or will he still pretend (like those who suffer from tinfoilasitis), that the big bad IRS -- no matter the evidence -- IS still after the poor and victimized widdle wight wingers? So many here were duped big time and it seems to be a common occurrence in this days of misinformation. So, to those who fell hook line and sinker... how does this new information make you feel and how will you approach the next "scandal"? I am seriously curious.

Funny thing, there are some major concrete things to be upset with the Obama Administration, including the fact that they have done pretty much nothing to change the regulations of the banking industry... an industry that almost collapsed the American economy. Amazing that it seems few are angry about this, yet get a boner with incredibly stupid stories like the IRS.

IRS conspiracies fall apart as BOLO list targeting ‘progressive’ groups revealed | The Raw Story

I saw this article. Poof! Issa's witch hunt is toast.

The Associated Press has obtained an internal IRS document that reveals the other terms the agency screened for when deciding which groups should be granted tax exempt status. The news cuts against the original storyline that the tactic was used to target conservatives.

An internal IRS document obtained by The Associated Press said that besides ‘‘tea party,’’ lists used by screeners to pick groups for close examination also included the terms ‘‘Israel,’’ ‘'Progressive’’ and ‘‘Occupy.’’ The document said an investigation into why specific terms were included was still underway.

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With all due respect to the "reporter", in looking at the PDF Levin released there is one entry listing "progressive" and that organization was applying for (c)(3) status, not (c)(4). The "occupy" reference seems to be with regard to "Occupied Territory Advocacy". I didn't see anything related to Israel directly though it can be assumed that the aforementioned "Occupied Territory Advocacy" would cover that.

It should also be mentioned that the Tea Party reference and the Progressive reference are on completely different lists and that unlike the Progressive notation the document expressly directs Tea Party groups to be sent to a specific group while no such direction is indicated in the progressive notation.

:lol: :doh This illegal targetting using BOLO lists was done by the IRS as standard practice up until one month ago but it was OK. No sanctions (criminal charges?) against those IRS employees that used the "official" BOLO list will be made since it has been discontinued. All is now well - until the next BOLO list is made, of course. No harm, no foul, nothing to see here folks just move along... :roll:

Unless of course you consider that Nixon went after both sides of the aisle for leaks such as the Pentagon papers, as I believe Obama and the NSA should with the Snowden leaks. And why don't we just show proof that there are so many tax cheats using ex-IRS agents to defraud the USA. The IRS should stay after all tax cheats on all sides and not tinkle on them when they are on fire.

head of joaquin said:

I saw this article. Poof! Issa's witch hunt is toast.

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Lutherf said:

With all due respect to the "reporter", in looking at the PDF Levin released there is one entry listing "progressive" and that organization was applying for (c)(3) status, not (c)(4). The "occupy" reference seems to be with regard to "Occupied Territory Advocacy". I didn't see anything related to Israel directly though it can be assumed that the aforementioned "Occupied Territory Advocacy" would cover that.

It should also be mentioned that the Tea Party reference and the Progressive reference are on completely different lists and that unlike the Progressive notation the document expressly directs Tea Party groups to be sent to a specific group while no such direction is indicated in the progressive notation.

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It's always fun to watch conservative try to jimmy up pseudo-scandals.

The BOLO lists included progressive organizations. Issa and his with hunt is toast. Just accept your defeat gracefully.

ttwtt78640 said:

:lol: :doh This illegal targetting using BOLO lists was done by the IRS as standard practice up until one month ago but it was OK. No sanctions (criminal charges?) against those IRS employees that used the "official" BOLO list will be made since it has been discontinued. All is now well - until the next BOLO list is made, of course. No harm, no foul, nothing to see here folks just move along... :roll:

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You're right: Progressives should be outraged at the conservative Republicans in the IRS that targeting them. Issa isn't. He's upset this came out.

head of joaquin said:

I saw this article. Poof! Issa's witch hunt is toast.

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I would love to believe that, but that would involve the spontaneous manifestation of a brain in the collective, and i am pretty sure that would cause scanners style head explosions that no tinfoil hat could contain. I think you will have better luck in winning powerball jackpots twice in a row. they will back Issa and massive proof he is wrong will never stop them.

head of joaquin said:

It's always fun to watch conservative try to jimmy up pseudo-scandals.

The BOLO lists included progressive organizations. Issa and his with hunt is toast. Just accept your defeat gracefully.

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Once again, the scandal involves what happened to these groups. Targeting is one issue. The other issue is not making timely determinations as to the status of the applicants. If all groups were targeted but only Tea Party groups were dumped into the "limbo" pile then it's still abuse.

Lutherf said:

Once again, the scandal involves what happened to these groups. Targeting is one issue. The other issue is not making timely determinations as to the status of the applicants. If all groups were targeted but only Tea Party groups were dumped into the "limbo" pile then it's still abuse.

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Ah, the nuanced scandal. I love it. I hope Issa takes this approach. Conservatives and their hopeless conspiracies.

tererun said:

I would love to believe that, but that would involve the spontaneous manifestation of a brain in the collective, and i am pretty sure that would cause scanners style head explosions that no tinfoil hat could contain. I think you will have better luck in winning powerball jackpots twice in a row. they will back Issa and massive proof he is wrong will never stop them.

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You're right. Issa, like McCarthy, won't stop until he's finally alone, drunk, at the podium, ranting to an empty hall about Marxist Obama being found under his bed. But at least meantime, rational people can move on. Even the rightwing noise machine is losing interest in this loser.

Lutherf said:

With all due respect to the "reporter", in looking at the PDF Levin released there is one entry listing "progressive" and that organization was applying for (c)(3) status, not (c)(4). The "occupy" reference seems to be with regard to "Occupied Territory Advocacy". I didn't see anything related to Israel directly though it can be assumed that the aforementioned "Occupied Territory Advocacy" would cover that.

It should also be mentioned that the Tea Party reference and the Progressive reference are on completely different lists and that unlike the Progressive notation the document expressly directs Tea Party groups to be sent to a specific group while no such direction is indicated in the progressive notation.

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All groups that appeared even somewhat political were put on the BOLO list. No lean was persecuted, and there was NO push to "muffle" right wing groups. It's time to move on and get angry about important issues not not this ridiculous bull****. Eat your humble pie and move on.

Looks like the IRS was just doing their job. Good for them...

Middleground said:

All groups that appeared even somewhat political were put on the BOLO list. No lean was persecuted, and there was NO push to "muffle" right wing groups. It's time to move on and get angry about important issues not not this ridiculous bull****. Eat your humble pie and move on.

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It will be tough for the right wing to move ahead, they love playing the victim.

TheDemSocialist said:

Looks like the IRS was just doing their job. Good for them...

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They are incompetent as hell, there is no reason why these groups should have been put in limbo as long as they were.

pbrauer said:

It will be tough for the right wing to move ahead, they love playing the victim.

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Both sides like to play victim, though the false outrages towards Obama are incredibly ridiculous. The worst part is that despite the evidence and the cold hard facts, some (many?) will still refuse to see the truth. And don't you think for one minute that the spin machine news sites don't know this. Today, there are no repercussions for spreading false information.

pbrauer said:

They are incompetent as hell, there is no reason why these groups should have been put in limbo as long as they were.

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I somewhat agree. However, from what I understand, these groups set a fairly new precedence, and they basically wanted all of the applicants to be treated in the same consistent manner. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to develop protocol and rules.

This whole brouhaha is beginning to reek especially now. The premise of the ‘scandal’ was ‘right leaning’ organizations being targeted. The IG report came out and said similar and we have been lead to believe that there were no use of ‘left leaning’ terms in the targeting (BOLO’s). But now…? Suddenly the Congressional Democrats come out with a source that kinda says ‘hey lookie here, the IRS targeted ‘left leaning’ organizations too’. Why wasn’t this revealed weeks ago?

Incompetence abounds…

Dickieboy said:

This whole brouhaha is beginning to reek especially now. The premise of the ‘scandal’ was ‘right leaning’ organizations being targeted. The IG report came out and said similar and we have been lead to believe that there were no use of ‘left leaning’ terms in the targeting (BOLO’s). But now…? Suddenly the Congressional Democrats come out with a source that kinda says ‘hey lookie here, the IRS targeted ‘left leaning’ organizations too’. Why wasn’t this revealed weeks ago?

Incompetence abounds…

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A few Democratic Senators -- who have been privy to the testimony -- have been begging Issa to come clean for weeks.

Middleground said:

A few Democratic Senators -- who have been privy to the testimony -- have been begging Issa to come clean for weeks.

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I think actually House members but whatever...that doesn't explain the IG's 'miss'...

Dickieboy said:

I think actually House members but whatever...

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Oops... yes, you're right.

Dickieboy said:

I think actually House members but whatever...that doesn't explain the IG's 'miss'...

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Could it be that the IG is a Republican?

Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), a ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has called for a congressional hearing into the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

J. Russell George, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004, conducted an audit of the IRS that concluded the federal agency had used “inappropriate criteria” to target tea party groups.

However, Levin revealed Tuesday that the same “inappropriate criteria” appeared to have been used to target progressive groups — and continued to be used after it had stopped being used for tea party groups.

“Please describe in detail why your report dated May 14, 2013 omitted the fact that ‘Progressives’ was used,” Levin wrote in a letter to George.

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IRS targeting included liberal groups - CNN.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/politics/documents-show-liberals-in-irs-dragnet.html?_r=0

the documents say, officials were trying to use “key word” shortcuts to find overtly political organizations — both liberal and conservative — that were after tax favors by saying they were social welfare organizations.

But the practice appeared to go much farther than that. One such “be on the lookout” list included medical marijuana groups, organizations that were promoting President Obama’s health care law, and applications that dealt “with disputed territories in the Middle East.”

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head of joaquin said:

You're right. Issa, like McCarthy, won't stop until he's finally alone, drunk, at the podium, ranting to an empty hall about Marxist Obama being found under his bed. But at least meantime, rational people can move on. Even the rightwing noise machine is losing interest in this loser.

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Close, I am pretty sure he would be yelling at an empty chair thinking Obama is there. Leave it to republicans to finally have an issue people give a damn about which they could get traction on, and they are still yelling at imaginary chair Obama in the IRS. They know Obama was there because what office doesn't have empty chairs. On one hand you have the open and allowable spying on all of america which Obama admits to and Issa ignores, and Issa wants us to be outraged that the rich people hiding their money in hijacked tea party charity groups had to wait a little bit longer for their super special certificate of ass kissing from the conservative rep who rubber stamped all of their approvals. I would like to say Issa is stupid, but clearly he knows his voters are more concerned about a tax avoidance scam for the rich then obama spying on them because of the war on terror started under Bush. For people who hate the guy they sure as hell pick an insane time to start trusting him. We cannot trust Obama to fairly give every tea party application a stamp of approval, but it is all cool for him to record our phone calls and monitor our web activity because we might be the manchurian candidate and not ever know it. Obama cannot take our guns, but it is cool if he wants to take the gay porn collection of every conservative republican. Obama is trying to steal elections through voter fraud, but it is ok if he does it by making all of his opponents felons and terrorists through secretly spying on them and using what would normally be tossed out of court as an illegal wiretap against them in a secret trial without a jury.

I used to think there would be a bottom to the pit of republican hypocrisy. I used to think if Obama ever did something truly detestable and wrong that the republicans would get him. I obviously was a friggen moron to think those things.

Somerville said:

Could it be that the IG is a Republican?


IRS targeting included liberal groups - CNN.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/us/politics/documents-show-liberals-in-irs-dragnet.html?_r=0

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Perhaps...so this thing erupts and gets blamed on two 'rogue' agents in Cincinnati. But now your supposition is that a 'rogue' Republican IG is the cause of all this...

Let me retort...incompetence abounds...

Lutherf said:

Once again, the scandal involves what happened to these groups. Targeting is one issue. The other issue is not making timely determinations as to the status of the applicants. If all groups were targeted but only Tea Party groups were dumped into the "limbo" pile then it's still abuse.

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Actually, it's still abuse if the IRS dumps both groups into the limbo pile. However, this was not political in nature, as the IRS head in Cincinnati happened to be a Republican. While not political in nature, this sure the hell was incompetence on a massive scale.