Tag: Tea Baggers
The Case for the IRS Targeting the Tea Party
It seemed to come as a great shock when it was recently revealed that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) examines some taxpayers more closely than others.
Really? Because no one has ever objected to the IRS targeting some tax returns for audit. Among them:
- Millionaires (in fiscal 2011, the IRS audited 12.5% of them)
- People reporting more than $200,000 in income
- People claiming confusing tax breaks like the first-time homebuyer credit
- Home office workers
- Small business and self-employed people generally
- Very low income filers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
I’m not saying the IRS should target according to ideology. I’m saying it should target according to likelihood that tax laws are being flouted and circumvented.
So why, in the wild west of the first election years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling allowing political action groups, many with questionable funding, to mushroom and proliferate…why should anyone be surprised the IRS would exercise scrutiny on these here today, gone tomorrow groups? Why, in fact, would they not demand that the IRS do precisely that before granting tax-exempt status to whoever applies for it?
And why not specifically take a hard, cold look at tea party groups?
Rove Delivers Keynote Speech at the California GOP Convention – Only to Have His Message Stepped on by Wingnut Leader’s Assertion That Pregnancies Resulting from Rapes Are Rare
The California Republican Party is bankrupt, both intellectually and financially. Its voter registration has dropped to just 30 percent of the electorate. And last year Republicans lost so many seats in the Legislature that Democrats achieved super-majority status in both houses.
“Granted, the percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized.”
– CRA President Celeste Greig
– CRA President Celeste Greig
But hope springs eternal, as they say, and party leaders had pinned their hopes for reenergizing the faithful at their convention in Sacramento over the weekend with a rousing keynote address by Turdblossom himself, Karl Rove.
Channeling House Speaker John Boehner, who had the Beltway media clutching its collective pearls last week when he railed ungrammatically at the Senate to “get off their ass” and pass an anti-Sequester plan — even though the House has no viable plan on the table either — Rove rallied the 500 or so conventioneers with similar language.
“My message is this: get off your ass,” Rove said, during his keynote speech. “Get back in the game and fight. Don’t give in to what the other side wants.”
The flaw in that message, of course, is that the policies the “other side wants” — like a balanced approached to deficit reduction, gun safety measures and the rest — are also what majorities of voters want.
Rove recently launched the Conservative Victory Project, a PAC intended to drive tea-party and birther candidates and their ilk out of primary races, so it was delightfully paradoxical that his message was overshadowed in media coverage by Celeste Greig, the leader of the California Republican Assembly — a haven for tea partyists and birthers — who reasserted the Republicans’ magical thinking about “legitimate rape” and pregnancies in an interview with a reporter:
Lower Than Low: Gov. Rick Scott’s Absurd Figure for Medicaid
$11,000
Annual income for a family of three that tea party Gov. Rick Scott of Florida considers too high to receive Medicaid assistance. In addition, single people of any income level are automatically excluded.
Vietnam War Draft Dodger Who Befouled Himself to Avoid Military Service Will Be GOP Rep’s Guest for State of the Union Speech
“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,” [Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas] said in a statement released Monday morning. “After the Address I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say.”
That’s assuming Nugent can hold his tongue during the speech. Either way, it won’t be the first time President Obama’s played to an ornery crowd.
Nugent and President Obama have some history, too.
In April, 2012, the Secret Service called Nugent in for a talking-to after he delivered some unnerving comments at an NRA convention in St. Louis, Mo.
“If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again,” Nugent blared, “I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”
After meeting with Nugent a few days later, the Secret Service declared the situation “resolved.” And that may be so, but his self-imposed deadline has not yet passed.
Tea Bagger U.S. Rep. Says Immigrants Want the Free Stuff
But the small amount of information I received is that [Obama] criticized what Sen. Rubio and some of his colleagues did, because he said they had all these enforcement provisions, and the president doesn’t want that. He basically wants to move in to legalization and citizenship immediately. That’s not something that I would support. It’s also not something that I think we can afford. Because once you’re a legal American citizen, you’re going to have access to the new health care subsidies, you’re going to have access to the welfare state.
— U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis (GOP/Tea), one of Florida’s new Congress members, explaining to constituents at a town hall meeting how he differs with the president on immigration. DeSantis seems to assume that people want to become Americans for the easy money.
Rick Scott Bribing Florida Teachers
We’re surprised he didn’t throw in a promise of dark chocolate, red wine and foot massages.
— Orlando Sentinel editorial writers, noting the amazing about-face by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (GOP/Tea), who announced this week a $2,500 across the board bonus for teachers. The editorial, titled, “Teacher Pay Proposal Smacks of Political Bribe,” reminds readers that Scott slashed teacher pay and school funding when he came to office, and is only increasing it now because that move and others have lead to his record low popularity. Scott will seek re-election in 2014, with what stands now at a 36% positive approval rating.
Good Thing It’s So Easy for Responsible Gun Owners to Avoid Unintended Shootings
5
Number of shootings during Gun Appreciation Day, all by “responsible gun owners.” The highest toll was at a gun show in North Carolina, where three people were shot when a man removed his 12-gauge shotgun from its case. In Ohio, a man was shot by a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun held by his business partner, and another in Indiana shot himself as he loaded his .45-caliber semi-automatic. There were no shootings reported that day from music, food, or cultural festivals, reinforcing the notion that the very presence of guns makes people less safe.
The Answer to Too Many Guns is Always More Guns
NRA: “The only way to reduce the kinds of casualties seen at gun shows across the country today is more guns” #GunAppreciationDay
— @TheDailyEdge, a humor site, tweeting about the rash of negligent accidental shootings by “responsible gun owners” as they bought and sold guns on a day dreamed up by the gun lobby and rightwing extremists.
White “Nationalists” Try to Hide Behind Gun Appreciation Day
A couple of days ago, BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) tweeted this:
Is this the most racist White House petition ever created? https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-white-genocide-halt-massive-third-world-immigration-and-forced-assimilation-white-countries/WVyzm59F
And here’s the petition:
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
STOP WHITE GENOCIDE: Halt MASSIVE third world immigration and FORCED assimilation in White countries!
Africa for Africans, Asia for Asians, White countries for EVERYBODY?These gun folks’ greatest wish seems to be that someday a (black) criminal will walk through their doors and give them the golden opportunity to kill a human being with no legal consequencesWhite countries are being flooded with third world non-whites, and Whites are required by law to integrate with them so as to “assimilate,” i.e. intermarry and be blended out of existence.
That’s genocide by United Nations Convention, Article II, part c:
“Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
We petition the President to end White Genocide in the United States, and to call for the end of White Genocide in Europe, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Supporting White Genocide is not anti-racist. It’s anti-white!
—–
Signers: Please look for our three petitions each month that oppose White Genocide!Let’s grow!
Thankfully, the petition had only 388 signatures when I first viewed it, and has only gained about 10 more in the days since.
