*BRP said...Democrat party has done such a good job of painting their opposition as racist and exclusive. *

Actually, rightwingers have done a pretty good job of painting themselves as racist and exclusive. Apparently, you were sleeping, especially during the last two election cycles when the right showed their true colors. Locally on many discussion forums many, some even proudly claiming their tea party status, openly spewed their hatred and intolerance of gays, minorities and the poor. We had the ship'em back to Africa/Mexico crowd along with some pretty hostile and hateful words coming from the right and particularly tea party memnbers. That can't be, and shouldn't be easily forgotten, ignored or covered up.

From: Think Progress org:

"The spike in 501(c)(4) groups comes after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision that outside groups may make unlimited political expenditures. Since then, some 501(c)(4) organizations have begun abusing the system. Though groups engaged in some political activity may qualify as “social welfare groups” and receive tax-exempt status under this section of the tax code, electioneering cannot be their predominant activity. Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, for example, told the IRS that any political ads run by the group would be “limited in amount” and “would not constitute the group’s primary purpose.” Campaign finance reform advocates have argued that, in light of more than $70 million in “independent expenditure” ad spending, the group’s primary purpose is clearly campaign activity. But rather than register with the Federal Election Commission as a political committee, Crossroads GPS continues to claim that it is not such a group and need not publicly identify its funders."

Organizations filing for tax exempt status under the 501(c)(4) status more than doubled, from just over a thousand to over 3 thousand. Many filed under the heading tea party, patriot. Out of that increase, the IRS pulled 75 using the heading patriot/tea party for further closer scrutiny. That's really a dip in the bucket considering.

degage said... jjmez, media matters, move on .org are tax exempt and are famous for smear tactics to the opposition, mainly conservatives. If you say Tea Party organizations can't be tax exempt then neither can liberal organizations. Only fair. OWS also is tax exempt.

It's the type of tax exempt status called into question, degage. Educate yourself on the various tax exempt codes out there. Plus, there were so many filing for tax exempt status under that particular tax exempt code, using the names tea party and patriot, that they were bound to raise red flags at the IRS. The numbers for tax exemption under that 501(c)(4) status went from just a little over a thousand to more than 3 thousand within a very short period.

joneses said.. Look what the foolish liberals did to Scott Dejarlais, Bob Corker, Herman Cain and others.

Actually, joneses, Dejarlais, Corker, Cain and others own rightwing conservatives went after them. In fact, if we recall correctly, it was one of Dejarlais own fellow GOP politician running against him that expose his secret. Then Cain's own fellow repubs made fun of him. Plus, those foolish liberals weren't operating under a 501(c)(3) or (4) tax exempt status in an effort to possibly hide their donors identity, and under the pretense of being a social welfare program.

mtnlaurel said... Indeed, I believe the real scandal is that these political organizations like the Tea Party are getting a 501 (c) tax-exempt status in the first place. Clearly, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars from secret donors into advertising and political campaigns is not about social welfare.

I agree! Look how the local party used that money to investigate and smear politicial opponents and others they didn't like. And all under the pretense of being concerned taxpayers. Look at the personal attacks meted out against such individuals as Missy Crutchfield. All that info should be forwarded on to the federal government to be included in any scandal investigation.

*maxiMOOSE said... Hillary Clinton are the worst type of racists because they want to keep people of color down by tossing them crumbs of welfare every now

But but welfare is colorblind. There are many more whites than people of color receiving welfare and other federal government benefits.

maxiMOOSEY said... Lincoln was a Republican

Yes, Lincoln was a Republican, but that has nothing to with todays republican who are filled with so much hate and intolerance. The ideas and goals of Lincoln began a quick death not long after Lincoln was assassinatedh. When Johnson took over after Lincoln's death, he proceeded to undo everything Lincoln sought to accomplish. You forget, even then there was a radical side to the Republican Party who were southern sympathizers, and didn't want slavery to end, who didn't believe in Reconstruction. Not every Republican was against slavery and not every southern Dem was for it. You tend to also forget the Republicans and Democrats were once one party (DemocraticRepublican Party) that split.

They didn't. Consider the words of John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Actually, America was meant to be a nation of anglo-saxons only. Don't know what they planned on doing with all the natives who were already here (oh wait! GENOCIDE complete), or the Africans brought here in chains after their free labor was no longer required. OH, wait! Another complete genocide was meant to take place.

so stop nit-pickin' history, lest you dredge up something you never intended or knew.

RE: "Few Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslim, so a bit of a focus on Muslims makes perfect sense"

Let's rephrase that: In the Muslim world where innocents and entire towns and villages are being bombed daily, hourly, minutely, secondly by invading/occupying forces to them, MOST AMERICANS AND THEIR ALLIES ARE TERRORISTS. Should the world then conclude most terrorists are americans?

define terrorist %?

no fairmon. I believe the point is: The deeper the hole the right tries to dig for president obama the even deeper and wider a hole they dig for themselves to fall into.

Keep digging, though. You're almost in China. LMAOAU!!

Republicans only desire is to give the appearance there was a coverup on the Benghazi. They know certain questions can't be answered because it would revealed too much of CIA and other covert operations taking place in that region. It's a sly and chancy move that could very well backfire on them. By raising doubt with the public, their strategy is an attempt to turn public opinion against this administration and make sure Hillary Clinton doesn't even attempt to run in the 2016 election. Remember, they'd already prepared to attempt to bring Hillary Clinton down if she'd been chosen run on the Democratic ticket instead of Obama. For whatever reason GOPs are determined that Hillary Clinton must NOT be allowed to run and possibly win a presidential election. They FEAR her!* for some reason.

They're strategy is to bank on the ignorance and gullibility of their base. Which goes to show how little regard they have for the intelligence of their base ability to think logically and reason on their own.

"2. Republicans keep posturing that their questions about Benghazi are intended to bolster US security. In fact, they are harming it. Republican hearings in the House of Representative have disgracefully revealed the names of Libyans talking to the US consulate, thus endangering their lives and harming US efforts to understand the situation in the country, since who would risk talking to the embassy if they know about Darrell Issa’s big mouth?"