Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Is This History Repeating Itself?

Let's start by talking about how the IRS had the nerve to ask for a "Reading List" from a Tea Party Group - and the group sent the IRS a copy of the Constitution.

It was reported in the news today that when Marion Bower decided to start her Tea Party organization in 2010, she didn’t know that it would take nearly two years for the Internal Revenue Service to approve her request for tax-exempt status.

Marion Bower also did not expect that providing information about the books her group read would be part of the application process.

"I was trying to be very cordial, but they wanted copies of unbelievable things," Bower told ABC News. "hey wanted to know what materials we had discussed at any of our book studies."

She ultimately sent one of the books, "The Five Thousand Year Leap" which is promoted conservative host Glenn Beck, to the IRS official handling her tax-exempt request in Cincinnati, Ohio.

She also sent a paperback copy of the Constitution of the United States.

"They wanted a synopsis of all the books we read," Bower said. "I thought, I don't have time to write a book report. You can read them for yourselves."

Marion Bower, who is 68 years of age and obviously knows that these requests are out of line, said she did not want to cause trouble or be argumentative with the IRS - so she patiently responded to their questions about her group, American Patriots against Government Excess.

She said the group in Fremont, Ohio, about 45 miles from Toledo, was formed as an educational group.

Her group’s request was granted in March 2012, about two years after they originally applied. She said she the requests included wanting the agenda and minutes of their regular meetings and other documents.

"I felt like, 'My goodness, what in the world is going on here?'" Bower said. "Is this ever going to end?"

Now we find out that by the IRS's own admission that Marion Bower’s group would have raised a red flag for the IRS simply because of its name.

In 2012, the IRS says that it flagged groups with the words “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names for additional scrutiny, investigation, examinations and audits.
She said, "They wanted copies of our blog. They said they had already taken copies of our website. They wanted a list of all of our officers, what we do at our meeting, how our board is made up."

The IRS says that it is part of its normal oversight responsibility to request additional information to "develop" applications that need heightened scrutiny because tax-exempt groups might only engage in certain amounts and certain kinds of political activity.

But Marion Bower said her group consisted of volunteers who routinely passed out copies of the U.S.Constitution at parades and had informational meetings on anything from the new health care law to disaster preparedness.

"We thought it would be a very simple process," she said. "It wasn’t a simple process."

I can't help but wonder how she feels now that she knows that she, a 68 year old woman in Fremont Ohio was targeted by the Obama Administration because she and her friends were passing out the Constitution and talking about the new health regulations?

If this were Nazi Germany in 1939 and Hitler's government stooges had their agents ask questions about you, or your associates, or wanted a list of all of your officers of your group, and wanted to know what you were really doing at your meetings, or how your board is made up when all you were doing was talking about the government, you would not think it odd at all.

That was life in Nazi Germany, and is life under the Obama Administration right now if you are a Conservative.

If you were a Jew in Nazi Germany you would think it scary for the government to scrutinize your behavior, to want to know your political leanings, to want to frighten you into submission, to control you through intimidation.

That was life in Nazi Germany, and under the Obama Administration if you're a Conservative.

Besides these similarities, what's interesting is that right now there are liberal Democrats, so-called "progressives," who are in favor of the Obama Administration using the IRS to scrutinize and intimidate Conservative Groups and individuals.

Take for example this insane statement by former NAACP Chairman, Julian Bond, when he was on MSNBC today.

Bond thinks the Obama Administration's use of the IRS is doing the right thing. He feel that singling out and targeting Conservatives for politically motivated audits is justified because they do not support Hitler -- I mean Obama.

Bond went so far as to say,  "the Tea Party is openly racist." Then went on to justify his hoping the IRS keeps up their scrutiny saying about the Tea Party, "they're the Taliban wing of American politics".

This is just like the anti-Jewish propaganda in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Bond's mentality fits right in with the slander of Jews in Nazi Germany.

With that sort of mentality, that sort of blatant ignorance from a man who disguises himself as a Champion for Civil Rights, it is no wonder no one questions what Obama is doing.

For you liberals out there, remember the famous poem about the treatment of German Jews following the Nazis' rise to power and the subsequent "purging" of their chosen targets, group after group.
  Allow me to paraphrase that poem and put it into today's terms:
"First they came for the guns, and you did not speak out --
Because you did not own a gun, you are against them.

When they came for Christians, you did not speak out--

Because you were not a Christian, you did not think they mattered.

Then they came for Conservatives, and you did not speak out --
Because you were not Conservative, and you did not think it mattered.


When they came for the Constitution, you did not speak out--
Because you did not read the Constitution, you did not think it mattered. 

Then they came for you, and there was no one left to speak for you --
Because you did not matter."

While ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, all try to bury this story, here's something that liberals and Democrats like Bond and others of his ilk should remember:

If the government can break the law and violate my rights, they can break the law and violate yours. You're a fool if you don't think so.

Story by Tom Correa

1 comment:

  1. If history does repeat itself, then I feel sorry for the other guy.

    ReplyDelete

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