Repubs say they have found IRS scandal smoking gun. Wrong.

Repubs say they have found the smoking gun in the IRS scandal. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, they say according to White House public visitor records, visited the White House 157 times between 2009 and 2012, more than any other IRS Commissioner in history. Why so many visits? Repubs say Shulman was huddling with Obama to conspire against the Tea Party Conservatives.

The only problem with the story is that it is a lie.  Shulman only made 11 actual visits to the White House--many to attend ceremonies such as the Easter Egg hunt. The other visits were to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is within the White House gated compound and is sometimes called the White House but is a separate building from the "White House" that we normally think of as the White House.  As always the truth is much less interesting than the lie.

Oh, and the meetings at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building weren’t meetings with Obama.  They were primarily meetings with other administration officials to discuss implementation of Obamacare, such as the biweekly health reform deputies meetings and others set up by aides involved with the health-care law implementation efforts.  The IRS representatives attended these meetings to discuss and plan for the IRS role in implementing Obamacare as prescribed by the law.  And, it is unclear whether Shulman actually attended all of the meetings himself or whether he sent a Deputy to many of these meetings instead.

Read the truth about the Shulman visits to the “White House” here:  http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/the-fake-story-about-the-irs-commissioner-and-the-white-house/276399/

The IRS was right in targeting Tea Party Groups. Here’s why.

We’ve heard a lot in recent weeks about the IRS unfairly targeting Tea Party groups that applied for tax exempt status as “social welfare” organizations.  Republicans maintain that the targeting was part of a conspiracy about the Obama administration to attack conservatives.  Did the IRS target Tea Party groups?  Yes.  If so, was this targeting wrong?  No.  Here are the facts:

According to the law:

To be tax-exempt as a social welfare organization described in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 501(c)(4), an organization must not be organized for profit and must be operated exclusively to promote social welfare…

The promotion of social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity.

In other words, Tea Party groups would NOT be entitled to tax exempt status if their primary purpose was to engage in political activity.  The problem for Tea Party groups is that they were formed for the explicit purpose of engaging in political activity.  Consider the following two facts reported by Fire Dog Lake:

First is the fact that the tea party is a creation of enterprising political and public relations professionals, constructed to accomplish a political purpose. A study published in the Tobacco Control Journal actually traced the origins of the tea party to “free-market” groups founded by tobacco corporations and the oil industry billionaires David and Charles Koch.

According to researchers at UC San Francisco:

“Rather than being a grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party organizations have had connections to the tobacco companies since the 1980s. The cigarette companies funded and worked through Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), the predecessor of Tea Party organizations...

Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), was founded in 1984 by the Koch brothers.

There is even a tea party website registered to a Koch group in 2005, long before the conservative outcry we now know as the tea party began.

The second thing to keep in mind is that the tea party is still controlled by enterprising political and public relations professionals, funded by the David and Charles Koch. In coverage of the IRS scandal, there were 11 people who were involved in tea party groups quoted about IRS scrutiny. Of those 11, 10 have substantial ties to Americans for Prosperity (AFP) ...

The tea party groups that were scrutinized by the IRS are not just separate grassroots citizen groups unfairly accused of political shenanigans, as the Koch associated spokespeople in the media would have you believe. They are one part of a wider political strategy, funded and managed by a very wealthy few.

Bottom Line:  The Tea Party groups were organized for the primary purpose of engaging in political activity to support the Republican Party and the interests of a small number of wealthy individuals and large corporations.  They did not, and never have, met the requirements under the law to receive tax exempt status as “social welfare” organizations.  The IRS had every right, in fact was required by law, to question the eligibility of Tea Party groups for tax exempt status.  The only thing the IRS conspired to do was enforce the law.

Congratulations Megan Reeves

The Attack Democrat congratulates Megan Reeves on her graduation from high school today.  Way to go, Megan!  We are all very proud of you.

And, GO GAMECOCKS, except when they play you-know-who.

Republican Senator from Oklahoma Opposes OK Disaster Relief

Senator Tom Coburn (R, OK) has announced that he will oppose any disaster relief for his state unless it is offset by cuts in other parts ofs the federal budget.  Other Republicans may join him in a similar demand. 

Heartless Coburn and other Republicans should be forced to watch the video below and then explain why these Americans should be denied help for nothing but political reasons. 

Watch below or here: http://www.newsok.com/may-20-tornado-students-at-briarwood-elementary-after-tornado-went-through/multimedia/video/2397483073001

Obama will be impeached next year

Prediction:  Some time next year, in advance of the 2014 elections, Barack Obama will become the third President of the United States to be impeached. (Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.)  The charge will be that Obama committed a “high crime or misdemeanor”  most likely associated with the administration’s explanation of the Benghazi attack or the IRS investigation of Tea Party groups or some other thing—any thing Republicans can think of or create out of thin air. 

We now have a pattern.  First, Republicans try to win the White House with dirty tricks such as using their control of state houses to pass laws making it as difficult as possible for groups thought to support Democrats, such as minorities, to vote.  When that doesn’t work, Republicans fall back on their use of the filibuster in the Senate to try to make it impossible for the Democratic President to get any of his legislative agenda—which Americans overwhelming favor—passed.  When that doesn’t work and the Democratic President actually gets some major pieces of his agenda passed, the Republicans turn to the courts.  When the courts end up declaring that the Democratic President's legislation—like Obamacare—is Constitutional, the Republicans have a temper tantrum befitting their mental age and begin calling for impeachment because…well, because the President has done something really, really bad, like defeating Republicans.

First we hear calls for impeachment.  Then, the process begins in the House which the Republicans control because Republican state legislatures have gerrymandered the districts to make sure Republicans win.  Republican members of the House strut upon the media stage declaring that the Democratic President is the very source of all evil.  Then after weeks and weeks, they vote and the President is impeached by a bare majority with all Republicans voting for impeachment and all Democrats voting against.

We are then treated to weeks of hearings by the Senate which must try impeachment after which the Democratic President is acquitted and remains in office.  Democrats win the mid-term elections and afterward the Democratic President enjoys his highest popularity ever.

It happened with Clinton.  Here we go again.

Is not a student better than a bank?

Here’s an idea worth considering.

Right now, if Congress doesn’t do something rates on Federal Stafford student loans are set to double July 1^st going from 3.4% to 6.8%.  In other words, we are going to penalize college kids for getting an education and add to the huge mound of debt they already face, not for buying stuff they don’t need with a credit card but for doing something that benefits them AND the country—getting a college education.   At the same time that we are doubling interest rates on student loans, we are allowing big banks to borrow money from the Federal government for just 0.75%.  In other words, if you want borrow money from Uncle Sam to get an education, you will pay nine times more for the loan than the big money bankers have to pay for money to fund risky investments they want to make that might go bad and tube the economy.  That’s WRONG, very WRONG.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass) has introduced a bill to remedy this gross inequity.  She proposes to let college students borrow at the same rate as the big banks (.75% instead of 6.8%).  That’s a good idea but I have a better one.  Let’s let college students borrow money for their college education from Uncle Sam for FREE—0% interest.  Let’s reward young Americans for getting an education, not punish them.

Watch Senator Warren explain her bill here or below

Read more here:

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/298461-warren-give-students-the-same-loan-rate-as-banks

Guns made just for kids????

You have probably heard the story by now.  On Tuesday a five-year old boy inside his home in rural Kentucky picked up a rifle to play with and ended up shooting and killing his two-year old sister.  What you might not know is that the five-year-old was playing with a gun manufactured and marketed for four to ten-year-old children.  Read the story here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/04/30/2621458/5-year-old-boy-accidentally-shoots.html

That’s right.  An American company designs, manufactures and markets REAL guns it claims are “ideally sized” just for young children.  It even produces the guns in a variety of colors-- “pink” for girls and “blue” for boys.  They even have have a cute cartoon cricket holding a gun to help with sales.

The company’s website has been taken down as of this writing but here are some screen shots from various pages of the company’s website courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  Enjoy.

Isn’t this a great country?  We allow a company to make guns tailored just for little children because, as Republicans would say, American kids have a 2^nd amendment right to keep and bare arms so they can engage in armed rebellion against the government just likely alongside their mommies and daddies.

Here are the pictures.  

Scary new poll--Republicans ready for armed rebellion

A new Fairleigh Dickenson University poll sheds light on why nearly half of Republicans are so opposed to the passage of any gun control laws.  They believe they will need their guns to violently overthrow the U.S. government in the next few years.  Elections aren't enough.  They aren't winning recently.  They are ready to take to the streets with their guns to take control of the government with violence.

65% of Republicans in the new poll oppose new gun laws compared to 73% of Democrats who favor gun legislation.

44% of Republicans agree that “In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.”  61% of Democrats disagree.

Read the results.  This is scary stuff people.

Read the full results of the poll here: http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2013/guncontrol/