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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  3487 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Who Needs a Smoke-Filled Room?

Not sure I see the connection between political theater and violent crime.

If your implicit point is that I'm against big political money, because it comes from conservatives, then you're wrong. I think advertising of any sort for political campaigns should be outlawed. I hate it, and while, yes, I'm a pretty liberal thinker, my disdain for political ads transcends ideology.

Deliberately lying on tax forms in a very public way, while the 'scandal' (and yes, it deserves quotes) in Congress is that the IRS is somehow the bad guy, only shows how corrupt the system is. If the IRS made a mistake it was in checking up on the little guys too much, and not enforcing laws on the big fish. Who gives a shit about some bumfuck tea party group in Arkansas? Organizations like GPS are stealing from all of us by being allowed to not pay taxes, whether their donors are secret or not. I don't really care about that.





Meadester  ·  3487 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So, misconduct by law enforcement officials doesn't matter if it doesn't involve physical violence? Your dislike of money and moneyed organizations in politics do not justify the people in those organizations having their rights violated by selective enforcement of the law. If that's not what happened here, why all the stonewalling and disappearing of evidence? Would you accept such a lack of cooperation with an oversight investigation from a local police department even if it didn't involve someone being shot? How about an organization like the NSA or the FBI? If so, I guess I can commend you for being consistent, even though I disagree with the weight you give to law and order - or natiional security - over civil liberties. If not, why don't you hold the IRS to the same standard as other law enforcement agencies?

If there was "deliberately lying on tax forms", rather than misinterpretations, or merely differing interpretations of vague and complex laws, then yes those need to be investigated. It does not, however, give IRS agents a license to act with impunity any more than a robbery committed by Michael Brown gave Darren Wilson a license to kill. Again, if there was no wrongdoing the IRS should let the investigation show it and stop the cover-up.