More Legacy From Our Friend, Lewis Powell

[peristaltor]

I haven't followed the IRS stink at all. Why? Well, I've barely been following the news. One good tornado, as shocking as the devastation, transforms any corporate media outlet into a Worst Destruction Footage Evar re-run machine. Why bother watching again what you've seen once

Comments

[brother_dour]

So, what you're saying is the IRS scrutiny of certain right-leaning organizations may be a good thing in that it is a blow to Big Business interests? Interesting.

[peristaltor]

I know I kinda lost the thread of the post somewhere along the way, but I didn't go off the rails that much.

We only know the IRS researched based on title traits, not why they did this research. I'm saying big business interests since the Powell Memo was written have acted in more and more aggressive ways, some of which suggest to me that there might be some past problems with right-leaning orgs, enough to prompt a closer look into more orgs with the same characteristics. This is unknown, as far as I know.

[brother_dour]

No, no. It is I who is off the rails. Seems I read way more into this than you intended

[dwer]

very nice.

[a_new_machine]

You can't subject someone to additional government scrutiny solely because of their expressed political views. That's viewpoint discrimination. The problem here is that they targeted conservative 501(c)(4)s, and not liberal, moderate, socialist, [other label here] ones. Whether the Tea Party groups were actually violating the law is irrelevant to the central constitutional issue.

[cheezyfish]

You can't subject someone to additional government scrutiny solely because of their expressed political views.

I can't fathom why some have trouble with this concept.

[yes_justice]

Perhaps the history of silence of the issue when its peacniks being targeted?

[peristaltor]

Bingo.

[korean_guy_01]

So where's the focus on Occupy Fail Street?

[peristaltor]

Where's the profit in OWS, a bunch of mostly young, mostly unemployed idealists camping out in cities to protest what they saw as billionaire excess? Find that, and you'll find the focus.

[underlankers]

I'm not so sure that the dots fully connect here. So Powell called for a sustained counterattack. Granted. The minor issue of campaign finance reform and its short-lived life would indicate that Powell's attack was ineffective. At the same token, given that this incident was evidently the product of a major series of incompetent actions motivated by lack of communication, I'm not sure any coherent policy on the part of the government even exists to begin with.

[peristaltor]

The minor issue of campaign finance reform and its short-lived life would indicate that Powell's attack was ineffective.

I'm sure your tongue was so firmly lodged in your cheek when you wrote that that you now have jaw cramps. If not, really? When political power can be firmly secured through campaign donations, sometimes securely enough to warn legislators away from regulating now-profitable hot-button issues, how can one say that the successful business lobbying efforts to dilute and defeat campaign finance reform were "ineffective?" The success of such a quashing almost well and truly destroying effective campaign finance reform, speaks to "a sustained counterattack" that continues to this day.

. . . given that this incident was evidently the product of a major series of incompetent actions motivated by lack of communication. . . .Again, given that we don't-and probably can't-know what started this investigation, it boggles the mind to suggest that the IRS efforts (though a bit of a political lightening rod and minor PR

[underlankers]

Well, for one thing there was taht period when the McCain-Feingold Bill was passed and in effect. That period included about eight straight years of enforcing rules against this kind of thing. If it were that simple a matter for his policies to have gone into effect, how did McCain-Feingold pass at all? Business didn't strike it down, the Federal Government did.

[peristaltor]

From what I remember of the bill, M-F was effectively gutted before it ever reached the floor for a vote.