I told you this would get ugly. And it’s getting really, really ugly.
A decade and a half ago, several women accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Every single one of them was audited by the IRS, including Paula Jones, who James Carville referred to as trailer park trash, and Jones had little to nothing in possessions.
Now Barack Obama continues the depraved and abusive democrat tradition.
This column has already told the story of Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho businessman who last year contributed to a group supporting Mitt Romney. An Obama campaign website in April sent a message to those who’d donate to the president’s opponent. It called out Mr. VanderSloot and seven other private donors by name and occupation and slurred them as having “less-than-reputable” records.
Mr. VanderSloot has since been learning what it means to be on a presidential enemies list. Just 12 days after the attack, the Idahoan found an investigator digging to unearth his divorce records. This bloodhound—a recent employee of Senate Democrats—worked for a for-hire opposition research firm.
Now Mr. VanderSloot has been targeted by the federal government. In a letter dated June 21, he was informed that his tax records had been “selected for examination” by the Internal Revenue Service. The audit also encompasses Mr. VanderSloot’s wife, and not one, but two years of past filings (2008 and 2009).
Did someone say divorce records?
His henchman David Axelrod, who has to be one of the slimiest operatives ever, manages to come into possession of sealed divorce records whenever he needs them.
And now it’s not just the IRS
Two weeks after receiving the IRS letter, Mr. VanderSloot received another—this one from the Department of Labor. He was informed it would be doing an audit of workers he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa program for temporary agriculture workers.
The H-2A program allows tens of thousands of temporary workers in the U.S.; Mr. VanderSloot employs precisely three. All are from Mexico and have worked on the VanderSloot ranch—which employs about 20 people—for five years. Two are brothers. Mr. VanderSloot has never been audited for this, though two years ago his workers’ ranch homes were inspected. (The ranch was fined $8,400, mainly for too many “flies” and for “grease build-up” on the stove. God forbid a cattle ranch home has flies.)
This is just appalling:
Only in this case, Americans can have no such confidence. Did Mr. Obama pick up the phone and order the screws put to Mr. VanderSloot? Or—more likely—did a pro-Obama appointee or political hire or career staffer see that the boss had an issue with this donor, and decide to do the president an unasked-for election favor? Or did he or she simply think this was a duty, given that the president had declared Mr. VanderSloot and fellow donors “less than reputable”?
Mr. VanderSloot says he “expected the public beatings” from the left after the naming, but he “also wondered whether government agencies, anxious to please their boss, would take notice of the target he had apparently placed on me. Now that I’m being singled out for audits, I can’t help but wonder whether there is a connection.”
As for other Romney donors: “It is un-American and irresponsible for a president to target individual, law-abiding citizens for political retribution, and it is inconceivable that any U.S. agency would stoop to do the bidding for this campaign’s silliness,” says Louis Bacon, an investor and conservationist who also made the Obama list.
We don’t know what happened, and that’s the problem. Entrusted with extraordinary powers, Mr. Obama has the duty to protect and defend all Americans—regardless of political ideology. By having his campaign target a private citizen for his politics, the president forswore those obligations. He both undermined public faith in federal institutions and put his employees in an impossible situation.
Protect all Americans? Good luck with that. This is the Chicago Way.
I told you it would be ugly.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
It’s just Chicago Thug politics, why should we be upset that the integrity of our government is being perverted to insure the reelection of a Marxist Thug.
Now for payback once the Marxist is defeated; hopefully, all those in government positions know they will be fired for subverting government positions into political positions. Sorry guys, this will be a necessary persecution to get rid of the rot and corruption that has fermented in the country since the “Won” was elected. This time Obma and Holdem Holder won’t be able to hide the papers.
Good Bye Thugs!
For a billionaire who runs a pyramid sales operation to be audited by the IRS doesn’t seem like an especially unusual turn of events. One out of every eight millionaires had tax audits last year.
For 2001–the last year the IRS analyzed to determine the extent of tax evasion–the U.S. lost an estimated $345 billion in revenue.
An independent 2011 study came to an even more shocking conclusion:
That’s a very significant portion of the annual federal deficit.
It’s also worth noting that Frank VanderSloot has a long history of launching media attacks and legal attacks on his critics.
Wow, Greg just posted an article that details the Human Nature to why higher Taxation policies do not work…
And guess under Greg’s ideals only the Democrats or those against the Republicans or the rich can make aggressive attack ads? Hmm doesn’t sound like a free society.
So this makes it legitimate:
A long history, but the IRS in only used as a weapon under Obama. Thanks Greg
They would work just fine, provided republicans didn’t slash the IRS’s enforcement budget so that their rich buddies could continue to get away with evasion. They’re quietly doing that while howling about federal budget deficits.
I’m always amazed at the trolls on this site and that they can’t find a more sympathetic bridge to dwell under. They seem to think that they will “correct” conservative thought. What vanity.
@Skookum, #4:
I’m not suggesting that it would make a politically motivated audit legitimate. I’m suggesting that it might make the political motivation totally imaginary. There could be any number of red flags that would trigger an audit of someone at that income level. It might be random. If 1 out of every 8 millionaires are audited, I imagine the likelihood of that happening to a billionaire is even higher.
@Greg:
He could rape and kill your mother and you would still defend him. Isn’t it about time you open your eyes to what this man is really about? Your support of this man makes me wonder if you are a socialist that like barry hates the American people , the United States and what she stands for. I can’t believe otherwise.
coldeadhands says “They seem to think that they will “correct” conservative thought. What vanity.”
You misplaced the quotation marks. I’d put them around “thought”.
Conservatives suffer an immunity to fact and evidence. Presented with information contrary to a belief or position, they hold the position more vehemently. And they take pride in resistance to reasoned arguments, as coldeadhands appears to, here. It is true that all people suffer cognitive bias, but conservatives and authoritarians suffer worse than others. It’s something to guard against.
Meanwhile, for those who are asserting that this is a uniquely Democratic phenomenon, if in fact it is at all, I’ll leave you with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon's_Enemies_List
Nixon is not loved by Modern Conservatives you wingnut moron infact Obama has been compared to Nixon just for the reasons of Obama having a similar Enemies List. As for “Presented” with information? Oh, like how people like you James lie about materials enough to think the lie is the truth? Take your snakeoil and sell it to someone who’ll buy it.
The article states that siccing the IRS on political opponents is a tactic for Democrats. I demonstrated that a Republican predates all the examples provided, including the unsupported allegation that Obama has done this. This is not a lie, it’s the plain truth and your conservative immune system seems to have successfully repelled it.
Mr. Irons, thanks for proving all of my points.
James, try going a bit further back in History to what is known by Mark Twain as the Gilded Age. Democrats are no innocent fawn in the forrests so please keep your fantasies about reality to yourself.
And you still do not know what Conservatives of today advocate or would defend. But hey you leap up and defend the very neo-facists that want rights stripped from the opposition to the agendas you want to see happen.
You do not understand us, you do not know us and you will never figure us out. You leap like a good little dog at any chance to please its master in attacking the very thing you know little about.
Now we hear of how we are closed to facts and the truth. This from the group who has no variation from the party line, the group who tunes in every morning for the day’s talking points, the group who owns the media that looks for guidance on how to relate their news stories from the Progressives in charge.
This is comical, if you can overlook the corruption and incompetence, and then just laugh at these fools.
Their base is falling apart, the Marxist Revolution was so close to consolidating its power, but the inevitable economic collapse happened too soon, people are no longer interested in turning America into a Third World Cess pool so the Elites can live off the former glory of way was once America.
Obama looks like a whore with the clap to America, its over.
Mr. Irons – I took your point about “Modern” conservatives and Nixon to mean I had gone back farther in history than was warranted, but now we are to go to the Gilded Age? That’s a stretch, but I’ll go along. The Gilded Age is generally defined as the period between the end of the Civil War to around 1896. During that time, Grover Cleveland was the only Democrat elected president.
I know a good deal more about Conservatives than you do Liberals or Progressives. For example, I bet you didn’t know most Liberals and Progressives love their country. There are some exceptions, just as on the right there are some who don’t love America, either. The Alaska Independence Party comes to mind.
I’m not leaping like anything, but nice simile.
I’ve been using facts and supporting arguments, you are leaping all over the place and doing some name calling. How is your understanding coming along?
Skookum, are you aware the advantage the Right has in message control? You are exhibiting another cognitive problem, called Projection. I would love it if Democrats had anywhere near the machine the right wing has to get its talking points out. Have you never seen the Jon Stewart segments where he shows clips of right wing news casters repeating the same phrases, sometimes dozens of different people saying *exactly* the same thing? Ever ask yourself why Gretta, Hannity, Rushbo, and the rest are all obsessed by the same thing and simultaneously move on to the next thing in lockstep? There’s nothing comparable in the mainstream. No, as Will Rogers said, “I belong to no organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”
If you think the Gilded Age reference is a stretch then you’re more ignorant and unware of what the Democrats have done or will do to keep their power. Your poliltical party YOUR side has waged a bloody civil war and has a lot of blood on its hands for what it has wanted to do with political power so please keep flopping around in the mud like a good little mutt. It won’t change what has happened in history and won’t change what is happening now by your side.
And here’s a history for you, the 1880 and 90’s’s saw the Democrat’s KKK purge and kill many Republicans in the South or did you forget that? Or how about the fact that Democrat Congressmen sought to re-establish segregation on the Congress Floor when the first Black Congressmen were elected? You didn’t learn these apparently.
And Liberals? Love this Country? When majority of the Liberal point makers are literally condemning the Nation in public venues? Ok then, in your words what is a Conservative since you’re so knowledgeable about something you’ve shown ignorance about.
Here’s something to chew on about your own party:
http://www.black-and-right.com/the-democrat-race-lie/
This is a critical piece of the Democrat mission and action from their own political line, no talking point by any modern Conservative today.
Nixon left office in 1974. The Gilded Age started in 1864. If Nixon was a stretch, how is 90 additional years not a stretch? Or does the calendar and arithmetic have a Liberal bias?
Which civil war did my side wage? I’d have voted for Lincoln, if that’s what you are asking. It’s a little difficult to map today’s political preferences to the parties 150+ years ago, but I see the same mentality from the ones treating people as property as I do in conservatives today.
@james:
Sorry James but you’re missing the point. Nixon was a corrupt and sociopathic madman and was properly impeached. As for the Gilded Age, it was a highlight of the corruption and the anti-civil rights stance Democrats have always had and a proof they are trying to rewrite their own blood stained history.
So you would have voted for Lincoln, that would place you as a Republican at the time but now you attack modern Conservatives for wanting to perserve Lincoln’s and Congressional Republican’s laws that protect civil rights?
If you need an understanding,
Liberalism is the forcing of the will of the insutition to the will of the people. Today’s, “Liberals” are not true liberals as they seek to force the will of the people to the will of an insitution ( traditional conservativism). And since the insitutions your side argues for do not either legally exist yet or being challeneged on the floor, this is more akin to fascism.
@james:
I love the smell of moral equivalence in the morning. I have compared Obama to Nixon here at FA.
@Greg: Because we all know there are no rich Democrats or liberals using the same tax codes….How about your saviour squadering billions in tax dollars in epic failed “green energy” and padding his buddies accounts?….Think maybe there would be some money for the IRS budget if Dear Leader wasn’t pissing it away in boondoggles?….Hey, how about that stimulus, how’d that work out?….Yeah that’s what is needed, more government beauracracy and jobs….Always the lefts answer for everything..
@james:
Delusional is the word that comes to mind here. As ABC and HuffingtonPost have shown just over these past few days, the message they project is entirely pro-liberal/progressive. And joined with NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, and the overwhelming majority of newspapers across the country, the power of the MSM to direct and control the message to “we, the people” is without equal.
But please, go on and tell us exactly how the Right has an advantage in message control. We’d love to hear why you believe this is so.
Nixon was bad, but JFK and LBJ were even worse. They did what Nixon did, and then some!
They all deserved to get booted for their crimes. The difference is, Nixon got caught and a leftist media went to town on him while covering up for JFK and LBJ.
The dems actually stole an election- it’s how JFK got elected.
Clinton and now obama have continued the dem abuse of power and the Constitution.