IRS targeted liberal groups, too

In the midst of news that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups comes news that they also set their sights on liberal groups, according to Bloomberg News, who reported:

The Internal Revenue Service, under pressure after admitting it targeted anti-tax Tea Party groups for scrutiny in recent years, also had its eye on at least three Democratic-leaning organizations seeking nonprofit status.

One of those groups, Emerge America, saw its tax-exempt status denied, forcing it to disclose its donors and pay some taxes. None of the Republican groups have said their applications were rejected.

Progress Texas, another of the organizations, faced the same lines of questioning as the Tea Party groups from the same IRS office that issued letters to the Republican-friendly applicants. A third group, Clean Elections Texas, which supports public funding of campaigns, also received IRS inquiries.

In a statement late yesterday, the tax agency said it had pooled together the politically active nonpartisan applicants -- including a “minority” that were identified because of their names. “It is also important to understand that the group of centralized cases included organizations of all political views,” the IRS said in its statement.

The Washington Post weighed in on the issue, writing:

This doesn’t get the IRS off the hook, however. Legal experts tend to agree that the IRS should carefully scrutinize all would-be 501(c)(4)s that tread the line between “social welfare” and politics. But, they add, it’s important for the IRS to stay neutral and not appear like it’s putting an unfair focus on certain political views. That’s why the IRS Cincinnati office’s push to flag all Tea Party groups for review was deemed “inappropriate.”

“It’s part of [the IRS's] job to look for organizations that may be more likely to have too much campaign intervention,” Loyola law professor Ellen Aprill said yesterday. “But it is important to try to make these criteria as politically neutral as possible.”

The Post  also looked into the why and how the IRS vets groups for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. Meanwhile, fallout from the controversy has forced the IRS Commissioner to resign:

President Obama on Wednesday demanded and accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven T. Miller, as part of a multi-pronged effort to quell controversies that threaten to dominate his second term.

Stories of the IRS targeting specific groups or individuals are legendary. In light of the latest, more people are speaking out about their experiences with this powerful government agency, including Franklin Graham who is president of his father's Billy Graham Evangelistic Association as well as the international humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse. Earlier this week VPOD's Adam Frost reported on the IRS’s targeting of Jewish pro-Israel groups as early as 2010.

The IRS is now being investigated by six congressional committees as Congress looks for answers about who is investigated, and why.

Terrorists among us ... double amputee victim saw bomber drop bag at his feet

Americans woke Friday morning to an on-going manhunt in Boston that had unfolded overnight with one terrorist dead and the other on the run. Brothers. Immigrants. The 26-year-old brother is dead ... the 19-year-old brother is being pursued by law enforcement. Boston is on lock-down.

Out of the heart-breaking stories that came out of the bombings on Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Patriots Day, one image that remains is of the young man who had both legs blown off below the knees, seated in a wheelchair with mangled bones where his legs and feet should have been, being rushed to a waiting ambulance.

He saw the man who did that to him. From Bloomberg comes this:

Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.

Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.

Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.

“He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview
Those words may have helped crack the mystery of who perpetrated one of the highest-profile acts of terror in the U.S. since the 2001 assault on New York City and the Washington area, one that killed three people and wounded scores.

This latest chapter in the war on terrorism -- in man's inhumanity to his fellow man -- is continuing to unfold. A 26-year-old M.I.T. police officer is dead, killed by the terrorists in the wee hours of Friday morning, and a Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority officer, reportedly a graduate of Lexington's Virginia Military Institute Class of 2002, is in critical condition. The Roanoke Times is reporting the VMI grad is Richard "Dic" Donohue, 33.

An interesting side note: my Richmond sister's neighbor ran in the Boston Marathon and filmed the last three minutes of her journey as she crossed the finish line. She filmed mostly to her left side where her mother and a friend waited ... and that happened to be where one of the bombs was located. The footage was shaky as would be expected from the hands of a runner, and the ladies were safely away from the area when the bomb went off 10-15 minutes later. The FBI used her footage along with all the other that was turned in to help track down the suspects.

Watching Boston this morning is surreal ... no one is on the streets except police and journalists ... gunshots, gun battles, police everywhere ... sirens, and now gun shots have been heard again at 10:45 a.m. Prayers for the safety of those law enforcement officers....