06/20/2013
Some of the leading immigration patriots in the House of Representatives held a day-long press conference against Amnesty on Wednesday (June 19). But the event had to be interrupted for the speakers and attendees to go participate in the Tea Party Patriots’ “Audit the IRS” protest, led by Glenn Beck and Rand Paul.
This interruption is a near perfect metaphor for the way all the various Obama scandals have — rather than weakened Obama’s legislative agenda — distracted patriots from the much more pressing issue of stopping the Amnesty/ Immigration Surge bill.
Even the better talk radio hosts on the issue, such as Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin, have devoted far more time to the IRS than they have to immigration.
And, more disturbingly, the scandal gives many of the pro-Amnesty politicians to grandstand to the base against Obama, instead of confronting the fact that they are working for Obama’s immigration agenda.
Quite frankly, the Tea Party Patriots time would be better spent protesting outside Rand Paul’s office in response to his initial vote in favor of the Gang of 8 Amnesty/ Immigration Surge.
In the wake of the Citizens United decision, there has been a real blurring of political and non-profit activity that does need to be scrutinized. I rarely agree with the New York Times editorial board, but I did concur when they wrote that
The Internal Revenue Service was absolutely correct to look into the abuse of the tax code by political organizations masquerading as “social welfare” groups over the last three years. The agency’s mistake — and it was a serious one — was focusing on groups with “Tea Party” in their name or those criticizing how the country is run.
The I.R.S. Audits Are Condemned, May 13, 2013
Groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and its Democratic equivalent, Priorities USA, should indeed be scrutinized. But they both have expensive lawyers who can deflect any question sent to them by the IRS. That’s why it was only smaller Tea Party organizations, without expensive legal representation, who were actually harmed by the IRS.
Nonetheless, Karl Rove, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers and all their paid lackeys in Conservatism Inc. are using this scandal not only to distract from the Amnesty, but also to further entrench the idea of corporate influence in elections as a conservative principle.
After the Citizens United ruling, I warned on VDARE.com: “No matter what the constitutional merits of the Supreme Court’s decision, this could be a disaster for patriotic immigration reform.”
My main concern at the time: the possible use of corporate money in elections against immigration patriots.
But I did not anticipate what appears to be the more serious problem: a few pro-amnesty billionaires like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson giving millions of dollars to the GOP leadership’s SuperPACs.
Of course, I cannot say for sure that this is the reason why Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell all seem to be supporting Amnesty. Both the Kochs and Adelson are pro-amnesty, but they are arguably more concerned about other issues (plutocracy and Israel respectively.)
But if you listen to conservative talk radio, you will certainly be familiar with ads from the 501(c)4, Americans for a Conservative Direction, funded by that great conservative Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that Gang of 8 Amnesty-Surge bill is really “toughest immigration-enforcement measures in the history of the United States” and gives us “border security on steroids.” And, of course, Crossroads has its own blitz of pro-amnesty ads, and a coalition of big money GOP donors who support amnesty.
If you want to look at a more outrageous abuse of the tax code, look no further than the recent mob of illegal aliens who trespassed on Kris Kobach’s house in Kansas City on Saturday.
It’s worth noting the utter lack of Main Stream Media outrage over this criminal act. As far as I can see, there has been no national news coverage (although Kobach was interviewed, along with an immigration lawyer, by Sean Hannity, who seems to be trying to recover from his premature capitulation on Amnesty after the 2012 election). In contrast, remember all the pompous prating about the need for “civility” in 2010? But did any Tea Partiers ever protest at the private residences of their political opponents?
The protest was organized by a group called the Sunflower Community Action, which is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, in concert with “over 700 people and 36 organizations”. The mob that “went straight to his front door to ask him to stop spreading his hate” consisted of “over 300 leaders.”[ Kobach you don’t represent Kansas Values; Kansas is all in for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Sunfloweract.org.]I had never heard of the group before this event. But it is funded by the Ford Foundation and according to its tax return, worked with in “partnership with KS and US Departments of Labor” to sue on behalf of illegal aliens.
I am not an expert on non-profit law, but I am pretty sure they are not allowed to engage in illegal activity. But don’t expect the IRS to investigate Sunflower or the Ford Foundation to pull their funding.
Again, I want to reiterate that what the IRS did to the Tea Party groups was outrageous. However, holding up signs outside the IRS or the White House is a waste of time. Neither Obama nor the IRS cares about what the Tea Party thinks.
Instead, the Tea Partiers should be protesting outside the offices — but not the homes — of Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio.
"Washington Watcher" is an anonymous source Inside The Beltway
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