Its not often you'll find me giving Paul Ryan praise

[uebermann]

[The dane]

[dontworrybehappy]

I think what has happened in this thread is an IT professional is calling bullshit on this lost email thing and a liberal who is not as educated in IT is defending it at all costs (for what reason, I don't know.) Since when has the IRS been anyone's friend?

While I'm certain my knowledge of IT isn't up to the admin's levels, I'd like to think I'm pretty adept at this stuff since in 4 days I became the on site go-to guy for this new company I work for for their network and computer issues, and it's not even what I was hired for.

What I'd like to mention is this: emails aren't stored on a computer, they're stored on a central server, somewhere. When you send an email, for instance, through gmail, yahoo, cox, etc your computer doesn't store the email. The yahoo cox or gmail server does. My computers have crashed more times than I can remember and yet I never lost an email. I think this is bullshit. I don't buy it, sorry. My father works for a gov't agency and all of his emails are not only stored off site, but are monitored off site as well. The only way emails are deleted is by the end user, and then sometimes the server has a "deleted mail" folder that you must clear out if you truly want them deleted. So it's not even a one step process, it's a TWO step process. I've accidentally deleted emails and recovered them from the deleted mail folder on the server.

There is a huge coverup going on, the proof is obvious.

[Indy]

Why yes, and the coverup is clearly that Obama personally instructed the IRS to target tea party groups to... accomplish what, exactly again?

That's the other question nobody is asking: yeah, it's fun to put on your tri-corner hat and wave your Obama-as-Hitler poster and say things like "Get Govt' OUT of my Medicare!" while planning the next trip to the Creation Museum... but what exactly would the White House accomplish in doing something so petty?

Meanwhile, as we're wasting as much time as possible with this, I finished watching part II of "United States of Secrets" on Frontline last night, which outlines in horrifying detail how the NSA is basically tapping into all our emails, files, texts, and video chats with and without permission--if somebody like a Google won't let them, they simply hack Google and do it anyway.

Where are the hearings/investigations on this absolute trampling of our Fourth Amendment rights? Where is the outrage over the police state? Where are the calls for Obama to explain his non-action on the matter? Where are the new laws putting a leash on the NSA?

Oh right, this apparently doesn't appeal to the droolers because a) it's real, b) apparently Obama reading your damn emails isn't tyranny but the IRS targeting tea party groups is and c) it's just not Obama-centric enough to get a boner out of the FOX crowd.

The same crowd of course that says they need their guns to fight tyranny and protect our freedoms.

Pffft.

[Ben Huh]

@ Dane

I posted the direct quote for what qualifies groups as social welfare 501(c) groups and Indy even expanded on it. There are not a ton of requirements needed to earn a tax exempt status. If they don't meet the requirements, then they obviously should not qualify. Care to show that "almost none" of them do?

[Indy]

We usually reserve tax-exempt status for things like charities and churches. There is absolutely no reason that political fronts spending gazillions in cash to get candidates elected should be tax-exempt.

[Ben Huh]

It depends on the amount of contact they have with the actual campaigns and candidates. If I personally were to spend a gazillion dollars on an ad on my own accord, and did so via a tax exempt 501(c), that shouldn't be an issue. Like it or not, this is a free speech issue. You can't tax groups that are legitimately raising and spending gazillions of dollars to support certain things in politics. The amount of money spent doesn't change the principle of the issue.

[dontworrybehappy]

[The Dharma Bum]

This argument is idiotic

both parties are corrupt and routinely use any means available to them to attack each other, which is stupid because both have the same patron, corporate America. Partisan demagoguery is nothing more than political theater.

Yes, Obama used the IRS to attack political enemies, it's standard operating procedure and I defy you to show any recent president who hasn't done the same. Bush used the IRS and other agencies to launch a full scale attack on his political enemies, for example.

[dontworrybehappy]