That took longer that I thought. After nearly two weeks of tensions in Ferguson, MO, far-right radio has finally shoehorned the crisis into its ongoing Benghazi and IRS narratives. I'm seriously shocked that it didn't happen sooner, a sign that perhaps the screechers are feeling ...read more
IRS official Lois Lerner invoked the Fifth Amendment during another Oversight inquest by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). When Issa decided to adjourn the hearings, Cummings protested and insisted Issa had been steamrolling any dissenting opinions in the hearing. But before he could ...read more
This might sound strange coming from me, but I actually like it when President Obama agrees to be interviewed by Fox News hosts like Bill O'Reilly. Not only is it good for democracy that the president is asked tough questions by reporters, anchors and hosts who don't share the ...read more
So it appears as if the so-called IRS scandal has finally evaporated into nothingness. The central claim in this non-scandal was specifically that the IRS had been unfairly and exclusively targeting conservative tea party groups and, it was assumed, rejecting the 501(c)4 ...read more
By Beverly Bandler The Internal Revenue “scandal” has turned out not to be a scandal.As a Washington Post headline read: “The Obama IRS scandal retreats to the fever swamps.” The radical Right looked in vain for a “smoking gun” that would link Barack Obama to the charge that ...read more
By Beverly Bandler In the 2012 federal elections, “social welfare” nonprofits, known as 501(c)(4)s for their section of the tax code, emerged as the primary conduit for anonymous big-money contributions, pouring in more than $256 million and spending more money on TV ads in the ...read more
Whenever a Republican says something horrendous, the subsequent apology usually involves a confession that saying the horrendous something was a "mistake" or "an error." Of course it is. The mistake was saying out loud what far too many Republicans believe to be true, but rarely ...read more
Modern conservatives generally suffer from a persecution complex. At every opportunity, they leap at the chance to rend their garments and violently wail about being victimized by liberals. The most evident example of this psychosis is the conservative notion of a "liberal ...read more
By William Boardman Almost everything you hear and read in the media about the current IRS “scandal” is based on deliberate falsification of basic facts. Some might call it lying. Here’s a reasonably typical media-framing of the IRS lie, from the usually careful and accurate ...read more
