Remarkable development in IRS scandal: Key manager in Tea Party harassment gave Obama campaign $4,000 in 2008

In an important development in the IRS scandal, WCPO Digital reports here that an IRS manager that orchestrated and oversaw at least some of the harassment of the IRS, Holly Paz, was recently promoted and transferred to D.C and donated $4,000 to the Barach Obama campaign in 2008.

Other in-depth, good investigative journalism is being done as well, focusing on the misdeeds in the monolith at Fifth and Main Streets (the Federal Building) in downtown Cincinnati.  As they methodically worked to squelch the growing Tea Party movement, in the fashion of tyrans and bureaucras worldwide and throughout history, they left a meticulous paper trail that will soon be their own un-doing.

Read here, as a even democrat Congressmen agrees that the IRS flat out lied to Congress.  

Read here as the Washington Post details how the scandal developments.  

And finally, in perhaps the most important development, our own Senator Rob Portman (also the senator of many of the "rogue" agents) has called for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the matter.  Read that in the LA Times, here.

COAST will keep you updated on the fast-breaking story as it develops.

"This is Big Government Cronyism"

And this is precisely why the Constitution sets out a limited government. A government operating within the constraints of the Constitution simply would not have the power to do what was done by the IRS.

Wenstrup Calling for Reports in IRS Tea Party Abuse Investigation

If you are an IRS employee with information about the abuse of Tea Party and conservative groups or your group was illegally targeted, please read below and use the link to contact Congressman Wenstrup with your information

From the Office of Congressman Brad Wenstrup:

The House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are conducting investigations of the IRS’s conduct regarding 501(c)(4) groups.

The Second District of Ohio has been ground zero for many of the allegations that have come forward in recent days. If you are either;

(i) an IRS employee and a resident of the Second District of Ohio who wishes to share specific information about the political targeting that has taken place or,
(ii) a resident of the Second District of Ohio who has specific information about a 501(c)(4) group that was targeted by the IRS for political reasons,

please fill out the below form.

I will provide your information directly to the investigating committees for their review and potential follow-up. It is incredibly important that the Congress has complete and accurate information about what happened, who was involved, and how far up the chain of responsibility this goes

http://wenstrup.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=333984

Watch the IRS Hearings here

Part I


Part II

Read the IRS form 1024 Tax Exemption Application here

Read this application and please, please, tell us what justifies the abusive questions the IRS sent to Tea Party and other conservative organizations.

All the IRS should need to make a determination on a tax exemption application is a completed 1024 form. Every question the IRS asked tea party groups that wasn't a part of the 1024 form is abusive and discriminatory. It is that simple.

This is why we believe in a small government. A government powerful enough to provide all your needs is a government powerful enough to take everything from you. Clearly, ours is a government that is too powerful.

  irs form 1024

Richmond Tea Party Targeted by IRS - Read the letter here

COAST is working to catalog each of the creepy letters sent by the IRS to Tea Party organizations nationwide.  If your organization has received such a letter, please email it to us at coastusa@gmail.com

Read the Richmond Tea Party letter below. Read the Liberty Township and Hawaii Tea Party letters here.

  Richmond Tea Party IRS Letter

Krauthammer on IRS Chief testimony: How stupid do you think we are?

Once again, Charles Krauthammer's expert analysis is spot on. The story coming out of the IRS is simply unbelievable and an insult to our intelligence.

This much is certain: the IRS' targeting of conservative groups was not the product of mere "rogue" employees; this was a systematic attack on perceived "Enemies of the People." Big Brother would be proud.

COAST chairman Tom Brinkman announces endorsement procedure

COAST looks forward to consider endorsing candidates for Cincinnati City Council.
Upon the certification of all candidates by the Board of Elections; a brief survey will be sent to the candidate’s home address.

Candidates will have several weeks to return the surveys should they wish to be considered for the coveted COAST endorsement.

NO candidate will be considered unless they complete and return the survey.

The COAST board will gather in early to mid-September and consider endorsements.

COAST will consider endorsement in other local elections on a case by case basis.

Please contact the Chairman once the candidate is certified by the Board of Elections in late August.
An interview or survey will be used to gather data for the Board of COAST to consider prior to any endorsement.

Please direct any questions about this procedure to Tom Brinkman at 513-321-6591.

Rein in the IRS Rally - Tuesday, May 21

The IRS has targeted Tea Party groups all over the country.  Cincinnati is the epicenter of this violation of freedom.  This is something that cannot stand.   Jefferson said, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."  We will fear our government, no longer. Join us to "Rein in the IRS".  We will rally together.  Bring your signs, your flags and you devotion to the Constitution. When:  Tuesday, May 21st - at Noon Where:  Fountain Square At noon, we will march from Fountain Square to the Federal Building. Register Here! Spread the Word through Facebook Click here for Event Spread the word about this rally on Facebook/Twitter and through your email connections.  Twitter hash tag:  #reininirs.

Smitherman conducts blistering, brilliant cross examination of City Manager on Streetcar

It's possible for the explosive developments at City Hall to get lost in the cacophony of treble scandals emanating from D.C.  But still, Monday's cross examination by Council member Christopher Smitherman of Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney over his plan to continue with the Streetcar, and to fund the $17.4 million in already-known cost overruns, was notable.

Here are some highlights:

• The City Manager predicts further (but unknown in amount) overruns as the project progresses.  Indeed, now that the bid with low bidder Messer has expired, he has no idea even what the initial contact price will be.
• The Manager has no upward limit for the cost of the Streetcar at which even he would recommend pulling the plug. The "sky's the limit."
• The Manager has no authority from Council to fund the Streetcar at the current budget, but he intends to keep spending until there is an affirmatie vote of the Council to stop the waste.  In other words -- despite what Roxanne Qualls has said, he has a blank check from Council.  
• He admits there is no reason to build the boondoggle unless it extends up the Vine Street hill to Clifton and around the uptown area, but he also has no idea how much that will cost, how he intends to pay for it, or when that leg possibly wil be built.
• He is still hoping for some magic Obama money to fill some of the gaps in the funding of the Cincinnati Streetcar project.
• The original budget for the Streetcar was $110 million, and that included getting up the Vine Street Hill.  And now that the project is at $135 million and counting just to go to Findlay Market, no one has been held accountable, no one disciplined, and no one fired for their errors in being off at least 20% in the project costs.

In short, Dohoney remains just as defiant, just as deluded, just as foolish as when the project was first conceived.

It was a blistering, brilliant performance by Christopher Smitherman, and yet another disappointment from an out-of-touch-with-reality City administration.

Local Tea Partiers headed to D.C. to testify in IRS scandal investigation

Cincinnati Tea Partiers Justin Binik-Thomas (Jewish Cincinnati Tea Party organizer singled out by the IRS as an "enemy" of the admistration)  and Tim Savaglio (Liberty Township Tea Party) along with Ohio Liberty Council organizer and former chairman Tom Zawistowski are currently traveling to Washington, D.C. to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee in the growing scandal surrounding the IRS.

They will testify Friday.  We hope those hearings are just the beginning of a thorough airing not just of the improper targeting of Tea Party groups, but of the over-intrusive questioning - waaaaay over the top -- to which they were subjected.  Read the COAST bombshell story and a few IRS letters on this topic here.

Who is Mitch Steele?

Comrade Joseph Stalin would be proud of the tactics of "low level" IRS staffer from the Cincinnati office, Mitch Steele, and whomever instructed him to ask the bizarre and intrusive questions that appeared on Tea Party questionnaires that were sent to Tea Parties, "Patriot" groups and 9/12 groups throughout the nation.

We also hope the Ways and Means Committee subpoenas Mr. Steele to testify as to the motivations for -- and who put him up to -- his nefarious deeds, as speculation is that "low level" IRS employees don't take such initiative on their own.  Someone put him up to this inquisition-lie probing of honest citizens attempting to pursue better government.

Again read for your self here just some of the bizzarre interrogation of these fine citizens.

Ultra-creepy IRS-Tea Party letter

-- UPDATE HAWAII TEA PARTY IRS LETTER ATTACHED --
We can think of no better way to help our loyal COAST readers understand the depth of corruption in the Tea Party scandal at the IRS than to share with you their own creepy, intrusive, Orwellian correspondence to the Liberty Township Tea Party (below).  Please read every word and digest it to understand the depth of the Stalinistic control of the IRS.  We are not over-stating things.

In there, they inquire:

2. Please provide a copy of your website pages, including any pages with restricted access.
3. Please provide details of all of your activity on Facebook and Twitter. [You can't make this stuff up.]
25. It appears you have received training (Empower U).  [Sedition!]
26. Provide details of your relationship with Justin Bink-Thomas [sic]. [Note: Justin Binik-Thomas was one of the few Jewish leaders in the Tea Party movement in Cincinnati.  Why was he specially called out and targeted?]

They require responses be under oath.  And as we have learned is typical of the IRS, after sitting on applications for as long as two years with no response whatsoever, they wrote to applicants and gave then a total of between 10 and 20 days to respond or they will consider the application withdrawn.

Read it and weep for our Republic.

  IRS letter to Liberty Township Tea Party by COAST

Hawaii Irs Response by Dave Weigel

Deeply pernicious IRS/Tea Party scandal

COAST has been encouraged about the depth of outrage in the media and among politicians, even if almost all of those speaking out on the issue are Republicans, on the IRS/Tea Party scandal.  For this issue hits at the heart of our everlasting yearning to be be a free people.

Among the most-feared governmental agencies is the Internal Revenue Service.  This is so for several reasons.  First, because the power to tax is the power to destroy, the IRS can seize fortunes and ruin lives, and they can do so by prosecuting and prevailing against claimed "wrongdoing" (more on that below), but also by investigating and putting their targets through the pepper mill, even if no wrongdoing is claimed.

Those who have endured their inquisitorial processes have lost years off their lives, and portions of their fortunes defending against their inquiries.

And the liberal response would be: "You have nothing to fear if you've followed the law."

But as everyone knows, the law is so byzantine, so voluminous, and so confusing that no American can be in compliance with the tax law.  It's impossible.  Varying interpretations and maze-like regulations mean that one man's compliance is another man's felony.  One man's tax haven resulting in a home in the south of France can be the same as another's trip to Club Fed.

Thus, we rely upon fair and even-handed treatment under the law, the exact opposite of "targeting."

And the problem is not just a system with bad policies, but a system that allows "low-level bureaucrats in Cincinnati"to "target" and run roughshod over the rights of an entire category of citizens for -- partisan political purposes.

In a separate blog entry, see some of the worst abuses by the IRS.  It is frightening.

Words cannot describe the damage done to our democracy by these excesses.

100% accountability is required in this circumstance.  Those responsible should be fired, civilly sued and criminally prosecuted.  The bastards!

There's something about May

Maybe it's the instinct to clear our plates before the interlude of the approaching summer.

Maybe it's the awakening from the sleep of winter, the stirring of nature's wake-up call that is Spring.

Maybe the longer days clear our heads.

Maybe it is just about time.

But whatever it is, May seems to be causing new issues to spring to life and old issues to be brought to conclusion.  Things are happening in our world of liberty-minded activists, things important to our future.

• Council Finance Committee Chairman Roxanne Qualls promises a City Council vote this month on the Cincinnati Streetcar, specifically filling the $17.4 million funding gap.
• The Court of Appeals promises a decision "very soon" on whether the Parking Plot referendum will survive.
• Cincinnati City Council will vote soon on a budget that lays off 66 police officers and 71 firemen.
• The Ohio legislature will finalize their decision on Medicaid expansion and all sorts of matters in the state budget.
• Barack Obama is mired in treble scandals, two of them breaking in just the last few days:
• Benghazi.
• The IRS scandal arising from its targeting for special scrutiny of Tea Party groups.
• The monitoring of Associated Press phone lines.

With our children, they are called "teachable moments," but from each of these crises there are lessons for our society, lessons for our leaders.  From our mistakes, we can learn and grow.

It's like the flowers blooming in May.

Cincinnati Charter Committee calls Charter "Ambiguous"

Well what do you know? The Charter Committee says the Charter is ambiguous. COAST attorneys just finished briefing and arguing that exact same point; that there is ambiguity in the Charter as it relates to referendum and emergency clause provisions. And now, Cincinnati's Charter Committee, hardly a bunch of rabble rousing tea partiers, puts out this op-ed arguing for a revamping of the City Charter. In part to clear up the ambiguities surrounding the right of referendum and the effect of emergency ordinances.

COAST, never ones to toot our own horns, is excited to see that more and more of the "mainstream" of Cincinnati is coming around to our point of view.

We'll leave it to another day to point out the irony of the Charter Committee seeking to revamp the Charter in order to take power away from the voters.

Mayor Mark Mallory slips $17.4 million of additional Streetcar funding onto Council agenda TODAY

It's so bizarre, it has become surreal.

In an election year, Mayor Mark Mallory, desperate for more cash for his streetcar legacy, has slipped onto the Council agenda today an additional $17.4 million in funding for the Cincinnati Streetcar, as the City goes bankrupt on every other front.

Yes, after a show "public hearing" several weeks ago, and after a non-recommendation as to funding plans from the administration as to how to fill the $17.4 million hole, today -- with no debate or community input on the proposal -- Council will introduce and pass the Mayor's plan for funding the boondoggle.

Please contact Council today and let them know you oppose the plan and want an end to the Streetcar project now.

Use the information below to call or email council today:

Call Council at 352-1576.

Click on the name or copy and paste the email address

ROXANNE QUALLS	roxanne.qualls@cincinnati-oh.gov
CHRIS SEELBACH	Chris.Seelbach@cincinnati-oh.gov
YVETTE SIMPSON	Yvette.Simpson@cincinnati-oh.gov
LAURE QUINLIVAN	laure.quinlivan@cincinnati-oh.gov
WENDELL YOUNG	wendell.young@cincinnati-oh.gov
PAMULA THOMAS	pamula.thomas@cincinnati-oh.gov
P.G. SITTENFELD	PG.Sittenfeld@cincinnati-oh.gov
CHRISTOPHER SMITHERMAN	Christopher.Smitherman@cincinnati-oh.gov
CHARLIE WINBURN	charlie.winburn@cincinnati-oh.gov
ENTIRE COUNCIL AT ONCE	citycouncil@cincinnati-oh.gov

Will this week bring a Parking Plot Court of Appeals decision?

It was only one week ago Monday that the Parking Plot case was argued before the First District Court of Appeals.  There, attorneys for the City and the petitioners squared off in defense of Judge Bob Winkler's inspired decision upholding the right of petitioners to place the Parking Plot referendum on the ballot.

The usual course of an appeal in Hamilton County takes a year-to-a-year-and-a-half to conclude, with briefing taking six months, a several month delay for oral argument, and a decision some 45 to 60 days after oral argument.  For example, the recent resolution of the Mayor's car case took 16 months after Judge Marsh's decision to be overturned.

By agreement, the Parking Plot case has been expedited.  Briefing took only a month; oral argument was a week later.

Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Kimball Perry tweeted last Monday, the day of the oral argument, that a decision would be rendered within a week.  That seemed odd, as the Court typically does not announce its schedule for issuing a decision, and if they did, you would expect them to announce it to everyone.  But at the close of oral argument, Judge Cunningham did promise a decision promptly, and she seemed earnest in that commitment.

So, a decision might come as early as tomorrow, or sometime this week.

Stay tuned, COASTers.

Utterly remarkable tidbit from WCPO Digital Mallory/Spain travel story

COAST here highlighted a blockbuster story from Kevin Osborne on Mayor Mark Mallory's costly trips for he and his staff to Spain and planned trip to Toyko.

But buried inside the story was this remarkable tidbit:

A helpful idea for City Hall

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney are always complaining that COAST is forever criticizing, but never helping them to properly manage the City.

We certainly want to break that reputation once and for all.  Thus, we tender this helpful idea offered today from a COASTer:

Do liberals think cheating is OK?

A foundational assumption of our democratic Republic is that, by and large, the participants play by the rules.  When that fundamental underpinning of our society is removed, we expect the second layer -- law enforcement -- to take over and restore the balance.  In other words, wrongdoers are prosecuted, and the malevolent conduct is simultaneously punished and prospectively discouraged.