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IRS Threatens To Pull NAACP's Tax Exempt Status...

Thread ID: 15650 | Posts: 5 | Started: 2004-11-14

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MacDonald CSA [OP]

2004-11-14 07:25 | User Profile

I usually don't cheer the IRS. But, in this case... It's "Good for the Whites"! :thumbsup:

[indent][url]http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1615.shtml[/url]

[size=3]NAACP refuses to be ‘silenced’ by IRS probe[/size] By Makebra Anderson Updated Nov 13, 2004, 06:40 pm

WASHINGTON (NNPA)—The NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, says it will not be intimidated by an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation into whether the organization’s tax-exempt status should be revoked because Board Chairman Julian Bond repeatedly criticized the Bush administration last summer at the organization’s annual convention.

“The NAACP has always been non-partisan,” Mr. Bond said in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “That doesn’t mean we’re non-critical, nor does any law or regulation require that we must be. Only in an Orwellian world would honest disagreement be considered partisan or honest differences called election interference.”

(George Orwell is the pen name of British journalist and author Eric Arthur Bair, best known as author of “Animal Farm” and “1984.” The latter was so popular that “Orwellian” is now an adjective used to describe totalitarian thought control.)

The NAACP recently disclosed that it is the subject of an IRS inquiry. In a letter, dated Oct. 8, the IRS said Mr. Bond’s speech last summer in Philadelphia “condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush on education, the economy and the war in Iraq.”

It continues, “We are conducting an examination of your organization. At this time, the focus of our examination is limited to the issue of whether or not your organization has intervened in a political campaign…”

The NAACP could lose its tax-exempt status, which could cripple its fundraising ability, or face a fine if the IRS determines that it has engaged in improper political activity. The civil rights group has been granted an extension to reply to the IRS’s request that it, among other things, provide a listing of all convention-related expenses and the “names and addresses of each board member and indicate how each voted.”

NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume says obtaining tax-exempt status from the IRS does not mean its officers or members must forfeit their First Amendment right to free speech.

“For over 95 years, Americans of all races and all political persuasions have been proud to fight for the ideals and the beliefs that we’ve held high,” he said. “We are non-partisan, but we have never been non-critical. These beliefs are American beliefs and they will not go away or wither in the face of unfair efforts either by the IRS or anyone else.”

NAACP officials question the timing of the IRS letter, which was sent less than a month before the presidential election.

“It is regrettable that the IRS would seek to silence the voice of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization for having done nothing wrong,” Mr. Mfume said. “We take exception to the assault on the NAACP by the IRS and we question the suspicious timing of this action.”

Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, agreed. “If they are concerned about the comments of Julian Bond, as far as I know, he hasn’t given up his freedom of speech. It seems that the president is using the IRS as a political tool and I’m shocked. This is an attempt to intimidate the NAACP at a time when the organization is involved in voter turnout. They (the NAACP) shouldn’t be intimidated, they should fight,” he insisted.

The IRS says it is investigating more than 60 groups to see if they have violated the prohibition against becoming involved in partisan politics.

IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement, “The IRS follows strict procedures involving the selection of tax-exempt organizations for audit and resolution of any complaints about such groups. Career civil servants, not political appointees, make these decisions in a fair, impartial manner. Any suggestion that the IRS has tilted its audit activities for political purposes is repugnant and groundless.”

However, prominent Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry, disagree.

Representatives Charles B. Rangel of New York, John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Pete Stark of California sent a letter to Commissioner Everson demanding that he “publicly, specifically and immediately repudiate the recent actions of the IRS taken against the NAACP.”[/indent]

solutrian

2004-11-14 15:06 | User Profile

Horsefeathers and balderdash! With the political clout that the NAACP enjoys it will not be brought to account for its blatant political huckstering. At the most it will be made to cool its act for a very brief time before reverting to form. In the years of the "civil rights" evolution the NAACP was treated as legal royalty by the courts of this country and got everything it wished before them, regardless of any bad law attached to the issues before them. The courts merely imposed a social policy at the beheft of the NAACP and its allies. What was the result? A very spoiled darky class who expected and indeed got its way. This will go on without end. A white national group would be hauled up before the robed inquisition, sued, fined and civilly bankrupted for doing the things the NAACP does as a matter of course.

Controlley

2004-11-19 12:42 | User Profile

[QUOTE=solutrian] This will go on without end. A white national group would be hauled up before the robed inquisition, sued, fined and civilly bankrupted for doing the things the NAACP does as a matter of course.[/QUOTE] And what's wrong with that?

Quantrill

2004-11-19 17:47 | User Profile

I doubt that anything will come of this. Some accusations of 'racism' will be bandied about, the probe will wind down, and the Special Victims Unit will keep its tax-exempt status.

Happy Hacker

2004-11-20 07:36 | User Profile

Yes, the IRS might look into the NAACP, per numerous complaints and blatantly illegal political activity. But, at the end of the day, the IRS knows how Politically Incorrect it would be to do anthing about the NAACP. Imagine what would become of this country if people weren't intimidated into treating blacks differently than whites.